Customer Reviews

No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This Christmas many family members and friends of this African-American will be receiving a copy of NO EXCUSES, an honest and necessary book. The authors write that the academic learning gap between the races is "the most important civil rights issue of our time." Amen. Across all age groups, urban and suburban, North and South, affluent and poor, Black and Latino boys and girls are lagging behind whites and far behind Asians. Why is this?

The Thernstroms examined the available research literature and data on the impact of family income, parental education levels, school funding, school segregation levels, television viewing (note: Asian teens watch more TV than Whites teens), among others, and found that none of these influences could explain the learning Gap. For instance, poor whites and Asians scored higher than poor blacks and Latinos. Affluent African-American kids performed worse than the rich white kids sitting next to them. The racial makeup of the teacher had no bearing: black children taught by black teachers faired no better than those taught by white teachers. The authors go on to dispel many of the conventional reasons given for inferior academic achievement.

Again, why the learning Gap? After reading the book and considering all sides, I must consider two possible reasons. First, the ongoing learning Gap exist because Asians and whites are naturally more intelligent than African-Americans and Latinos. I categorically (as do the authors) reject this notion. It's the argument of conservative and liberal racists and the excuse makers.

The second reason for the learning Gap is that Afican-American and Latino parents generally do not establish high enough academic expectations and standards for their children. As a black parent, this is a painful and too-frequent observation I've made, and one that the book's data confirm. Asian children, whose learning Gap over whites is larger than the white-black/Latino gap, the authors point out, are simply expected to work harder and are held accountable by their parents. They don't think they're smarter. They do believe in the time-honored path to success: hard work. Very high standards and high accountability. The Gap is a cultural thing! It must be or the racists and excuse makers are right.

Now, how do we close the learning gap? The Thernstroms offer some good advice to change some of the "systems": less bureaucracy, better teachers, school choice, consistent standards, etc. And they discuss in detail the characteristics of a few highly successful schools in disadvantaged neighborhoods. But I'm stuck on how do we make wholesale cultural (African-American and Latino) changes needed to close the Gap? Reading this book and being honest is a start.

For more on African-American culture and academic achievement read, Losing the Race by John McWhorter.

In cities and suburbs across America, the average black high school graduate possesses the same reading, writing and mathematical competence of an eighth-grader - with Hispanic students not too far behind. This gap in academic achievement between black and Hispanic students and their white and Asian counterparts is the central civil rights issue of our time. If nothing is done to close it, true racial equality as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. envisioned it, will only be just that - a dream.

Such is the premise behind Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom's new book, "No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning." The authors of "America in Black and White" rely primarily on data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), often referred to as "the nation's report card," in analyzing the academic underachievement of black and Hispanic students. Although an alarming number of all American students are leaving high school with what the NAEP deems Below Basic skills, the Thernstroms show that the numbers for blacks and Latinos are abysmally frightening. In particular, a majority of black students perform Below Basic in five of the seven subjects tested: reading, mathematics, science, writing, U.S. history, civics, and geography.

The authors visited handful of what they call "break-the-mold" schools - schools that are doing wonders in providing inner-city black and Hispanic students with a quality education, and have the high test scores to prove it. These little pockets of superb education provide non-stop learning through longer school days, weeks and years, and share a common thread: they are free from the many bureaucratic constraints that stifle educational reform in today's big-city public schools. Furthermore, the teachers and administrators of these maverick schools inform students and parents at the outset that nothing less than high academic and behavioral standards will be accepted; in other words, "no excuses."

When it comes to academic success, the authors argue that culture is very important, and spend three chapters analyzing the cultural influences of Asians, Hispanics and African-Americans on educational achievement. The main reason that Asian students by and large are academic wunderkinds is because their parents expect nothing less. The Hispanic experience mirrors that of early 20th Italian immigrants, the authors point out. However, the cultural and demographic reasons for why Latino children academically underperform do not let schools off the hook. Black academic underachievement is discussed at length, and the authors have identified some apparent risk factors. (Although the Thernstroms do give plausible reasons for black underachievement, arguably the best analysis to date of the adverse effects of modern-day black American culture on academic achievement, particularly in middle-class suburban schools, is John McWhorter's "Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America.")

