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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify and understand how African American alumni of urban high schools perceived that they could best contribute to their former schools. Despite numerous improvement efforts for several decades, the academic performance of urban high school students has failed to keep pace with that of their suburban counterparts. This research was framed around the premise that the rich legacies and diverse cultural experiences of African American alumni of urban high schools could mitigate the outside factors that negatively impact student performance at urban schools. The 45 participants of this study were African American alumni of two prominent urban high schools, located in Jacksonville, Florida. Using Q methodology, participants sorted 38 statements reflecting how they perceived that African American alumni could best contribute to their former schools. The researcher then correlated the 45 Q sorts, factor analyzed those correlations, and extracted five collectively held factors. However, because the fifth factor was bipolar, the researcher interpreted the five-factor solution as having six perspectives, one for each of the first four factors and two opposite perspectives for Factor 5. The six perspectives were named College Preparation, Relationship Building, Spirituality, Self-Efficacy, Visibility (students), and Visibility (parents). Through the lens of social capital, these resulting perspectives were then systematically interpreted to provide a rich description of how African American alumni of urban high schools perceived that they could best contribute to their former schools.

Keywords

urban high schools African American alumni social capital urban communities funds of knowledge rich legacies diverse cultural experiences Q methodology outside factors

Introduction

The differences in educational achievement of African American and White high school students are most notable when urban high schools are compared with suburban ones. One neglected resource that has the potential to raise the performance of urban high schools is the involvement of individuals who inherently possess the shared histories and similar backgrounds to students who currently attend those schools. The individuals whose histories and backgrounds most resemble current African American urban high school students are African American alumni of urban high schools. The potential impact that African American alumni of urban high schools could have on their former schools is sizable and has largely gone untapped. These alumni have sat in the same classrooms, walked the same halls, and have successfully navigated many of the same challenges that current African American urban high school students experience.

Statement of Purpose and Research Question

This study began with the premise that the rich legacies and cultural experiences of African American alumni of urban high schools could be harnessed in a holistic manner to mitigate many of the challenges that urban high school students face. The researcher surmised that no other individuals more closely identify with urban students and their cultures than African American alumni of urban high schools. Many African American alumni of urban high schools continue to be responsive, connected, and concerned about the histories, cultural norms, and performance of their schools as well as the surrounding communities. As an alumnus of Jean Ribault Senior High School, one of the two high schools that were at the center of this study and also a longtime resident of its surrounding community, the researcher personally experienced the positive potential that cultural connection and identification can have on the self-efficacy of urban high school students.

Working from that premise, the purpose of this study was to discover how African American alumni of urban high schools perceived that they could best contribute to their former schools. By highlighting their potential, the researcher hoped to reframe and reshape the traditional discourse surrounding African American alumni of urban high schools so that they might be included in urban high school improvement efforts. To that end, the study explored the following research question:

Research Question 1: How do African American alumni of urban high schools perceive that they can best contribute to their former schools?

Of specific interest for this study were African American alumni of Jean Ribault High School and William Raines High School, which are located in Jacksonville, Florida. Both Ribault and Raines high schools are overwhelmingly attended by African Americans and are located within 2 miles of one another in the northwest quadrant of Jacksonville, Florida. The district serving the schools is Duval County Public Schools (DCPS), which is the 22nd largest school district in the nation serving more than 125,000 students at 195 schools.

Conceptual Framework

Because theory can never be sufficient to account for the complexity of reality (Ravitch & Riggan, 2012), a conceptual framework was used in to provide a road map that would permit the reader to logically follow the study’s path. In this sense, a conceptual framework can be thought of as an undercarriage that lends support to the external skeleton of a building (Ravitch & Riggan, 2012). The researcher borrowed from several theories to build a conceptual framework that was unique to the study rather than attempting to fit it to one that had already been created (Maxwell, 2005). For a Q methodological study, the conceptual framework is especially relevant for assisting in the construction of the Q sample, which is the research instrument as well as to make meaning from the resulting factors (perspectives). As such, the researcher utilized the following conceptual framework as a logical path for readers to follow as well as a rationale for the methodological decisions made throughout the study. The conceptual framework for this study borrowed elements from the funds of knowledge concept (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992), the whole person paradigm (Covey, 2004), the ecological model (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), the overlapping spheres of influence (Epstein, 1995), and the social capital theory (Dufur, Parcel, & McKune, 2008).

