Education Commons^™

Jonathan Kozol’S Nation Of Shame Forty Years Later, Lorraine Kasprisin

Journal of Educational Controversy

On September 29, 2005, Jonathan Kozol spoke at Western Washington University on his latest book, The Shame of the Nation, the Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America. We have used the occasion of his talk as the impetus for this issue of our journal. For those interested in viewing Mr. Kozol’s lecture, we have provided a link to the video of his presentation. Against a background of the concerns he has raised over the last forty years, we asked authors to consider the following dilemma:

Jonathan Kozol reminds us that this country’s schools are more segregated now than …

Lessons From The Periphery: The Role Of Dispositions In Montessori Teacher Training, Keith Whitescarver, Jacqueline Cossentino

Journal of Educational Controversy

In 2002 the term “dispositions” entered the vocabulary of teacher education with a vengeance when the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) added the concept to its inventory of required standards Teacher education programs across the country developed lists of professional dispositions that their graduates should attain based on NCATE provided guidelines. Caring, fairness, honesty, responsibility, and social justice were values included in NCATE suggestions; these values were emphasized and, subsequently, assessed in teacher education programs. Students who were found lacking in these traits were counseled out of education programs or given unsatisfactory grades, at least at some …

Antecedents Of Disposition Testing: Lessons From The History Of The Good Teacher, Jennifer De Forest

Journal of Educational Controversy

In 2002 the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) published new standards for its 632 member schools of education. The first standard included a requirement that schools of education assess pre-service teachers’ “dispositions,” and suggested the core values of a good teacher; among them was a belief in “social justice.” Indeed, until NCATE quietly dropped “social justice” from its materials last summer, it was given top billing along with such unassailable qualities as caring, fairness, honesty, and responsibility.

Developing Dispositions For Ambitious Teaching, David Carroll

Journal of Educational Controversy

Critics of teacher education in recent years have argued that attempts to assess dispositions for teaching amount to a process of political indoctrination, claiming that teacher candidates are often expected to endorse ideas like “white privilege” and “social justice” as a kind of political litmus test for entering the teaching profession. In some circumstances, teacher education programs have avoided this kind of controversy by limiting their attention to dispositions such as honesty, integrity, and professional interactions. Charges and counter charges about the potential political implications of dispositions, and lack of clarity about other dimensions of dispositions, have obscured fundamental associations …

In The Spirit Of Self-Assessment: Critical Engagement And Moral Agency In Pre-Service Teacher Education, Sheron Fraser-Burgess

Journal of Educational Controversy

As multicultural education has evolved over the last five decades, it has markedly shaped the lexicon of the discourse about culture and education. Notable periods of sea change include the conceptualizing of “multiculturalism” as primarily multicultural education; and the moving away from multicultural education as solely ethnic studies (e.g. Hispanic, Black/African American, etc.) to “multicultural” meaning a diversity of cultural groups. In this manner of use, “diversity” is defined as race or ethnicity, class, gender, and sexual orientation. Presently, the educational field generally conceives of multicultural education as pedagogical, curricular and policy “transformation” (Banks and Banks, 2003, p. 25) through …

Living Savage Inequalities: Room 405’S Fight For Equity In Schooling, Brian Schultz

Journal of Educational Controversy

Elementary students from a Chicago housing project rise to the occasion and fight for an equal educational opportunity after being faced with shamefully, inadequate conditions at their neighborhood school. Challenged with the prospect of co-creating a curriculum based on their priority concerns, the young people developed an integrated effort to solve this dire problem. Their emergent curriculum not only highlights their fortitude, it is demonstrative of problems faced daily at their school and with school funding in general. Their hard work, hopeful struggle, subsequent attention and recognition, clearly elucidates the ‘savage inequalities’ lived by this group of inner-city African American …

Teachers’ Ethics: Education International And The Forging Of Professional Unity, Athena Vongalis-Macrow

Journal of Educational Controversy

The paper maintains that the current era, marked by a new global economy transforming economic and social development, has created the need for a reorganisation of teachers’ representation. This paper discusses a key development in teacher organisation, namely the emergence of Education International as a global hub for teacher unionism from across the world. This unique organisation, formulated in response to the emergence of global economies and supra-national figures, represents teachers’ response to globalised institutions and has instigated projects, such as the Professional Code of Ethics, which aim to create a sense of professional identity and unity amongst teachers. The …

The Myths That Blind: The Role Of Beliefs In School Change, Kerri Ullucci

Journal of Educational Controversy

Schools in the US continue to fail our most marginalized children. We know children of color, poor children and English language learners often receive the smallest pieces of the educational pie. One does not have to look far to see that reality. Forty-five percent of Latino children did not graduate in 2002 (Olson, 2006). Children of color continue to lag behind in college attendance (Hallinan, 2001), NAEP test scores (Madeus & Clarke, 2001) and access to demanding courses (Darling-Hammond, 2000). Regardless of the breadth of these issues, when we talk about the achievement gap, we tend to focus on the …

