How effective are educational standards for young black males? Education has been shown to be more challenging for African American males in all schools. Regarding David E. Kirkland's article, "Focus on Policy," the current standards movement in English language arts (ELA) distracts from the perspectives of young African American males. The ELA system fails to consider how Black males live and learn. Furthermore, this movement especially affects the commitment of English from which blacks are struggling. The problem with education is that its learning system has not proven to be successful in the hope of acquiring the knowledge that everyone deserves, especially in regards to Black males. In an effort to solve this problem, David E. Kirkland describes the possibilities that anyone can learn through the individual learning styles, approaches to literacy, and the stories of the six young African Americans they follow on their educational journey. learning style, Kirkland sets his sights on one person in particular named Derrick. During his observations, it was seen that the young man struggled to understand the task at hand. In response to the challenge, Derrick's teacher gave him a new assignment, which he might find interesting. As Derrick completes the assignment, Kirkland takes an interpretive approach to his actions and concludes that he is applying his own learning style to complete the assignment. After his observation, he overheard that the assignment Derrick did turned out to be fun for him. This shows that implementing certain learning styles can promote engagement and enjoyment towards a task. For black males, ...... center of paper ... like students. During many of his observations, he formulated new problems, theories, and solutions to the problems at hand. To engage students in reading and writing, problems must be solved by bringing out the motivation of others to convince them to learn. How effective will a person's learning be while working toward a specific goal that the person strives to achieve? Works Cited Kirkland, David E. “Listening to the Echoes: Teaching Literacy to Young Black Men and the Distraction of ELA Standards.” Language Arts 88.5 (2011): 373-80. Web.11 November 2013.Kirkland, DE (2011), Books as Clothes: Engaging Young Black Men in Reading. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (2011): 199–208. Network. November 11, 2013. Kirkland, David E. A Search into the Silent Past: The Literacy of Young Black Men. New York: Teachers College Press, 2013. Print.