Despite the best intentions : why racial inequality thrives in good schools

273 Pages·2015·1.48 MB·English

by  Diamond

Despite the Best Intentions
TRANSGRESSING BOUNDARIES
Studies in Black Politics and Black Communities
Cathy Cohen and Fredrick Harris, Series Editors
The Politics of Public Housing: Democracy Remixed: Black
Black Women’s Struggles Against Youth and the Future of
Urban Inequality American Politics
Rhonda Y. Williams Cathy J. Cohen
Keepin’ It Real: School Success Democracy’s Reconstruction:
Beyond Black and White Thinking Politically with
Prudence L. Carter W. E. B. DuBois
Lawrie Balfour
Double Trouble: Black Mayors,
Black Communities, and the Call The Price of the Ticket: Barack
for a Deep Democracy Obama and the Rise and Decline
J. Phillip Thompson, III of Black Politics
Fredrick Harris
Party/Politics: Horizons in Black
Political Thought Malcolm X at Oxford Union: Racial
Michael Hanchard Politics in a Global Era
Saladin Ambar
In Search of the Black
Fantastic: Politics and Popular Despite the Best Intentions: How
Culture in the Post-Civil Rights Era Racial Inequality Thrives in Good
Richard Iton Schools
Amanda Lewis and John Diamond
Race and the Politics of Solidarity
Juliet Hooker
I Am Your Sister: Collected
and Unpublished Writings of
Audre Lorde
Rudolph P. Byrd,
Johnnetta Betsch Cole, and
Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Editors
Despite the Best Intentions
How Racial Inequality Thrives
in Good Schools
AMANDA E. LEWIS AND
JOHN B. DIAMOND
(cid:20)
(cid:20)
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Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Prologue  xiii
1. Introduction 1
2. Race, Oppositional Culture, and School Outcomes:
Are We Barking Up the Wrong Tree?  17
3. The Road to Detention Is Paved with Good
Intentions: Race and Discipline at Riverview  45
4. “It’s Like Two High Schools”: Race, Tracking, and
Performance Expectations  83
5. Opportunity Hoarding: Creating and Maintaining
Racial Advantage  119
6. Conclusion  165
Appendix: Short Summary of Research Methods  183
Notes  191
References  215
About the Authors  237
Index 239

