Schools Betrayed: Roots of Failure in Inner-City Education (review)

Relationships between educational inequality, achievement and life chances are well-documented. Yet, despite persuasive accounts of vast differences in funding, resources and teaching quality between schools, as well as disparities in test scores, graduation rates, and other measures of performance, educational attainment is still routinely attributed to individual and group limitations. Based on the American ideology of meritocracy, explanations for achievement commonly turn a blind eye to structural sources of inequality while holding students responsible for dampened aspirations or disengagement from schooling.

The assumption that anyone can get ahead merely through his or her own effort and commitment is further reinforced in comparative analyses of different racial and ethnic groups both historically and currently. While some racial minorities become exemplars of the value of hard work, others are blamed for their own failures, limited abilities, and lack of effort and responsibility. For example, black American students who do not fare well in school are often compared to white European immigrants in the past or to more recent immigrants of color who are portrayed as a testament to the capacity of groups to overcome disadvantage and unfavorable odds.

Comparing the experiences of southern and eastern European immigrants with those of black Americans between 1900 and 1960, Kathryn Neckerman presents a different story. In contrast to popular belief, she attributes low academic performance among black students to a set of practices and processes that began in the 1930s, and eventually cemented the effects of initial disadvantage. Through both explicit racist policies and less overt forms of neglect, Chicago’s inner-city public schools offered black students an education that was inadequate in nearly every way. Their schools hired and retained the least experienced teachers. Severely overcrowded, they cycled students through double and even triple shifts. The absence of effective remedial education kept low-performing students perpetually behind. When these students moved on to secondary schools, often by social promotion, they did not receive the same benefits of the vocational education programs that prepared immigrant students for skilled trades.

Neckerman’s findings are consistent with those of other historical narratives that examine the rise of differentiated schooling. Processes of curricular tracking created different paths for black and immigrant students and standardized test scores became a key sorting mechanism. While theories emphasizing a relationship between test scores and academic potential prevailed, there seemed to be fewer theories linking performance to the cumulative effects of inferior education. By relating current patterns of achievement to the pervasive and deeply entrenched problems of Chicago’s segregated public schools, Neckerman illuminates the processes through which disadvantage adds to further advantage.

Most interestingly, her research shows how the structural conditions in which teaching and learning take place affects the perspectives and attitudes of teachers and students, and how institutional legacies discourage teachers and students from putting much stock in their roles. When barriers are overwhelming and constant, when there are few signs of hope, what is likely to happen and what does happen, is that social actors, at best, “do education” by going through the motions because there is little evidence that a higher level of commitment will pay off. As a result, classrooms and school buildings become sites of struggle as teachers and students direct their frustration toward one another, rather than at the inadequate resources that make it difficult for either to achieve success.

Unfortunately, only limited data are available during the specific years of study. We must infer a connection between poor school quality, segregation and the micro-level classroom and school practices and interactions she describes. Although quotes from historical data provide some evidence of how individuals respond to schooling environments, one wishes for more first-hand data on how parents, students and teachers experienced the school system and made sense of their experiences.

Nonetheless, Neckerman’s account clearly reveals significant barriers to high achievement. While recognizing segregation and poverty as primary sources of educational inequality, she avoids creating an impression that the education of children...