Significance

This study is significant because there is a void of empirical research aimed at disclosing the perceptions of African American alumni of urban schools. Why is it important that we understand the perceptions of African American alumni of urban schools? First, understanding how people perceive circumstances can necessarily determine how they value them (de Graaf & van Excel, 2008). How can one value the perceptions of African American alumni of urban high schools if they have no idea what they are? Furthermore, as de Graaf and van Excel (2008) noted, a person’s view of the circumstances surrounding a situation determines if he or she sees it in first place. From the review of the literature, the researcher has discovered that African American alumni of urban high schools have been invisible to the research community. As such, one could deduce that African American alumni of urban high schools have essentially been rebuffed as having the capacity to contribute to their former schools. Moreover, perceptions are important because they have the potential to set boundaries of what can be done and said in a specific context (de Graaf & van Excel, 2008). The researcher asserted that if no one would have ever asked African American alumni of urban high schools, no one would have ever known how they perceived that they could best contribute to their former schools.

Most importantly, this study was significant because the disclosure of how African American alumni of urban high schools perceive that they can best contribute to their former schools could be a starting point for mitigating many of the factors that impede student progress. For instance, African American alumni of urban high schools might perceive that they are especially adapted to minimize the effects of the dissimilar messages (Byrd & Chavous, 2009; Spencer, 1999) that are received from their homes, communities, and schools. In addition, being raised in neighborhoods plagued with high poverty, dilapidated buildings, drugs, and crime presents a completely different environment than what most teachers are accustomed. Conversely, African American alumni of urban high school’s diverse backgrounds and experience might serve as indispensable tools to mitigate the cultural difference that exist within and outside of the classroom walls.

Nearly six decades after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed “separate but equal” in the Brown v. Board of Educ. (1954) case, which ended the practice of drastically unequal school systems for Blacks and Whites, Daneen and Catanese (2011) reported that the majority of urban school students do not acquire a basic education. This is significant because a majority of the students being educated at urban schools are from marginalized groups. The challenges that drive the poor performance of urban schools stem from complex, interconnected, and multifaceted issues of poverty, racism, and a lack of internal and external capacities in the form of economic, human, and social resources (Anyon, 2005; Noguera, 2003; Warren, 2005). The literature suggested that the performance of poor schools in many ways reflects the desperate conditions of their surrounding communities.

The purpose of this study was to discover how African American alumni of urban high schools perceived that they could best contribute to their former schools. The conceptual framework that guided this study was developed from theoretical elements from the following theories: funds of knowledge (Moll & Amanti, 2005), the ecological model (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), the overlapping spheres of influence (Epstein, 1995), and elements of the whole person paradigm (Covey, 2004). Each of these theories was viewed through the lens of social capital theory (Dufur, Parcel, & Troutman, 2013) to situate and ground the conceptual framework. The researcher used Q methodology, which capitalizes on the potential range of responses, rather than on a qualitative or quantitative approach that could have been limited by participants’ ability to draw solely from their own views (Watts & Stenner, 2012). Thus, the use of Q methodology permitted the researcher to provide a rich description of how African American alumni of urban high schools perceived that they could best contribute to their former schools.

Literature Review

As far back as the Brown v. Board of Educ. (1954) ruling that abolished the “separate but equal” policy between Black and White schools, there has been a stream of educational initiatives that were guided by attempts to improve the performance of disadvantaged schools and to abide by court mandated integration orders. As a result, in the early 1970s, states and school districts began to offer parents and students school choice options. Magnet schools offered one of the first school choice options (Davis, 2014). Magnet schools became popular by offering alternative programmatic specializations designed to increase college readiness.

