As the nation's largest and most effective minority education organization, UNCF has always been committed to increasing the number of African American college graduates. Over the past few years, we have expanded our focus to include increasing the number of African Americans who are college-ready.
During the last five years, UNCF and its K-12 Advocacy team have produced events and research to amplify the need to improved outcomes for African American students and shift the narrative of what is possible for all students. In 2012, we released our inaugural piece of K-12 related research, Done To Us, Not With Us: African American Parent Perceptions of K-12 Education. As a guidepost to our community engagement efforts, the report explored how low-income African American parents view the K-12 education system and their role in supporting their children. In 2017 UNCF released the second report in our African American perceptions series Lift Every Voice and Lead: African American Grasstops Leaders’ Perceptions of K-12 Education Reform and The Lift Every Voice and Lead Toolkit: A Community Leader’s Advocacy Resource for K-12 Education.
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With the upcoming release of the third report in our perceptions research series, A Seat at the Table: African-American Youth's Perceptions of K-12 Education, UNCF continues to amplify voices that are often overlooked in education discussions. The UNCF Education Summit will serve as a discussion point for the student perspective on education, a call to action on P-16 issues, and a platform for engagement and exploration of the role of African American voices -- specifically HBCUs -- in education reform efforts.
#UNCFEdSummit | #UNCFK12
Roderick L. Smothers, Sr. was named 14th president of Philander Smith College on October 1, 2014 and officially began his tenure on January 5, 2015. A dynamic scholar, transformative leader and forward-thinking visionary, Smothers is committed to building upon the institution’s strong and historic legacy, while advancing its mission to new levels of excellence.
Meredith Anderson, Ph.D., is a senior research associate at the Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute. She supports the K-12 research endeavors of the advocacy team and FDPRI through design and management of empirical research projects related to K-12 education reform for African American students.
Wil Del Pilar, Ph.D., serves as Ed Trust’s vice president of higher education policy and practice. In this role, Wil spearheads Ed Trust’s mission to highlight inequities and outline solutions in order to improve access, success, affordability, and completion in higher education for low-income students and students of color.
UNCF’s K-12 Advocacy department seeks to promote a college-going culture where African American parents are knowledgeable about the college-going process and more African American students are academically prepared for a post-secondary education. This effort engages and partners with national grasstop leaders and HBCUs to help them understand the crisis in black education, disseminates research to raise awareness of educational issues facing black students, and partners with and supports on-the-ground grassroots organizations. To learn more, please visit UNCF.org/
k12advocacy
UNCF is the nation’s largest and most effective minority education organization and the largest private scholarship provider to minority group members in the country.
Since its founding in 1944, UNCF has raised more than $4.7 billion to help more than 445,000 students receive college degrees at UNCF-member institutions and with UNCF scholarships. UNCF also provides financial support for its 37 member historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) for scholarships and capacity building, conducts cutting-edge research on minority education, and advocates for equitable policies and funding for low-income and minority students.