Dubois-Nkrumah-Dunham International Conference
Academic Achievement in Africa and Its Diaspora: Challenges and Solutions
May 1-2, 2009
Department of Africana Studies
University of Pittsburgh
Jerome Taylor, PhD, Conference Convener
Oronde Sharif, MSW, Conference Co-Convener
Conference Location
This year's conference will be held at the Frick Fine Arts .
Frick Auditorium
320 Frick Fine Arts
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Directions to the conference using all forms of transportation
Directions to the conference from the Wyndham Hotel
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Featured Presenters
Lloyd Bond (Confirmed)
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Senior Carnegie Scholar, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in Stanford, CA. - PhD in Psychology, Johns Hopkins University.
Presentation
What academic challenges do we face?
A measurement and assessment expert, he is widely known for his research on test bias and cognitive processes that underlie test performance. Of special interest to this conference, he has identified four sources of underperformance on standardized assessments: (a) test anxiety, (b) lack of test sophistication (or test-wiseness), (c) lack of automaticity and (d) test bias. Professor Bond will discuss these sources of underperformance along with recommendations on how parents, schools, and community can diminish these negative influences on black students' reading and math proficiencies.
Gloria J. Ladson-Billings (Confirmed)
- Kellner Family Professor in Urban Education, Department of Curriculum and Instruction University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Former president of the 25,000-member American Educational Research Association.
Presentation
How do we account for identified challenges?
A graduate of Stanford University where she completed her doctoral studies, Dr. Ladson-Billings serves as a project director at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research were her research has centered on multicultural education, critical race theory, and culturally relevant pedagogy. In more than 50 articles and book chapters she has identified a range of factors that undermine black academic achievement along with a range of factors that promote black academic achievement. We will ask here to share results of these factors that retard or advance black academic achievement along with her concept of educational debt which centrally underlies racial achievement gaps.
George J. Sefa Dei (Confirmed)
- University of Toronto
- Faculty member of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto
- Professor and former chair of the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies.
Presentation
Which policy reforms offer promise of overcoming identified challenges?
From his research on what supports black achievement excellence on the African Continent and in its Diaspora, he will share recommendations on what policy makers, educational institutions, and local communities should do to normalize achievement excellence in black populations. His recommendations will be informed also by his research on how gender, class, sexuality, and ethnicity influence teaching, learning, and educational administration in ways that carry implications for students' engagement and disengagement. Results of this research are described in his books on anti-racism education, black student disengagement, and knowledge privileging in Africa and its Diasporan communities.
Brenda DeMar-Williams (Confirmed)
Principal of Amelia Earhart Elementary Public School, Chicago
Presentation
Which practice reforms offer promise of overcoming identified challenges?
Brenda DeMar-Williamshas demonstrated with her staff how to obtain impressive levels of reading and math proficiencies among low-income predominately black student enrollees. In 2007, these levels of proficiency in reading and math exceeded district and state proficiencies at every grade level-3rd through 8th. As indicated in the following table, impressive levels of proficiency attainment in both disciplines have been maintained over the period 2003 through 2007.