The popularity of magnet schools continued into the 21st century with a moderate amount of success in improving integration efforts and college readiness until charter schools exploded on the scene (Siegel-Hawley & Frankenberg, 2011). Charter schools boasted the efficiency of private–public partnerships typically with a programmatic theme similar to that of magnet schools. The growth of charter schools increased substantially during the first decade of the 21st century (Siegel-Hawley & Frankenberg, 2011) despite their mixed performance measures when compared with regular public schools. According to Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO), one of the few comprehensive charter school performance reports, charter schools learning gains amounted to 40 additional days worth of math learning and 28 additional days of reading from 2009 to 2013 over 41 cities (Mead, 2015) However, an article in U.S. News pointed to the fact that the 2013 CREDO study focused on urban charter school only while the 2009 study sampled urban, rural, and suburban communities (Mead, 2015). Furthermore, the same study concluded that as few as 29% of charter schools performed better than public schools in math with 31% performing worse (Noguera, 2014). So, the verdict remains unclear concerning how well charter schools actually perform in comparison with traditional public schools.

Other school choice initiatives that became popular due to tax incentives and state vouchers were open enrollment, distance learning, option demand, single-sex, and homeschooling (Davis, 2014; Povich, 2013; K. A. Ranch, personal communication, September 11, 2014). School choice options were also expanded to more rigorous initiatives such as Advanced Placement (AP) programs, early college, and even International Baccalaureate. In addition, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 bought about strict accountability measures of teacher’s and student’s performance in the form of minimum standards and assessments (Borg, Plumlee, & Stranahan, 2007; Cross, 2005). Even with the myriad of options, none of these initiatives have shown to significantly improve the performance of urban schools, nor have they been successful at integrating them.

In contrast to school choice initiatives, researchers have theorized that separate from the academic factors that are already being addressed, the poor performance of urban students is negatively impacted by the socioeconomic conditions faced at home and in their communities (Gold, Simon, Mundell, & Brown, 2013). Berliner (2009) posited that urban students disproportionately perform poorly academically due to factors outside of school such as inadequate medical care, food insecurities, difficult family relations, and neighborhood characteristics. He referred to those external influences as outside factors (OSFs) and advocated a more holistic approach that addresses both pedagogical concerns as well as OSFs. Buttressing the need to look outside of the classroom for answers in closing the education gap between children in urban and suburban areas, Knoff and Batsche (1995) described how reformers focused their efforts on the classroom while ignoring the underlying causes, which emanate and extend into the communities and homes of urban children. The researchers further explained that as long as reformers fail to include the community, there would be few, if any, breakthroughs in education reform.

The state of urban communities and the resulting effects on the people living in them have been described as one of America’s most shameful social issues (Berliner, 2009). The residents of urban neighborhoods are exposed to a disproportionately high unemployment rate, high crime rate, high drug use, as well as the poorest performing schools in the United States. These conditions were exacerbated during the 1970s and 1980s when urban areas became vulnerable to industrial and geographic changes resulting in suburbanization, disinvestment, and business out-migration leaving these areas overwhelmingly populated by poor residents of color (Glickman & Scally, 2008; Wilson, 1996). Furthermore, urban neighborhoods are severely depleted of positive Black male role models due to high incarceration rates, joblessness, drug addiction, and violence (Furstenberg & Hughes, 1995; Harding, 2011; Richardson, 2012). Exacerbating the issue is the disinvestment, out-migration, abandoned property, and other manifestations of decline that continue to plague inner-city communities (Glickman & Scally, 2008). These negative images and sounds leave children with little hope and too often influence their behaviors at a far greater rate than the hard working positive adult role models who also reside in urban areas.

