Journal Article•
Leaving Us behind: A Political Economic Interpretation of NCLB and the Miseducation of African American Males.
22 Jun 2010-Educational Foundations (Caddo Gap Press. 3145 Geary Boulevard PMB 275, San Francisco, CA 94118. Tel: 415-666-3012; Fax: 415-666-3552; e-mail: caddogap@aol.com; Web site: http://www.caddogap.com)-Vol. 24, pp 43-54
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the misalignment between public school assessment policies and teaching practices in accordance with the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), and the human capital, curricula, and soft-skills needs of the global economy.
Abstract: Introduction The educational tribulations of African American males are well documented (Clark, 1989/1965; Davis & Jordan, 1994; Harry & Anderson, 1994; Polite & Davis, 1999; Majors & Billison, 1992). According to a report by the Schott Foundation for Public Education (2004), 70% of African American males entering the ninth grade will not graduate with their cohort (p. 2). The foregoing figures are troubling considering that the overall percentage of African American students enrolled in public schools has increased from 14.8% in 1972 to 15.6% in 2006 (1) (U.S. Department of Education, 2008, p. 85). Despite this modicum of progress, the education system's ability to adequately serve African American males is worsening. The need to address the low academic achievement of Black males is important for two reasons. The first reason is the link between low educational attainment and incarceration (Mauer & King, 2004; Justice Policy Institute, 2007; Children's Defense Fund, 2007). The second reason is the shift in the skills needed for productive participation in the global economy (Green, 2001). With regards to the relationship between low education attainment and incarceration, the Justice Policy Institute (2007) reported that "52% of African American male high school dropouts had prison records by their early thirties" in 1999 (p. 11). Incidentally, the incarceration rate per 100,000 African American men between the ages of 18-64 was 7,923 compared to 1,072 for White men (Human Rights Watch, 2008). These statistics are problematic considering that African Americans only constitute 12% of the U.S. population (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000). Based on the foregoing statistics, one can easily surmise that there are more African American males incarcerated than in school. Conversely, the economic vitality of the United States in the 21st century is contingent upon the productivity of well-trained people and the steady stream of scientific and technical innovations they produce. Levy and Murnane (2004) point out that the nation's challenge is to "recognize the inexorable changes in the job distribution and to prepare young people with the skills needed in the growing number of good jobs" (p. 6). Further, expansion of international markets through globalization has contributed to the transformation of America's economy from a mass-producer of durable goods such as automobiles, to a developer and provider of information and biotechnology products and services. This economic shift has not only altered the types of products required for international competitiveness, but more importantly the requisite skills needed to ensure high-tier workforce participation has been permanently altered (Waks, 2003). In addition to access to quality scientific, mathematical, and technological learning opportunities, a "good education" in the global age includes the development of "soft-skills" (2) (Levy & Murnane, 2004; Gordon Nembhard, 2005). For traditionally under-served students, such as African Americans males, the education policies that govern curriculum and instruction are essential to shaping the capacity of learning opportunities vital to their collective social and economic advancement. Indeed, the relationship between education and social mobility is not a recent finding; what is new, however, is that public schools more than at any other time in American history are held accountable for preparing students to serve private interests and the public good (Kliebard, 1999; Hargreaves, 2003). The purpose of this article is to discuss the misalignment between public school assessment policies and teaching practices in accordance with the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), and the human capital, curricula, and soft-skill needs of the global economy. The authors suggest that changes regarding the nature of learning, how it is assessed, and the skills taught are critical to the educational and social success of African American males. …
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TL;DR: The authors argued that the stock story that the majority of African American males are at risk for engaging in self-destructive behavior or on the verge of extinction perpetuates a discourse of Black male pathology, which leads to overemphasis of behavior modification as a strategy for their collective improvement.
