A Discussion of White Hegemony within Black Cultural Curriculum at a Predominantly White Institution and a Proposal for an Application of Goal Attainment Scaling to Measure Black Student Success

Though the development of Black Studies Programs in elite post-secondary educational institutions was a part of the revolutionary Black Power movement. I would argue that these programs are subject to the negative impacts of white hegemony because of their proximity to predominantly white institutions. I will be discussing instances of white hegemony within the development of Black cultural curriculum and cultural programming at Oberlin College as an example of a predominantly white institution with a demonstrated commitment to Black education. I will also outline a solution to the emerging demand for forms of educational evaluation in post-secondary education. Goal attainment scaling is a measure developed by Tomas Kiresuk, Aaron Smith, and Joseph Cardillo in order to scale and record the experiences of patients with clinical goals. It refers to a process that includes personal consultations between the goal-setter and a mentor to assist in goal counseling. I provide an example of goal attainment scaling being applied to minority student development in education. In this specific example, students are able to measure the difficulty of their goals as well as observe the benefits of working with a goal counselor over time. I will also propose an argument for the necessity of applying goal attainment scaling to the assessment of Black student success at postsecondary educational institutions