Improving black students' learning doesn't "start at home."
By Andre M. Perry
Mayors, teachers unions, and news commentators have boiled down the academic achievement gap between white and black students to one root cause: parents. Even black leaders and barbershop chatter target “lazy parents” for academic failure in their communities, dismissing the complex web of obstacles that assault urban students daily. In 2011, then-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg exemplified this thinking by saying, “Unfortunately, there are some parents who…never had a formal education and they don’t understand the value of an education.” Earlier this year, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Tony Norman diagnosed that city’s public schools’ chief problem: the lack of “active, radical involvement of every parent.” And even President Obama rued last week that in some black communities, gaining education is viewed as “acting white.”
Clearly, there is widespread belief that black parents don’t value education. The default opinion has become “it’s the parents” — not the governance, the curriculum, the instruction, the policy, nor the lack of resources — that create problems in urban schools. That’s wrong. Everyday actions continuously contradict the idea that low-income black families don’t care about their children’s schooling, with parents battling against limited resources to access better educations than their circumstances would otherwise afford their children.
In New Orleans this month, hundreds of families waited in the heat for hours in hopes of getting their children into their favorite schools. New Orleans’ unique decentralized education system is comprised largely of charter schools and assigns students through a computerized matching system. Parents unhappy with their child’s assignment must request a different school in person at an enrollment center, with requests granted on a first-come, first-served basis. This year, changes were made to the timing and location for parents to request changes. A long line began forming at the center at 6 a.m. By 9:45 a.m., it stretched around the block. By 12:45 p.m., officials stopped giving out numbers because they didn’t have enough staff to meet with every parent.
Research backs up the anecdotal evidence. Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research recently found that African Americans are most likely to value a post-secondary education in becoming successful, at 90 percent, followed by Asians and Latinos. Whites, at 64 percent, were least likely to believe higher education is necessary for success.
When judging black families’ commitment to education, many are confusing will with way. These parents have the will to provide quality schooling for their children, but often, they lack the way: the social capital, the money and the access to elite institutions. There is a difference between valuing an education and having the resources to tap that value.
A study released this month found 26 percent of ACT-tested students were college-ready in all four subject areas. Among low-income students, college-readiness dropped to just 11 percent. The study determined that it was poverty, not motivation or attitudes, that contributed to the lower performance. “Nearly all ACT-tested students from low-income families in the United States aspire to go to college — at an even higher rate than students overall — but many lack the academic preparation to reach this goal,” the ACT noted.
Privileged parents hold onto the false notion that their children’s progress comes from thrift, dedication and hard work — not from the money their parents made. Our assumption that “poverty doesn’t matter” and insistence on blaming black families’ perceived disinterest in education for their children’s underachievement simply reflects our negative attitudes towards poor, brown people and deflects our responsibility to address the real root problems of the achievement gap. Our negative attitudes about poor people keep us from providing the best services and schools to low-income families.
This thinking hurts not only children, but entire communities. Low expectations extend beyond the classroom into homes and neighborhoods. The greatest tragedy of the New Orleans school enrollment fiasco isn’t just that parents had to wait in long lines. It’s that the school district assumed parents wouldn’t show up. Officials assumed grandma wouldn’t be there before dawn. They assumed Ma wouldn’t take off work with child in tow. This is a sign of deficit thinking — the practice of making decisions based on negative assumptions about particular socioeconomic, racial and ethnic groups. The enrollment center was understaffed because officials assumed applying for school wouldn’t demand a larger venue, like the Mercedes Benz Superdome. An aside: The Superdome hosts the Urban League of Greater New Orleans’ annual Schools Expo.
When it comes to providing a better education for black children from low-income families, I worry less about poor folks’ abilities to wait in long lines and more about the school policies, the city halls, the newspaper columns and the barbershops that are plagued with deficit thinking.
The anecdote about New Orleans made me think of the scenes in Waiting for Superman--hundreds of families packed into that auditorium and so few children getting their numbers called.
I can't think of that movie without being pissed at Michelle Rhee.
