Kids Don't Want to Fail: Oppositional Culture and the Black-White Achievement Gap

335 Pages·2011·1.332 MB·English

by  Angel L. Harris

Kids don’t Want to Fail

K i d s d o n ’ t
W a n t t o
F a i l
Oppositional Culture and the
Black-White Achievement Gap
angel l. Harris
Harvard University Press
Cambridge, Mas sa chu setts
London, En gland
2011
Copyright © 2011 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
all rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Harris, Angel L., 1975–
Kids don’t want to fail : oppositional culture and the Black-White achievement gap / Angel L. Harris.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-674-05772-2 (alk. paper)
1. African American students. 2. Academic achievement—United States. 3. Educational
equalization—United States. 4. Minorities—Education—United States. I. Title.
LC2717.H37 2011
371.829'96073—dc22 2011002394
To Okirah and Victoria Caitlyn Harris

Contents
Preface ix
1 Introduction to Oppositional Culture 1
2 Discrimination and Barriers: Basis for
Black Cynicism toward Schooling 30
3 Origins of Youth Perceptions of Opportunity
and Academic Investment 53
4 Effects of Youth Perceptions of Opportunity
on Academic Achievement 74
5 Racial Differences in Academic Orientation
of Youth 98
6 Should Blacks Become Raceless to Improve
Achievement? 128
7 Shifting the Focus Away from Culture and
toward Prior Skills 144
8 Does Marginalization Equal Resistance to
Schooling? A Class-Based Analysis 163
9 Refocusing Understanding of Racial
Differences in Academic Outcomes 180
C o n t e n t s
Appendix A: Note of Caution about Testing 199
Appendix B: Sources of Data 203
Appendix C: Methodological Appendix 211
Appendix D: Description of Measures 235
Notes 273
Bibliography 283
Acknowledgments 303
Index 307
viii
PreFaCe
Since completing the Ph.D. program in Public Policy and Sociology at
the University of Michigan in 2005, I have had countless discussions
with many black people about the racial achievement gap. I am always
struck by how the notion that black children resist education consistently
emerges as the primary explanation for why they perform poorly aca-
demically. Among these discussions, there are three instances that stand out
and led me to the conclusion that this book needed to be written.
In a recent trip to Mississippi, I talked to Mrs. Jones, a veteran middle
school teacher, about her experiences in the classroom. I asked her why she
thought black students performed worse than whites, to which she replied,
“These kids just want to sit there and do nothing. They look at you like you
are crazy. They just want to pass notes to each other all day long.” Her frus-
tration was genuine, and I did not doubt her observations. I was humbled at
the thought that her experiences and perceptions of black youth were simi-
lar to those that I have heard countless times from other educators. I have
even witnessed this belief among educators at the college level. An example
of this is my experience with Dr. Smith. Dr. Smith received his Ph.D. from
a prestigious institution and now works at a teaching college in the South
that caters predominantly to black students. He is absolutely convinced that
black students have an oppositional culture toward schooling. I sat in on
several of his classes, in which he chastised the students for not being pre-
pared for class. These “lectures” devolved into diatribes about how too many
of the students at the university were preoccupied with their physical ap-
pearance and “hooking-up” with one another, avoided taking challenging
classes, and had a general apathy toward schooling. Such tirades were seam-
lessly incorporated into his lectures, and the students seemed unsurprised.
Dr. Smith’s go-to quote is: “These kids today don’t want anything out of
life.” Dr. Smith’s story reminds me of the numerous educators that I have
encountered throughout the United States who interpret poor acad emic
per for mance as oppositionality.