Not unlike the neighborhoods of urban students, the high schools in these areas enroll a disproportionately large number of African American and Hispanic American students (Berliner, 2009). In fact, many urban high schools are composed nearly entirely of children of color. These students perform at a substantially lower academic level than their more affluent suburban counterparts across the nation as well as drop out of school much more frequently (Witherspoon, Speight, & Thomas, 1997). Children coming from economically depressed backgrounds become isolated from mainstream society, underserved, and disempowered (Jargowsky, 2003; Katz, 2004; Warren, 2011). As a result, urban high schools have been disparagingly labeled as failing, poor performing, or struggling.

Thus, many urban neighborhoods and the high schools located within their borders contain similar disparate circumstances that isolate one another from the larger society. In fact, Glickman and Scally (2008) described them as being inextricably linked when they found a direct connection between healthy communities and schools that perform well. Glickman and Scally (2008) continued by describing how poor schools compound the burden of improving communities while good schools are essentially elements of thriving communities. Likewise, Warren (2011) asserted that not only are urban schools and neighborhoods similar; they are inseparable through their shared cultures. Schools reflect the socioeconomic conditions and the cultures of the communities in which they are situated.

For this study, the term urban was used to describe an area in the northwest quadrant of Duval County where African Americans relocated to in large numbers following Jacksonville’s consolidation with Duval County in 1968. The community of interest encompasses a geographical area that during the era of consolidation saw a transition from a nearly all White population to one that persists today as nearly all Black. In lockstep with the transition of the communities from predominantly White to Black were two high schools that lie at the center of this study, Jean Ribault Senior High School and William Raines Senior High School. Ribault had opened its doors in 1957 as a junior high school. It was situated in a community that was nearly all White and its student body remained nearly all White until a controversial 1971 court ruling mandated the integration as well as the pairing of Ribault and the relatively newly constructed Raines High School. In direct contrast to Ribault, Raines opened its doors in 1965 as a model school with a student population that was nearly all Black (Washington & Wright, 2012).

Q Methodology

The methodology that the researcher chose was Q methodology. William Stephenson pioneered Q methodology to be applied in the field of psychology, describing it as an approach that permits a systematic assessment and discernment of individuals’ subjectivity (Shinebourne & Adams, 2007). Because its development in 1953, it has been applied to rich and diverse research contexts and disciplines. In particular, Q methodology has been increasingly used in the examination of topics in education. Not unlike the qualitative methodologies, Q methodology produces thick, rich data that allows researchers to focus on differences between individuals’ subjective meaning and their understanding (Simons, 2013). Q methodology, however, differs from qualitative methodologies in that it uses statistical means to correlate and factor analyze the resulting data.

Q methodology further distinguishes itself from qualitative methodologies in that it does not limit participants to draw only from their own experiences, as is the case during interviews. With Q sorting, participants are permitted to draw from all of the possible opinions and perspectives that have been rigorously developed for the Q sample (Simons, 2013). The Q sample is a set of statements that have been painstakingly assembled to capture an umbrella of perspectives surrounding a given topic. Moreover, Q methodology inherently enables one to view things from the native’s perspective, thereby limiting researcher bias because categories are constructed based solely on information received from the research population (de Graaf & van Excel, 2008). This was especially important for this study in light of its attempt to illuminate the perspectives of African American alumni of urban high schools that had been virtually ignored by the research community.

In Q methodology, data are gathered as a result of the Q sorting process. Q sorting occurs when participants sort the statements of the Q sample in relation to each of the other statements based on how much they perceive that each statement resembles their own perspectives. Consequently, Q sorting is a unique technique that contrasts traditional data gathering procedures such as interviews, observations, and document analysis found in qualitative research methods as well as the traditional surveys and questionnaires that are typically used by quantitative researchers. Watts and Stenner (2012) described a completed Q sort as “set of items [that] have been differentially valued by a specific participant according to some face valid and subjective criterion” (Watts & Stenner, 2012, p. 69). Unlike the rating scales that are typically used in more traditional methods, Q methodology does not fix responses a priori but instead permits participants to impose their meaning on the stimuli by ranking items in relation to their importance to one another (Lazard, Capdevila, & Roberts, 2011).