Acknowledgments
Over the course of this project, from the data collection phase
through the writing of the book, both of us have gone through
a number of major life events, including childbirth, job changes,
multiple cross-country moves, and significant personal and fam-
ily health challenges. Thus, this book has taken somewhat longer
to come to fruition than we had ever imagined, but in many ways
we believe it is better for it. We had the time to talk through ideas,
work and rework them, and puzzle through the pieces.
We must, of course, begin our acknowledgments with our
deepest appreciation to the Riverview community. Though we
began this work out of an invitation from a school administra-
tor, doing it well required a great number of community mem-
bers being willing to have sometimes difficult conversations
with us about the good work they are doing and the challenges
they continue to face. We are also very grateful to the institu-
tions that helped fund parts of the research and writing, includ-
ing The Spencer Foundation, the Riverview School District, The
University of Illinois at Chicago (Office of Social Science Research,
Departments of Sociology and African American Studies), Emory
University, The University of Wisconsin—Madison, the Harvard
Graduate School of Education, the Milton Fund at Harvard
University, and the Minority Student Achievement Network.
In addition, we thank the multiple institutions that we have
worked for or who have supported research leaves for one or both
viii Acknowledgments
of us through this process—University of Illinois at Chicago (Institute
for Research on Race and Public Policy, Institute for Government and
Public Affairs), Emory University, Harvard Graduate School of Education,
University of Wisconsin (Madison and Milwaukee), Northwestern
University School of Education and Social Policy, the Radcliffe Institute
for Advanced Study at Harvard, and Stanford’s Center for the Advanced
Studies of Behavioral Sciences.
We are immensely grateful to the many current and former gradu-
ate and undergraduate students who have assisted us with the research
and manuscript development. Thanks to Nana Akua Anyidoho, Carole
Ayanlaja, Heather Benjamin, Geoffrey Banks, Kristy Cooper, Tomas
Garrett, Lamont Gordon, R. Michelle Green, Mosi Ifatunji, Grace Kim,
Douglas Knecht, Julia Noveske Kobulsky, Van Lac, Myosha McAfee,
Briana Perry, Sherry Reddick, Matthew Rodriguez, Erin Starkey,
Katherine Swanson, Dyan Watson, and Sun Young Yoon. An especially
huge thanks to Michelle Manno, who has played an important role
throughout this process, helping with everything from tracking down
respondents to setting up interviews to cleaning interview transcripts to
proofreading footnotes to providing substantive feedback on chapters.
We are grateful that she was willing to direct her smarts and her atten-
tion to detail to polishing this manuscript not just once but at several
points in the process. Another special thank you goes to James Huguley,
who played a critical role in the quantitative analysis and reporting in
Chapter 2. His work and collaboration on this project have been invalu-
able. Sybil Madison-Boyd was an early collaborator in thinking about
the research project and played an important role in working through
the project design.
The book has benefited from feedback from a number of colleagues.
In January of 2013 we were honored to be able to bring together several
very smart colleagues to read and comment on a complete draft of the
manuscript. William Darity, Tyrone Forman, Heather Beth Johnson, and
Carla O’Connor all gave us two days out of their busy lives and a number
of really useful suggestions. We used these along with the great comments
from several anonymous reviewers to do the final revising and polishing.
Barbara Lewis provided an invaluable and careful copyediting of these
draft chapters. If there is anything graceful in our prose, it is thanks to
her keen eye. Other colleagues read drafts of parts of chapters and helped
in the process of developing our ideas. These include Antwi Akom, Bill
Acknowledgments ix
Ayers, Ron Ferguson, Maria Krysan, Annette Lareau, Garvey Lundy,
Omar McRoberts, Jerome Morris, Dina Okamoto, and Beth Richie.
The book has also benefited from the questions and comments
we received while presenting earlier versions of the chapters in a num-
ber of venues, including the following: Center for the Study of Race and
Social Problems at University of Pittsburgh’s School of Social Work,
Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education, Duke University’s
Department of Sociology, Department of Educational Studies—Emory
University, Northwestern University Department of Sociology, University
of Pennsylvania School of Education (UPENN), University of Wisconsin –
Madison School of Education, Minority Student Achievement Network,
Delaware Valley Consortium for Excellence & Equity at UPENN, Harvard
Achievement Gap Initiative, Oakland Michigan Public Schools, Boston
Public Schools, Madison Metropolitan School District, University of
Michigan’s School of Education, and the Racial Attitudes and Identity
Network. Students at Harvard and the University of Wisconsin also read
and commented on chapters during courses, and members of Carl Grant’s
Multicultural Education Working Group also provided valuable feedback.
Many thanks to the editorial and production staff at Oxford University
Press. Special thanks to David McBride at Oxford for his patience and
faith in the book throughout this journey, series editors Cathy Cohen and
Fred Harris for their early interest and support, and Sarah Rosenthal for
marshaling us through the editorial process.
We must also take a moment to each personally acknowledge those
friends and family members who have provided needed sustenance, care,
and reassurance throughout.
John:
I have always found a deep well of support from my family and friends.
John and Barbara Diamond, my parents, continue to give me an example
of love, strength, commitment, and resilience to live by. My sister, Kim, has
always laid a path of integrity and perseverance for me to follow. My second
set of parents, Allen and Patricia Peterson, have blessed me with uncondi-
tional love and support. Other family members who have provided various
forms of support include Beverly Holmes, Henrietta Baylor, Lincoln Berry,
and Lincoln Allen, as well as the ancestors from whom I draw strength.
Many other friends and colleagues also deserve thanks for their
various contributions. My colleagues at the University of Wisconsin–
Madison Departments of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis