African American students underachieve in basic math and English courses when compared to Caucasian students: An action plan

The achievement gap between African American and Caucasian students is a well-documented phenomenon throughout all levels of public education in the United States. The College of the Mountains, a small, rural community college located in Northern California is no exception to this phenomenon. This dissertation is orientated toward facilitating the College of the Mountains in developing a meaningful action plan that addresses not only why African American students perform poorly in basic skills Math and English courses, but how the college can help more African American students succeed in these courses. The effect of this action plan will be improved student performance, which can be tangibly measured and monitored using objective standards such as grades and success rates. Rather than measuring outcomes of implemented action plan strategies, the methodological focus of this dissertation is on the process of developing an action plan to improve student success.; As the researcher and action plan facilitator I gathered, summarized, and shared quantitative and qualitative data, as well as relevant literature, with the college's stakeholders. I then guided the stakeholders through a critical analysis of the available information and facilitated the development of individual action plan projects designed to improve African American student performance. For each project, I developed an objective assessment method to gauge the effectiveness of the intervention. In addition to African American students benefiting from this project, the exercise of identifying a problem, analyzing the relevant data, and developing meaningful strategies to improve student performance, was a unifying and empowering experience for the college's stakeholders.