The thing is that this is so easy - just blame black folks for not wanting better.
And I'm trying to wrap my brain around folks who just agree that this is the case. Because, I can tell you that from the moment I could talk and was headed off to preK, no one in my family downed education. No one. Now, I might have been the first to walk across the stage with a degree in hand, but not a single person - not even my most ratchet family members didn't say how proud they were of me.
My great-grandmother who didn't finish middle school would read the paper religiously every morning. She may not have been able to pronounce every word, but that didn't stop her from reading the paper. My great-aunt (RIP) told me as she was leaving town "Listen to me. Don't worry about boys. Go to school and stay in those books. Boys will come later."
And I can't tell you the number of times parents stroll up in my place of employment because they are concerned about their kids. Because I can't be at every PTA meeting, Muffins with Moms, Donuts with Dads doesn't mean I don't value my child's education.
We've got to stop this foolishness. We keep demonizing people for circumstances you can't always control. Like my city has fucked up public transit. It's deplorable that a major metro area doesn't have reliable transit. You want a job in Memphis? You better have a way to get there because if you rely on MATA (Memphis Area Transit Authority) you ain't getting to your job on time and you'll be fired. That's real life.
Post by ChillyMcFreeze on Aug 1, 2014 12:10:47 GMT -5
This is so true. Why aren't the black moms and dads at the PTA meeting and the open house (at 3 pm, mind you) and the assemblies and all that other stuff? Because they're more likely to be working, sometimes more than one job, and that's just reality. Just because Muffy spends her days helicoptering her child's school day doesn't mean she cares more. In fact, DH says its usually the black parents that back him up when it comes to discipline and homework because they care so much. Because the stakes are higher for their kids to finish school and get a job/go to college.
I see red when I read/hear the statement "some people don't value education." Who are these people? I'm going into my 5th year in education and I have only come across one family who would come close to fitting that statement. And even then, it wasn't that Mom didn't value education, it was that she didn't have the means for reliable childcare. She would occasionally have to keep the older kids home to watch the younger kids when she worked until she lined up a new babysitter. Of course that's not a great idea and is detrimental to her older kids' education, but she wasn't doing it because she thought they didn't need school, she just felt putting food on the table was more important. I can't judge her for that.
What I see with a lot of my poor Black parents is a basic case of You Don't Know What You Don't Know. They want their kids to be successful but they don't know how to make that happen. They would love to be a part of PTA and volunteering but they have no time because they're at work during school hours.
Post by iammalcolmx on Aug 1, 2014 13:06:57 GMT -5
Someone send this to Goldie, isn't she the one who said she had kids in the class who aspired to be on assistance, which ultimately lead to her being ethered?
Someone send this to Goldie, isn't she the one who said she had kids in the class who aspired to be on assistance, which ultimately lead to her being ethered?
I can't keep track of all her racist statements. They all kind of blend together.
Post by penguingrrl on Aug 1, 2014 13:18:14 GMT -5
Obviously I realize this is anecdotal, but my HS was probably 40% black and the black kids I knew had much more pressure from home regarding their grades than any of my white friends (and we all had high expectations). Their parents weren't always available to run the parents clubs or to micromanage after school activities (nor was my mother as she worked f/t and then some), but there was no question that the priority in the household was school. Our HS superintendent (weird NJ thing, but the HS building was its own entire district, so he was physically present a lot and knew half the students by name) was black, was 75 years old (back in the mid-90s) and had been raised in a home without running water or electricity and he went on to get his EdD and become a school superintendent. He made it clear any time anyone tried to whine or use excuses about why their work wasn't done or wasn't done well that if he could do what he did, any student fortunate enough to be in that building could do amazing things.
I hope nobody minds a white girl chiming in with anecdotes on this. I just read the article and thought about the fact that I've never experienced that mindset and that I've seen the opposite firsthand.
