Black American Students in An Affluent Suburb: A Study of Academic Disengagement (Sociocultural, Political, and Historical Studies in Education) (Paperback)

by John U. Ogbu (Author), With the Assist Davis (Author)
Key Phrases: academic enrichment classes, pragmatic trust, academic disengagement, Shaker Heights, United States, Black Americans (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

This book raises uncomfortable questions about race, opportunity, and responsibility as it examines why the sons and daughters of wealthy black professionals aren't keeping pace academically with the children of wealthy white professionals in Shaker Heights, Ohio...Ogbu doesn't let schools entirely off the hook. But he's not letting anyone else off, either.
—American School Board Journal

Black American Students in an Affluent Suburb presents an interesting departure from traditional studies of the Black and White achievement gap....this book is an important contribution to the literature on the Black-White achievement gap.
—Journal of College Student Development

In my view, what this book adds to the field is an extension of the debate on the age-old issue of culture, race, and school achievement, in part by making the point that race (and not economics) is the key issue. It also offers evidence of the detrimental beliefs some black students hold about the effort and intelligence of themselves and their peers.
—Human Development

Black American Students in an Affluent Suburb is a provocative look at minority educational achievement. The concepts of voluntary and involuntary minorities remain intriguing. And the emphasis on the interplay between the microlevel and the macrolevel sensitizes one to approach these issues of academic performance in a new light.
—Contemporary Sociology

[This book] should be required reading for those who are serious about wanting to improve the education of American children in general and minority children in particular.

For those who are interested in nurturing high-achieving African American students, regardless of their place in the educational system, Ogbus findings may help to craft policies that result in significant improvements in the levels of academic achievement.

-Fall 2006, The Journal of African American History

Product Description
Focuses on the role of community forces in academic disengagement among Black American Students at every social class level; the study extends Ogbu's ongoing research on minority education.

Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum (January 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080584516X
• ISBN-13: 978-0805845167
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #597,797 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An extremely accessible piece of social science scholarship, January 3, 2005

By	Graham H. Seibert (Kiev, Ukraine) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book manages to be comprehensible to a general reader while adhering to the rigorous demands of social science, that is to say, the formal structure of presenting and defending hypotheses and footnoting them endlessly. The book could have been better edited; too many errors of grammar, usage and even spelling slipped through.

I tend to trust Black commentators on American race issues. John Ogbu, like Bill Cosby, Larry Elder and Thomas Sowell, has an intellectual stature that demands he be taken seriously and an immunity to charges of racism. Another author would not have gotten away with the phrase "academic disengagement." Yet at the end of the book one realizes how appropriate that two-word appraisal is.

It is refreshing as well to read an author with an anthropologist's orientation. Ogbu's exhaustive study gave him an opportunity to repeat and reinforce earlier findings in Stockton and Oakland, California, and elsewhere and tailor findings to the Shaker Heights situation.

Blacks are, like American Indians, non-voluntary minorities. To say the least, most of their ancestors did not exactly enlist for service in the United States. The fewer and more recent voluntary black immigrants such as Colin Powell are interesting in two respects. First, their children do better in school than native born blacks. Secondly, however, subsequent generations born in the United States tend to adopt the (dysfunctional) attitudes of the native-born.

Ogbu's contention is that Blacks' profound distrust of the establishment and their conviction that they will not get a fair shake predisposes them not to give their full effort to schoolwork. Their defeatist attitudes start to emerge in the later primary years and are highly apparent by high school. Among the contributing factors are inappropriate role models -- sports and entertainment figures and various types of outlaws -- and a lack of parental involvement in the children's schooling. He describes a black expectation of a "beer mug" approach to teaching The teacher pours knowledge into the passive student. In this model the parents' job is to get the child to school, and the blame is on the teachers if he doesn't learn. He says also that parents are more attuned to whether teachers "care" than whether they are effective teachers.

He surveys a range of attempts to find solutions in changes to the school model: vouchers, charters, merit pay and so on. None have been, by his assessment, markedly successful. His recommendation is to change the culture of the learners themselves. Reinforce positive study habits, recognize achievement, and arm the students against the inevitable attempts of their peers to drag them into mediocrity.

I amend this review to refer the reader to "Crash Course" by Chris Whittle (and my review of the same). Whittle manages charter schools for underprivileged children in Baltimore, Washington, Philadelphia and elsewhere, and has quite a bit of success. He employs some of the ideas Ogbu advocates.

Ogbu did a workmanlike job of taking into consideration such factors as parental education, income and peer group values in comparing black and white students. He did so by drawing on his wealth of experience with Black students throughout America. Since his distinction between voluntary and involuntary immigrant status is central to his argument, it would have been useful to attempt to sort out those aspects of the Black educational experience that are unique within the American environment from those that characterize Black students in other national settings. The Nigerian-born Mr. Ogbu would have been uniquely well positioned to do so.

40 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Objective Study, July 28, 2003

By	Fritz (Metro Chicago, USA) - See all my reviews

Any open minded person that reads this book will quickly discover the obvious; The Black community in Shaker Heights, Ohio is in deep need of Dr. Phil McGraw's "Self Matters." Ogbu produces page upon page of community respondents culturally brainwashed to focus their intellect on a history they have not lived, and an available future that they cannot fathom. Ogbu's tone is harsh. His main argument: The Black community's cultural beliefs and practices are not conducive to success in academics. This is where the controversy lies. Because the book doesn't blame the testing gap on White racism, his analysis must be wrong. Simply read what students themselves are saying and draw your own conclusions.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Disengagement, September 6, 2007

By	D. Johnson "knowledge thru books" (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I found this book to be truly insightful. The author provided interesting information that was gained through observation, focus groups, and one-on-one interviews of just how disengaged affluent African American high school students are from the educational process. The author underscores the fact that the challenges facing African American and educations goes beyond economics.