Pipefitters Looking for New Recruits at Black Star; Lady's Man HasNeeded Conversation with Young Black Men; Decriminalizing School Disciplinefor Young Black Males; City Colleges Chancellor Cheryl Hyman Speaks OnSuccess

Pipefitters at Black Star Lady's Man Helps Young Black Men Decriminalizing School Discipline Cheryl Hyman City Colleges of Chicago Kenyan Attack Kills 147 On University Campus Atlanta Cheating Scandal Links: The Black Star Project's website: blackstarproject.org Black Star Journal: blackstarjournal.org Become a Member: Click Here Make a donation: Like us on Facebook: Follow us on Twitter: The Black Star Project is partnering with the Pipefitters to give interested candidates an introduction to the trade of Pipefitting. Monday, April 20, 2015 6:30 pm The Black Star Project Suite 2B 3509 South King Drive Chicago, Illinois Please call 773.285.9600 to RSVP for this session Pipefitters assemble and repair pipe systems of various shapes, sizes, and pressures. Ensure proper placement and alignment according to blueprints and instructions. Require a high school diploma or its equivalent and 0-2 years of experience in the field or in a related area. Have knowledge of commonly-used concepts, practices, and procedures within a particular field. Rely on instructions and pre-established guidelines to perform the functions of the job. Work under immediate supervision. Typically reports to a supervisor. A conversation for young Black men about being a man Discussion and Book Autographing Saturday, April 11, 2015 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm Culture Connection 400 W. 71st Street Chicago, Illinois For more information or to purchase a copy of the book, please Click Here Decriminalizing School Discipline: Why Black Males Matter By Tyrone Howard April 6, 2015 Recent events in Ferguson, Mo., Cleveland, and New York City have ignited a series of debates about the lives of black males in the United States and how they are viewed in the larger society. Regardless of what anyone believes, however, the reality is simple: Black males are disciplined and punished disproportionately more than any other group. The historical narrative often depicts black males as violent, anti-intellectual, and resistant to authority. What needs to be understood, however, is how schools contribute to building this narrative, and what can be done to help change that. In many ways, young black men have a much lower threshold for engaging in inappropriate behavior while at school than their peers; overwhelming data show that black male students experience school in a very different way than do their nonblack peers. The U.S. Department of Education's office for civil rights reported in 2014 that 42 percent of all preschool-age black children have received at least one out-of-school suspension, compared with 28 percent of their white peers. The department also found that black males are three times more likely than their white male peers to be suspended and expelled, resulting in the loss of valuable learning time. Moreover, it is not uncommon, as data from the Civil Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Schott Foundation have shown, for districts with small percentages of black males to report that this group still represents a majority of students being disciplined. The report cited in particular the state of Missouri, where unrest over a police shooting of a young black man continues to unfold. The data show that, statewide, Missouri elementary schools suspended more than 14 percent of their black students at least once in 2011-12, compared with only 1.8 percent of their white students. Not surprisingly, the effects of school arrests can be debilitating for a lifetime. A University of Chicago study revealed that high school students with one school arrest had a 26 percent graduation rate, compared with their non-arrested peers' rate of 64 percent. The consequences of a lifetime with no high school diploma and a criminal record are clear, so how should schools, parents, and caregivers respond? Click Here to Read Full Story There is no reason for your child to be left behind in school or in life. You must take control of your child's education. Those who control the education of the children control the future of that race. The Black Star Project is recruiting: 1) 10 male or female high school students interested in learning to build websites and in understanding code in our Youthtech program 2) 10 young men and young women in 6th to 12th grade who want to accelerate in math for our Math Bootcamp 3) 10 boys in 1st to 4th grade whose parents want them to become serious and effective readers for our Black Male Reading Academy 4) 10 young women and young men in 5th to 8th grade for our Saturday University focusing on reading, writing and math. Coaches Seated - Ivan Lee, Ava Myles and George Solorio All classes are at The Black Star Project, 3509 South King Drive, Chicago, Illinois. Please call 773.285.9600 to register for any of the above classes or for more information about these free programs. Parents must have a high level of support and engagement with our academic programs. Enrollment is limited. Attend the 2015 Black Star Project College Fair on Saturday, April 25, 2015 The Chicago Lake Shore Hotel 4900 South Lake Shore Drive Chicago, Illinois 10:00 am to 1:00 pm 50 colleges and universities will exhibit including: Alabama A&M University - HBCU Benedictine University Carthage College Central Michigan University City College of Chicago Columbia College Cornell College DePaul University Dominican University East West University Eastern Illinois University Fisk University HBCU Florida A&M University - HBCU Governors State University Harris-Stowe State University - HBCU Illinois Institute of Technology Indiana State University Indiana University Northwest Kentucky State University - HBCU Lane College - HBCU Lawrence University Lincoln University - HBCU Luther College Mississippi Valley State University - HBCU Morgan State University - HBCU National Louis University New Mexico State University Northern Michigan University Northeastern Illinois University Northern Illinois University Northwestern University Prairie State College Prairie View A&M University Ripon College Robert Morris University Rust College - HBCU Southern Illinois University University of Chicago University of Illinois Chicago University of Illinois Springfield University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign University of Southern Alabama University of Southern Indiana University of Wyoming U.S. Coast Guard U.S. Marines U.S. Naval Academy Valparaiso University Vincennes University Wilberforce University - HBCU Xavier (LA) - HBCU The 2013 College Fair attracts more than 1,000 participants. Students, parents and educators from are encouraged to attend this college fair. Please call 773.285.9600 for more information. Click Here to see and hear the last Black Star Project's College Fair. Cheryl Hyman on embracing challenges Leads One of Largest Higher Education Systems in the World City Colleges of Chicago Chancellor Cheryl Hyman (Zbigniew Bzdak/Tribune Newspapers) By Cheryl Hyman April 5, 