Post by EllieArroway on Aug 1, 2014 13:28:18 GMT -5
I definitely had people talk down to me about education, warn me not to get to much, and tell me that they saw no reason for me to go to college because "anything you really need to know can't be taught with book learnin'." BUT every one of those people were white. I have no idea how this became a racial stereotype. In my personal experience it has been older white people from rural areas who believe that you only need enough education to know how to read the bible and work the farm, and anything beyond that will probably just "corrupt" you and is definitely a waste of time and money.
I definitely had people talk down to me about education, warn me not to get to much, and tell me that they saw no reason for me to go to college because "anything you really need to know can't be taught with book learnin'." BUT every one of those people were white. I have no idea how this became a racial stereotype. In my personal experience it has been older white people from rural areas who believe that you only need enough education to know how to read the bible and work the farm, and anything beyond that will probably just "corrupt" you and is definitely a waste of time and money.
Tossing in another anecdote here- every time except one that I've had college students talk to me about how their families weren't supportive of them getting higher education (because, "High school was good enough for me! What? Are you too good for your people?") they've been white kids from rural areas. This has actually come up quite a bit due to a video I show on social class and education where a girl's father cautions her not to "get above your raisin'"
And, of course it's poverty. OF COURSE IT IS! It's just that poverty is hard to fix (i.e., can't be done in one electoral cycle), requires major investments and changes to eliminate, and getting rid of poverty would eliminate nearly all of politicians' favorite scapegoats.
Post by downtoearth on Aug 1, 2014 15:39:34 GMT -5
This is an interesting article. This april I read an article about a study that found that parental involvement didn't make kids succeed better and even went to say that black parental involvement with early readers didn't make a difference in their ability to learn like it did with white and Hispanic kids.
"We analyzed longitudinal surveys of American families that spanned three decades (from the 1980s to the 2000s) and obtained demographic information on race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, the academic outcomes of children in elementary, middle and high school, as well as information about the level of parental engagement in 63 different forms.
What did we find? One group of parents, including blacks and Hispanics, as well as some Asians (like Cambodians, Vietnamese and Pacific Islanders), appeared quite similar to a second group, made up of white parents and other Asians (like Chinese, Koreans and Indians) in the frequency of their involvement. A common reason given for why the children of the first group performed worse academically on average was that their parents did not value education to the same extent. But our research shows that these parents tried to help their children in school just as much as the parents in the second group.
Even the notion that kids do better in school when their parents are involved does not stack up. After comparing the average achievement of children whose parents regularly engage in each form of parental involvement to that of their counterparts whose parents do not, we found that most forms of parental involvement yielded no benefit to children’s test scores or grades, regardless of racial or ethnic background or socioeconomic standing."
And it got more complicated as they broke up involvement activities by race.
When involvement did benefit kids academically, it depended on which behavior parents were engaging in, which academic outcome was examined, the grade level of the child, the racial and ethnic background of the family and its socioeconomic standing. For example, regularly discussing school experiences with your child seems to positively affect the reading and math test scores of Hispanic children, to negatively affect test scores in reading for black children, and to negatively affect test scores in both reading and math for white children (but only during elementary school). Regularly reading to elementary school children appears to benefit reading achievement for white and Hispanic children but it is associated with lower reading achievement for black children. Policy makers should not advocate a one-size-fits-all model of parental involvement."
But the general takehome message was this...
"Our findings also suggest that the idea that parental involvement will address one of the most salient and intractable issues in education, racial and ethnic achievement gaps, is not supported by the evidence. This is because our analyses show that most parental behavior has no benefit on academic performance. While there are some forms of parental involvement that do appear to have a positive impact on children academically, we find at least as many instances in which more frequent involvement is related to lower academic performance.
As it turns out, the list of what generally works is short: expecting your child to go to college, discussing activities children engage in at school (despite the complications we mentioned above), and requesting a particular teacher for your child."
I see red when I read/hear the statement "some people don't value education." Who are these people? I'm going into my 5th year in education and I have only come across one family who would come close to fitting that statement. And even then, it wasn't that Mom didn't value education, it was that she didn't have the means for reliable childcare. She would occasionally have to keep the older kids home to watch the younger kids when she worked until she lined up a new babysitter. Of course that's not a great idea and is detrimental to her older kids' education, but she wasn't doing it because she thought they didn't need school, she just felt putting food on the table was more important. I can't judge her for that.
