Parents prioritize tools such as tips to ensure teachers are meeting their child’s needs and information on internships and mentorship opportunities to help make sure their child is receiving a high-quality education.

Parents are interested in ensuring their children have extracurricular activities in place that will allow their child to have a well-rounded academic experience. Internships, even at the high school level, can yield positive outcomes for students. One parent mentioned, “One thing I would look for is schools that have opportunities for children, like they can stretch their mind outside of the normal educational setting as far as extracurricular activities.”

Figure 6 shows that Black parents also wanted mentors to support their child’s learning. One parent in the focus group mentioned they wanted to see mentors from HBCUs, in particular, “…more mentors, young black men, helping the students in schools, just trying to get with them and show them the way. I would like to see more of that.” Another parent stressed the importance of her son’s mentorship program, stating, “as a parent I absolutely got my son signed up with the 100 Black Men mentorship, and, of course, that helped guide him.”