The Nonnegotiable: Educating African-American Male Students K-12 will highlight several salient points that were stimulated from NCLB, better known as the No Child Left Behind Act. The book presents several alarming problems. One problem is the dropout rate. Research indicates 53 percent of African-American males nationwide drop out of school. Research indicates African-American high school students are notably falling behind their Caucasian counterparts in graduation rates, dropout rates, literacy rates, and college preparedness rates. According to the Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males, African-American and Hispanic twelfth-grade students read at approximately the same level as Caucasian eighth-grade students. The National Assessment of Educational Progress reports that 88 percent of African-American eighth graders read below grade level, compared to 62 percent of Caucasian eighth graders. The goal of the book is to afford each reader the opportunity to cultivate their educational outlook on African-American males and provide their schools with effective, culturally responsive reform. The overarching goal for this book is to bring enlightenment to a dark cloud that hovers over the success or lack of success of the African-American male student.