William Hayes is CEO of Boys' Latin, and that percentage he cited is many, many times higher than the national average.

And I think one of the things that students allude to, is they are able to have conversations with people who experience the same things, and I think we're very transparent and honest with kids about, "This happened in the world, and this is how it's impacting me as an older Black man.

Um, how is it impacting you?" And so just giving space for them to know that they're not alone.

So given that, how does William Hayes so successfully recruit so many men to his school?

Every way possible, leveraging both my personal network and the leaders' personal network or who you've encountered in the past, who you've worked with.

We also have a certification program that we partner with, um, Drexel University.

And so we pay for a Black male to come be a resident to get their certification at the school and to hopefully take a position.

We also don't obligate them to come work at Boys' Latin.

And the third thing that makes it different, it is a public school, but all boys.

I think the goal for the all boys was to really be more specific and targeted in terms of the full experience we were able to offer boys, and to push boys outside of their comfort zone socially, both to engage with one another, but to also try new experiences, where I think socially when you have mixed gender groups, boys tend to fall to the background in some areas, specifically like the arts or more social emotional intelligence in conversations there.

Hayes describes the thinking in typical schools as...

"We really just want boys to be managed in the class behaviorally.

And so as long as the boy is sitting quiet and following directions, we won't probe him or engage him because we don't want to disrupt this, like, calm, positive presence, right? We don't want to poke and push to the point of frustration because we are fearful that if he gets frustrated, we won't be able to control the behavior to get him back to there." And so what you find is teachers unconsciously won't ask the third question of the kid, right? And if a kid doesn't get it right the first time, they won't say, "Try it again a second time." And that's where the learning takes place, like the, the learning is kind of this, the zone of proximal frustration.

Like, you want to get them to the point of frustration, but I don't think we as a school or a system know what to do when kids are frustrated.

Michael Sanford is Jaden's principal.

For me, growing up, you know, my dad was incarcerated, so I- I really didn't build a relationship with my dad till I was 14.

Thinking about our boys here, sixth through eighth, you may not have that presence in your home, but, you know, you come to school every day and them having that access to Black men who care about them, who's not afraid to let them cry or hold them accountable, put their arms around him, hug him, those things are so important for a young Black boy in their formative years, and it shapes how they not only view themselves, how they treat other people, how they treat women, right? How...

Their relationship to the world, their experiences is all rooted in really their experience when they come to school.

It's where they spend the majority of their time.

It just changes the game.

So given that, how does William Hayes so successfully recruit so many men to his school?

Every way possible leveraging both my personal network and the leaders' personal network of who have you encountered in the past, who have you worked with.

And the third thing that makes it different, it is a public school, but all boys.

I think the goal for the all boys was to really be more specific and targeted in terms of the full experience that we're able to offer boys, and to push boys outside of their comfort zone socially, both to engage with one another, but to also try new experiences, where I think socially, when you have mixed gender groups, boys tend to fall to the background in some areas, specifically like the arts or more social/emotional intelligence in conversations there.

Hayes describes the thinking in typical schools as...

"We really just want boys to be managed in the class, behaviorally, and so as long as the boy is sitting quiet and following directions, we won't probe him or engage him, because we don't want to disrupt this, like, calm, positive presence," right? We don't want to poke and push to the point of frustration, because we are fearful that, if he gets frustrated, we won't be able to control the behavior to get him back to there.

And so what you find is teachers unconsciously won't ask the third question of the kid, right? And if a kid doesn't get it right the first time, they won't say, "Try it again a second time." And that's where the learning takes place.

Like, the, the learning is kind of this, this zone of proximal frustration.

Like, you want to get them to the point of frustration, but I don't think we, as a school or a system, know what to do when kids are frustrated.