Strengthening the African American Educational Pipeline: Informing Research, Policy, and Practice (review)

The progression of African American students through the P–20 academic pipeline is a major educational policy issue for all segments of the academic community. Scholars, researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and activists have all made valuable statements about why some African American students are failing in educational settings while others are evincing resilience despite difficulty and/or attaining excellence amid challenges (Dancy & Brown, 2008). The themes of recruitment, retention, attrition, completion, and continued matriculation all proffer guidance for the redefinition and modification of the existing delivery of services from preschool to postsecondary education.

Often ignored in the conversational silos are the transitions, midpoints, markers, and “flow” through the academic pipeline. In a 2000 article, Brown and Bartee explored the policies and practices that impact the ways in which African American students progress through their varied educational pipelines. They argued that the P–20 pipeline is “riddled with clogs, leaks, and eroded sealant” (2000, p. 15). Jerlando F. L. Jackson recently advanced this same argument about African American educational attainment with his edited volume, Strengthening the African American Educational Pipeline: Informing Research, Policy, and Practice.

The book is divided into three parts: Part 1: “Pre-K–12 Schools”; Part 2: “Higher Education”; and Part 3: “Social Influences.” The book’s parts, as well as the chapters within them, undergird a threefold purpose: (a) to review the landscape of African American educational experience since the landmark cases Brown v. Board of Education and United States v. Fordice; (2) to examine trends and challenges reported by African American students and professionals in educational contexts that have become increasingly competitive over resources; and (3) to reflect on the systemic knowledge about policy and practice that emerges from institutional divisions and infrastructure in contemporary education.

Part 1 revisits the roles of pre-K–12 schools in the education landscape since, as Jackson (2007) asserts, they “are critical in determining African Americans’ readiness for postsecondary education” (p. 11). Clearly, this book seeks to pay close attention to how pre K–12 schooling is salient to understanding African American students’ transitions to college. More specifically, how African American personnel have historically shaped and presently shape the educational experiences of African American students is clearly the foreground theme in Part 1.

Thoughtfully, Jennifer Obidah, Tracy Buenavista, R. Evely Gildersleeve, Peter Kim, and Tyson Marsh’s chapter teases out the historical and social characteristics of contemporary “hard to teach in” classroom contexts. They define and conceptualize “hard to teach in” schooling contexts as those

where African American teachers have honed their teaching craft historically and today. Today, “hard-to-teach-in” refers to the urban context where the majority of African American teachers teach and African American students attend school. Historically , “hard to teach in” referred primarily to segregated schools in the South where this same population (teachers and students) attended school.

(p. 39)

The five co-authors argue that social and ecological conditions as well as expanding state and federal education reform policies challenge African American teachers in two critical ways: (a) the pressure to rethink teaching philosophies embedded in an instructional tradition with disparate impact on African American student learning; and (b) low salaries and job status for teachers, particularly for African American teachers who work in “hard-to-teach-in” educational contexts. Obidah et al. argue that “one-size-fits-all” approaches to standardization and application in education must not threaten to inhibit the unique pedagogy that African American teachers bring to the learning experience (p. 49).

Linda C. Tillman conceptualizes African American contributions to education in ways similar to Obidah et al. She reviews what she terms “traditions of excellence” that have emerged from African American school leaders’ efforts in serving African American students. She uses legal and historical perspectives as the context for discussing the value of K–12 African American school principals and how attention must...