Abstract: This article examines the Black male crisis thesis promulgated by the social science literature, public policy, and mainstream discourse, respectively. The authors contend that the stock‐story that the majority of African American males are ‘at‐risk’ for engaging in self‐destructive behavior or on the verge of extinction perpetuates a discourse of Black male pathology, which leads to over‐emphasis of behavior modification as a strategy for their collective improvement. Subsequently, de‐emphasis on the historical and structural role of race as a life opportunity‐shaping variable occurs, which renders an incomplete understanding of the social and educational status of Black males in the United States. As a result, public policies and social programs guided by this deficit discourse are unlikely to create meaningful change for this population, because society’s existing political economic structures are left unchallenged. The article concludes with the assertion that a ‘new narrative’ is needed in order to r...
78 citations
Cites background from "Leaving Us behind: A Political Econ..."
...…authoritarian mechanisms are mixed given that curricula and teacher instruction at these schools are prescribed by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2007 (NCLB), which emphasizes high-stakes testing over higher order cognitive skills, such as reasoning and interpretation (Donnor and Shockley 2010)....
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...Moreover, because African American males are more likely to attend schools guided by NCLB, they are less prepared for college and more prepared to participate in the military (Brown 2003; Lipman 2004; Donnor and Shock- ley 2010)....
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...…policy makers, and educators must not only explore questions that account for how Black males are experientially positioned within education, but also, how the broader American political economy defines and constrains the educational experiences of Black males (Donnor and Shockley 2010)....
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Journal Article•
TL;DR: The Schooled to Work: Vocationalism and the American Curriculum, 1876-1946 as mentioned in this paper explores the evolution of job training as an educational ideal in the American public schools.
Abstract: REVIEWER HERBERT W. BRODA, PH. D., is Assistant Professor of Education at Ashland University, Ashland, OR The age-old question: "What knowledge is of most worth?" could be considered the foundation of Herbert Kliebard's recent scholarly contribution, Schooled to Work: Vocationalism and the American Curriculum, 1876-1946. Kliebard, an emeritus professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, is considered to be one of America's leading curriculum historians. His reputation for historical scholarship and educational insight is certainly reflected in this comprehensive volume. Schooled to Work traces the evolution of job training as an educational ideal in the American public schools. In a highly chronological manner, Kliebard details the people, events and institutions that shaped the development of vocational education over a seventy-year period. To quote from Kliebard's preface: [The book] begins with the drive to install manual training in American schools, proceeds next to vocational education and then to vocationalism. This includes vocational education but incorporates the idea that the curriculum as a whole, not just part of it, exists for the purpose of getting and holding a job. The book is primarily organized according to historical periods that Kliebard associates with major shifts in the conceptualization of vocationalism. The volume illustrates very effectively the ongoing tension that exists between two frequently opposing views of education: schooling as knowledge transmission, and schooling as preparation for the workforce. As Kliebard explores each decade, the definition of "appropriate schooling" is subject to the forces of society and the impact of changing needs in the workforce. Such factors as the Industrial Revolution, the evolution of labor unions, women in the labor force and the Great Depression had tremendous impact upon the answer to "What knowledge is of most worth?" Chapters One and Two explore the national trends and issues that surrounded the evolution of manual training to vocational training during the period 1876-- 1912. The identification of manual training with the American work ethic, and the eventual shift to "fitting youth for their life-work" is detailed in these chapters. Chapters Three and Four move from a national look at manual training vs. vocational training, to an in depth look at the evolution of these concepts in the Milwaukee Public Schools. These two chapters which focus upon the Milwaukee experience are outstanding examples of how detailed historical research can help us to understand curricular change. Utilizing extensive original sources, Kliebard powerfully describes how curricular change is molded and manipulated by interest groups both inside and outside of the official school structure. Chapter Five returns to a national perspective and explores the period 1908-- 1919, an era that included the social efficiency movement, the Smith-Hughes Act and the Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education. …
76 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the historical progression of agency within recent educational reforms and empirical research from a variety of classrooms (geographic regions and grade levels) is presented. But the authors focus on the educational reforms.
Abstract: In this article, research tracing the historical progression of agency within recent educational reforms and empirical research from a variety of classrooms (geographic regions and grade levels) is...
