Black Education

A Quest for Equity and Excellence

Willy DeMarcell Smith, Eva Wells Chunn

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138519602
• eBook ISBN: 9781351313827
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This highly focused collection of papers, commissioned by the National Urban League, offers a candid and courageous portrait of black education in transition. This is a period, as the editors note in their opening remarks, that is characterized by a huge shift from federal responsibility for minority education to authority and autonomy being lodged at the local government level. Further, many institutions that once worked well, no longer do so. Many ambitious social programs and policies that originally promised much, have been abandoned, have failed, or just faded away. Pivotal to these times and changes is the question of the extent to which the American educational system has been, or still is, capable of being responsive to incorporating and even instigating equity and excellence for black Americans. This volume asks the hard questions: is the educational system geared up for the maintenance of anything other than mainstream values? can it adapt to minority youth requirements? when, why, and how do educational policies of majorities and minorities clash? How are priorities to be established on the basis of wealth or need? The legal statutes and administrative enforcement of equal educational opportunities are explored in depth and with a deep compassion for all parties involved.

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Black Education: A Quest for Equity and Excellence

Willy DeMarcell Smith and Eva Wells Chunn

John Stuart Mills once wrote, "[wjhen society requires to be rebuilt, there is no use in attempting to rebuild it on ... old plan[s]." From time to time, changes (or the lack thereof) in society raise challenges that call for a change of the plans, policies, and programs by which the less fortunate in our society are assisted in maintaining their survival and ensuring their well-being—be it political, socioeconomic or educational. Indeed, the last decade, particularly for persons who are black or members of other minority groups and poor, has been a period of transition. During this time, we have witnessed a change from federal responsibility to authority and autonomy at the local government level. In addition, many institutions that once worked quite well no longer do so. Many progressive social programs and public policies, which originally promised much, have been forsaken, failed, or just faded away.

Pivotal to these times and changes is the question of the extent the American educational system—its policies, its plans, and its practices—has been and is capable of being responsive to, incorporating, and even instigating equity and excellence for black Americans. If, as it has been remarked, the American educational system is uniquely designed for maintenance, we are compelled to ask maintenance of what: the basic values and policies upon which it was/is structured or the dissemination of knowledge and the distribution of resources as it appears currently? When maintenance of one comes into conflict with maintenance of the other, what happens, especially to blacks, other minorities and the poor? What types of educational policies and strategies must be developed to mitigate against this conflict of maintenance? Under what circumstances does one type of educational policy and practice conflict with other types, thereby calling for a national and scholarly soul-searching of priorities? Answering these questions calls for a reassessment of what has and has not been accomplished; it calls for a realignment of agendas and new, imaginative, innovative analyses and strategies for structuring a more equitable and quality educational system.

The questions posed above, if unanswerable empirically, should at least be answerable heuristically. These authors contend that the prerequisite steps for promoting educational equity and excellence must include the following:

1. enacting and interpreting laws that represent an unconditional commitment to equality, equity, and excellence, specifying the means and directions by which state and local governments must achieve these goals, and establishing specific time frames in which they must be achieved;
2. energetic administrative enforcement and implementation coupled with a sympathetic and empathetic understanding of the ramifications of the beneficiaries' problems and needs;
3. a synchronized effort by socially responsible groups to encourage and facilitate potential beneficiaries to take advantage of progressive educational programs, as well as to participate in and make practical demands and suggestions to improve the educational system.

These conditions, in turn, must occur within a context of balanced analyses to impart the sense of urgency necessary for their execution.

Although these conditions for acquiring educational equity and excellence reflect an ideal state, they can be used as benchmarks by which to assess efforts toward such goals for they reveal what should be self-evident: that the acquisition of educational equity and excellence does not involve isolated efforts either inside or outside the system, regardless of the intentions or resources of those making such efforts. Rather, it involves a dynamic-holistic approach of reciprocal influences whose effects are determined by their mutual relationships and analyses. This, in turn, suggests that it is myopic to view the American educational system as limited to entrenched policies and established traditions. Such a view ignores the process by which new ideas, new methods, and even new channels can serve as means to influence and create equity and excellence within an educational system currently and widely believed to be ineffective.

Viewed in this context, this collection presents some analytic, yet timely, treatises that offer incisive and systematic discussions of those educational issues that have an acute and enduring effect on the lives of black Americans. These writings offer a wide variety of perspectives, including policy-political, research, and pragmatic viewpoints. By approaching critical educational issues from multiple perspectives, the end result should be the emergence of a global and timeless picture that could not otherwise be obtained. This thought-provoking blend of scholarly and practical writings, it is hoped, will promote a fuller acquaintance with the issues at hand, as well as avoid the atomization of knowledge.

