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Also interesting to note that African immigrants achieve at higher levels than African American students.
Marie...you are absolutely right. Good post!!! That immigrant normally has hell to go back to, so they are more driven. Not to mention, they haven't faced the systemic bigotry that sickened our society for years. But not all of them come here and prosper. My point is that the effects of slavery, injustice, and racism is the likely the root of the achievement gap. As our society continues to improve and more opportunity is given, the black family will taste the fruits of achievement and prosper a bit more. Jeffrey Canady found a blueprint that works and is spreading that. All in all your are more likely to prosper if you have educated parents, which takes me back to my original post(1 maybe 2 generations removed from cruelty and bigotry that kept us from being educated).
Maybe the big thinkers in education think if we overcompensate in other areas that it will make up for parental involvement/influence ?
There is no government program that can fix parenting.
So true. However, I think if we educate and nuture some of these kids, that they'll start to break the cycle. The achievement gap will eventually close as a matter of inevitability, unfortunately so many will be lost and fall to the wayside before that gap is closed. Quote me on this one...."You can never teach someone something that you don't know".
Socioeconomic differences account for about half of the black-white achievement gap. There is still a significant gap AFTER adjusting for socioeconomic status.
---> Duncan, G. & Magnuson, K. "Can Family Socioeconomic Resources Account for Racial and Ethnic Test Score Gaps?"
Also, see "Rich, Black, Flunking" by Susan Goldsmith in the East Bay Express.
It's about Prof John Ogbu's famous study of rich black students in Shaker Heights, Ohio, which resulted in his excellent book Black American Students in an Affluent Suburb: A Study of Academic Disengagement:
Quote:
UC Berkeley Anthropology Professor John Ogbu had spent decades studying how the members of different ethnic groups perform academically...A group of [black] parents hungry for solutions convinced the school district to join with them and formally invite the black anthropologist to visit Shaker Heights...
...Their project yielded an unexpected conclusion: It wasn't socioeconomics, school funding, or racism, that accounted for the students' poor academic performance; it was their own attitudes, and those of their parents.
There is only one school system that does not have that achievement gap: Department of Defense Dependent Schools (DoDS) My opinion why? Because culture identification based on belonging to the military community is more important to the family members, as well as the service member, than their identification based on race. Rank is more important in establishing peer groups and acceptable associations than just race. Our social group is fellow officer families first, although we do tend to establish closer ties with fellow black families within that group. The attitudes we raised our child with were those exemplified by the officer corp of the Army. Ogbu is right, it is about attitudes.
There is only one school system that does not have that achievement gap: Department of Defense Dependent Schools (DoDS) My opinion why? Because culture identification based on belonging to the military community is more important to the family members, as well as the service member, than their identification based on race. Rank is more important in establishing peer groups and acceptable associations than just race. Our social group is fellow officer families first, although we do tend to establish closer ties with fellow black families within that group. The attitudes we raised our child with were those exemplified by the officer corp of the Army. Ogbu is right, it is about attitudes.
That is very interesting. I've long said that the real issue in education is the attitude of the learner.
Here’s a fact that may not surprise you: the children of the rich perform better in school, on average, than children from middle-class or poor families. Students growing up in richer families have better grades and higher standardized test scores, on average, than poorer students; they also have higher rates of participation in extracurricular activities and school leadership positions, higher graduation rates and higher rates of college enrollment and completion.
It is and has NEVER been a RACIAL gap, it has always been a WEALTH gap.
Also, see "Rich, Black, Flunking" by Susan Goldsmith in the East Bay Express.
It's about Prof John Ogbu's famous study of rich black students in Shaker Heights, Ohio, which resulted in his excellent book Black American Students in an Affluent Suburb: A Study of Academic Disengagement:
...Their project yielded an unexpected conclusion: It wasn't socioeconomics, school funding, or racism, that accounted for the students' poor academic performance; it was their own attitudes, and those of their parents.
I'm not surprised. I see it with my nieces and nephews. Very few of them get A's and B's. Most of them get C's and below. I always compliment the few who get A's and B's, but I also challenge those with C's, D's and F's to aim higher.
I even tutor them while I'm there; they hate it (two of them actually cried, but since they weren't crying blood, the tutoring continued ), but I've told them repeatedly that my tutoring is a necessary evil they'll have to endure until they become A/B students.
The study in the op goes along with my long held observations. It is even apparent here in C-D. Attitude, attitude and attitude. They do it to themselves in many instances.
Very interesting article but I have to take umbrage with his solutions. The government will never be able to spend enough money or create enough programs to equalize parenting.
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), but I've told them repeatedly that my tutoring is a necessary evil they'll have to endure until they become A/B students.
