The N&O published a series of articles on the peril faced by minority youth who have been expelled from or dropped out of school. Here is the story of Iran, Raheem, and Phillip, as well as commentary here , here, and here.
No one can deny that the problem exists, but the stories appeared to place a disproportionate amount of blame on the school system. The story of Raheem is instructive. Here is the sequence of events:
– A year ago, 16 year old Raheem is expelled from 9th grade for fighting.
– Last month, Raheem receives a long-term suspension from 9th grade for fighting.
– Raheem’s mother turns down an offer to enroll Raheem in an alternative school.
– Raheem enrolls in an alternative program called New Horizons. The director of the program recalls that Raheem did not attend classes very often. Mother cites financial strain as the problem.
– The long-term suspension prompts Raheem to drop out of school.
This is classic “social reproduction” theory, very similar in thinking to Jay MacLeod’s Ain’t No Makin’ It, a study of how racism and class structure join with the education system to keep lower class kids down and out. In both the N&O article and in works like Ain’t No Makin’ It, human beings are completely stripped of their agency. Students are not responsible for any “decision” that they make because schools already determine the fate of kids like Raheem.
Before we begin talking about solutions to the achievement gap, we need to acknowledge that students make choices that will lead to success or failure in school. Schools need to be improved, but they do not wholly determine the choices that Raheem or any other students make.