What I see with a lot of my poor Black parents is a basic case of You Don't Know What You Don't Know. They want their kids to be successful but they don't know how to make that happen. They would love to be a part of PTA and volunteering but they have no time because they're at work during school hours.
This was how my MIL did my H. He's much older than his younger siblings (like between 5-15 years older), so his mom never allowed him to do after school activities because he needed to watch his younger siblings. He hated it because if something happened, he was always required to be there with them. So, we can just imagine how that played out over the course of his schooling.
Obviously I realize this is anecdotal, but my HS was probably 40% black and the black kids I knew had much more pressure from home regarding their grades than any of my white friends (and we all had high expectations). Their parents weren't always available to run the parents clubs or to micromanage after school activities (nor was my mother as she worked f/t and then some), but there was no question that the priority in the household was school. Our HS superintendent (weird NJ thing, but the HS building was its own entire district, so he was physically present a lot and knew half the students by name) was black, was 75 years old (back in the mid-90s) and had been raised in a home without running water or electricity and he went on to get his EdD and become a school superintendent. He made it clear any time anyone tried to whine or use excuses about why their work wasn't done or wasn't done well that if he could do what he did, any student fortunate enough to be in that building could do amazing things.
I hope nobody minds a white girl chiming in with anecdotes on this. I just read the article and thought about the fact that I've never experienced that mindset and that I've seen the opposite firsthand.
Chile, lemme tell you this. I had BETTER NOT come in my mother's house with Ds and Fs on my report card. Baby - that Daddy Pope scene where he says he IS the Hell and High Water - that was my mom. Cut class. Shhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttttttttttttttt
Who gonna do that and live to tell about it? No ma'am. Ya bet not cross NitaX's mom. No ma'am. My momma is crazy. My sister cut class one day - let me just say, it didn't end well for her. Not.at.all.
I remember struggling through an advanced algebra class. My sister, who is pretty dayum smart but academically lazy, was all "Wait. Why is Nita not in trouble for her grades." My mom responded "Because Nita actually has gone to tutoring and is in here studying trying to figure it out. She can't be in trouble when I see that she's ACTIVELY trying."
I definitely had people talk down to me about education, warn me not to get to much, and tell me that they saw no reason for me to go to college because "anything you really need to know can't be taught with book learnin'." BUT every one of those people were white. I have no idea how this became a racial stereotype. In my personal experience it has been older white people from rural areas who believe that you only need enough education to know how to read the bible and work the farm, and anything beyond that will probably just "corrupt" you and is definitely a waste of time and money.
I'd venture a guys that there's a good dose of misogyny in here, too. Why get that education if you're just going to get married and have kids? (And of course sah). That's what my step mom's dad told her in the mid 70s.
Obviously I realize this is anecdotal, but my HS was probably 40% black and the black kids I knew had much more pressure from home regarding their grades than any of my white friends (and we all had high expectations). Their parents weren't always available to run the parents clubs or to micromanage after school activities (nor was my mother as she worked f/t and then some), but there was no question that the priority in the household was school. Our HS superintendent (weird NJ thing, but the HS building was its own entire district, so he was physically present a lot and knew half the students by name) was black, was 75 years old (back in the mid-90s) and had been raised in a home without running water or electricity and he went on to get his EdD and become a school superintendent. He made it clear any time anyone tried to whine or use excuses about why their work wasn't done or wasn't done well that if he could do what he did, any student fortunate enough to be in that building could do amazing things.
I hope nobody minds a white girl chiming in with anecdotes on this. I just read the article and thought about the fact that I've never experienced that mindset and that I've seen the opposite firsthand.
Chile, lemme tell you this. I had BETTER NIT come in my mother's house with Ds and Fs on my report card. Baby - that Daddy Pope scene where he says he IS the Hell and High Water - that was my mom. Cut class. Shhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttttttttttttttt
Who gonna do that and live to tell about it? No ma'am. Ya bet not cross NitaX's mom. No ma'am. My momma is crazy. My sister cut class one day - let me just say, it didn't end well for her. Not.at.all.