The Thernstroms take on conventional wisdom regarding the racial gap in learning; namely, that underperforming schools just need more money and smaller class sizes, should be more "racially balanced," and should hire more minority teachers. The authors show that these excuses do not explain the racial academic achievement gap, and pandering to them will neither improve public schools nor solve the problem of underachieving black and Hispanic students.

The authors also outline how Title I and Head Start have been a dismal failure since their inception. As education secretary Rod Paige aptly put it, "After spending $125 billion of Title I money over 25 years, we have virtually nothing to show for it." Also looked at is the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) signed by President Bush in 2001. The final chapter of the book analyzes the many bureaucratic obstacles that prevent true educational reform, not the least of which is how good teachers are (not) rewarded, the inability of superintendents to bring about change, and, of course, the teachers' unions.

For far too long, black and Hispanic academic underachievement has been a taboo subject, shamefully ignored by civil rights leaders, the media, and even academia. "No Excuses" forces us to not only examine this issue head on, but work to reverse this horrible trend before yet another generation of young blacks and Hispanics are crippled into a permanent underclass. The Thernstroms have shown that they care deeply about our children's future. For all others concerned, reading this book is a good first step in bringing about change.

The achievement gap is arguably the single biggest issue facing the public school system in America today. Failure to eliminate it calls into question the magnificent promise of public schools: that every child, regardless of birthright, will become productive citizens if given a free public education.

"No Excuses" is vital to understanding not just why the current public school system is unable to properly educate black and Hispanic children, but also how some people have succeeded in doing so.

The Thernstroms meticulously document the state of non-Asian minority achievement in American schools, and show that the conventional solutions to the problem will fail, as they have in the past.

The book explains why the current structure of the public school system - dominated by competing interest groups - can not and will not do what is necessary to educate black and Hispanic children.

Their message is not without hope, however. The Thernstroms chronicle the very real successes of some inner-city schools, and analyze the reasons that they have been able to educate the kids the other schools could not.

If you want to understand this issue you must read "No Excuses." The book's message won't be popular with defenders of the status-quo, but as the Thernstroms show, the status quo is the problem.

Only when Americans turn a deaf ear to their perpetual caterwauling will the public school system live up to its glorious promise.

Pick a topic:race,civil rights or education.No Excuses is the definitive work of the last 30 years on each.

Rigorously researched and beautifully written,the Thernstroms provide the most cogent analysis of one of the most difficult problems facing our society-- the prodigious gap in academic achievment between wh
ite and Asian students on the one hand and black and Hispanic students on the other.

The book examines the various factors that cause some schools and students to succeed while others fail, with actual examples of schools that graduate students who are not just competent, but more often than not, academic superstars, despite disadvantages that conventional wisdom would suggest should doom them to failure.

This is a magnificent work that is both scholarly and inspiring: an encyclopedic analysis that somehow manages to read like an adventure novel.It's a searingly intelligent examination of race, culture, family, finances,teachers,administrators,testing, instructional methods and a host of other factors that affect the achievment gap.

No Excuses should be mandatory reading for teachers, parents, students and politicians.This is a profound problem but it can be fixed.

From the New York Sun (10/14/03)

BOOKS

Asking Tough Questions, Debunking Old Answers

By ANDREW WOLF
Mr.Wolf writes a regular column for the op-ed pages of The New York Sun.

`No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning" is destined to become one of the most discussed - and despised - books on the nation's crisis in education in quite some time. It will be discussed because it calmly, methodically, and honestly describes the distressing problems that surround the gaps in academic performance among racial groups in America's schools. It will be despised by those unwilling or unable to confront hard and often painful truths. Those who would rather shoot the messengers than address the concerns they raise will find "No Excuses" a convenient target.

The authors - Abigail Thernstrom, a member of the Massachusetts State Board of Education and a commissioner on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and her husband Stephan, a Harvard history professor - have individually and together authored a small library of well-regarded books on historical and social issues, including 1997's "America in Black and White." The painful and thorny issues concerning race are familiar ground to them.

"No Excuses" paints a disturbing picture. The education gap between white children and African-American children is growing, seemingly resistant to the enormous effort and expenditure that has been applied to narrow it. The Thernstroms debunk dozens of the popular notions advanced to explain away the problem and the failures of its supposed cures. They reject the notion that the gap results from "racial isolation" or a lack of school funding. The common prescriptions - smaller class size, and more certified teachers - simply do not work.

The belief that merely achieving economic equality will lift the performance of African-American students is, unfortunately, a myth.The reality in schools like those in Shaker Heights, Ohio, an affluent - and integrated - suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, is that moving into the suburbs or achieving middle-class status simply doesn't free black students from a learning gap that leaves them, on average, with a junior-high level of education even after graduating from high school.

In suburbs such as Cambridge, Mass., well-meaning school administrators are so intent to narrow the gap that honors programs - thought to be "segregated by race and class" - are being phased out of the curriculum and replaced with a program that mixes high- and low-performing students together. In other words, if they can't raise the level of blacks and Hispanics, the alternative must be to lower the potential for whites and Asians. Despite these misguided efforts, despite a huge per pupil expenditure of $17,000 (twice what Boston, just across the Charles River, spends), and despite the second-lowest student-teacher ratio - 12.5 - in the country, blacks in Cambridge lag not just behind whites and Asians but behind the state average for all blacks as well.

Many who write about these troublesome issues shy away from the controversial questions surrounding the academic failures of minority children. The Thernstroms forthrightly place the blame and praise on cultural factors such as parental attitudes, peer pressure, and even the relative amount of time children of different backgrounds spend in front of the television set. There is a brutally frank discussion of the behavior problems of black students, beginning as early as kindergarten, as well as the role - or lack of one - that a teacher's ethnicity plays in the success of the children he or she teaches.

While "No Excuses" describes the gap between the performances of black and white children in the starkest possible terms, it also demonstrates that significant gaps exist between white and Asian-American children - with white children more often than not on the short end. But the remarkable achievements of Asians, often sitting next to black and Latino kids in "failing" urban schools, offers clues to a solution: What is required is nothing less than altering cultural attitudes towards education, especially among blacks. This goal that can and is achieved in schools like the KIPP Academy in the Bronx, a school that truly accepts "no excuses": Dress codes, a longer school day, a longer school year, Saturday classes, summer classes, and plenty of homework are common traits among the schools in this small group of success stories.

The Thernstroms also discuss Hispanics - who barely perform better than blacks. But the authors put the problems of this group into a historical context. Hispanic student performance mirrors the experience of Italian-Americans early in the last century. The difference is that the earlier Italian migration came to a halt when open immigration ended in the mid-1920s, while the academic advances of Hispanics are hidden in part by continuing immigration. And the same rigorous approach to changing cultural attitudes that the Thernstroms advocate for blacks would presumably accelerate the gains being made by Hispanic children as well.

Part of the value of "No Excuses" is its intellectual honesty. Studies are candidly discussed - even those that may call into question the conclusions of the authors. While the concepts of charter schools and choice are high on their list of strategies that can make a difference, the Thernstroms acknowledge the merits of arguments against them. They don't deny that, even when charter schools admit students by lottery, the application process can, and is often intended to, serve as a means of self-selection. The dedication of teachers in charter schools is hailed, but the reality that there may be limits on finding teachers who are "running for sainthood" is acknowledged. This is the kind of discussion we need - and so rarely get - about our schools.

"No Excuses" asks the tough questions, takes a hard look at the numbers, and comes up with carefully considered, admittedly imperfect solutions to one of our society's most urgent concerns. It is a book Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein should be reading, as it raises serious questions about the programs they are putting into place. If the Thernstroms are on target, and I believe they are, then Messrs. Bloomberg and Klein are driving the system in precisely the wrong direction.

The Thernstroms have done it again. They have tackled what is certainly one of the crucial issues of our time, and in the spirit of Hamlet, held the mirror up to nature. We may not like what we see, but education is what it is--a mess. I loved the fact that this is a scholarly work that is incredibly easy to read. The authors are wise to give examples of outstanding teaching, proving that education can work--hopefully, teachers and parents will be inspired by the success stories, and outraged by the conspiracy of mediocrity which is failing our children. This should be required reading for all PTA's, and for everyone involved in public school education. This book will provoke much needed discussion as to how we can improve opportunities for all students.

I rated this book 4 stars because of the wealth of data presented that began to build an excellent case for making some fundamental changes to the way we run our public, especially urban, schools. Being a teacher in an inner-city high school I witness everything the authors document in this book.

