Educational Inequality in an Affluent Setting

271 Pages·2008·2.53 MB·English

Educational Inequality in an Affluent Setting: An Exploration of Resources and
Opportunity

by

Ronald L’Heureux Lewis

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
(Public Policy and Sociology)
in The University of Michigan
2008

Doctoral Committee:
Professor David K. Cohen, Co-Chair
Associate Professor Alford Young Jr., Co-Chair
Associate Professor Carla O’Connor
Assistant Professor Anthony Chen
“To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of
hardships.” –WEB Du Bois
© Ronald L’Heureux Lewis

All Rights Reserved
2008
Dedication

To the families of Rolling Acres, thank you for the insights and the lessons that you
provided me while I was inside and outside of the field.

To my parents and family for helping me navigate my own rolling acres.
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Acknowledgements

Though this dissertation features my name as the sole author, it was undoubtedly
a collective work. I first would like to acknowledge my great co-chairs David Cohen and
Al Young. David, your persistent questions helped me settle on a site of study and frame
the project as it currently reads. From early on in my graduate career your comments
have helped shape my inquiry and analysis. Al, you have been much more than a
dissertation chair since I stepped on U of M’s campus. Your sage advice on research and
life has helped me continue to develop in a rich Black sociological tradition. Carla
O’Connor and Tony Chen, my other two committee members often operated behind the
scenes to make this project come to fruition. Carla, your willingness to take me on a pupil
in research having never experienced me in the classroom was kind and brave. Thank you
for helping me craft solid work and providing me support in my path to this PhD. Tony,
your arrival at Michigan’s campus provided a sigh of relief for me. As a young and
energetic scholar you continually asked me innovative and demanding questions. All four
of my committee members are known as outstanding scholars, but I want to also mark in
the record that you are equally amazing mentors.
Inside and outside of the classroom I found an amazing community in Michigan.
Al, Andy, Angel, Ayesha, Claire, Inna, Keith, Kizzy, Lumas, Lydia, Mark, Monica,
Rosa, Tamara, Tanya, Tony and every other person who read my semi-coherent work
your insights and additions to my project can never be understated. My graduate student
elders at Michigan: Amanda, Chavella, Geoff, Odis, Maria, Rochelle, Shawn, Shawan,
Sherri-Ann, Tyrone thank you for providing me a strong foundation as you plotting your
path out of U of M into great shores, you didn’t know me and didn’t owe me, but treated
me like a loved sibling. I pray I pay it forward in the lives of graduate students who have
come after me. Amongst junior and senior faculty I found some of the most giving
scholars and mentors who are too numerous to name, though you name may not appear,
your marks still reign over my work. In any university the post-doc occupies an “odd
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location” but in my final years a group that I have come to call my post-doc angels:
Daphne, Janice, Salamishah, and Tara helped to carry me across the finish line when I
felt like I could not go any longer. To the brothers of Ajamu, you already know. To my
home away from home SCOR, you welcomed me, challenged me, and fed me! This
community of color was like coming to an oasis in the desert, thank you for helping me
keep my sanity. Certainly not to be forgotten my SURO assistants: Joslyn, Kate and
Maureen.
And lastly, to everyone who ever held my hand, pushed me to live up to my
name, or reminded me “they don’t give out tenure to graduate students” thank you, thank
you, thank you. Love is neither tough, nor soft, it is just is. Thank you for loving me
enough to see me this degree through. Words can’t express my love for you.
If your name does not appear on these pages please charge it to my head and not
my heart. As Mos Def said, “I ain’t no perfect man, I’m trying to do, the best that I can,
with what it is I have.” As they say, I saved the best for last, all praises due to the Most
High and the ancestors for carrying me, may I continue to walk in your path. Ase!
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Table of Contents
Dedication..................................................................................................................... ii
Acknowledgements......................................................................................................iii
List of Figures..............................................................................................................vii
List of Appendices..................................................................................................... viii
Abstract........................................................................................................................ix
Chapter One....................................................................................................................1
Introduction...................................................................................................................1
Opportunity.............................................................................................................3
Research Findings....................................................................................................6
Sociological Conceptions of Race............................................................................7
Sociological conceptions of Social Class .................................................................9
Race, Social Class and the Institution of Education................................................10
Relevant Research.................................................................................................12
Conclusion.............................................................................................................35
Chapter Two..................................................................................................................37
Methodology................................................................................................................37
Methods Collection................................................................................................38
Data Collection......................................................................................................44
Ethnography and Me..............................................................................................48
Interview coding....................................................................................................56
Analysis.................................................................................................................57
Conclusion.............................................................................................................59
Chapter Three................................................................................................................61
The City of Rolling Acres............................................................................................61
Measuring Social Distance in Rolling Acres..........................................................68
