2024 the best intentions review

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(as of Dec 12, 2024 14:25:14 UTC - Details)

On the surface, Riverview High School looks like the post-racial ideal. Serving an enviably affluent, diverse, and liberal district, the school is well-funded, its teachers are well-trained, and many of its students are high achieving. Yet Riverview has not escaped the same unrelenting question that plagues schools throughout America: why is it that even when all of the circumstances seem right, black and Latino students continue to lag behind their peers?

Through five years' worth of interviews and data-gathering at Riverview, John Diamond and Amanda Lewis have created a rich and disturbing portrait of the achievement gap that persists more than fifty years after the formal dismantling of segregation. As students progress from elementary school to middle school to high school, their level of academic achievement increasingly tracks along racial lines, with white and Asian students maintaining higher GPAs and standardized testing scores, taking more advanced classes, and attaining better college admission results than their black and Latino counterparts. Most research to date has focused on the role of poverty, family stability, and other external influences in explaining poor performance at school, especially in urban contexts. Diamond and Lewis instead situate their research in a suburban school, and look at what factors within the school itself could be causing the disparity. Most crucially, they challenge many common explanations of the 'racial achievement gap,' exploring what race actually means in this situation, and why it matters.

An in-depth study with far-reaching consequences, Despite the Best Intentions revolutionizes our understanding of both the knotty problem of academic disparities and the larger question of the color line in American society.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; Reprint edition (May 1, 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0190669829
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0190669829
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.1 x 0.7 x 6 inches
Reviewer: average reader
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Every educator should buy this book!
Review: This book is an easy read. The researchers did their homework. Some of the negative reviews say the work is biased. Well, the researchers went into the work with data-- African American students are identified as behind their white contemporaries when it comes to achievement in public schools. This research takes a look at middle class students (black and white) within a middle class neighborhood and determine what variables account for the achievement gap, even in "good" schools.

Reviewer: Eric Clare
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Ending the educational divide is within reach
Review: After reading, it became clear me and those around me interested in ending the the educational divide in the U.S., that we as a community could implement what we learned from this 5 year study and change the trajectory of children's lives. We have since raised funds and started a test program called "The Academy" in Fort Myers Fl. where we track and document the effects of providing the type of attention, engagement and support described in the book in coordination with a proven online curriculum. In addition to the award winning online curriculum, “The Academy” focuses on addressing students perception of self and teaching how to dismiss the low expectations applied to them, the dismissive attitudes of previous well-intentioned educators and the pervasive negative influences directed to low-income, people of color in America. In our first 12 week session we started with 12 children below grade level in reading and or math. We implemented many of the corrective concepts described in the book and were amazed at how quickly the children began to respond. Within 4 weeks we went from do I have to do this to can you help me. By week 6 we had open communication and questions coming from our 6th-8th grade students. By the end of week 12 100% of the participating students completing the post assessment were above grade level using the Texas assessment, which is at a higher level than the Florida Assessment. We are now actively working to raise funds to expand the program so we can track document and share the results with the DOE and local school board. We are absolutely certain that the educational divide can be eradicated this decade.

Reviewer: Angela Parsons
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Get this book now.
Review: If you are wanting to improve outcomes for students of color in your school, read this book first! It has great information, grounded in research, and it’s written in a way that’s easy to understand.

Reviewer: Angelica A Brisk
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Not an easy read but worthwhile
Review: thought provoking. Not an easy read but worthwhile.

Reviewer: V. M. Ricks
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A great look behind the curtains of today's high schools . . .
Review: A thorough capturing of the life of a high school, the good, the bad and the ugly. Lewis and Diamond made the school come alive for me, I now understand one of the entrenched, perplexing issues of the day, the apartheid arrangement of today's schools. They do an excellent job of untangling what people say from what they do. There is a duplicity that is difficult to describe and categorize, but nonetheless it is real and has real consequences. The white students wind up with the good education and GPA, the black and brown kids get the basics. Once this pattern is established in high school, the obvious conclusion is its continuation into college and career. Given the systematic nature of the problem, I did find it hard to determine whose intentions were not being made manifest. All who want to truly understand the education system today should read this book.

Reviewer: pjean
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: great case study
Review: I found this book a great read to understand the dynamics playing out in public schools who view themselves as progressive but still struggle with white supremacy.

Reviewer: starzzzy
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Highly Recommended!
Review: We had to read this book for a Social and Cultural Contexts of Education course. Unlike a lot of class readings, this book is enjoyable to read and gives information that will make you stop and reflect on your own K-12 educational experience. It also illustrates how racism and classism still play a huge role in education and affect the experiences of students. I highly recommend this one!

Reviewer: jvonkorff
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: If you are looking for a sociological analysis of a ...
Review: If you are looking for a sociological analysis of a single affluent school and the ways in which white privilege may contribute to the achievement gap, this is the book for you. If you are a school board member, administrator or policy maker seeking to implement transformative change, may I suggest Chenoweth's outstanding "It's Being Done" trilogy. Tracking guides minorities away from challenging courses. Subtle systemic differences provide disciplinary privileges to white students from privileged families in a school where affluence prevails. An accumulation of differential treatment creates barriers to closing the achievement gap. Is this school, with a white upper class steeped in privilege, parents who evidently can call on lawyers to bail their children out of trouble, really representative of urban schools with high rates of poverty in across racial lines? This is an anecdotal presentation written through the authors' lens.What about the schools that recruit minority students into pre AP, and instead of dumping challenging courses, strive to prepare minority students to accept those challenges, and provide culturally responsive teaching in high level courses? How do we prepare students for the expectations of workplace still dominated by privilege and at times unreasonable expectations? What is the role of instructional leadership in setting high expectations for teachers and staff: is this a book about white privilege, or about a school whose leadership has failed to communicate high expectations for all students through proactive leadership. n