Instead of avoiding controversial topics and issues, this volume includes selections written by authors who are passionately but professionally devoted to educational equity and excellence. The book aims to encourage an objective appraisal of ideas and proposals with an eye toward developing a critical appreciation among readers for educational issues that need immediate attention. The writings for this volume were selected on the basis of the assistance they offer in understanding and developing specific effective educational programs and curricula for black Americans, the poor, and other minorities.

Our Odyssey in unraveling the elements of educational equity and excellence begins with a set of commentaries by John Jacob, President of the National Urban League, and James Cheek, President of Howard University. Both authors offer a rich agenda of ideas and strategies wrought by the world today and changes taking place in society. In his commentary, "Taking the Initiative in Education: The National Urban League Agenda," Mr. Jacob discusses the pivotal role that the National Urban League has long played in black education. Jacob delineates the ongoing educational initiatives of the National Urban League and its 112 affiliates in advancing educational equity and excellence for black Americans. Cheek's commentary, "A Leadership Blueprint for Equity and Excellence in Black Higher Education," describes the crucial role played by college presidents, noting that black college presidents serve as one of the chief instruments of progress for black Americans. The author identifies three fundamental areas in the pursuit of academic equity and excellence: curriculum development, financial stability, and community involvement.

In the first article of this volume, "Equity in Education: A Low Priority in the School Reform Movement" Faustine Jones-Wilson provides an overarching perspective on the school reform movement and its attendant issues. Jones-Wilson argues that educational reform movements are cyclical and that the present call for excellence can be seen in previous cycles. Noting the absence of a concern for equity in the many recent reports and studies on education reform such as Equality and Excellence: The Educational Status of Black Americans, the author discusses the concepts of equity, equality, and excellence. Jones-Wilson proposes several alternative reform measures to enhance equity for blacks, the poor, and other minorities.

In "Educational Policy Trends in a Neoconservative Era," Marguerite Bar nett traces and describes the shifts in national educational priorities. Barnett argues that the current administration's efforts are clearly toward reduced federal guidance in the area of public education and greater federal support of private schooling. Such efforts, Barnett contends, are primarily ideological choices clothed in unsubstantiated claims of economic efficiency.

John Smith's article, "Legislating for Effective Schools and Academic Excellence," provides a short but powerful portrait of how the federal government can create progressive legislation (i.e., H. R. 5, The School Improvement Act of 1987) for promoting and supporting public schools that can teach students to excel. This bill has been passed in the House of Representatives but, at the time of this writing, has not yet been implemented. Smith soberly points out that although this legislative action was sorely needed, much more remains to be done by the federal government to strengthen the public school system.

Perhaps no single factor threatens to weaken the very foundation of black education more than the decreasing number of black teachers. Mary Dilworth, in the article "Black Teachers: A Vanishing Tradition," offers a capsule view of the historic, social, and political forces that have drained the supply of blacks and other minority teachers. Dilworth notes that poor salaries and working conditions combined with better career options have diminished the attractiveness of the profession. The author further posits that newly-imposed certification requirements and assessment criteria in teacher education have had an even greater impact on the participation of blacks and other minorities than all other deterrents combined. Dilworth concludes by offering several recommendations to mitigate against the vanishing presence of black teachers.

Diana Slaughter and Valerie Kuehne examine the major assumptions on which the practice of parental involvement in schools is based in "Improving Black Education: Perspectives on Parent Involvement." The authors begin by analyzing theories about the role of parental involvement as based on Project Head Start and end with the recently-emerging view of the importance of an ecological perspective on parental involvement. This latter perspective, the authors contend, is necessary to balance the dual aspects of involvement—parental enpowerment and parental education. Moreover, such an ecological perspective gives rise to policy, programs, and research goals that can be directly applied to the lives of black families and the education of their children.

Few issues have commanded more attention from policymakers, educational specialists, and practitioners, and laypersons than that of intelligence and aptitude testing. Sylvia Johnson's article, "Test Fairness and Bias: Measuring Academic Achievement Among Black Youth," reviews and examines this sensitive topic. The author writes that "tests" must be cast in proper perspective to remove the measurement mystique among the general public and professional test users. This can be done, the author notes, by improving the extent and quality of measurement training provided for teachers, counselors, and other professionals who use and interpert standardized tests. Johnson argues that tests must be viewed only as part of the picture when examining and appraising abilities and achievement, especially as it relates to black Americans. Mindful of this situation, the author concludes that educators must broaden the purpose of test-taking and use varied approaches to measuring important attributes, if such measurements are to continue to play such a pivotal role in determining the rewards and positions within society. Johnson closes by recommending that if measurements and testing of black academic achievement are to be continued, more black professionals must be included in the process to bring a broader and more sensitive perspective.