After all of the participants’ Q sorts have been collected, the researcher then inputs the data into a statistical software package, typically PQMethod 2.11, to analyze the factors and identify the range of viewpoints held by the participants (Schmolck, 2002). The resulting viewpoints are then systematically interpreted using factor arrays and crib sheets as well as responses to postsurvey questions and demographic information. This technique enables insight by the researcher into a fuller, more holistic “condensation of information” concerning the perspectives of the target population (Watts & Stenner, 2012). This study was conducted in five phases: (a) development of the Q sample, (b) establishment of the P set, (c) Q sorting by the participants, (d) factor analysis and interpretation, and (e) reporting of findings and conclusions.

Rationale for Use

Q methodology has been selected as the research approach for several reasons. First, the researcher is an urban high school alumnus and was intimately close to the data. Q methodology minimizes researcher bias by enabling respondents to communicate their point of view from their internal reference through the operant process of Q sorting (McKeown & Thomas, 1988). Second, Q methodology, unlike a purely qualitative approach, enables participants of the study to interact directly with the Q sample, which is beneficial in reducing the chances that they will respond in ways that appease the researcher. This is backed by Watts and Stenner’s (2012) assertion that the essential element of Q methodology is data gathering through the participants’ engagement with the Q set and their subjective interpretation of the statement’s meaning.

Third, Q methodology was selected as a research approach over a purely quantitative methodology because the researcher was not concerned with generalizing the findings to large population, but instead was concerned with providing a voice for uncovering the unique perspectives of individual African American alumni of urban high schools. Vendables, Pidgeon, Simmons, Henwood, and Parkhill (2009) maintained that Q methodology is particularly appropriate for painting vivid pictures of individual perspectives as well as identifying distinctive points of view. Fifth, the researcher selected Q methodology in an effort to take advantage of its holistic nature. In this respect, the participants in Q methodological studies are permitted to assert their meaning on a canopy of statements that encompass the research topic.

Using Q methodology, participants sorted 38 statements reflecting how they perceived that African American alumni could best contribute to their former schools. The researcher then used statistical software to correlate the 45 Q sorts, factor analyzed those correlations, and extracted five collectively held factors. There were five collectively held factors that were extracted. However, since the fifth factor was bipolar, the researcher interpreted the five-factor solution as having six perspectives, one for each of the first four factors and two opposite perspectives for Factor 5. The six perspectives were named College Preparation, Relationship Building, Spirituality, Self-efficacy, Visibility (students), and Visibility (parents).

Data Interpretation

To systematically interpret factors, the z scores that are provided by PQMethod must first be converted into factor arrays (Watts & Stenner, 2012). Factor arrays symbolize the combined averages of Q sorts, thus providing a conceptual representation of each factor (Woods, 2012). Shinebourne and Adams (2007) noted that

the Q-sorts of all participants who loaded significantly on a factor are merged to produce a single configuration which serves as a factor array, or factor exemplar, [which are] used as the basis for preparing narrative accounts of each factor and in factor interpretation. (p. 106)

Following this process, the researcher placed the statements back into the original Q sort grids so that he could visualize what a typical Q sort resembled for participants who loaded highly on each factor (Shabila, Ahmed, & Yasin, 2014; Watts & Stenner, 2012).

The next step the researcher used to progress closer to a fuller appreciation of each factor’s viewpoint was the creation of crib sheets from the previously assembled factor arrays. Watts and Stenner (2012) identified the production of crib sheets as a method that encourages researchers to engage each item in the factor array. Furthermore, the authors claimed that crib sheets provide a quick and effective method of identifying statements that make the most profound and important contributions to a given factor. Following Watts and Stenner’s (2012) suggestion, the researcher began producing a crib sheet for the first factor by making a pass through its factor array and extracting items ranked at +4 as well as those ranked at −4. Second, the author extracted items ranked higher in the first factor than in each of the other factors. Last, the researcher extracted items ranked lower in the first factor than in all others. Finally, the researcher compiled crib sheets in the same manner for each of the other five factors.

