Race/Schools Queens, New York, Is

Race/Schools Queens, New York, is home to Springfield Gardens, a public middle school enrolling more than seven hundred students in grades six, seven and eight. The school's motto is "Reaching Beyond Excellence" and it exemplifies the philosophy that outstanding academic and social achievement are attainable goals for all students. The school endeavors to establish a partnership between parents, students and teachers. The overarching goal is to empower students to achieve the skills they need to become productive citizens in the global marketplace.

It has been more than half a century since Brown vs. The Board of Education paved the way for desegregation in public schools. Much progress has been made in creating fairness and equitability in developing physical spaces, distributing learning materials, and supporting students in their quest for academic success. Springfield Gardens is no exception. It is a school with a diverse population, with minority groups well represented among both staff and students.

The purpose of this research project was to examine the beliefs, attitudes and perceptions of people closely involved with the school to determine how their ideas translated into practice. The literature suggests that there is still much to be done in schools around the nation. It would appear that there is much talk about fairness and yet there is an underlying current that still segregates our students because of perceptions of culture and family support. Interviews with three members of the Springfield Gardens professional community supported this assumption.

What the Literature Says About Race and School Achievement Entwhistle and Alexander (1990, in O'Connor, Hill & Robinson, 2009) found that Blacks lose ground over the course of the schooling, offering "persuasive evidence that school-based factors play a considerable role in explaining later performance." Perhaps we as a nation are not doing as well as we thought after all. O'Connor et al. found growing evidence that "after controlling for background characteristics, minority children enter school equal to or nearly equivalent to whites (p. 6).

They further note that achievement gaps are seen as early as third grade. It seems clear that the attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions of school personnel impact student learning. Yet Phillips et al. (1998, in Bali & Alvarez, 2003) reported on research suggesting that family environment accounts for two-thirds of the "race gap" in testing, while schools are responsible for just one third. Lareau (1989, qtd. In McNeal, 1999) defined "cultural capital" as networks with other parents, an understanding of the school process and teacher jargon, and contact with school personnel.

It is this cultural capital that parents invest in their children's education. From a public policy perspective, it is nearly impossible to control. Schools can only encourage parents to be active participants in their children's education but the law does not, and cannot, require it. Biddle (2011) points to a culture of failure that has been fostered along racial and socio-economic lines.

Desegregation laws served their purpose in the 1960s when minority children were allowed to leave second-rate facilities for access to the kind of education their white counterparts had long taken for granted. Fifty years later, new initiatives are needed. "Achievement gaps cannot be solved simply by putting black kids and white kids together, or even putting middle class students together with their poor classmates," Biddle argues. "The solution lies with systemic reforms of instruction, curricula, and school leadership." Systematic reforms are one of the priorities of the current administration.

In March 2010, President Obama signed the Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The first ESEA, enacted in 2001 and known as "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB), has proven to be a controversial piece of legislation that has not brought about the meaningful reform lawmakers sought. Instead, educators have grown increasingly frustrated with NCLB's mandates, while the public outcry for educational reform is louder than ever. Noguera (2004) noted the law created the most pressure in communities serving large numbers of poor children, often minority children.

With respect to NCLB, Noguera asks the question: "To what degree is it possible for schools that serve large numbers of poor children to significantly raise student achievement without receiving any additional resources to address the effects of poverty?" Noguera looked at factors in Oakland, Bali & Alvarez (2003) in Pasadena; both California communities are home to significant numbers of poor and minority students. Noguera (2004, p.

2153) pointed out "Oakland students…come to school with a wide array of unmet social, material and emotional needs that affect their ability to learn." Bali & Alvarez reached a similar conclusion, stating "Closing the race gaps in test scores may entail more than school-based solutions" (p. 486). Yet school-based solutions are what public outcry demands and where policymakers direct their time and energies. Race continues to be a pervasive theme, even when, as noted by Pollock (2004, in McDermott, Raley & Seyer-Ochi, 2009), race was not supposed to be referenced as a factor.

Pollock found that race was "the elephant in the living room," where teachers and administrators took such great pains not to mention it that it became a glaringly obvious point: "race labels are avoided at school faculty meetings on the disproportionate number of African-American students wandering the halls during class or not graduating at year's end. The silences are systematic" (McDermott, Raley & Seyer-Ochi, p. 104).

In 2011, no one would seriously and publicly attempt to make the case that one race was genetically superior to another when it comes to aptitude for academic achievement. McDermott, Raley & Seyer-Ochi (2009, p. 113) claim this is what happens, however, although it is done in an insidious fashion. "Correlations among race, class, and school performance are real but not as taken," they wrote.

They explained the correlations are not starting places for analysis, but the end products of a society that endeavors to handle the risks of "being put down, pushed down, cut off, and certified as failures." Lewis (2001) noted that little work has been on this "hidden curriculum," where messages about race with respect to ability and achievement are delivered implicitly.

