<p>I suspect this is multicausal
we certainly have problems in our district- and part of the problem is that those who are working on it ( IMO) have been inside the system for too long- because when those who have been working on the same problems along side the school system- and having success with that, try and work with the school district-the affected communities “freak out”, because someone is trying to change things.</p>
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<p>There are pockets of real success however- and while I hestitate to say- that academic success or failure depends on the home environment- I do see parents who from my " lower middle class caucasian perspective" aren’t helping their kids by labeling all problems they have with the schools/district as because of their color. I have had better results working for the solution I want- rather than why it happened-I can complain ( and I do) about how the schools/district set my daughter back years in her education- but that isn’t going to change anything- and not get any real satisfaction. The satisfaction comes from seeing how far she has come- once we set the goal and worked backward to where we were.</p>
<p>My D school has a great graduation rate of African Americans- one of the best in the state- ( actually higher than the state average for all students)it helps a lot that there is a culture of high expectations and role modeling from the community and alumni.
It also helps that Seattle- doesn’t have the violence/poverty concerns that some other urban areas around the country do.</p>
<p>Still, I don’t understand why our district spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees to be able to assign students to schools outside their neighborhoods because of race, when they could have used income as an assignment criteria for free.</p>
<p>They could have used the money they saved by providing better summer programs- for students who perhaps need the extra time to get up to grade level. 180 days of school ( including 1/2 days) isn’t really enough to get a lot of students where they need to be- we need to stop thinking in old patterns and expecting different results.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.techaccess.org/aboutus/results.aspx[/url]”>http://www.techaccess.org/aboutus/results.aspx</a>
For example- the head of this program- has been trying to expand it into a high school that is heavily minority- is quite underenrolled despite a good location and building ( and teachers) and has very poor test scores ( although they have been improving a lot )
Because the school is underenrolled, that affects their budget & the perfoming arts center that was built a few years ago, is underutilized by the school, which hurts the program.( they are only at 40% capacity)</p>
<p>This tech academy program, that Trish Dziko wants to open up to more students is very successful, and gives students real skills and learning that can open doors for them ( my daughter worked at it- through CityYear)
It will really be a shame if TAF and the school community can’t find a way to at least try out a collaboration without taking 10 years to do so.</p>
<p>I still see instances in which African American kids are teased or criticized by their African American peers if they do well academically.</p>
<p>I presume that this attitude traces back to a time when African Americans thought, correctly, that academic achievement was mostly a waste of time because they would never get the kinds of jobs that they would have gotten if they had achieved at the same levels and were white.</p>
<p>The basis for the attitude is no longer valid, but the attitude is still there in some communities, and I suspect it contributes to lower academic achievement among African American kids. </p>
<p>How can this be changed?</p>
<p>There’s an African American boy in my neighborhood who did very well academically in elementary school (where most of his classmates were white or Asian). But when this boy got to the more racially diverse middle school, he made African American friends, and his grades dropped. His parents figured out that peer pressure from his new friends was responsible. They solved the problem by sending him to a private school where practically all of his classmates would be white or Asian, just as they were back in elementary school. In the new school, where his classmates weren’t pressuring him to not achieve, his grades went back up.</p>
<p>Most people can’t afford to do this sort of thing, though. What can parents with fewer resources do?</p>
<p>thats why I am frustrated that the district hasn’t seriously looked at increasing economic diversity, not just racial diversity.
Some schools don’t even have PTAs & other schools have such strong parent support that they are able to pay for extra teachers & prgrams and only have an auction every other year</p>
<p>Peer pressure matters a great deal and I admit that while I have seen peer pressure used in a positive fashion among my daughters friends- AA males still have a very hard road-and some families have taken their boys out of public schools and either went private or moved to the suburbs ( which actually is more diverse- ironically) where minorities are often immigrants- who don’t have the history( baggage) in the US that other AAs do, and are able to be more successful.</p>
<p>Unfortunately- I fear it may get worse in some schools before it gets better- while I see a thread about not rewarding for academic acheivement- for some kids- the bottom line is- that is what keeps them in school- because they are not yet at the place where they don’t need external motivation.
For example one of the stronger schools for minorities, has had budget cuts, and wont as of right now- have any spring sport teams.( because of district decisions about what ASB can do to raise money)</p>
<p>This is hard for me to fathom- I know that for many kids- ability to participate on a team- keeps them in school. Attendance and grade requirement for those teams- keeps them in school.</p>
<p>At my D school- on the football team for example- the coach requires all students take the SAT- all students plan for college.</p>
<p>If you take away the ability to be on a team- and the student isn’t getting enough motivation from classes to do well- it doesn’t take a crystal ball to see that drop outs are going to increase</p>
<p>You all might be interested in reading about “The Shaker Heights Study.” It is a review by a professor of the phenomena (spelling?) of the children of Black professionals (and other Black famillies of middle-class or near-affluent status) having poor academic achievement because fear of peer pressure from African-American classmates.</p>
<p>The writer and social critic John McWhorter has also addressed this matter in his works. I have no internet links but a search should reveal appropriate results.</p>
<p>Well, of course it isn’t the only factor. But it is probably one of the many factors that contribute to the academic disparity, and it’s less obvious than income level.</p>
<p>Yeah, the first couple of TV interviews I viewed of him I wasn’t terribly impressed with his arguments on why Black economic and educational underachievement persist. And I do believe that he tends to water down his ideas when appearing on TV with idealogical opponents (Marian Wright Edelman made him look feeble on ‘Meet the Press’).</p>
<p>But in person he’s on point (met him at a discussion and book signing), deliberative and open to criticism of his views. This doesn’t necessarily make all his arguments persuasive. I did find the arguments in his latest book to be a bit too critical of civil rights leaders.</p>
<p>My white son was teased by his white peers (usually male) for being brainy. It’s better in HS, but elementary was BAD. I think this is more a guy thing than a racial thing. May be worse for AAs and Hispanics, but it’s plenty bad for whites too, in my experience.</p>
<p>I’m new at this and can’t figure out how to create a post to ask a question. All I seem to be able to do is reply to another post (yours). Can you help?</p>