Professor Van Ry

In an effort to enhance the Obama administration’s My Brother’s Keeper Initiative, a group of minority male-focused academic research centers issued a joint statement in early June asking the White House to consider intervention programs that have been effective in social science research.

In the statement, which was a response to a My Brother’s Keeper task force cabinet meeting held at the White House on May 30, the coalition of seven research centers, including the Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education at the University of Pennsylvania and the Morehouse Research Initiative at Morehouse College, advised funders who are expected to invest $200 million in initiative projects to seek research-based evidence on the programs they will evaluate for the initiative.

“We urge private foundations, federal funding agencies (i.e., the Institute of Education Sciences, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health), and other entities that invest in projects associated with My Brother’s Keeper to take seriously the evidence base of initiatives that are proposed, as well as rigorous evaluations of newly funded projects …,” the statement said. “To ensure the success of My Brother’s Keeper, our research centers stand ready to serve as resources to its funders and the Obama Administration.”

If funders, such as the Annie E. Casey Foundation and ‑the Atlantic Philanthropies organization, reach out to any of the seven centers for help, the Minority Male Community College Collaborative at San Diego State University may prove to be a compelling choice for expertise on improving higher education outcomes for young men of color. <Read more.>

Via Ronald Roach, Diverse Issues in Higher Education.