As a result of examining the +4s, +3s, and +2s, the researcher finally began to identify the dominant view of each factor. To understand the clusters of perspectives more clearly, however, the researcher named them according to their developing theme (Watts & Stenner, 2012). Subsequently, the five clusters of perspectives offered a starting point for the researcher to understand the subjective and intersubjective constructions of each factor (Jeffares & Skelcher, 2011). The perspectives were (a) College Preparation, (b) Relationship Building, (c) Spirituality, (d) Personal Efficacy, and (e) Visibility.

Factor 1: College Preparation

The College Preparation perspective accounted for the largest explained variance at 19% and was defined by participants 1, 4, 9, 15, 16, 30, 39, 42, and 43. The results revealed that seven out of 10 of the alumni who held the College Preparation perspective were female, eight out of 10 lived within 15 miles of their former schools, and seven of the 10 graduated in the decade of the 1980s.

It was clear that the primary view of these participants was assisting students in continuing their education after high school. The participants having this view were notable by their desire to assist students with college entrance requirements (11: +4), serve as tutors (24: +4), and provide students with standardized exam preparation (25: +4). Participants 15 and 22 are employed as teachers. In addition, participants who displayed the College Preparation perspective believed that organizing school visits of community members (8: +2), educating students and families on paying for college (10: +2), and providing financial support (17: +3) were important in the overall spirit of College Preparation.

Factor 2: Relationship Building

The Relationship Building perspective of this group was one that was firmly implanted in the notion that increasing the interaction between alumni and students and their families was an important contribution to their former schools. Participants 18, 20, 22, 27, 28, and 43, whose views accounted for 8% of the explained variance, defined the Relationship Building perspective. Of the six participants who belonged to this perspective, all lived within 20 miles of the school, and only two of the 10 continued their education beyond an associate’s degree. Furthermore, this group was split nearly evenly among Ribault versus Raines alumni and male versus female participants.

Most notably, participants having the Relationship Building perspective were interested in developing mentoring relationships with students (34: +4). In their response to postsort questions, Participants 27, 28, and 43 alluded to the concept that mentors better understand “the rules of the game” for being successful in their careers. In addition, members holding this perspective lived closer to their former schools, a situation which allows a shorter commute in their interactions with students. They were also very interested in increasing parent–teacher connections through electronic media (13: +4) and supporting sporting events (19: +4). The value that these alumni placed on supporting sporting events might be attributed to the close bond that the Northwest Classic football game has fostered between graduates of all ages. Participant 20 noted that she believed that establishing a booster club for her former school’s football team might serve to encourage alumni involvement.

Factor 3: Spirituality

Spirituality was another perspective deemed as a critical component of participants’ contributions to their former school. Participants 21, 26, 29, 33, 41, and 44, whose views accounted for 6% of the explained variance, defined the Spirituality perspective. Each of these alumni graduated during the decade of the 1980s and was college educated; they were divided exactly evenly between Ribault and Raines alumni as well as male and female. The alumni having the Spirituality perspective on average lived slightly further from their former schools than did the previous two factors, and all six achieved a minimum of bachelor’s degrees. Also, none of the participants who loaded on the Spirituality perspective graduated during the previous decade or the 1970s.

The priority that participants placed on spirituality was noted by their emphasis on providing spiritual guidance to students (29: +4) as well as connecting students and their families with spiritual organizations (36: +4). This affirms the findings of this study’s literature review, which stressed how the Black community has historically used the church as a place of solace from the larger environment. Teaching students the importance of professionalism, which would have been expected from a group who are all college educated, was also a main concern of this perspective (18: +4). In addition, these participants believed that facilitating teen education workshops (14: +2) and supporting student-led groups (28: +2) could serve as important contributions to their former schools. Participants 29 and 44 affirmed this perspective when they attested in their postsort responses that serving in leadership roles in high school and college helped foster professionalism.