In a similar vein, the article, "Sorting Black Students for Success and Failure: The Inequity of Ability Grouping and Tracking," warns of the dangers involved in selective academic categorization based on ability grouping and tracking. Eva Chunn reviews the determinants and selected consequences of such practices and concludes that black and low-income students are disproportionately affected by stereotyping them as less intelligent and/or less able to learn and excel. Ability grouping and tracking, the author underscores, reinforces such stereotypes by way of teachers' expectations and ultimately results in self-fulfilling prophecies about black students' academic performance. Chunn offers some practical recommendations and cites specific strategies to counter the practice of ability grouping and tracking.

In the "The Eroding Status of Blacks in Higher Education: An Issue of Financial Aid," Mary Carter-Williams treats the problem of educational access and the choices faced by blacks and the Historically Black Colleges (HBCs) from the perspective of student financial aid. The author traces the evolution of student financial aid vis-a-vis higher education from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s. In doing so, Carter-Williams examines the gains and losses of black students at all levels of higher education. She examines how HBCs are currently losing ground because of financial instability wrought by federal cutbacks in education. As a result, HBCs are increasingly stymied in their efforts to provide academic equity and excellence to predominantly black student populations. The author also provides a detailed analysis, backed by voluminous data, on the way in which federal financial retrenchment on student aid has contributed to the decline in the number of blacks in higher education. The article concludes by suggesting various actions necessary to renew the federal student financial aid system.

One of the most divisive, yet searching issues that reaches the core of the quest for educational equity and excellence is school desegregation—its purpose, its strategy, and its usefulness. Indeed, much acrimony surrounds the debate about how best to desegregate public education at the elementary, secondary, and postsecondary levels. Over the last thirty-three years, competing legal and nonlegal arguments have been proffered to resolve this issue. This volume presents four articles that address various aspects of school desegregation. However, because of the extreme importance of this topic, we believe it is appropriate to provide some in-depth discussion in this preamble of the origin and evolution of school desegregation efforts.

In 1954, the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka et al, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), struck down the racially-segregated school system that had been previously mandated by state law in much of the South. The Court ruled that separate schools for white and nonwhite students are inherently unequal. In the year following the Brown decision, many of the legally-segregated school districts were forced to replace their dual school systems with a single school system for all students.

The Brown decision, however, did not address the segregation that existed within school districts, caused either by residential housing patterns or by gerrymandering school attendance zones. Stated differently, the 1954 decision was addressed to de jure, but not de facto segregation. Because of the migration of the white middle class (and increasingly the white working class as well) into the suburbs that grew around the cities, racial ghettos developed in many of the nation's urban schools, and de facto segregation became increasingly prevalent. In 1971, the Court decided Swann v. Charlotte-Macklenburg Board of Education, 402 U.S. 1 (1971), where it attempted to deal with the issue of de facto segregation for the first time. In that case, the Court held that the school district in and around Charlotte, North Carolina, had to integrate its schools, even if it required the busing of children. In the subsequent decision of Millikan v. Bradley, 418 U.S. 717 (1974), the Court overruled a lower court decision that had ordered a region-wide desegregation plan. The district court found that various actions of the Detroit Board of Education, the State Board of Education, and the Michigan legislature (such as barring the use of state funds for busing) had resulted in de jure segregation in the city of Detroit. This situation, the court said, could only be remedied through a plan encompassing fifty-three school districts (Detroit and its suburbs). In its reversal, the Supreme Court held that Detroit and its suburbs did not have to maintain a system of cross-busing between central city and suburban school districts to facilitate desegregation. In so ruling, it stated that

[b]efore the boundaries of separate and autonomous school districts may be set aside by consolidating the separate units for remedial purposes or by imposing a cross-district remedy, it must first be shown that there has been a constitutional violation within one district that produces a significant segregation effect in another district.

Thus, because Detroit's schools were not segregated as a result of the actions of Oakland and Macomb counties, "[those counties] were under no constitutional duty to make provisions for [Detroit's] Negro students."

These decisions revealed judicial recognition of two separate but not entirely disparate concepts. First, to desegregate schools within a school district, children could be assigned to schools outside their neighborhood. However, cross-district school assignment is not an acceptable method of eliminating de facto segregation unless the other districts were responsible in some way for the segregation of the predominantely non-white district.

