Public School Choice: Implications for African American Students

Abstract

INTRODUCTIONOther articles in this issue of the Journal of Negro Education have examined the impact of various educational models on the education of African American students. Alternative schools, magnet schools and programs, schools-within-schools--all within the public sector--have been examined for the potential of these innovations to support higher levels of achievement in those populations underserved by the public schools of this country underserved include disproportionate numbers of people of color, especially African Americans, Latinos, and the poor.If these educational models have demonstrated some degree of success, it has been at isolated schools or in the rare subdistrict of a large city school system such as Community District 4 in New York City. Even rarer are those smaller urban or suburban districts that have had moderate success in increasing the achievement levels of their students, and even these districts continue to struggle with an achievement gap between White students and students of color. Cambridge (MA) and Montclair (NJ) are the oft-cited examples of the latter (Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1992). However, no large urban system has been able to spread the success of individual programs and/or schools to the larger scale of an entire district, although some, like the Detroit Public Schools, have adopted the goal of becoming the first urban district to successfully educate of their children as their mission (McGriff, 1991).In this article, we will present an argument that these singular successes must be organized into a powerful system that delivers on the promises of excellence and equity for public schoolchildren. For the purpose of this discussion, excellence and equity are viewed as twin goals for the education of African American students and other students of color. These goals are intertwined and inseparable; neither can exist without the other. Excellence defines the standard, while equity defines the expanded target audience. Excellence encompasses several features: high academic standards; rigorous, integrated subject matter that prepares students for postsecondary education and employment; and pedagogy that promotes and supports higher-order critical thinking skills and respects the multicultural student population. As stated by Robert M. Hutchins, The best education for the best is the best education for all (quoted in Adler, 1982, p. 6). Equity is rooted in the principle that excellence must be made available to everyone. Taken to the next level, equity of high outcomes as well as equity of access to programs of excellence must be ensured. This assurance is the challenge to our nation's preparation for the 21st century.The creation of such a powerful system means that state departments of education, school boards, superintendents, and the public should consider adding one form of public school choice to the reform agenda of public education. That form is controlled choice.CONTROLLED CHOICEControlled choice originated in Cambridge in the late 1970s and early 1980s in response to state pressures for school desegregation. Cambridge Controlled Choice School Desegregation Plan was not only an attempt to voluntarily desegregate the schools but also one of the first districtwide plans to promote parental choice of schools as a major goal (Tan, 1990). (Robert) Peterkin (the former superintendent of the Cambridge Public Schools) and Jones (1989) describe the key elements of the plan as follows:Stated simply, the Cambridge plan expands the concept of neighborhood from a small area to the entire city. A parent may request any school, and the child is assigned, on a first-come, first-served basis, to a school of choice provided there is space in that school and the assignment has a positive effect on the racial balance of the relevant grade in the school. (p. 127)Generally, Cambridge parents are invited to choose among at least three schools in the application process. …