I remember struggling through and advanced algebra class. My sister, who is pretty dayum smart but academically lazy, was all "Wait. Why is Nita not in trouble for her grades." My mom responded "Because Nita actually has gone to tutoring and is in here studying trying to figure it out. She can't be in trouble when I see that she's ACTIVELY trying."
My mom and I had the same discussion when I was in algebra! Daily tutoring with the teacher and a hired tutor for two weeks before my midterm and I still got a 33. I was terrified to come home! And she wasn't mad because she knew the 33 represented the best I could do.
But based on what I've seen of you on here I am wholly unsurprised you had a strict mom! I hope my kids are that afraid of me as teens!!!!
I definitely had people talk down to me about education, warn me not to get to much, and tell me that they saw no reason for me to go to college because "anything you really need to know can't be taught with book learnin'." BUT every one of those people were white. I have no idea how this became a racial stereotype. In my personal experience it has been older white people from rural areas who believe that you only need enough education to know how to read the bible and work the farm, and anything beyond that will probably just "corrupt" you and is definitely a waste of time and money.
I'd venture a guys that there's a good dose of misogyny in here, too. Why get that education if you're just going to get married and have kids? (And of course sah). That's what my step mom's dad told her in the mid 70s.
This was part of it within my own family. The other part is that people with an education end up moving away to find employment. We moved an hour away and my family acted like we were moving halfway across the country.
Chile, lemme tell you this. I had BETTER NIT come in my mother's house with Ds and Fs on my report card. Baby - that Daddy Pope scene where he says he IS the Hell and High Water - that was my mom. Cut class. Shhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttttttttttttttt
Who gonna do that and live to tell about it? No ma'am. Ya bet not cross NitaX's mom. No ma'am. My momma is crazy. My sister cut class one day - let me just say, it didn't end well for her. Not.at.all.
I remember struggling through and advanced algebra class. My sister, who is pretty dayum smart but academically lazy, was all "Wait. Why is Nita not in trouble for her grades." My mom responded "Because Nita actually has gone to tutoring and is in here studying trying to figure it out. She can't be in trouble when I see that she's ACTIVELY trying."
My mom and I had the same discussion when I was in algebra! Daily tutoring with the teacher and a hired tutor for two weeks before my midterm and I still got a 33. I was terrified to come home! And she wasn't mad because she knew the 33 represented the best I could do.
But based on what I've seen of you on here I am wholly unsurprised you had a strict mom! I hope my kids are that afraid of me as teens!!!!
I'm working on my kids. I basically threaten them when we see foolishness. I look over and say "I wish you would. Know this. Your momma is crazy. Try me if you want to."
Post by lasagnasshole on Aug 1, 2014 16:46:02 GMT -5
NitaX, this is unrelated to race, but I thought you'd appreciate it.
My stepbrother cut school one day our junior year.
My mom - who shared my stepbrother's last name, mind you - had taught at our school for 20 years. She had taught one of my teachers! She knew EVERYBODY.
I mean, REALLY? You thought you were gonna get away with that?
I'll give you one guess as to how that played out.
Chile, lemme tell you this. I had BETTER NOT come in my mother's house with Ds and Fs on my report card. Baby - that Daddy Pope scene where he says he IS the Hell and High Water - that was my mom. Cut class. Shhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttttttttttttttt
Who gonna do that and live to tell about it? No ma'am. Ya bet not cross NitaX's mom. No ma'am. My momma is crazy. My sister cut class one day - let me just say, it didn't end well for her. Not.at.all.
I remember struggling through an advanced algebra class. My sister, who is pretty dayum smart but academically lazy, was all "Wait. Why is Nita not in trouble for her grades." My mom responded "Because Nita actually has gone to tutoring and is in here studying trying to figure it out. She can't be in trouble when I see that she's ACTIVELY trying."