Factor 4: Self-Efficacy

For the Self-Efficacy perspective, participants were concerned with improving how students felt about themselves and their culture. Participants 3, 11, 19, 27, 32, 36, 37, 38, and 45, whose views accounted for 6% of the explained variance, defined the Self-Efficacy perspective. This perspective was unique in that eight of the nine participants were Raines alumni. In addition, five of the nine individuals having the Self-Efficacy perspective graduated during the 1970s, while the remaining graduated during the 1980s. This was quite remarkable due to there being only eight 1970s graduates who participated in the study. Also notable was that all but two alumni having this perspective identified their involvement level with their former schools as infrequent or never.

Of most importance for the Self-Efficacy perspective was teaching students the importance of professionalism (18: +4). Equally important, the alumni having this perspective placed a high value on facilitating job-shadowing opportunities (5: +4). However, they felt strongly that supporting sporting events was an important aspect to their potential contributions (19: +4). Keeping with the self-efficacy theme of this perspective was the value that participants placed on facilitating events that highlight their former schools’ rich history (23: +3). Furthermore, these participants were very interested in facilitating cultural opportunities as a means of improving their former schools. Specifically, they were interested in assisting teachers with integrating community culture in the classroom (32: +1), facilitating cultural/ethnic awareness events (33: +2), and connecting students with cultural organizations (35: +3).

Factor 5: Visibility (Students)

The Visibility (students) perspective entailed a view mainly concerned with being seen on campus and in the surrounding community. Participants 2, 8, 12, 17, and 34, whose views accounted for 5% of the explained variance, defined the Visibility perspective. Uniquely, all five participants of the Visibility (students) perspective were female; all but one of the five were Ribault alumni; and all but one of the five identified their level of current participation with their former schools as infrequent or never.

The dominant view of individuals holding this perspective felt that it was vital that alumni are present in some capacity on a regular basis both on and off their school campuses. Specifically, these participants felt that accompanying students on field trips was a vital contribution (2: +4). They also viewed the support of sporting events (19: +4) and attending Parent Teacher Association meetings (17: +4) as the most significant contributions that alumni could make to their former schools. These views might be attributed to Participants 2, 12, and 16 who stated in their postsort responses that they were concerned that Ribault and Raines had among the lowest participation of parents at Parent Teacher Association meetings.

Factor 5: Visibility (Parents)

Because the Visibility (student) perspective was negatively loaded on by two participants, a mirror account of this perspective was provided, which from this point forward will be referred to as the Visibility (parents) perspective. Participants who clustered around the Visibility (parents) perspective appeared to believe that it was important not only to be visible to students but also to be visible to students’ parents. This was apparent from their ranking at the top of the scale both visiting students and their families at their homes (22: +4) and facilitating after school career training for parents (26: +4). Perhaps these individuals viewed visibility through the lens of the parent’s eyes versus those of the students. Another element that might have had an impact on their view is that 90% of these alumni viewed their current involvement with their former schools as infrequent or never.

Conclusion

This study explored how African American alumni of urban high schools perceived that they could best contribute to their former schools. This study began with the premise that the rich legacies and cultural experiences of African American alumni of urban high schools could be harnessed in a holistic manner that could mitigate many of the challenges that urban high school students face. The researcher hoped to reframe and reshape the traditional discourse surrounding African American alumni of urban high schools so that they might be included in urban high school improvement efforts. The elements of existing theories and concepts used to inform the conceptual framework that guided this study were the funds of knowledge (Moll et al., 1992), the ecological model (Bronfenbrenner, 1994), the whole paradigm (Covey, 2004), the overlapping spheres influence (Epstein, 1995), and social capital (Dufur et al., 2008). The study addressed the following research question: How do African American alumni of urban high schools perceive that they can best contribute to their former schools?

