In the early 1990s, the Kern High School District (KHSD) began analyzing student performance data in a way that was unprecedented in that area. What it found did not surprise many who worked in the local schools: African-American males scored lowest in every measurable way, from drop-out and expulsion rates to grade point average. In 1992, the KHSD Educational Foundation founded Project BEST (Black Excellence in Scholarship and Teaching) to help African-American males graduate, and the program has since blossomed into a partnership between the KHSD, California State University, Bakersfield, the local business community, parents and students. Project BEST provides tools and support to help African-American males meet and exceed expectations of UC requirements, graduate from high school, and attend college.

Of the 900 African-American males currently enrolled in KHSD, 591 participate in Project BEST. Operating on ten of the district's campuses, Project BEST provides help with filling out financial aid forms, personal, social and academic development, tutoring, community service experience, career-oriented field trips, and attendance of regional Black Student Union conferences, where students meet others like them and are inspired to achieve individually and collectively.

Each school's Project BEST chapter operates according to the needs of that school's students, a structure that reflects the social and economic ranges of the greater Bakersfield area. The individual chapters receive guidance from teachers or administrative personnel who volunteer their time and who are aided by community-based counselors. Since the program's inception, the total African-American drop-out percentage has fallen from 9.5% to 3%. Other programs for African-American women and Latinos are modeling their work on Project BEST's example.

"Project BEST is about coming out of a culture of separation, segregation and gangs, and into a culture of unity that is based less on race than the pursuit of education," says Chris Dutton, District Administrator of Project BEST, which is a new grantee of College Access Foundation of California. "We are grateful for the longstanding support and hands-on involvement of our many partners in the community, and we are thrilled to have College Access Foundation join us in supporting these students. With its grant, we can award significantly larger, and potentially renewable, scholarships."

Dwayne Wilson III, a graduating senior and first-generation college-going student, says, "I grew up in a neighborhood on the west side where most of my friends were not interested in college or school. When I found Project BEST, I decided I had a future and wanted to be something. It gave me the guidelines and said, 'If you follow these, you will make it.' Now I'm going to CSU Fresno to major in Psychology and Business.

"Project BEST is a great opportunity for African-American men to see something more in life than what they find on the streets."

For more information on Project BEST, click here.

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