Cooperation and Community: Reflections on a Model for Urban Education

Abstract

Recommendations for improving ghetto schools and the education of Black children have been forthcoming at a steady pace. Since 1954, programs of integration, desegregation, compensatory education, Head Start, More Effective Schools, etc., have been implemented. At present, however, few new programs are being developed and even fewer are being initiated. Yet the problems in these schools have not been solved. Because the main problem in inner-city schools is the lack of academic achievement, we need programs which pose effective solutions to the improvement of reading and mathematics proficiency. A milieu that fosters involvement, competence, cooperation and accountability for administrative staff, teachers, children and their parents could be an achieving school. We need to create a climate in which children are motivated to learn, in which they feel cooperative and involved with their peers, teachers, and parents. Education, including achievement and social learning, must be restructured to reflect enjoyment rather than estrangement. Community participation is an appropriate mechanism to form the nucleus of such restructuring.