Implications

For this study, practical insights can be applied at the national, state, and local levels. Nationally, several Whole Child initiatives have recently been topics of discussion. This is most apparent with the Whole Community, Whole Community, Whole Child initiative that has been established to promote the health and safety of students (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015). Statewide, Florida has recently transitioned away from the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) and adopted the even more controversial Florida Standards Assessment (FSA) high stakes exam. If these exams are indeed designed to increase Florida students’ critical thinking abilities so that they will be better prepared to be successful in college, then the College Preparation perspective of African American alumni of Ribault and Raines is particularly relevant.

Locally, the results of this study can be practically applied to two of the four central goals outlined in the strategic plan that was introduced by the DCPS office in November 2012 (DCPS, 2015). The applicable strategic goals include engaging parents, caregivers, and the community in the improvement of academic outcomes and the development of the whole child. This can be accomplished through the Visibility perspective by the simple presence of alumni in the schools, communities, and homes of current students, thereby enveloping students in each of their proximal environments. There is also an opportunity for Ribault and Raines alumni, through their Self-Efficacy perspective, to utilize their expertise to help develop parents at the proposed Parent Academies, which are a part of DCPS’s strategic plan. In so doing, Raines and Ribault alumni could assist parents in becoming better education advocates for their children, assist parents in becoming better able to help with their children’s homework, as well as provide parents with job training, readiness, and interview skills. In a similar vein, the Spirituality perspective aligns with the goal to involve the faith-based community in efforts to improve students’ performance by assisting the DCPS with morally grounded extracurricular activities for students.

Because the DCPS has experienced success in implementing a hybrid high school diploma that helps prepare students for the workforce as well as college, Ribault and Raines alumni through their diverse careers might provide invaluable expertise that serve to sustain and bolster students’ real-life learning experience. Furthermore, the cultural and historical experiences of Ribault and Raines alumni could prove to be vital contributors to the single-gender schools that have been established by the DCPS. Also, the College Preparation perspective identified in this study may be used as an integral part of the DCPS’s goals to infuse a college-going culture into schools. Moreover, the College Preparation perspective has the potential to heighten students’ awareness of the importance of enrolling in AP courses, dual enrollment alternatives, as well technical and vocational programs that have been expanded by the DCPS.

Last, as a practical initiative resulting from this study, Ribault and Raines alumni could incorporate the completion of real-world projects into their mentoring relationships with students. The idea is to leverage the resources (i.e., social capital) of Ribault and Raines alumni who are also students at either the University of North Florida (UNF) or Florida State College of Jacksonville (FSCJ) through partnerships with the DCPS in a manner that will facilitate students’ involvement in real life, hands-on career training. The hands-on, real-life projects will be completed by five-person teams which will include two alumni who are in the same career field and three students who have interest in those careers. The mentoring teams will compete against one another with the top three being recognized by receiving a reward for their accomplishment.

In conclusion, this study offered a beginning point to dispel the deficit view that is typically associated with urban schools and communities. Conceptually, it provided seminal work that identified the range of contributions that African American alumni of urban high schools perceived that they could make to their former schools. Compellingly, this study concluded that African American alumni of urban schools perceived that they could best contribute to their former schools by providing social capital. To this end, this study demonstrated that African American alumni of urban high schools continue to be invested in ensuring the well-being of their former schools, neighborhoods, and children, thereby exemplifying the concept of social capital that often comes at a premium in urban environments.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research,authorship,and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research,authorship,and/or publication of this article.

Author Biography

Adrian D. Johnson is a recent graduate of the University of North Florida where he received a doctorate of Educational Leadership. His research interest rests in improving the capacity of urban youth and communities in which they live. He has worked as an urban public servant for the past 25 years and upon his rapidly approaching retirement hopes to position himself so that he can focus on urban youth and community capacity building by using initiatives that are discovered through empirical research. This article is the first potential publication authored by him.

References

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