Chapter Four.................................................................................................................72
RAPS and Education Policy........................................................................................72
Political Economy of RAPS...................................................................................73
Aims and Environment..........................................................................................76
Race and Archives.................................................................................................77
Redistricting/ Desegregation..................................................................................78
1997-1998 Redistricting.........................................................................................83
Policy Interests......................................................................................................84
Race-based or Race-Considerate?..........................................................................88
Tackling the Gap...................................................................................................89
The 10 Initiatives...................................................................................................92
Centralization and Diffusion..................................................................................97
2004 Initiatives....................................................................................................101
Community Influence..............................................................................................103
Conclusion..............................................................................................................104
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Chapter Five................................................................................................................106
Social and Cultural Capital in Rolling Acres...........................................................106
Social Capital......................................................................................................111
Classroom Placement Policies..............................................................................124
Conclusion...........................................................................................................137
Chapter Six..................................................................................................................141
Community and Opportunity...................................................................................141
Neighborhood Effects..........................................................................................143
Segregation, Desegregation, and Integration........................................................147
Segregation and Schooling...................................................................................148
Residential Location and Opportunity..................................................................151
Thoughts on Desegregation and Integration.........................................................156
Danny Morris......................................................................................................159
LeBron Downing.................................................................................................169
Friendship Networks and Sports..........................................................................177
Envisioned Futures..............................................................................................179
Policy Relevance.................................................................................................182
Case selection......................................................................................................183
Conclusion...........................................................................................................186
Chapter Seven.............................................................................................................189
Inside Rolling Acres’ Classrooms.............................................................................189
Where does the responsibility lie?........................................................................191
Observing Language Arts....................................................................................194
Student-Teacher Interaction Scale Data................................................................198
Ethnographic Evidence........................................................................................205
Family Background.............................................................................................209
Theorizing Difference..........................................................................................216
Conclusions.........................................................................................................221
Chapter Eight..............................................................................................................223
Lessons from Rolling Acres.......................................................................................223
Resource Uptake..................................................................................................224
Cultural and Social Capital Revisited...................................................................226
Schooling and Ideas, Beliefs and Practices...........................................................228
Reframing Evaluation of Changes........................................................................229
Shifting Dialogues on Inequality..........................................................................230
Conclusion...........................................................................................................234
Appendices..................................................................................................................236
Bibliography..............................................................................................................244

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List of Figures

Figure 3.1 Achievement in Rolling Acres 1...................................................................66

Figure 4.1 Hierarchy of Influence 1...............................................................................73

Figure 5.1 Parental Ed Attainment 1............................................................................115

Figure 7.1 Teachers' Pos Feedback Race 1...................................................................198

Figure 7.2 Teachers' Post Feedback SC 1.....................................................................201

Figure 7.3 Teacher's Neg. Feedback Race 1.................................................................202

Figure 7.4 Teachers' Neg. Feedback SC 1....................................................................204

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List of Appendices

Appendix A. Student Interview …………………………………………….………… 236

Appendix B. Guardian Interview ……………………………………………..………. 238

Appendix C. Teacher Interview ………………………………..………………………241
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