In short, I believe (as said the Thernstroms) that the problems stem mainly from the culture and attitudes of the students (and their families) that run counter to academic success and achievement. By the way, these traits are NOT limited to minority children; I've worked with many white and Asian students who have adopted many of these same characteristics, and subsequently perform abysmally in school. I see it as a lack of learned discipline that permeates these students' lives. The discipline that enables most people to overcome difficulties, persist in rigorous studies of abstract and often not-so-interesting concepts, and finally to master academic subjects prerequisite for advanced topics is usually sorely missing. This lack of discipline is not only harmful to their learning, but will also limit their success in life.

As I stated earlier, the first 12 chapters are excellent and enlightening; all who are interested in public education should read this. But the authors drop the ball in the last and concluding chapter, where they finally place 99% of the blame at the feet of the schools. Now, I will be the first to admit that there are many things that could be improved in the public schools, but "solutions" described in chapter 13 will fix NONE of what the authors spent 12 chapters telling us was the problem - namely, the culture of the students.

The Thernstroms were headed in the right direction in the earlier chapters when they pointed out the differences in the charter schools they deemed more effective: longer instructional day, stringent behavioral standards, and strong (and required) parental involvement. These are areas most teachers I know would love to change, but it is the administrators and the lawyers (and most parents) who keep these changes from occurring. It is the government's own rules and restrictions that force the urban public schools to coddle these children from K to 12, in terms of academics (with social promotion) and behavior. In fact,there are almost no consequences for truancy, poor performance, or bad behavior. Teachers are not allowed to instill discipline and order in the schools, and most of our students do NOT receive either in the home. This, I believe, is why the majority of my students cannot master grade-level mathematics.

So read this book for a great description of the realities that plague our urban public schools, but do not rely on it for any real solutions to the seemingly intractible problems we face.

In a period when the pressure is on America to avoid self-accountability, by stressing this very trait, No Excuses finally dares to put aside racism. As a college teacher, I've wondered why so many arguments are made for lowering standards to allow success for both African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans. Both groups of students are quite capable of "making the grade." It seems that any argument against this book, maintaining that it is racist, is also arguing that these ethnic groups are indeed less intelligent.

Hopefully, this will be, if not the first, an important realization that educators should not expect less of African-Americans or Hispanic-Americans, but more, and that the level of American education should rise to new "standards" instead of dropping them.

The Thernstroms have pulled together an amazing amount of data to explain why there is a large gap in achievement among different groups of students. Some of it has to do with the student's home background, with the attitudes of parents and family towards learning, which inevitably affect the student's own attitudes towards schooling and learning. "No Excuses" shows how schools can substantially reduce, even close, the achievement gap that disfavors minorities by establishing a disciplined environment, a solid curriculum, a no-nonsense approach to learning, and the kind of support that students need to take their schooling seriously and to work hard to achieve their goals. Their book contains many excellent examples of schools that have succeeded in raising the aspirations and achievement of all their students. It is a hopeful book. It says that we can do better and it shows the way to do it.
The book is very well-written, even enjoyable to read, unlike so many books about education. It is an important book and I recommend it highly to all who want to see greater justice and opportunity in education.

It's possible to praise a fine book for the wrong reasons. One of the reviewers here (who seems to believe that different "races" have inherently different levels of intelligence) may leave the impression that the Thernstrom's endorse his view -- or that their data supports it. Nothing could be further from the truth. They document that African-Americans score low on reading and math tests, and they emphasize that this cannot be explained away by alleged low per-pupil expenditures on inner-city schools. But they regard this as a national scandal precisely because they know and can demonstrate that it has nothing to do with inherent abilities and everything to do with social expectations. (Think of this book as a carefully documented version of what Bill Cosby told "black leaders" earlier this year. The authors are at pains to describe inner-city schools with low-income African-American populations, where levels of student achievement are outstanding. The authors can be labeled "conservative" in the sense that they believe African-Americans will benefit from school choice -- although "conservative" is an odd word to apply to the argument that we need radical change to a demonstrably failing system in order to give poor people a chance to succeed. (I write this as a veteran of civil rights marches and after 11 years on a local public school board. I can only imagine what a teachers' union would say if we tried to insist that they could use their health benefits only at clinics in their neighborhoods, especially if those clinics had decades of high mortality rates.) Anyway, this book is well worth reading, wherever you come out on the authors' very quietly stated policy recommendations.