Brown at 60: An American Success Story [Op-Ed] (Wall Street Journal - May 14, 2014) #Harlem Education News: Harlem Childrens Zone EXCERPT: It is demeaning, even racist, to assume that minority children cant learn—or cant learn as much—unless they are immersed in a student body in which whites are the majority. The most sophisticated research on the subject does not find that having white classmates notably improves the academic achievement of blacks and Hispanics. The high test scores in the largely black or Latino charter schools run by the KIPP Academy, the Harlem Childrens Zone and many others illustrate the point. Mr. Orfield and his many supporters, though, resolutely oppose charter schools, and he even faults the Obama administration for its rather mild support for them. He dismisses charter schools because they are the most segregated sector of schools for black students. It is true that the schools typically do not have many white students enrolled; thats because the charter schools mission is to serve students who are most in need. Studies by Roland Fryer and many other social scientists reveal that black and Latino students actually learn more rapidly when they transfer into a good charter school (or private school where vouchers are available), even if the school has a racial mix—i.e., not a majority of white students—that passionate advocates of racial balance find objectionable. The quality of American public schools is not what it should and could be, but the problem is not the lack of a proper racial balance in their student bodies. Schools with heavy black or Hispanic enrollment are not segregated; it is a gross misuse of the term to claim otherwise. The promise of Brown v. Board of Education has been fulfilled. Nothing resembling the Jim Crow South has re-emerged, and it never will. On Saturday we should celebrate a truly heartening American success story. Mr. Thernstrom is a history professor at Harvard University. Ms. Thernstrom is an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. They are the co-authors of America in Black and White: One Nation Indivisible (Simon & Schuster, 1997).
Posted on: Wed, 14 May 2014 15:09:49 +0000
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