The Black Male Institute (BMI) represents the hopes, dreams, hard work and planning of a host of individuals. Though their individual histories in the Academy stretch back decades, in some instances, the concerted effort to develop an institutional space devoted to scholarship, research, and best practices around Black male academic achievement dates back to the Fall of 2007 in the halls of UCLA’s Graduate School of Education & Information Studies (GSE&IS) and its Urban Schooling division.

In 2006-2007, UCLA’s GSE&IS admitted an unprecedented five African American males into its Urban Schooling doctoral cohort. These doctoral students, in combination with three colleagues from previous cohorts, formed a critical mass of student researchers whose scholarly interests coalesced around interdisciplinary aspects of Black male achievement. As these students embarked upon coursework and began their respective apprenticeships into research, it became clear that not only was this a unique moment in the history of GSE&IS but that, further, this represented a special opportunity to make a significant contribution to the national discourse on issues pertaining to the Black male academic pipeline. Through the mentoring of faculty members like Drs. Walter Allen, Robert Cooper, Tyrone Howard, and Ernest Morrell, the cadre of student researchers formed WRAAAP -- “Working to Realize African American Academic Potential” – a student-initiated and facilitated working group dedicated to developing scholarly papers for symposia at national research conferences, as well as providing the necessary supports required to successfully negotiate doctoral studies.

After several successful presentations at national conferences like the American Educational Research Association (AERA), it became clear that WRAAAP had made an indelible mark on national audiences, on GSE&IS, and on its faculty. While WRAAAP members were successfully moving ahead in their doctoral training, they also wondered about what would be in store for future doctoral students. By Fall of 2008, WRAAAP members had begun an extended dialogue with Dr. Tyrone Howard, whose substantial expertise and distinguished publication record addressing issues of Black males in education, as well as years of successful mentorship of African American scholars at the doctoral level, led to a natural desire to co-labor towards a more permanent space. Thus began the effort to develop the UCLA Black Male Institute.

Several individuals and organizations came together to support the expressed mission of the BMI, providing key financial support for its first effort – the 2009 Black Male Institute Think Tank. The two-day event featured innovative research by junior and senior scholars from across a wide range of academic backgrounds and methodological disciplines. Additionally, African American male high school students from across Los Angeles County participated in several workshops focused on academic preparation, community leadership, and identity development. In total, over 200 attendees came together to dialogue and critically examine the experiences of today’s Black males.

On the heels of the success of the first Think Tank, the John T. Randolph & Dora Haynes Foundation provided key seed monies for the UCLA BMI to embark upon its very first research project, Saving Our Sons. As principal investigator of this research and Director of the BMI, Dr. Howard and his colleagues seek to research and improve the schooling experiences of Black males across Los Angeles. The study explicitly examines the effectiveness of single-sex classrooms/academies across Los Angeles County that attempt to intervene in the troubling trend of school failure for Black males.

Looking forward, the BMI is excited to further the discourse surrounding Black males in the United States and abroad. As such, the BMI seeks to identify and work with individuals and organizations committed to practical interventions, reliable research, effective programs, best practices, and responsible policy innovations that are informed by interdisciplinary perspectives in order to improve the educational outcomes of Black males. Below, you can read a bit about various WRAAAP members and their current work.


Terry K. Flennaugh

Terry K. Flennaugh is an Assistant Professor of Race, Culture and Equity in Education in the Department of Teacher Education at Michigan State University. His research focuses primarily on the educational experiences of Black males and other students of color in urban contexts. Utilizing both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, he examines the sense-making processes involved in constructing identities that lead to high academic performance in urban schools. He also studies issues of educational access and equity for communities of color in addition to single-sex educational spaces for urban youth.









Stanley L. Johnson, Jr.

