How BLM Learning Pods Came to Be

There are several disparities impacting students of African ancestry and the schools they attend. This ever-widening achievement gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students is made even worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of school shutdowns, projections are that children will lose up to two full years of learning, and high school dropout rates will spike.

For underserved communities where resources are scarce and families are overburdened, African American students are the most vulnerable to falling further behind. Several companies and other non-profits asked BATA to create a learning program for Bay Area African American students. Prompted by the reckoning on race our nation faced in the summer of 2020. The COVID-19 BLM Learning Pods program was born. This initiative serves local K-12 children of African American essential workers, civil servants, teachers, and frontline employees. It provides them with academic coaching in small groups.

Coaching is from thoroughly vetted tutors using culturally responsive techniques.

The program also offers opportunities to take part in enrichment events and activities through partnerships with local organizations.

• Learning how to create artwork of prominent African American figures
• Attending a virtual tour of an urban farm
• Virtual tours of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to encourage them to attend college

We recruit tutors from HBCUs and other institutions around the country. They are either tutors of color themselves or passionate allies of the Black Lives Matter movement. Tutors are supervised by a Site Director who manages the groups and ensures everything runs smoothly. This program provides much-needed representation for the students by offering mentorship from tutors who look like them and are dedicated to seeing them succeed against any odds.

The program:

• Affirms each student’s full potential
• Helps students achieve academic prosperity
• Exposes students to their rich cultural heritage
• Assures the students’ parents, who work outside the home, that their children are in a safe and supportive environment

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Learning and Social Bonds

Most African American youngsters have excellent adult connections and develop to their essential potential. That is, they understand the complexity of language, process sensory information, govern their bodies, and even employ symbols at the appropriate ages. However, many of these learners may not have access to the type of learning environment that allows them to develop school-related skills, knowledge, and language.

Others believe that education will not pay dividends for them because of persistent racial exclusion. And some children are growing up in environments that are too stressful for them to develop normally. Consequently, these students don’t receive the extra emotional support and assistance they need to deal with their challenges, such as adjusting to academic responsibilities.

Learners’ experiences in the social worlds of family and community significantly impact what they learn in school and how effectively they learn it.

Learners form bonds with important caregivers and rely on them for physical and emotional safety. Learners internalize, identify, and imitate their caregivers’ values, attitudes and modes of self-expression, and problem-solving approaches; this sets the stage for physical, mental, social, and cognitive characteristics, which influence everything from ethical and moral to executive functioning skills and executive functioning.

Learners who grow up in nurturing relationships that respond to their changing needs are more likely to learn, reach out, and explore. This is especially crucial for children who live in difficult circumstances. Furthermore, the most successful students are born into families with essential resources, such as physical safety, health care, enough nourishment, attentive caregiving, and educational chances.

Help Nurture Change and Help Sustain BLM Learning Pods Today

The Roots and Causes of the Historic Educational Divide

Many African Americans’ prospects are hampered by poor academic achievement. The educational success gap between African Americans and other groups is significant when social status is considered. On average, African American kids do worse on tests and receive lower marks than Latino, White and Asian. Pupils. Many of them also fail courses and drop out of school during their adolescence. Others succeed in school but do not excel. These learners are also less likely to enroll in honors classes in high school or get admitted into competitive four-year universities.

The achievement gap is a problem that affects the entire country, not only African American children, their families and communities. Moreover, it is believed that the continuance of the educational attainment gap imposes on the United States the economic equivalent of a perpetual national recession.

The accomplishment gap/educational divide is caused by past and current economic and social factors. Attempts by society to alleviate the negative consequences of prejudice and discrimination on African Americans have been ineffective; disparities persist in practically every aspect of life, including education. Simultaneously, scientific and technical advancements have increased the educational requirements for successful and meaningful employment, burdening impoverished areas and schools even more. And, because social science research has generally concentrated on group weaknesses rather than causes that have hampered growth, it has provided little hints on building support systems, even if a genuine desire exists.

African American children, like other children, are born with the ability to learn, but they need experiences to realize their full potential. Interactions with people and things shape the brain circuitry that controls a child’s physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development. Inborn urges to learn to drive several growth elements, such as understanding language, being gregarious, employing symbols, and creating categories. Most kids master these skills at the same age and in the same method.

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Help Turn the Key to Success for African American Students in the Bay Area

Tutoring is deemed as one of the keys to success. It is now critical to take advantage of a culture that values academic achievement. According to research, not only is there a gap in mathematics performance between Caucasians and African Americans, but African American kids’ performance also declines as their grade level advances. The number of African American students performing at proficient, let alone advanced levels, is falling on state exams.

Education is becoming a more significant part of American society, as it predicts later school outcomes and future career and labor alternatives, health, social opportunities, and general economic stability.

BLM Learning Pods can create a comprehensive learning environment that a classroom may not always give. This entails keeping the parent, teacher, tutor, and counselor in the loop to ensure the student’s success.

BLM Learning Pods can assist by forging deeper, personal bonds with their students. Academic coaches play a distinct role from instructors and parents, putting them in a unique position to help learners.

We must act now to improve results for many of our children, particularly those from historically underserved ethnic and socioeconomic groups.

Gaps in student accomplishment that existed before the pandemic has widened. They will not close unless we expand learning opportunities and assistance outside students’ time in classrooms with our teachers and staff during the school week.

Teachers and school personnel are being tested in ways they have never been before. From a social and emotional, home and community life, and educational standpoint, students began this school year in a different place than they did before the pandemic. Every student must be given a chance to realize their highest potential, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the problem of disrupted learning.

Your donation to support black student education in the Bay Area reduces the achievement gap and lessens the impact of COVID-19 on the most vulnerable.