Afrithmetic Focus Group

Thursday, September 23, 2015

Welcome
Background
It was relayed to me once or twice from different educators that if I really
want to stand out in the world of education I should come up with my own
method. My own way to educate the less privileged African American
students that will surely work or be even the least bit effective with little to
no doubt. But how does one formulate such a solid plan?
Afrithmetic came to me first as a blog title for my study abroad experiences
this past summer. The blog documented my life as an African American,
Mathematician, and Woman hence the name came to be as a hybrid
between African American and arithmetic. But the title was so unique and
seemed to possess some potential weight to do justice elsewhere. This is
when I started to connect some dots between my blog and what those
different educators were relaying to me.
Within the last few weeks I have formally decided to get the ball rolling. I
partially envision Afrithmetic to be a for (or maybe non)-profit organization
assisting predominantly Black middle and high schools facilitate the
curriculum in their math classes, but not in the traditional setting. The
tutoring would ideally be hands-on, interactive, and absolutely no
teaching. This notion is to partially replicate one of my current jobs on
campus in which we practice the same techniques. Also, Afrithmetic would
be a means to develop other well-versed social skills for the growing
students (i.e. confidence, self-love, professionalism). But this entire vision
and description remains a rough draft for the overall organization.
Purpose of Focus Groups
Over the course of the day I will be conducting three different focus groups
to help me figure out what this organization can really be. These meetings
shall present opinions from different people on mathematics education, the
African American community, and how to progress both topics positively. I
hope to collect a great bit of information from these groups to better
formulate what I would want out of Afrithmetic and how others may perceive
its marginal utility over time. Additionally, I hope to gain some overly
interested participants from these groups to accompany me on this journey
to make an everlasting difference for these students who may not know how
amazing they are yet!

Engagement Questions
1. What was your favorite subject during K-12?
2. What do you notice when you hear people talk about their K-12
experience?
Exploration Questions
3.
Who in particular has influenced your decision to pursue a STEM
field?
4. What are the pros and cons of the way the K-12 education system
works?
5. How do you feel when told about the statistics associated with people
who are underrepresented in these scholastics?
6. How do you feel about yourself when you are effective with your
personal study habits and achieve desired results on exams and
assignments? When you dont?
Exit Questions
7. Is there anything else you would like to say about why you have or
have not been successful in your academic pursuits on a regular basis?

Facts
Over the past two decades, the percentage of African American eighth-graders who lacked even
basic math skills on NAEP has fallen from 81 percent to less than half.
eighthgrade math, African American students are about two and a half times as likely as white
students to lack basic skills and only about one-third as likely to be proficient or advanced.
Over the past five years, the number of African American high school graduates taking the ACT
rose by 22 percent, and the number taking the SAT rose by 12 percent. Whats more, the number
of African American graduates taking at least one AP exam more than tripled between 2002 and
2012, outpacing the growth in the number of African American graduates.
African American students remain underrepresented among AP test-takers: 15 percent of
graduates in the class of 2013 were African American, but African American students made up
only 9 percent of those who took AP tests. And even fewer 5 percent of those who passed
an AP exam were African American.

Notes:
Jhanelle Adams, Georgia Charter School System