Achievement Gap: “Young, Gifted, and Black” by Perry et al.

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Abstract

This paper will focus on the book titled “Young gifted and black: Promoting high achievement among African-American students”. The paper will start with an analysis of the most interesting parts of the book covered by each of the three authors and then proceed to look at African-American philosophy of education versus academic excellence of the performance of African-Americans. Changes in the understanding of achievement gap will last be analysis before the paper culminates with a recommendation of what schools should do differently to promote the achievement of African-American students

Interesting bits in the book Young gifted and black: Promoting high achievement among African-American students

This book is educational masterpiece authored by award winning scholars of African American Origin. The book is critical analysis of African American student’s academic success and life in school. The book is made up of three different essays each by a different person. The first essay is authored by Theresa Perry and she focuses on the theory of achievement by African Americans. The part essay starts with a description of the excellence of the black Americans who took part in the program dubbed education opportunity. The most interesting thing about this part of the essay is the mixture of the academic excellence of the African Americans is schools and academic programs with the many hardships like poverty, illiterate parents, racism and many other variables that do not impede their achievement in education. She claims that African American experience is related to African American achievement and this understanding will help in theory education from an African American point of view (Perry, Steele & Hilliard, 2003)

The other interesting part of the essay is her exposition of the African American philosophy of education which she sums up as the lived experiences of the people of that race riddled by struggle, denied opportunities and racism. According to her, this is the influences that motivate the philosophy of education of the African American. What empowers the reader in the understanding of her message is the use of various narratives in the modern sense that strike with the target audience. Some of the narratives cover the experiences of legends such as Malcolm X, Angelou and Gwendolyn Parker. The author message in these narratives is the constraints and struggles that precede academic excellence of the African Americans. The narratives give the reader a chance to identify the vital influences that these academic greats used to ride over the impeding elements. The other interesting part of the book is the essay by Claude Steel about the effects of racial stereotype on the academic achievement of down races, in this case, the African American. Stereotype is a negative depiction and creates fear in the subject of the stereotype in a way that they avoid doing something that is similar to the stereotype. She claims that stereotype is an influence the derails the academic achievement of the people of the African American background. She not only identifies stereotyping as a problem but also goes ahead to offer a solution. She claims that a good relationship between students and teachers can wipe out part of the problem. Institutional changes can be made to bring diversity and fairness for the diverse races in an academic institution (Perry, Steele & Hilliard, 2003). The other solution is the interpretating of intelligence using the principles of effort versus experiences instead of ones background. The other interesting part in an essay by Assay Hilliard about the gap in achievement where he challenges the old thinks that the gap should be construed as the difference between the achievement of the white Americans and that of their African counterparts. He claims that the achievement gap should be thought again to make it the difference between success and real performance.

African-American philosophy of education versus academic excellence of the performance of African-Americans

The philosophy of education is related to the achievement and the performance of the Africans in the education system. The African American philosophy is based not only on knowledge and innate capabilities but is highly grounded on the things that the African Americans have experienced in life. These lived experiences include denial of aces to quality education, illiteracy rates among the African Americans and very many other struggles.

This philosophy of education is very important in the understanding of the performance of the African Americans because it highlights the motivating factors behind this performance, which is a complete departure from conventional philosophy that did not factor in lived experiences. According to this philosophy, the performance of the African Americans in school is as a result of the struggles that the African Americans had to make in life (Perry, Steele & Hilliard, 2003)..The philosophy thus sums up the performance and achievement of the African Americans as an accomplishment made in an environment of significant constraints bring by the inferiority complex of the African Americans. The constraints are therefore strengths and the tactics that help the African Americans to excellently their learning because of a desire of future life without such constraints.

Change in the understanding of achievement gap

According to Hilliard, the achievement divide is usually thought using ethnic and gender fronts which is a misplaced notion. The traditional postulation that viewed achievement gap from cultural lines doses not have a place in any philosophy of education because it fails to capture the most significant elements of achievement. This traditional conceptualization of achievement gap therefore promotes mediocrity in education, but Hilliard’s point of view, brings a expert understanding of the achievement gap because it defines the gap as the difference between what is figure as excellence and the real performance. This understanding is very important because it defeats the illogic conventional postulation that saw the gap in learning opportunities presented rather then in the intelligence of the learners themselves. The understanding is also important because it factors the fact the whites are exposed to better education and environment than their African American counterparts and the traditional measure of achievement tends to favor the students who are privileged to get the better education opportunities. When achievement is seen on the levels of performance and not on ethnic and gender platforms, a level playing ground is created from which the achievement gap can be seen objectively.

What schools should do differently to promote the achievement of African-American students

There are things that schools should do differently to promote the achievement in academics of the subjugated race. One of these things is implementation of management strategies that will help dealing with the threat caused by stereotypes. This can be done by enhancement of relationships between the members of the various races and even between the teachers and the student’s in order to create a homogenous group devoid of hatred. The other thing that the schools can do is to create institutional amendments that promote justice and fairness for all and this will encourage the students to respect the cultural diversities that are there in the school system. Lastly achievement should not be interpreted from a gender or ethnic perspective but from a background of effort applied and lived experience. This will ensure that there is a level playing filed for the students of diverse races that will enable them compete favorably.

Reference

Perry, T., Steele, C., Hilliard, A. (2003). Young, gifted and black: Promoting high achievement among African-American students. New York: Beacon Press.

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Achievement Gap: “Young, Gifted, and Black” by Perry et al.

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