Teaching (For) Dispositions? Old Debates, New Orthodoxies: Hanging Onto A ‘Knowledge Approach’, Paul Tarc

Journal of Educational Controversy

Education has always been complicit in the shaping and promoting of dispositions. Teachers do teach (for) dispositions as they consciously and unconsciously respond to their students in the classroom. In their actions, teachers continuously informally assess students’ bodies, actions, comportment, expressed ideologies, and rhetoric. Under pervasive pressures for measurement and accountability, it is understandable that now even dispositions might be added to the mix of measurable entities for evaluation or certification. Moreover, in a context of diminishing state responsibility for social welfare, greater demands are placed on education—to make a difference—for example, to intervene in social injustices such …

Can Race-Neutral Remedies Achieve Racial Desegregation? Introduction To The Aclu Amicus Brief Submitted To The U.S. Supreme Court, Roberto Sánchez

Journal of Educational Controversy

The American Civil Liberties Union supports the Seattle School District’s policy to consider race as one of several tie-breaking factors in assigning students to high schools. We believe the district has a compelling interest in preventing the racial segregation of its schools, and it has narrowly focused its policy to achieve this goal, in accordance with United States Supreme Court decisions. We believe that desegregation furthers equality of opportunity, and that racial diversity strengthens the educational experience for all students in public schools.

School Desegregation, Linguistic Segregation And Access To English For Latino Students, Beatriz Arias

Journal of Educational Controversy

Latino/Hispano students have advocated for equal educational opportunity through desegregation efforts across the nation; yet their segregation, unlike that of Blacks, has been steadily on the increase. This article proposes that educational reforms designed for Latino students must address the denial of equal educational opportunity as experienced by Latinos, and that the discussion of equal educational opportunity for Latinos must go beyond a dualistic approach which views school desegregation remedies within a Black/White paradigm. I maintain that access to English is an integral component of the learning opportunity denied many Latino students. Few desegregation remedies have been tailored to their …

Discrimination Veiled As Diversity: The Use Of Social Science To Undermine The Law, Sonya D. Jones, Erin N. Ramsey

Journal of Educational Controversy

Fifty years after racially-based segregation was outlawed in Brown v. Board of Education, segregation continues to occur not as a result of legal mandates, but as a result of socioeconomic and racial composition of neighborhoods in which a school may be contained. Chief Justice Earl Warren, writing for a unanimous Court, declared “[t]o separate [minorities] from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone.” Even though the Supreme Court …

About The Authors

Journal of Educational Controversy

No abstract provided.

Brief Amicus Curiae Of The American Civil Liberties Union, The Aclu Of Kentucky, And The Aclu Of Washington In Support Of Respondents

Journal of Educational Controversy

No abstract provided.

Housing, Race And Schooling In Seattle: Context For The Supreme Court Decision, Douglas Judge

Journal of Educational Controversy

As the United States Supreme Court currently considers the use of race in high school admittance policies in Seattle, WA (Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District) and Louisville, KY (Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education), the issues of racial segregation and unequal school achievement have received renewed national attention. In an effort to understand the context surrounding this important decision, new eyes have turned to Seattle and Louisville to assess the state of school desegregation efforts more than fifty years after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education (1954) decision. In Seattle, …

An Analysis Of Ncate's Decision To Drop "Social Justice", Bonnie Johnson, Dale D. Johnson

Journal of Educational Controversy

Maybe it wouldn't bother us if we hadn't picked up tiny rotten teeth from our classroom floors in a toothfairyless neighborhood. Maybe it wouldn't seem as offensive if we hadn't watched our pupils gobble down free breakfasts and lunches—for some, their only meals five days a week. Perhaps we could overlook it if we didn't know about our students’ losses—a brother killed in a drive-by shooting, a grandmother’s grisly death dealt by a crack dealer, house fires that destroyed everything. Maybe it wouldn't incense us if our elementary pupils had had more up-to-date reference materials than 1952 dictionaries and a …

Setting The Record Straight, Arthur E. Wise

Journal of Educational Controversy

The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education sets performance-based standards for the preparation of P-12 teachers and other professional school personnel. The standards require that candidates demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and professional dispositions necessary to help all students learn in our increasingly diverse schools. Essentially NCATE requires that accredited institutions ensure that candidates have content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge, and the ability to apply these types of knowledge in school settings.

