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Citation:

Noguera, P. A. (2001). Racial politics and the elusive quest for excellence and equity in education. Education and Urban Society, 34(1), 18-41. EJ634050.

Annotation:
This article illustrates how local political factors complicate efforts to reduce racial disparities in student achievement. The author argues political rather than educational strategies alone are needed to respond to the racial achievement gap. A four-year study of the achievement gap at Berkeley High School (the Diversity Project, 1999) examined the practices used to assign and sort students into courses, and the highly segregated patterns of student participation in clubs and other extracurricular activities. The study found that racial inequality was produced and maintained because staff had rationalized these practices and patterns as the result of student abilities, motivation, or free choices. In addition, political pressure from non-minority affluent parents and community members who did not want things to change had led to further rationalization of the achievement gap. There was little school staff willingness to accept responsibility for the disparities in academic outcomes and the accompanying social tensions. As a result, efforts were taken to empower minority parents to advocate and exert their own kind of political pressure, many of which are causing some change in the achievement pattern at Berkeley High School. The authorÕs main point is that political pressures exerted by parents, families, and the local citizenry can and do make a difference in the Òstructures of opportunityÓ that exist for students. Political pressures that perpetuate the achievement gap often come from zero-sum beliefs about educational equity and excellenceÑthe widespread perception that advances in educational equity would necessarily come at the expense of the educational interests and opportunities of affluent non-minority students. The author warns that once political factors and the structures of opportunity that create the achievement gap in schools are addressed, still more time will pass before significant reductions are seen, given other factors like student motivation and outside cultural forces. This article is theoretically complex but very interesting since it tells the story of Berkeley High SchoolÕs efforts in addressing the achievement gap.