American Cities

Hope and Despair in the American City: Why There Are No Bad Schools in Raleigh

Description

In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a 5–4 verdict in the case of Milliken v. Bradley, thereby blocking the state of Michigan from merging the Detroit public school system with those of the surrounding suburbs. This decision effectively walled off underprivileged students in many American cities, condemning them to a system of racial and class segregation and destroying their chances of obtaining a decent education.

In Hope and Despair, Gerald Grant compares two cities—his hometown of Syracuse, New York, and Raleigh, North Carolina—in order to examine the consequences of the nation’s ongoing educational inequities. The school system in Syracuse is a slough of despair, the one in Raleigh a beacon of hope. Grant argues that the chief reason for Raleigh’s educational success is the integration by social class that occurred when the city voluntarily merged with the surrounding suburbs in 1976 to create the Wake County Public School System. By contrast, the primary cause of Syracuse’s decline has been the growing class and racial segregation of its metropolitan schools, which has left the city mired in poverty.

Hope and Despair is a compelling study of urban social policy that combines field research and historical narrative in lucid and engaging prose. The result is an ambitious portrait—sometimes disturbing, often inspiring—of two cities that exemplify our nation’s greatest educational challenges, as well as a passionate exploration of the potential for school reform that exists for our urban schools today.

(20090316)

Reviews

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-09-21
Summary: "Why is Syracuse a Basket Case?"

The city of Syracuse, NY -- as distinct from its lovely suburbs -- provides a small-scale picture of the social pathologies that beset so many American cities of the Northeast and Midwest. It has an economically depressed urban core, crime-ridden neighborhoods with houses abandoned and vacant, and a school enrollment that is largely poor and minority with low graduation rates and weak performance on standardized tests. Syracuse bills itself as environmentally advanced, the "Emerald City," yet its common council refuses even so cost-free an improvement to its urban environment as banning unsightly billboards along the interstate highways that slice through the city. But that is a small problem compared to the failure of Syracuse schools to educate and graduate its students, a deficit that nearly forces middle-income families with children to live in the suburbs.
How did Syracuse and so many other northern cities reach this state of educational (and urban) decay? In contrast, Raleigh, NC has for decades been economically thriving and, most relevantly, successful with its schools, which have high achievement and graduation rates for black as well as white students, for poor as well as middle-class students. Is Raleigh's success a simple consequence of its economic growth? Apparently not since other southern cities with similar growth have not had the same educational success. Professor Grant shows convincingly that much of Raleigh's success stemmed from its willingness to integrate its schools over the entire metropolitan area, city and suburbs.
Sociologists of education know well that changing the culture of a school, from ghetto to middle class, is the most important element in school success, in teacher satisfaction, and in producing successful graduates. And the best way to do that is to mix minority students into a predominately middle-class student body. Since urban residence patterns remain segregated by race and economics, this necessarily means busing, a solution some reviewers of this book find unappealing. No doubt there are costs to school integration, but Grant's comparison of Raleigh to Syracuse shows that the benefits are substantial.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-06-15
Summary: "interesting examination of segregation in American schools"

This book gives an engaging historical account of how government policies led to segregation in America's cities - which resulted in failing schools with high concentrations of poverty - and how one school system is addressing the problem by attempting to balance schools for socioeconomic diversity.

The author has managed to make the book an interesting read by weaving in details of his own family's life in Syracuse. Because I live in Raleigh/Wake County, I found the section on Raleigh's long history (dating back to the Civil War) of progressive racial integration policies fascinating, and it helped me put into proper perspective the "battle" that is currently being waged between those who support our school system's diversity policy, and those who do not.

This book is enlightening and well-written. If you have any interest in learning more about how our society can begin to tackle the problem of poverty, you will enjoy reading this book!

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-06-13
Summary: "Excellent Investigation of the Usually Unspoken Racism of the North"

Gerald Grant gives an excellent depiction of the current racial crisis of Northern cities. While the South has spent the past thirty years working on issues of racism and integrating their cities - the North has been pretending that racism does not exist in its environs. Grant's depiction of Syracuse and its school districts is spot on....an embarrasing truth of Northern life is incredible racial segregation that remains largely unspoken in polite company. The racism of neglect and avoidance are evident in the schools and neighborhoods Grant describes - the neighborhoods where he grew up and currently lives.

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Rating: 2 / 5
Date: 2009-05-29
Summary: "Mixed Bag - Unintended Consequences"

No one can dispute that it is a worthwhile objective to raise the quality of urban schools. However, I suspect that the author did not spend enough time "in the trenches" speaking with parents and students to understand the unintended consequences of busing in Wake County schools. My family lives in Raleigh and we attend Wake County schools as do most of our friends.

(1) It is not uncommon for kids in the same neighboorhood to be assigned to different schools - destroying the concept of a neighborhood school.

(2) Because the home address is only one factor in school assignment, kids go to schools that may be quite a distance from their actual home despite the fact a school (which should be their neighborhood school) may be a mile or less from their home. This forces many kids onto a school bus (in and of itself is something not all parents want) often times an hour or more before school starts - the chief complaint being that kids spend too much time on the bus.

(3) On a related issue, due to growth in Wake County, kids are getting constantly moved around to accomodate open spots in new schools and to optimize/level attendance levels across all the schools. Kids are eligible to move approx every 3 years - this is not only very disruptive to the kids (as they may need to find new friends, and are often separated from siblings, etc) but creates logistical challenges for the parents as well.

The county is also using the concept of charter schools and magnet schools and I believe these mechanisms as well as enhanced teacher pay for those teachers that choose to teach in an urban school are all better options to achieve the desired school quality. Busing everyone around in my view is not working - the county certainly cannot produce any data that demonstrates it is working.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-05-21
Summary: "Hope!"

It is about time that the Raleigh (Wake County) school system gets some credit for providing one of the best school systems in the country, despite that we spend less than other areas per student ($1350 less per student against the national average). We do this through innovation - keeping the 'walls' down between the urban and suburban areas, not allowing high-poverty schools, and much more... Thank you, Dr. Grant. I hope your message inspires more communities to learn to teach ALL students in an equal and exceptional way.