Educational Malpractice In Our Schools: Shortchanging African American And Other Disenfranchised Students, Thelma Jackson

Journal of Educational Controversy

Without a doubt, the world is changing at an incredible rate. America’s immigration rate is twice that of a century ago and has resulted in dramatic demographic shifts. The difference in the mean income between the wealthiest and the poorest continues to grow. Home schooling and charter schools are increasingly being chosen as alternatives for students, and cries for accountability in schools are deafening. Advances in technology and science are mind-boggling; the burgeoning Internet has placed a tremendous amount of knowledge literally at our fingertips. Huge companies are merging with others, creating mergers that will undoubtedly have far-reaching implications for …

As Our Students Watched, David Engle

Journal of Educational Controversy

In April, 2002, a three judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court handed down a ruling that overturned the Seattle School District’s use of a school choice tiebreaker process based on race when assigning students to its high schools. This tiebreaker process was in place to support the school district’s commitment to the racial integration of its high schools. The Seattle School District put this process in place as part of its response to earlier mandates (e.g. Brown vs. Board of Education) for the desegregation of public schools. This remedy was intended to support a commitment to creating …

Our Communities Are In Crisis, Bruce Bivins

Journal of Educational Controversy

Busing, controlled choice, and racial tiebreaking have proven to be band-aid initiatives that do not address the much deeper and decades’ long issues of segregated housing practices, imbalanced property tax allocations, and deep-pocketed booster clubs that have disproportionately funded some of our schools. In the early 1970’s, the Seattle School District initiated a mandatory busing policy for the purpose of integrating students district wide. In the late 80’s, the District augmented mandatory busing by instituting a controlled student choice program that allowed parents to select schools within a limited grouping of options. By the late 90’s, Seattle halted its practice …

Dark Times Indeed: Ncate, Social Justice, And The Marginalization Of Multicultural Foundations, Dan W. Butin

Journal of Educational Controversy

This article uses the recent and seemingly local NCATE decision to drop the terminology of “social justice” from its examples of dispositions in teacher education to make a larger and more global argument: that the multicultural foundations field (educational foundations, educational studies, and multicultural education) has become fundamentally marginalized in its ability to impact educational policymaking. This article first traces the political context of NCATE’s decision to drop the disposition of social justice. It then provides three distinct empirical data sets at three ever-more finely grained units of analysis—a national-level analysis of influence, a state-level analysis of coursework requirements, and …

A Simple And Prudent Proposal For Ending The Black Student Achievement Gap In Public Schools, Judith Owens

Journal of Educational Controversy

Jonathan Kozol wants public schools in America to be accountable to students. He advocates an end to the corporate model of education currently being practiced in school districts across the country and asks that we no longer allow schools to frame their students’ realities by transmitting the values and beliefs of the powerful elite (Kozol, 2005). After four decades of critically examining and witnessing about the structure and operations of our modern-day educational system that descended from the decision rendered in Brown v. Board of Education 10 years prior, he asks that our nation begin to pay up on its …

A Strategic Action Plan For The Education Of African-American Students In The State Of Washington

Journal of Educational Controversy

No abstract provided.

Position Statement Of The Multi-Ethnic Think Tank

Journal of Educational Controversy

Call to Action: Mandating Equitable and Culturally Competent Education for All Students in the State of Washington.

Washington State Education Plan For Hispanic Youth (Pk-20)

Journal of Educational Controversy

No abstract provided.

A Strategic Plan For The Education Of Asian/Pacific Islander American Students In The State Of Washington

Journal of Educational Controversy

No abstract provided.

About The Authors

Journal of Educational Controversy

No abstract provided.

Indian Education Plan For Washington Youth

Journal of Educational Controversy

No abstract provided.

Keeping The Passion Alive: The Realities Of Social Justice, Lynette Vogeley

Journal of Educational Controversy

In the following essay, a college student in a teacher education program discusses some of the realities in working for social justice as a future teacher. She shares her experiences both in her academic program, and in forming a student action group following a discussion and book seminar with author Jonathan Kozol.

Teachers change lives. This is one of the reasons I chose to become one. Another reason I chose the teaching profession was due to my phenomenal experience in high school as a peer tutor in a life skills setting. Witnessing the growth of students through the course of …

Parents Involved In Community Schools V. Seattle School District No. L: Racial Imbalance Is Not Segregation, Sonya D. Jones, Erin N. Ramsey

Journal of Educational Controversy

On June 28, 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court decided a crucial case involving race-based, public school assignment plans in compulsory education. The quote above from Justice Thomas’s concurrence captures the spirit of the Court’s decision in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, striking down public school assignment policies based on racial classifications. Quite simply, the Court determined that the policies used in both the Seattle and Louisville school districts violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, it baffled the …