I could read your posts all day. This is the exact experience I have with my black students and their parents. I have a bunch of anecdotal stories, some hilarious, that back up most of this article.
I definitely had people talk down to me about education, warn me not to get to much, and tell me that they saw no reason for me to go to college because "anything you really need to know can't be taught with book learnin'." BUT every one of those people were white. I have no idea how this became a racial stereotype. In my personal experience it has been older white people from rural areas who believe that you only need enough education to know how to read the bible and work the farm, and anything beyond that will probably just "corrupt" you and is definitely a waste of time and money.
I'd venture a guys that there's a good dose of misogyny in here, too. Why get that education if you're just going to get married and have kids? (And of course sah). That's what my step mom's dad told her in the mid 70s.
That's definitely part of it, but I think what statlerwaldorf described is a bigger issue. There is this fear that people who go to college will become "indoctrinated," decide that they are too good for their roots, and never come home. The reality is that no one comes home because there are no jobs there, but the blame is always placed on the "liberal education" that stole their children. There is a lot of derision for people who act "better than their raisin'" which basically just means kids who feel/act/seem like they are smarter/better than their parents.
I'm not saying it's that way in all of rural America, but that was definitely my experience. I still catch a lot of shit when I go home for visits because I had the audacity to move away.
I want to know which teacher's union blames race for their student outcomes.
My union doesn't, but they brought someone in for a gifted education training who pretty much said that once you hit a certain percentage of latino and black students, your school was doomed to fail.
I want to know which teacher's union blames race for their student outcomes.
My union doesn't, but they brought someone in for a gifted education training who pretty much said that once you hit a certain percentage of latino and black students, your school was doomed to fail.
that's fucking disgusting and genuinely shocks me. As a teacher my experience is the exact opposite. I feel like w/in education it is never acceptable to attribute student achievement gaps to anything other than educators themselves.
My union doesn't, but they brought someone in for a gifted education training who pretty much said that once you hit a certain percentage of latino and black students, your school was doomed to fail.
that's fucking disgusting and genuinely shocks me. As a teacher my experience is the exact opposite. I feel like w/in education it is never acceptable to attribute student achievement gaps to anything other than educators themselves.
Yeah, I complained to my district office since they chose him. It was the first time I'd encountered anything like that within a public school system
Chile, lemme tell you this. I had BETTER NOT come in my mother's house with Ds and Fs on my report card. Baby - that Daddy Pope scene where he says he IS the Hell and High Water - that was my mom. Cut class. Shhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttttttttttttttt
Who gonna do that and live to tell about it? No ma'am. Ya bet not cross NitaX's mom. No ma'am. My momma is crazy. My sister cut class one day - let me just say, it didn't end well for her. Not.at.all.
I remember struggling through an advanced algebra class. My sister, who is pretty dayum smart but academically lazy, was all "Wait. Why is Nita not in trouble for her grades." My mom responded "Because Nita actually has gone to tutoring and is in here studying trying to figure it out. She can't be in trouble when I see that she's ACTIVELY trying."
I could read your posts all day. This is the exact experience I have with my black students and their parents. I have a bunch of anecdotal stories, some hilarious, that back up most of this article.
My mom didn't even want me to cut class on Senior Skip Day. Want to know how I even managed to Skip? There was a sanctioned letter sent home. Then, she told me I was allowed to have lunch with my high school friends AT THE RESTAURANT ACROSS FROM HER JOB. My school was around the corner from her office. After lunch, I went to my mom's office. That's the truth.
After my sister cut class, I think a few weeks later someone asked me about cutting class. My answer: "Nope. You don't live with *insert my mom's name*." I'm a visual learner. I don't need to go through what my sister went through. I'm good.
My mom was on first name basis with every secretary at my schools. Why? Because if we cut up, they'd call and give her the heads up.
Working in education - I still see the same things. There is a woman who runs one of the local HS PTOs. Honey, she is at every dayum thing. She's very vocal and on a first name basis with everyone. I don't think she knows my name yet, but she knows my role. I'm sure knowing my name and direct line will be happening soon.