Black young men need a better path to college

OPINION: With Black male college enrollment down 22%, an educator says schools need systems that support students from early exposure through graduation.

Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.

A college education remains one of the strongest pathways to economic stability. Yet for Black male students, college enrollment has declined 22% in recent years, and Black men are less likely to graduate from college. This is a troubling reversal of decades of progress.

As a society, we expect young Black men to nimbly navigate unique barriers, often with little support or institutional knowledge. I know that weight firsthand. My family moved six times so I could attend the best schools. I worked three jobs in college and pursued every leadership opportunity I could. I graduated from UT-Austin and spent the next decade working to break down barriers in education.

I wasn’t even a first-generation college student, and the path was still grueling. So now, as Chief External Officer at Coney Island Prep (CIP), I refuse to tell young people that the answer is simply to work harder and overcome more. The answer is to make the path more accessible without lowering the bar of excellence.

Getting a young person into college is only the beginning. We help them choose a college where they can thrive, make it financially possible, and help them transition into lucrative, stable careers post-graduation. This is the business of building better lives. Other schools can replicate our model.

Our college pipeline begins in first grade, with age-appropriate exposure to college campuses and postsecondary opportunities. By high school, scholars receive individualized counseling, while families are supported through college exploration and applications, financial aid, enrollment, and matriculation. We collectively focus not just on where a scholar can get in, but where they will thrive and graduate.

Our support continues after enrollment. CIP’s Postsecondary Success Team stays connected through the first critical year of college, providing academic monitoring, financial-aid support, campus visits, transfer guidance, direct advocacy with colleges, and ongoing individual and cohort-based counseling.

This sustained work makes a difference. In just one year, Black and Latino male scholars’ persistence increased by more than 30% at our school. Additionally, compared with our high school Class of 2021, our Class of 2026 saw a 118% increase in Black and Latino males matriculating to four-year colleges.

When we stop treating college access as a single moment and build a system around the entire journey, incredible things can happen. Our experience suggests a roadmap other schools can adopt; start college and career conversations early; measure success beyond acceptance to include affordability, persistence and graduation; use data to identify where students need additional support; and, most importantly, pair that data with strong student relationships.

This is not about lowering expectations; it is about recognizing that talented students can encounter additional barriers and building the support they need to reach the same high bar. At CIP, 100% of graduates have earned college acceptances for 10 consecutive years, while 95% of graduates in our last three classes enrolled in college and 77% of four-year matriculants attended institutions with at least a 50% six-year graduation rate for underrepresented minority students. Our median family out-of-pocket college cost is $0.

Getting into college is only the beginning. The real goal is for young people to graduate, launch into stable and meaningful careers, and have the support they need along the way. We have to build a smoother path to support student success. That is our responsibility as adults, educators, and stewards of young people’s futures.

Eugene Wood is the Chief External Officer at Coney Island Prep (CIP), where he has spent nearly nine years advancing educational opportunity and driving scholar success. With over a decade of experience in education, he has strengthened postsecondary outcomes, helping alumni gain admission to more selective colleges while reducing the median out-of-pocket cost of college to $0 per scholar. Before becoming Chief External Officer, Eugene spent six years leading and growing CIP’s Postsecondary Success Team. He is an alumnus of Prince William County Public Schools and the University of Texas at Austin.