Maryland Institute for Minority Achievement and Urban Education
Annual Colloquium Series continues March 14

Theme: "Educating Maryland’s African-American Males ~ Issues and Promising Practices"

COLLEGE PARK, MD (February 2007) – The establishment of single-sex classes and single-sex schools as a means for educating Maryland African-American males will be the topic of the day on March 14, for the second in the series of four colloquia hosted by the College of Education's Maryland Institute for Minority Achievement and Urban Education (MIMAUE). The session begins 4:30 p.m. in 0220 Benjamin Building. Panel members leading the discussion are Dwayne Ham, a counselor in the Prince George's County Public Schools system; Victorius Jihad Hall, a graduate candidate at Bowie State University; and James I. Scofield, Ph.D., principal of Eager Street Academy—a high school within the Baltimore City Detention Center.

Dwayne Ham

Prior to joining the Prince George's County Public Schools, Ham worked with African-American male youth and technology as a middle school counselor in High Point, N.C. During this time he also earned his master's degree from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro. Currently enrolled at the University of Maryland, he is a doctoral candidate in the Counselor Education program of the College's Department of Counseling and Personnel Services. Ham's research interests include the educational aspiration, school engagement and motivation, process consultation, and career development of African-American males; father and other male involvement to increase the academic performance of black male students and cross-cultural counseling in practicum and supervision. He has presented his work at numerous local, regional, and national forums and is in the process of completing his dissertation requirements to graduate

Victorius Jihad Hall

Hall (Brother Victorius) was educated in the Prince Georges County Public Schools system, graduating from Suitland High School in 1999. He went on to earn a bachelor's degree from Morgan State University in 2004. Currently a master's candidate at Bowie State University, he is completing his thesis on negative and positive images among adolescent African American males. He is also working on co-authoring his first book, Black Revelations: How to survive America while being YOUNG, BLACK & MALE. Hall says his research and passion center around the achievement of African-American males. He has been a teacher/mentor for seven years, the last three within the Prince Georges County Public Schools system.

James Scofield

Scofield began his professional career as an addictions counselor with Project ADAPT in 1980. He returned to the collegiate arena as an academic counselor in 1982 and was quickly promoted to Coordinator of Extension Programs. In that position, he supervised the "College of the Air" and the Inmate Extension Program for Coppin State at the Maryland Penitentiary. Scofield returned to teaching in 1986 as an English teacher for middle school students and eventually became a middle school assistant principal. Now head of Eager Street Academy in Baltimore, he still makes time to teach graduate students, mentor Baltimore City principals, and participate in Phi Delta Kappa activities. Scofield holds a bachelor's degree from Coppin State College, a master's degree from Johns Hopkins University, and a doctoral degree from Morgan State University.

Each of the MIMAUE colloquia sessions this semester will focus on a recommendation made by the Task Force on the Education of Maryland's African-American males in a report issued December 2006 by the Maryland K-16 Council. "I would hope that all faculty and students would read the K-16 report and wherever they can enter into the debate or spring into action, they would take that opportunity to do so," said Martin L. Johnson, associate dean for Research, Urban and Minority Education, and director of MIMAUE.

The final two colloquia sessions in the series will address Family and Community Support (March 28) and High Standards and Academic Opportunity (April 18). All are invited and encouraged to attend the spring 2007 series. For further information, contact Associate Dean Martin L. Johnson at 301.405.0246 or email mljohnso@umd.edu.

About the Maryland Institute for Minority Achievement and Urban Education

Founded in 2001, the Maryland Institute for Minority Achievement and Urban Education links the faculty and resources of the nationally ranked College of Education with area school districts to support a unified, research-based approach to working with individual school districts to address the minority achievement gap and issues in urban education. Comprehensive initiatives are developed in partnership with local administrators and teachers to target at real-world problems.

The Institute taps into the extensive intellectual capital of the College of Education and focuses faculty research and outreach to support teachers and administrators. The goals of the Institute are to:

• Develop large-scale research programs to evaluate, implement and improve promising practices for increasing student achievement and improving urban schools
• Provide outreach services to help schools identify, implement and evaluate strategies to improve student achievement
• Disseminate research-proven best practices across the nation
• Provide a structure to involve faculty from other colleges and campuses, including historically black institutions, in research collaboration and coordinated research-based K-12 outreach

Through a process of collaborative school reform, the Institute works with schools and teachers to build robust educational climates that support high achievement. Efforts to date have included programs to develop innovative strategies to increase achievement, along with professional development to improve teachers' knowledge and skills and administrators' school management proficiency.

The Maryland Institute for Minority Achievement and Urban Education is an integral component of the research and outreach mission of the University of Maryland College of Education, which ranks 22nd among the top colleges of education in the most recent survey by U.S. News & World Report for 2006. Offering undergraduate, master's and doctoral degrees, the College of Education provides research- and practice-oriented programs through its six departments: Counseling and Personnel Services, Curriculum and Instruction, Education Policy and Leadership, Human Development, Measurement, Statistics and Evaluation, and Special Education.

Maryland Institute for Minority Achievement and Urban Education
University of Maryland
College of Education
3119 Benjamin Building
College Park, MD 20742

www.education.umd.edu/MIMAUE