How Good Schools and Good Intentions Widen the Achievement Gap
Debate around the achievement gap is usually dominated by issues such as urban poverty, segregation, and school funding. These factors unquestionably have an enormous impact on student outcomes, but why do disparities persist at well-funded, diverse and high-achieving suburban schools? John B. Diamond, associate professor of education at the University of Wisconsin, and Amanda E. Lewis, associate professor of African American Studies at the University of Illinois, spent five years examining such a school to find out. Riverview High (a pseudonym) is in many ways an ideal school, but, despite its successes, is still plagued by wide disparities in achievement. Diamond and Lewis recently spoke with NEA Today about their findings, which they have compiled in an eye-opening new book, “Despite the Best Intentions: How Racial Inequality Thrives in Good Schools.”
You spent five years collecting data and interviewing stakeholders at Riverview. How were able to gain access and how did the project evolve?
John Diamond: An assistant principal approached us a while ago because he had seen African American students struggle academically for so long and wanted to figure out why. The school itself was racially mixed – about 47 percent White, 35 percent Black, and 8.5 percent Latino. We started by talking with a small group of Black students to understand their experiences. We then expanded it into a larger study in which we interviewed about 170 people – Black, White and Latino students, teachers, parents, administrators, security guards and other staff members – to try and get a handle on what was going on at this supposedly very progressive, racially diverse, well-resourced school. Why was there still a large achievement gap?
A big part of this was due to the racial hierarchies that were embedded at Riverview. How were they evident not only inside classrooms, but also around the school?JD: The hierarchies were overtly evident in how the kids would enter the same school, walk together through the hallways, but then go to different classrooms, especially the higher level, more heavily-resourced honors classes. Honors classes were 80 percent White in a school that is less than 50 percent White. For Advanced Placement classes, it was 90 percent White. There were also clear differences at the school in how suspensions and expulsions were handed out. Sixty percent of suspensions were for African American kids, who made up only around 35 percent of the student population. Also, a lot of kids from Riverview go to college, but African American and Latino kids were going more often to 2-year colleges, as opposed to 4-year colleges.
What was also clear was that navigating school was very different for these students than it was for White students. For example African American boys were much more likely to be asked for hall passes than their White counterparts. Also, enforcement of the dress code came down most heavily on Black girls. White girls would violate the How Good Schools and Good Intentions Widen the Achievement Gap - NEA Today:
