In late October, The Associated Press released a report stating that 12 percent of all American high schools graduate only about half of their students. The story states that these 1,700 or so "Dropout Factories" graduate no more than 60 percent of their incoming freshmen.
The majority of these schools are located in urban areas. In addition, the southern half of the U.S. is disproportionately represented among "Dropout Factories." This problem is not new to the United States. For years, schools in Black and Latino communities have had a hard time successfully getting kids across the stage.
The problem cannot be the schools alone. In some cities, 75 percent of Black males do not graduate. That's an astronomical figure. This cannot be a result of pure laziness or stupidity. Could it be that the school districts are doing exactly what they're supposed to?
At the beginning of the millennium, President Bush decided to draft and enforce the No Child Left Behind Act. NCLB proposes to remedy the vast gaps that exist between the education rates of whites and minorities in this country. However, the law far too often has adverse effects on those it is supposed to help.
Since the NCLB punishes schools for not being up to par, if test scores don't meet the prescribed standard, the blame is directed at teachers and staff. This takes all the blame off of the government and likely will result in a rash of firings and resignations. So in addition to failing kids, these school districts will experience an increase in teacher shortages.
The success rate of children of color in American schools has never been very high. Through Democrats and Republicans, Vietnams and Iraqs, affirmative action and oppression, the trend persists.
A long, long time ago, Blacks weren't even present in these school systems. With one foul swoop of a pen, Blacks were all of a sudden allowed to study alongside the white majority in classrooms. What do you get when you force kids to go to the same schools that you once denied them from attending without altering the curriculum one bit?
Jacob Carruthers, Professor of Inner City Studies at Northeastern Illinois, maintains that Black people have distinct learning patterns and tendencies that are different from other ethnicities. Whereas many people can sit and read theories and learn, I notice that Blacks instead can mimic and understand anything once they have learned by example. Yet, educators continue to employ the same old teaching tactics. There has never been a major overhaul of education for Blacks.
Aside from a few Afrocentric and Black-themed schools, almost all schools in the U.S. cater to the majority and were designed with them in mind. Tavis Smiley and the Jamestown Project have recently collaborated in the creation of a Covenant Curriculum to expose Blacks to a history of democratic action from our own perspective. Alternative teaching methods are necessary for the improvement of our kids in class.
Perhaps we should stop blaming schools, teachers, and tests. The same way that the structure of government is to blame for the disparity in living standards in America, it's the structure of the curriculum that should be recognized as the reason for the continued failure of our schools.
It wouldn't matter if children of color were perceived geniuses as long as they perform below the majority. It's all relative. Academia favors European heritage. By keeping the minority next to white kids who meet the ascribed standards of the system, we will subject the minority to incompetence in relation to the majority.
If you sit a class full of white kids down and show them books about the great Zimbabwe Empire, they'll probably fall asleep or lose interest quickly. In the same way, when kids of color are forced to read and write about figures that look and think differently than them, they find little reason to pay attention. Multiply that by 13 years of redundant schooling with prisoner treatment – such as the presence of metal detectors and armed officers -- and no guarantee of a job upon graduation, and voila – you've got the perfect equation for a surefire dropout.
For decades scholars have pointed out that tests and curricula in American public schools have blatantly Western perspectives. The general canon of knowledge that constitutes intellectualism in our society is composed of praise for a few Europeans and Western societies. Aside from Greek, Roman, and European history, students in our schools are only sporadically exposed to alternative ideas and info.
In addition to a lack of multicultural curricula, the disappearance of arts and music programs in certain schools contributes to the dropout rates. So lets recap, 12 percent of the country is Black, right? And 12 percent of schools are failing almost as many kids as they pass. What more do we need to see to recognize that schools are serving purposes aside from trying to graduate kids?
Think about it: suppose 80 percent or more of Black kids graduated with good enough grades to attend college; what would the implications be on the job availability for other races? Why would white school officials, investors, and legislators take upper-level opportunities away from their own? What are our kids learning?
Everything happens for a reason. In the most "successful" economy in white history, the millions of Americans who don't make it in school have their place – on an assembly line somewhere as cheap labor. Why do we insist on confining Black kids to dismal schooling designed for and by the same people who have historically made mis-education of the Negro their No. 1 priority?