She pointed out "Not only are many lessons learned and taught in the actual curriculum, but schools (and school personnel) also serve as a source of racial information, a location (and means) for interracial interaction, and/or a means of both affirmation of and challenge to previous racial attitudes and understandings" (p. 781). Her findings suggest that in white, suburban schools, there is explicit rhetoric devoted to practices associated with equality but that there is often an unacknowledged yet pervasive attitude that loudly speaks otherwise.

Race, Expectations and Parental Involvement at Springfield Gardens Springfield Gardens is not a predominantly white, suburban school, yet some of the same rhetoric is present. The fact that Principal Gordon sees education as a means to avoid discrimination suggests that this is at the forefront of his thinking. The philosophy of Mr. Johnson, an art teacher, is by contrast much more optimistic. He believes that all children get an education, whether or not they are able to demonstrate academic mastery.

He does not believe that all children will perform at the same capacity. As has been stated, expectations do not seem to align with the school's mission statement and Johnson reveals that he does not believe everyone at Springfield Gardens can achieve excellence. Mr. Benton, a parent volunteer and technology coordinator for the school, has perhaps the broadest interpretation of education as equalizer, believing that education prepares one for the global economy.

It makes sense that he would think in such terms since he was raised outside the United States and thus is not as "America-centric" as the other two interviewees. According to Benton, Johnson and Gordon, there is not a great deal of involvement between the school and the community. Their views on parent involvement are also quite clear. These isolated entities -- school, parents, community -- do not appear to work in partnership as Springfield Gardens' mission statement would suggest.

The three men believe they are doing what they can at the school and that further improvement lies in the hands of parent and community involvement. Attempts have been made to involve individuals and groups in various activities, but with limited success. Gordon, Benton and Johnson spoke frankly about discipline issues at the school. It was their biggest complaint and the component they would most like to change. Over and over again, they cited parent involvement, or lack thereof, as a root cause of behavior problems at Springfield Gardens.

McNeal (1999) cited research that pointed to increased involvement by minority parents and a positive association with improved school performance. This is exactly the point that Gordon, Benton and Johnson continued to make. McNeal (1999) is correct in stating that achievement is a cognitive outcome, but in stating that it is "essentially" a cognitive outcome separates behavior as a contributing factor when it cannot in fact be separated. There is a finite amount of time in the school day.

Any time teachers must spend dealing with behavior issues is time taken away from instruction. If students are misbehaving, they are not engaged in their lessons. Behavior management is, unfortunately, a priority focus at Springfield Gardens, to the detriment of instruction. This is the point that the three interviewees continued to stress. None of them blamed the teachers for failing to engage students; the fault, as they see it, lies squarely with the students whose families apparently do not place a high value on education.

The students, as Gordon, Benton and Johnson see it, are products of the culture in which their parents live. The three frequently compared and contrasted the students of today with students of generations past. Students in "the good old days" did not misbehave the way students do "these days." That point was made clear, particularly in interviews with Benton and Gordon. Benton recalled a childhood outside the United States where school, he implied, was much more rigorous.

It would appear that, in his mind, an American education is a bit below par compared to that which he was able to avail himself. He also referenced poor behavior and drew comparisons between "then" and "now." There is a superiority implied in Benton's comments. Although his interview was, for the most part, positive, upbeat, and laden with accolades for Springfield Gardens' principal and teachers, one is left with the distinct impression that Benton feels today's students do not quite measure up.

He never mentions race or socio-economic status; student behavior and achievement is linked to place and culture. Students in his day, in the old country, did as they were told and participated in more rigorous academics. Like Benton, Principal Gordon recalls fondly the "good old days" when he was a student, noting that most teachers were white, parents were involved, and discipline issues were minimal.

Gordon could have been reciting three separate observations and yet because they come all in one breath, one is left with the distinct impression that Gordon is finding causality: white teachers, involved parents = few discipline problems. Gordon's comment is the single mention of race in the three interviews, but in many ways it set the tone for the discussion about negligent parents and the negative impact on students' school performance. White becomes equated with "involved" and "supportive," whereas minorities become equated with sending children to school ill-prepared to learn.

The expectations for students at Springfield Gardens do not seem to be particularly high, although the school's mission statement would have one believe otherwise. As McNeal (1999) points out, "One of the most persistent findings in stratification research is that an offspring's subsequent attainment is highly correlated with the education of offspring's parents." At Springfield Gardens, there is limited parental involvement, which the interviewees perceived as lack of interest in the educational process.

The Springfield Gardens community is comprised of working class people for whom high educational achievement was either not a priority or not attainable. Gordon, Benton and Johnson seem to feel that there is a culture in which expectations are not high, and without support from the parents there will be another generation of people who do not rise above working class status. Benton believes that students only need.