Empowered Youth Programs: Partnerships for Enhancing Postsecondary Outcomes of African American Adolescents (Report‪)‬

With the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the educational community has the opportunity to ensure that underserved populations, such as students of color and poor students, receive the necessary educational support to achieve academic success. Relevant data from the Education Trust (1999, 2003, 2006) suggest a growing achievement gap between the academic performance of students of color and that of their White counterparts. This gap has led many educational communities to implement various strategies to close the achievement gap for these underserved populations. Family involvement has long been heralded as a key component for academic success and has moved to the forefront as educational communities explore ways to involve families in the educational experiences of their children (Gonzalez, 2002; Gonzalez-DeHass, Willems, & Holbein, 2005; Henderson, Mapp, Johnson, & Davies, 2007). This article reviews how academic enrichment programs, as part of the educational community, promote and support parental engagement to encourage academic success for all students. **********