African American Education

This volume takes a comprehensive look at the education of African-Americans, specifically early childhood through postsecondary education, and relevant public policy issues since 1940. The list of contributors to the study includes white and black scholars who, by focusing on the known status of the education of African-Americans to date and the additional factors that need to be considered in order to develop appropriate educational strategies, evaluate current programs and suggest ways to improve public policy. Topics ranging from the counseling of minority children to the continuing struggle with racial violence on campus demonstrate the broad scope of this volume.

After years of widely acknowledging race discrimination in higher education, American government leaders, college and university officials, and at-large citizens today question the need for civil rights laws and policies. Within an important sector of the public higher education community -- roughly nineteen states that used to operate laws separating students by race -- dispute focuses upon systemwide Title VI enforcement. Two interpretations of Title VI enforcement coexist. Among conservatives, absence of continuing discrimination and continuing good faith effort signal an end to the need for government enforcement. Among more liberal stakeholders, past enforcement has been weakly undertaken despite past and currently increasing evidence of continued discrimination.

There are currently 109 historically black colleges and universities in the United States. Established before 1964, their mission was and continues to be the education of black Americans for service and leadership in the black community as well as the wider community. Ever since Lincoln University opened its doors in 1854, controversy has raged over separate black institutions of higher learning. Roebuck and Murty review the history of black colleges from the antebellum years (prior to 1865) to the present. They provide profiles of each of the major black universities from their founding until today, including their current student composition and faculty makeup. Reviewing the literature on race relations in college life, the authors describe tensions on white and black campuses as reported in journals and periodicals. They then analyze and interpret the results of their own empirical study of race relations on fifteen campuses in the southeastern United States. This is the first comprehensive coverage of the subject.

Paul provides specific tools that parents can work with to make their children lifelong lovers of reading and writing. As a former teacher in the public school system, Paul is intimately familiar with it, and provides parents with insights that will assist them in establishing an educational partnership with their children's teachers.

A highly readable collection of key articles and essays by a leading scholar on African American language and politics. Discussing the inter-relationship between African American language, culture and education, Talkin' that Talk is divided into sections, each introduced by the author, which include:* African American language and education* Language theory, research and the Black intellectual tradition* Black language and culture* Black women's discourse* Language policy and global multilingualism.

When the Oakland school board issued a resolution calling for schools to acknowledge the reality of black English in the classroom, a huge national outcry and media frenzy arose. The debate about "Ebonics" made national headlines, quickly became politicized and divisive, opened wounds about ra ce, then faded from public consciousness. But in the classrooms of America, the question of how to engage the distinctive language of many African-American children remains urgent. In The Real Ebonics Debate, some of our most important progressive educators, linguists, and writers, as well as teachers and students reporting from the field, examine the lessons of the Ebonics controversy and unravel the complexities of the issue, covering realities never acknowledged by the media. They discuss the meaning of th e political debate; they think through the detailed dynamics of teacher-student interaction; and they give wonderfully precise linguistic insight into the structure and uses of African-American English-from colloquial speech to the literary voice of Toni Morrison. The Real Ebonics Debate cuts to the heart of how America educates African-American children. It will have immediate and enduring value for anyone thinking about race and schools.

The media frenzy surrounding the 1996 resolution by the Oakland School Board brought public attention to the term "Ebonics", however the idea remains a mystery to most. John Baugh, a well-known African-American linguist and education expert, offers an accessible explanation of the origins of the term, the linguistic reality behind the hype, and the politics behind the outcry on both sides of the debate. Using a non-technical, first-person style, and bringing in many of his own personal experiences, Baugh debunks many commonly-held notions about the way African-Americans speak English, and the result is a nuanced and balanced portrait of a fraught subject. This volume should appeal to students and scholars in anthropology, linguistics, education, urban studies, and African-American studies.

Given the increasing interest in African-centered education as a viable alternative educational strategy, the present study, growing out of the African American Immersion Schools Evaluation Project, provides an important demonstration of the movement from theoretical discussions of the potential benefits of African-centered education to its practice and measurable outcomes in urban public schools. The similarities between Milwaukee and other urban schools districts indicate that the findings from this study should have wide applicability.

The history of the education of African American children in one Alabama town is reconstructed over a period of 100 years, from the First Reconstruction period to the Second Reconstruction period (Governor George Wallace's stand in the schoolhouse door). Lessons learned from this case study, in addition to 15 years of desegregated education in the community, provides a perspective for educational policymakers to consider, as they attempt to plan effective schools in the 21st century for all children in America.