Learning While Black: Creating Educational Excellence for African American Children

In this study, Janice Hale critiques existing initiatives for improving the education of African-American children. She maintains that the current focus of school reform movements - teacher training and testing, child testing, child retention, and "one-size-fits-all" models of parent involvement - amount to the "same old thing". The solution to creating educational excellence for African American children, she argues, is found in the classroom, in the activity between the teacher and the child. The key to teaching children effectively lies in the instructional leadership provided by the principals. And meeting the needs of diverse learners in urban and rural classrooms means the school becoming the co-ordinator of support services such as tutoring and mentoring provided by concerned citizens, service clubs, churches and fraternal organizations. In this text, educators are called on to give up their belief that the educational limitations of African American children are the reasons for the achievement gap. Principals and teachers are called upon to work with community members to monitor the educational performance and extracurricular activities for each child at the classroom level, making sure that all children are performing at or above grade level and are involved in meaningful cultural enrichment programmes. Finally, Hale calls on all of us to create the "beloved community" envisioned by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and outlines strategies for redefining the school as the Family, and the broader community as the Village in which each child is too precious to be left behind.

Table of Contents:
Foreword by V. P. Franklin Preface Acknowledgments PART I: Breaking the Silence Chapter 1: Mastery and Excellence versus the Bell Curve Chapter 2: Playing by the Rules Chapter 3: African American Goals and Closed Doors Chapter 4: Down the Up Escalator PART II: Creating the Village Chapter 5: Twenty-First-Century Education Project: Report and Recommendations Chapter 6: A Model for Culturally Appropriate Pedagogy Chapter 7: The Role of the African American Church in Creating the Village Chapter 8: Where Do We Go from here?: A Call to Action Appendix - The Church's Educational and Advocacy Mission with African American Children: Cognitive, Affective, and Religious Context References Index

About the Author :
Janice E. Hale is professor of early childhood education at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. She is the founder of Visions for Children, a demonstration school designed to facilitate the intellectual development of African American preschool children. Her two previous books, Black Children: Their Roots, Culture, and Learning Styles and Unbank the Fire: Visions for the Education of African American Children, are also available from Johns Hopkins.

Review :
A heartfelt and forthright assessment of the all-too-often daunting task facing parents of black students. Hale parallels the racial profiling of law enforcement with current educational assumptions that put black children at a decided disadvantage, facing educators' low expectations and indifference. Educational reform efforts that focus on parental involvement are doomed to failure when so many parents of children attending public schools lack the education, time, energy, and resources to effectively monitor the school and advocate on behalf of their children. Hale relates her own frustrating experiences with her son's private school and not being part of the 'club' that knows the ins and outs and how to get around the rules. Hale offers a detailed strategy that focuses on the classroom and advocates coordinated community-support services and enhanced leadership roles for principals. An innovative and important book for parents and educators concerned about educating black children. —Booklist In a wide but welcome swing of the pendulum, Hale . . . fixes her gaze directly upon schools—the teachers and the children. Here is a fresh and feisty look at the miseducation of African-American children, . . . a 'call for action directed to the organizations controlled by middle-class African Americans, not to beleaguered individuals themselves' . . . Hale offers a solution that recognizes the school as the impetus for inner-city African-American children to achieve upward mobility, relying on help from parents, churches, community volunteers and teachers. Her model attends to those differences between 'Afro cultural' themes and 'mainstream' ones, which influence the varying academic achievement of African-American children compared with white children's achievement.'. —Publishers Weekly In this challenging book, Hale cites persistent teacher shortages, inadequate materials and facilities, and the lack of accountability among administrators as factors contributing to continual academic failure among low-income children in predominantly black public schools. To counter this situation, she proposes the concepts of 'being in the family, creating the village, and striving for the beloved community.'. —Library Journal I have never read a book that has had as much impact on me as a parent and educator as did Learning While Black. —Deborah Godwin Starks, ET Clark Academy Hale's well thought out suggestions put Learning While Blackat the forefront of discussions around educational reform. —Jenny Lee, Black Parenting Today Hale's work not only can serve as an 'educational bible' for teachers and administrators who are serious about equalizing education between black and white students, but it can also assist parents and members of the community . . . a profound text that raises many issues legislators, administrators, educators, parents and the like fail to notice. —Robbin L. Melton, Frost Illustrated This is an important book that should be read by teachers and all those concerned with education policy. —Sage Race Relations Abstracts