Stanley L. Johnson, Jr., research focuses on critically investigating highly effective Secondary English teachers and their high achieving African American Male students. As a former high school English teacher and urban school administrator, Johnson is particularly interested in the effective instructional and pedagogical practices of Advanced Placement English teachers who have proven results in helping to close the literacy gap by ensuring that their African American males have access to the language of wider communication and exposure to languages and literacies of power.
Johnson currently serves as a Literacy Consultant in Curriculum and Instructional Services for the Los Angeles County Office of Education. Johnson provides consultancy services in language arts, standards based instruction, leadership training for emerging administrators, coaching and training to teachers in their Juvenile Court Schools Program, and he works closely with low-performing schools trying to exit from the School Assistance Intervention Team (SAIT) and Program Improvement (PI) corrective action programs sanctioned by the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. Johnson also lectures in the Principal Leadership Institute (PLI) at UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies (GSE&IS) and is actively seeking tenured-track faculty positions in English Education and Literacy Studies.
Johnson received his PhD in Urban Schooling from UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies. He also holds a Masters of Arts in Secondary Education from Loyola Marymount University and a Bachelors of Arts in American Literature and Culture with college honors from UCLA. Johnson is the recipient of many academic distinctions and community service awards. He is most pleased, though, with being selected as the 2010-2011 Distinguished Teaching Assistant Award recipient for his outstanding teaching of undergraduate students and significant contributions to the UCLA GSE&IS community.




Kyndall Brown

Kyndall Brown has 25 years of experience in the field of mathematics education. Thirteen of those years were spent teaching mathematics in secondary urban classrooms in Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). He has taught at both the Middle and High School levels. He has taught everything from pre-algebra to pre-calculus. Most of his students came from low-income communities with large numbers of English language learners.
He has been providing professional development as a mathematics teacher consultant and co-director for the UCLA Mathematics Project (UCLAMP) housed in Center X, a unit of UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies for the past 15 years. In that capacity, he has done workshops at schools on strategies to teach mathematics to English language learners, coached mathematics teachers in Center X partnership schools and districts, and directed leadership institutes for teachers of mathematics. As a mathematics resource teacher in LAUSD, he has helped to implement standards-based mathematics programs in secondary schools.
He is currently the Director of UCLAMP and a recent graduate of the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. He was in the Diversity in Mathematics Education (DiME) Program, an NSF funded program aimed at increasing the number of mathematics education faculty from underrepresented groups. He has received and implemented two grants funded by the California Post-Secondary Education Commission. Supporting Teachers To Increase Retention was a five-year grant focused on retaining secondary mathematics teachers in urban schools. Fremont Achievement in Mathematics for Excellence is a three year grant aimed at increasing the content knowledge of the mathematics teachers at an urban high school as a way to improve the achievement of the students. His research interest centers around how the mathematics identities of African-American males impact their academic achievement.





D’Artagnan Scorza

D'Artagnan Scorza is a UCLA graduate with a B.A. in the Study of Religion and also has a B.S. in Liberal Studies with an emphasis in business Management from National University. Currently a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Education at UCLA, he established the Black Male Youth Academy (BMYA) at Morningside High School, a literacy development program that helps youth use research to create change in their communities. D'Artagnan is an US Navy Iraq War Veteran and served a two-year term as a member of the Board of Regents, University of California. He participated in the governance of the University and was an outspoken advocate for equity and inclusion, affordability and access, clean energy and environmental sustainability. He is also a strong supporter of academic preparation programs for grade levels P-16 and believes they help create a level playing field. He was a 2010 Education Pioneer Fellow and worked at the California Community Foundation (CCF) supporting their scholarships program area. In 2009, he founded the Social Justice Learning Institute (SJLI) and currently serves as the Executive Director, advancing food justice initiatives in underserved communities.





Jonathan A. Carroll

Dr. Jonathan A. Carroll is a teacher educator who received his doctorate from UCLA in June 2011. Prior to entering graduate school, Dr. Carroll was an elementary school teacher. His dissertation, "Guess Who's Coming to Class? Examining the Pedagogy of a Black Male Teacher Educator" was a case study of the unique contributions that Black males can bring to the field of teacher education, and revealed that personal narratives can be used to develop positive relationships with students. Dr. Carroll is also interested in the ways that educators can be groomed for leadership as well as effective ways to develop critical literacies in urban students. Currently Dr. Carroll is a full-time adjunct at Occidental College.







Moses Chikwe

Born and raised in Nigeria and moved to United States since 2002. Moses received his undergrad degree in philosophy and Masters in education administration. He taught integrated science in high school for two years and worked in print media organization as a manager for five years. Moses is currently working with the VA in San Diego while completing his doctoral dissertation. His research centers on school leadership and the use of data for equity and social justice work in high schools, how school leaders make sense of and use equity-related data to disrupt patterns of inequality. This is aimed at finding policy solutions to the perennial unequal educational opportunity prevalent in our high schools. His research interest equally extends to exploring the academic self-concept of African American high school students. This bears heavily on the policies and structures that either enhance or hinder the academic self of the African American students.