2015 I grew up in public housing on Chicago's West Side. My parents used to struggle with addiction. My lowest point came when, at 17, I dropped out of high school. I could have found a lot of excuses for failing to reach my potential.I didn't choose the best path - at first. But it didn't take long for me to realize that I wanted a different life, and that I needed an education to get it. I returned to high school, graduated, and set a goal of launching a career around my passion for technology. I set my sights higher - on a degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology, a four-year college in Chicago with a strong computer science program. After meeting with an advisor at the school, however, I recognized I wasn't financially ready. So I decided to go to City Colleges, where my grandmother had gone years earlier to become a nurse. I earned my associate's degree and then transferred to the Institute of Technology, where I completed a bachelor's in computer science. By going to community college first, I saved thousands of dollars on my degree. After college, I was hired by a major Chicago utility company, and ultimately became one of the company's youngest executives. The climb up the corporate ladder was not always clear, but I worked to maximize every opportunity. I worked hard, and when that was not enough, I worked harder. But these accomplishments didn't come by waving a magic wand. They didn't come by politely raising a hand. They came from leaning in. If you embrace challenges, no matter how big, and keep moving forward, one day you will look up and be surprised at how far you have come. I don't shy away from conflict or confrontation, I have little patience for excuses, and I have a relentless expectation of excellence - every day. These are the traits I look for when I hire leaders in my organization. Cheryl L. Hyman is Chancellor of the City Colleges of Chicago, a 115,000-student network that is one of the nation's largest community college systems. In that role, she is leading a reinvention of the institution that has resulted in the highest number of degrees awarded in the system's history. She is proud to note that her parents, mentioned in this article, survived their challenges too, and serve as great sources of support for her today. Click Here to read Full Article Kenya attack: 147 dead in Garissa University assault Photo by Dai Kurokawa/European Pressphoto Agency From Africa At least 147 people, mostly students, have been killed in an assault by al-Shabab militants on a university in north-eastern Kenya. Heavily armed attackers stormed Garissa University early on Thursday, killing two security guards then firing indiscriminately on students. Four of the gunman were eventually surrounded in a dormitory, and died when their suicide vests detonated. It is the deadliest attack yet by al-Shabab. The militants singled out Christians and shot them, witnesses said. More than 500 students managed to escape, 79 of whom were injured. A fifth gunman has reportedly been arrested. Eric Wekesa, a student at Garissa, told Reuters he locked himself in his room before eventually fleeing. "What I managed to hear from them is 'We came to kill or finally be killed.' That's what they said." "It was horrible, there was shooting everywhere," another student, Augustine Alanga told the BBC's Newsday programme. He said it was "pathetic" that the university was only guarded bty two police officers. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned what he called a "terrorist attack" and said the UN was ready to help Kenya "prevent and counter terrorism and violent extremism". The United States said it was offering Nairobi assistance to take on al-Shabab and would continue to work with others in the region to take on the group. The Kenyan government has named Mohamed Kuno, a high-ranking al-Shabab official, as the mastermind of the attack. Al-Shabab says it attacked the university because it is at war with Kenya, BBC Africa analyst Mary Harper reports. Click Here to Read Full Story Accountability on Trial The Atlanta school cheating convictions are unhelpful to education reform. Former Deerwood Academy assistant principal Tabeeka Jordan, center, is led to a holding cell after a jury found her guilty in the Atlanta Public Schools test-cheating trial. By Robert Pondiscio April 3, 2015 This is how it starts. You work with these kids all year. You teach them how to do fractions or find the main idea. They struggle; they make mistakes. They get it. They forget it. You keep at it. Some days you go home with tire tracks on your back, but you come back the next day. They're your kids, even the ones who push your buttons. Especially them. On test day, you look over their shoulders while proctoring. You cringe. A careless mistake. Another one. You know they know this stuff. You've been over it enough. The one kid, he's bright enough but unfocused. Always rushing; always has to be done first. Use the remaining time to check your answers, you suggest. "I did," he says. Your finger comes to rest on his answer sheet. "Check this one." This is how it ends. In an Atlanta courtroom, with 11 educators convicted of criminal charges in a cheating scandal dating back to 2001. Forty-four schools, 180 educators, 35 indictments. The ones convicted Wednesday face up to 20 years in prison. They were all found guilty under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Charges usually brought against mobsters and organized crime bosses were brought against elementary school teachers. It's hard to look at what's happened in Atlanta without alarm and a bit of revulsion. How could this happen? What signal, spoken or unspoken, leads elementary school teachers to engage in "organized and systemic misconduct" bad enough to warrant a conviction on racketeering charges? No one wakes up one morning with a fully formed plot in their head to change hundreds of test scores in dozens of schools. Who bears the responsibility for creating "a culture of fear, intimidation and retaliation" that leads to "cheating at all levels" in a major American school system that goes "unchecked for years"? The teachers and administrators convicted Wednesday cannot be forgiven. But they deserve some small degree of sympathy. "They got a signal from somebody, whether it's their principal or superintendent, that we need to see rising test scores at all costs," observes Peter Cunningham, a former assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Education, who now runs Education Post, a non-profit ed-reform organization. The correct objects of sympathy here are Atlanta's children. They were lied to at best, robbed at worst, and led to believe they were where they needed to be academically when they were not. They were denied the education they deserved for expediency's sake. Accountability is supposed to mean long-overdue attention to those our education system has historically neglected. Now it also means elementary school teachers perp walked, led from a courtroom in handcuffs. Maybe it's justice. But it's a sad day nonetheless. Click Here to Read Full Story

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