The alleged purpose of sending children to schools outside their neighborhood (which often requires busing) is to provide racial integration, and by extension, to enhance social class integration. Moreover, it is intended to provide more equitable educational opportunities for inner-city, largely black students vis-a-vis the more affluent, often white suburban children. Indeed, blacks are more likely to attend inner-city schools, which are generally believed to be academically inferior and less well-funded than middle-class city or suburban schools that many white children attend. Consequently, busing within or between districts to achieve racial balance is seen as a possible solution to educational inequity.

There is certainly no shortage of arguments and data to support the conflicting views regarding the effectiveness or lack thereof of both voluntary desegregation (such as the use of magnet schools) and compulsory integration (usually accomplished through busing). The articles in this volume cover many of such arguments.

In the article, "The Intended and Unintended Benefits of School Desegregation," Charles Willie reveals a striking finding about the unanticipated consequences of desegregation. The author states that:

[t]he school desegregation movement has had a greater impact on the white population than on the black population ... it has enhanced the self-concepts of individuals in both racial populations by enabling blacks in predominantly white settings to overcome a false sense of inferiority and whites in predominantly black settings to overcome a false sense of superiority. These outcomes of school desegregation equip students in both racial populations with the kinds of attitudes ... needed for adult living.

Given the frequent inability of urban school systems to meet educational needs and the difficulties that such schools face in dealing with racial imbalance, some observers contend that the black community can better serve its black students by creating an independent and separate school system. Derrick Bell proposes such a controversial action in the article, "The Case for a Separate Black School System." Bell's reasoning stems from the increasing number of black inner-city parents frustrated with the poor quality of urban schools and who as a result want greater control over the schools their children attend. These parents and other concerned persons are demanding community control over their schools and their children's education. As Bell writes:

[CJritics [of a separate Black school system] fail to recognize that the New District's [Milwaukee district school system] emphasis will be control, not color. Black parents seeking to transfer from the new district will be able to do so. Whites seeking to enroll their children will be welcomed. And if the new district succeeds in implementing the programs that have been effective in improving the academic performance of inner-city black children in several schools around the country, experience indicates that whites will enroll their children in the new school system.

In many ways, Bell's advocacy of a separate black school system mirrors what white middle-class parents have demanded and sought for years. What the outcome of such demands for community control of an inner-city school will be cannot be determined. Such uncertainty is related not only to the politics of education, but to the character of urban succession patterns.

As with Bell's article, Alvin Thorton and Eva Chunn, in the article "Desegregating with Magnet and One-Race Elementary and Secondary Schools," address ways to improve the quality of black education—particularly that of blacks who reside in suburban communities. It can be argued, these authors imply, that suburban community control of schools is less problematic because it provides a neat fit into the funding unit—that is, the school district.

Desegregation at the higher-education level is examined by James and Jewel Prestage in the article, "The Consent Decree as a Tool for Desegregation in Higher Education." T...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• 1. Black Education: A Quest for Equity and Excellence
• 2. Taking the Initiative In Education: The National Urban League Agenda
• 3. A Leadership Blueprint for Equity and Excellence in Black Higher Education
• 4. Equity in Education: A Low Priority in the School Reform Movement
• 5. Educational Policy Trends in a Neoconservative Era
• 6. Legislating for Effective Schools and Academic Excellence
• 7. Black Teachers: A Vanishing Tradition
• 8. Improving Black Education: Perspectives on Parent Involvement
• 9. Test Fairness and Bias: Measuring Academic Achievement Among Black Youth
• 10. Sorting Black Students for Success and Failure: The Inequity of Ability Grouping and Tracking
• 11. The Eroding Status of Blacks in Higher Education: An Issue of Financial Aid
• 12. The Intended and Unintended Benefits of School Desegregation
• 13. The Case for a Separate Black School System
• 14. Desegregating with Magnet and One-Race Elementary and Secondary Schools
• 15. The Consent Decree as a Tool for Desegregation in Higher Education
• 16. Elements of Effective Black Schools
• 17. School Power: A Model for Improving Black Student Achievement
• 18. Reintegration for Education: Black Community Involvement with Black Students in Schools
• 19. Memphis Inner-City Schools Improvement Project: A Holistic Approach for Developing Academic Excellence
• 20. A Community Initiative: Making a Difference in the Quality of Black Education
• 21. Black School Pushouts and Dropouts: Strategies for Reduction
• 22. Black Teenage Pregnancy: A Challenge for Educators