What Happened to Education Strategies that Promoted "Community Centered Pedagogy?"
In the late 1980's and early 1990's, responding to a wave of violence sweeping through urban America, educators of color began proposing that public schools transform their pedagogy to enhance the self esteem and historical undersanding of young people in the hardest hit communities. They called for the transformation of social studies curricula to incorporate more Black and Latino history, to the creation of new public schools in which Black and Latino history were integral parts of the school culture, to the development of strategies to recruit more Black and Latino teachers, especially from communities that were most at risk.
There was a tremendous amount of energy and idealism accompanying this vision of Urban Education, and controversy as well. Supporters claimed these measure were necessary to save a generation of youth at risk; critics claimed they would intensify racial divisions, promote hostility to white teachers and administrators and, in the most extreme cases, undermine patriotism and national unity.
Fierce debates about such strategies occurred all through the 90's, but by the time George W Bush had taken office, the critics had largely won the day. When No Child Left Behind was passed, its architects decided to base their vision of compliance and equity entirely on conformity to National Standards which allowed little if any adaptation to community traditions. The same approach was incorporated, in even more restrictive form, by
Barack Obama's "Race to the Top" which called for mandatory closing of schools which did not perform well on standardized tests as a condition for receiving federal grants. Not only were inner city schools not rewarded or honored for adapting pedagogy to the cultural traditions of the communities they were located in, they were penalized for doing so if their efforts did not raise scores on standardized tests.
The rise of "standardization" as the centerpiece of national education policy, had a powerful impact on the charter school movement, which in its early stages, had proponents who tried to create schools incorporating community centered pedagogy, and went out of their way to try to recruit teachers and administrators of color. With startling rapidity, charters with that approach began losing ground, and most importantly losing funding, to charter chains such as K.I.P.P., and With A Brooklyn Accent: What Happened to Education Strategies that Promoted "Community Centered Pedagogy?":