PROMOTING EQUITY IN LITERACY INSTRUCTION FOR ADOLESCENT AFRICAN AMERICAN MALES THROUGH THE USE OF ENABLING TEXTS A 2010 ALA Diversity Research Grant Presented By: Sandra Hughes-Hassell, Ph.D. Casey H. Rawson, MLS, Ph.D. Student The School of Information & Library Science The University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill ALA Annual Conference June 26, 2011 New Orleans, LA

Problem Statement Only 16% of African-American 4th graders and 14% of African- American 8th graders performed at or above the proficient level in reading in 2009 African-American males performed, on average, six percentage points lower than females on these tests in 4th grade and nine points lower in 8th grade Poor test scores are not the worst consequence of illiteracy for these students. Fewer than half of African-American males receive their high school diplomas; African-American men make up only 5% of the United States college population but over 40% of the prison population, despite comprising only 14% of the national population; The unemployment rate for African-American males is nearly twice that of white males; and African-American adolescents and young adults are roughly eight times more likely to be the victim of homicide than whites in the same age group.

One Strategy That Works Developed by Dr. Alfred W. Tatum 1.Engage African-American male students with enabling texts. 2.Mediate enabling texts with African-American male students. Characteristics of Enabling Texts Promote a healthy psyche. Reflect an awareness of the real world. Focus on the collective struggle of African-Americans. Serve as a road map for being, doing, thinking, and acting.

Research Objectives 1.To define the characteristics of enabling contemporary young adult texts 2.To engage African American adolescent males in cooperative literacy groups in which they discuss enabling texts and the connections between these texts and their lives 3.To inform school and public librarians, as well as teachers and parents, of the connection between the use of enabling text and the literary lives of African American male teens 4.To develop strategies and tools that librarians, teachers, and parents can use to select enabling texts and to mediate them

Methodology Phase 1—Identify enabling texts (June 2010-December 2010) Select and read a variety of contemporary young adult literature written by African American authors that features African American teenagers, and that we think may fit Tatum’s definition of enabling texts. Perform a content analysis on these titles to determine whether they are in fact enabling texts Identify concrete indicators that school and public librarians can use to select enabling texts for their own libraries.

Methodology Phase 2—Case study (January 2011-April 2011) Six African-American male teens, ages 16, 17, and 18 agreed to participate Each teen read two titles and kept an audio journal in which they recorded their responses/reactions to the books The teens participated in a one-hour book discussion session in which they discussed and evaluated the texts with their peers and with the researchers The response journals and the audio-taped book discussions were transcribed and the data was analyzed

Expected Outcomes 1.An annotated bibliography of contemporary young adult literature that meet Tatum’s criteria for enabling texts. 2.Guidelines school librarians, public librarians, teachers, and parents can use to select additional enabling texts. 3.An instrument, modeled after the one developed by Tatum, that provides discussion starters and essential questions for the enabling titles we recommend that adults can use to mediate these texts with teens. 4.A number of publications that discuss the young men’s reactions to the texts. 5.A project website.

Project Website: Building a Bridge to Literacy for Adolescent African American Males: (Home Page) Building a Bridge to Literacy for Adolescent African American Males ALA Diversity Grant Proposal Bibliography of Enabling Texts Enabling Texts with Starters and Essential Questions How to Identify Enabling Texts Sample Enabling Text Levels of Librarian Involvement Links Presentations Teen Voices Research Protocol