Voices in Urban Education
Archives
Beyond Brown v. Board
VUE Number 4, Summer 2004
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EXCERPT:
From Black and White to High Definition
By Rossi Ray-Taylor
Rossi Ray-Taylor is Executive Director of the Minority Student Achievement Network.
> Author's biography
Since Brown equality in outcomes has replaced equal access to resources as the imperative for achieving equity in public schools. Districts are finding that getting more resources may not be enough to close persistent achievement gaps. Educational policy-makers must create the kind of adult learning communities and systemic changes that support high achievement for all students.
In this year marking the fiftieth anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, educators and policy analysts across the nation are looking back and looking forward to discuss the legacy of Brown and how it relates to the state of education in our schools today and into the future.
To be sure, Brown is only one piece of a much larger mosaic. For African Americans, Brown's goal of achieving civil rights through education holds special resonance. As Theresa Perry reminds us, the legacy of seeking education for freedom reverberates throughout the experience of Black people on this continent, pre-dating our birth as a nation (Perry, Steele & Hilliard 2003). Moreover, the history of the decades surrounding 1954 includes a worldwide expansion of human rights, from liberation in Africa to the civil rights and women's rights movements here in the United States.
The record in the years following Brown shows some success in expanding access to educational opportunity and increasing resources to support schools. The federal government, in particular, played an unprecedented role by creating and implementing programs to help underserved students — children in poverty, girls, English-language learners. As a result of these and other factors, the achievement gap between African American and White students, as measured by test scores, declined through the mid-1980s, while the percentage of children educated in segregated schools also declined.
The Years since Brown
On the other side of the ledger, the years since Brown have also produced some changes for the worse. Thousands of African American teachers and principals lost their jobs as a result of the integration, consolidation, and closing of schools. And, since the mid- 1980s, schools have become more segregated, not less — perhaps not the de jure segregation of pre-Brown, but, instead, de facto segregation due to housing policies and wealth distribution. Whereas schools in southern states are more integrated than in the past, schools in some northern states are becoming increasingly segregated; indeed, Michigan's school systems hold the distinction of being the most segregated in the nation.
At the same time, the suburbanization of America has pulled both students and resources from the urban centers, a trend exacerbated by inequitable school funding policies that favor suburban growth districts and disfavor aging urban centers. Studies show that resource distribution, including student access to technology and trained teachers, favors suburban schools. First-ring suburbs were the recipients of the midcentury White flight. But in the decades since, some of these first-ring suburban communities have become less diverse, and the majority of their residents are now members of minority groups.
Archives
Beyond Brown v. Board
VUE Number 4, Summer 2004
| VUE Home | Archives | Order Print Copy |
EXCERPT:
From Black and White to High Definition
By Rossi Ray-Taylor
Rossi Ray-Taylor is Executive Director of the Minority Student Achievement Network.
> Author's biography
Since Brown equality in outcomes has replaced equal access to resources as the imperative for achieving equity in public schools. Districts are finding that getting more resources may not be enough to close persistent achievement gaps. Educational policy-makers must create the kind of adult learning communities and systemic changes that support high achievement for all students.
In this year marking the fiftieth anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, educators and policy analysts across the nation are looking back and looking forward to discuss the legacy of Brown and how it relates to the state of education in our schools today and into the future.
To be sure, Brown is only one piece of a much larger mosaic. For African Americans, Brown's goal of achieving civil rights through education holds special resonance. As Theresa Perry reminds us, the legacy of seeking education for freedom reverberates throughout the experience of Black people on this continent, pre-dating our birth as a nation (Perry, Steele & Hilliard 2003). Moreover, the history of the decades surrounding 1954 includes a worldwide expansion of human rights, from liberation in Africa to the civil rights and women's rights movements here in the United States.
The record in the years following Brown shows some success in expanding access to educational opportunity and increasing resources to support schools. The federal government, in particular, played an unprecedented role by creating and implementing programs to help underserved students — children in poverty, girls, English-language learners. As a result of these and other factors, the achievement gap between African American and White students, as measured by test scores, declined through the mid-1980s, while the percentage of children educated in segregated schools also declined.
The Years since Brown
On the other side of the ledger, the years since Brown have also produced some changes for the worse. Thousands of African American teachers and principals lost their jobs as a result of the integration, consolidation, and closing of schools. And, since the mid- 1980s, schools have become more segregated, not less — perhaps not the de jure segregation of pre-Brown, but, instead, de facto segregation due to housing policies and wealth distribution. Whereas schools in southern states are more integrated than in the past, schools in some northern states are becoming increasingly segregated; indeed, Michigan's school systems hold the distinction of being the most segregated in the nation.
At the same time, the suburbanization of America has pulled both students and resources from the urban centers, a trend exacerbated by inequitable school funding policies that favor suburban growth districts and disfavor aging urban centers. Studies show that resource distribution, including student access to technology and trained teachers, favors suburban schools. First-ring suburbs were the recipients of the midcentury White flight. But in the decades since, some of these first-ring suburban communities have become less diverse, and the majority of their residents are now members of minority groups.
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