In new book ‘Black Males Matter,’ Cherrel Miller Dyce focuses on supportive academic environments

The new book offers a blueprint for creating school and classroom environments to support academic and social development for Black males.

Cherrel Miller Dyce, associate professor of education and executive director of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the School of Education, is the first author of a new book in the Urban Education Studies series titled, “Black Males Matter: A Blueprint for Creating School and Classroom Environments to Support Their Academic and Social Development.”

A major premise of the book is that teachers, school leaders, and school support staff are not taught how to create school and classroom environments to support the academic and social success of Black male students. The purpose of this book is to help champion a paradigmatic shift in educating Black males.

“Black Males Matter” aims to provide an asset and solution-based framework that connects the educational system with community cultural wealth and educational outcomes. The text will be a sourcebook for in-service and pre-service teachers, administrators, district leaders, and school support staff to utilize in their quest to increase academic and social success for their Black male students. Adopting a strengths-based epistemological stance, this book will provide concerned constituencies with a framework from which to engage and produce success.

Dyce co-authored the book with Julius Davis, the University System of Maryland Wilson H. Elkins Associate Professor of Mathematics Education and director of the Center for Research and Mentoring of Black Male Students and Teachers at Bowie State University, and Shadonna Gunnvice president of teaching and learning for a national reading company.