42 citations
Cites background from "Leaving Us behind: A Political Econ..."
...However, scholars emphasize that the structural inequality in schools seldom leads to contexts where students have agency (Donnor & Shockley, 2010)....
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References
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Book•
01 Jan 2003
TL;DR: Teaching for the knowledge society - educating for ingenuity teaching beyond the KSS - from value for money to values for good teaching despite the knowledge societies I - the end of ingenuity teaching despite KSS II - the loss of integrity the KCS school - an endangered entity beyond standardization - professional learning communities or performance training sects? the future of teaching in the KSC - rethinking improvement, removing impoverishment.
Abstract: Teaching for the knowledge society - educating for ingenuity teaching beyond the knowledge society - from value for money to values for good teaching despite the knowledge society I - the end of ingenuity teaching despite the knowledge society II - the loss of integrity the knowledge society school - an endangered entity beyond standardization - professional learning communities or performance training sects? the future of teaching in the knowledge society - rethinking improvement, removing impoverishment.
1,198 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1995
TL;DR: Rifkin argues that we are entering a new phase in history - one characterized by the steady and inevitable decline of jobs as discussed by the authors, and argues that the end of work could mean the demise of civilization as we have come to know it, or signal the beginning of a great social transformation and a rebirth of the human spirit.
Abstract: Jeremy Rifkin argues that we are entering a new phase in history - one characterized by the steady and inevitable decline of jobs. The world, says Rifkin, is fast polarizing into two potentially irreconcilable forces: on one side, an information elite that controls and manages the high-tech global economy; and on the other, the growing numbers displaced workers, who have few prospects and little hope for meaningful employment in an increasingly automated world. The end of work could mean the demise of civilization as we have come to know it, or signal the beginning of a great social transformation and a rebirth of the human spirit.
1,075 citations
01 Oct 2005
TL;DR: This chapter discusses standards-Based education reform in the computer age and the next ten years, which will see a significant change in the way skills are taught and policed.
Abstract: Acknowledgments vii CHAPTER 1 New Divisions of Labor 1 PART I Computers and the Economy CHAPTER 2 Why People Still Matter 13 CHAPTER 3 How Computers Change Work and Pay 31 PART II The Skills Employers Value CHAPTER 4 Expert Thinking 57 CHAPTER 5 Complex Communication 76 PART III How Skills Are Taught CHAPTER 6 Enabling Skills 99 CHAPTER 7 Computers and the Teaching of Skills 109 CHAPTER 8 Standards-Based Education Reform in the Computer Age 131 CHAPTER 9 The Next Ten Years 149 Notes 159 Index 169
919 citations
"Leaving Us behind: A Political Econ..." refers background in this paper
...In addition to access to quality scientific, mathematical, and technological learning opportunities, a “good education” in the global age includes the development of “soft-skills”2 (Levy & Murnane, 2004; Gordon Nembhard, 2005)....
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...(p. 74) More recently, economists Levy and Murnane (2004) highlight that: more than one-half of employed U.S. adults worked in two broad occupational categories: blue-collar and clerical jobs....
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...Rather, the “new nature of work” in traditionally middle-class jobs and fields that previously required a college education now requires higher-order cognitive skills in addition (Levy & Murnane, 2004, p. 47)....
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...Higher-order cognitive skills encompass a myriad of attributes such as abstract reasoning, problem-solving, communication skills, and collaboration (Casey, 1999; Gordon-Nembhard, 2006; Levy & Murnane, 2004; Waks, 1991)....
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...Levy and Murnane (2004) point out that the nation’s challenge is to “recognize the inexorable changes in the job distribution and to prepare young people with the skills needed in the growing number of good jobs” (p. 6)....
[...]
Book•
15 Nov 1989
TL;DR: The authors describes how the ghetto separates Blacks not only from white people, but also from opportunities and resources, and describes the ghetto as a place where "opportunities and resources are denied to black people".
Abstract: Describes how the ghetto separates Blacks not only from white people, but also from opportunities and resources.
512 citations