Kids Don't Want to Fail: Oppositional Culture and the Black-White Achievement Gap

by Angel L. Harris

Overview

Kids Don’t Want to Fail uses empirical evidence to refute the widely accepted hypothesis that the black-white achievement gap in secondary schools is due to a cultural resistance to schooling in the black community. The author finds that inadequate elementary school preparation—not negative attitude—accounts for black students’ underperformance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674057722
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	06/13/2011
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Angel L. Harris is Professor of Sociology and African and African American Studies at Duke University.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

1 Introduction to Oppositional Culture 1

2 Discrimination and Barriers: Basis for Black Cynicism toward Schooling 30

3 Origins of Youth Perceptions of Opportunity and Academic Investment 53

4 Effects of Youth Perceptions of Opportunity on Academic Achievement 74

5 Racial Differences in Academic Orientation of Youth 98

6 Should Blacks Become Raceless to Improve Achievement? 128

7 Shifting the Focus Away from Culture and toward Prior Skills 144

8 Does Marginalization Equal Resistance to Schooling? A Class-Based Analysis 163

9 Refocusing Understanding of Racial Differences in Academic Outcomes 180

Appendix A Note of Caution about Testing 199

Appendix B Sources of Data 203

Appendix C Methodological Appendix 211

Appendix D Description of Measures 235

Notes 273

Bibliography 283

Acknowledgments 303

Index 307

What People are Saying About This

William Darity

Kids Don't Want to Fail is quite remarkable in its detail, care, and depth as a critical empirical examination of the oppositionality hypothesis: the widely held belief that black student underachievement is attributable to a cultural resistance to schooling. Harris writes so clearly and in a style free of jargon that the quantitative emphasis of his study should not prove a barrier to non-specialist readers.

— William Darity, Jr., Duke University

Brian Powell

Kids Don't Want to Fail powerfully critiques a position held by many social scientists and teachers that African American students take an oppositional approach to education. This book offers an important—indeed, an indispensable—corrective by systematically decomposing the key assumptions of this position and then masterfully showing that these assumptions cannot be substantiated with empirical evidence.
— Brian Powell, Indiana University

Editorial Reviews

Kids Don't Want to Fail is quite remarkable in its detail, care, and depth as a critical empirical examination of the oppositionality hypothesis: the widely held belief that black student underachievement is attributable to a cultural resistance to schooling. Harris writes so clearly and in a style free of jargon that the quantitative emphasis of his study should not prove a barrier to non-specialist readers.
-- William Darity, Jr., Duke University

Kids Don't Want to Fail powerfully critiques a position held by many social scientists and teachers that African American students take an oppositional approach to education. This book offers an important—indeed, an indispensable—corrective by systematically decomposing the key assumptions of this position and then masterfully showing that these assumptions cannot be substantiated with empirical evidence.
-- Brian Powell, Indiana University

Sociologist Harris provides an important corrective to academic theories and popular thought that attribute racial differences in educational achievement to students' attitudes toward schooling.
-- G. L. Ochoa Choice

From the Publisher

Kids Don't Want to Fail powerfully critiques a position held by many social scientists and teachers that African American students take an oppositional approach to education. This book offers an important—indeed, an indispensable—corrective by systematically decomposing the key assumptions of this position and then masterfully showing that these assumptions cannot be substantiated with empirical evidence.

Brian Powell

Sociologist Harris provides an important corrective to academic theories and popular thought that attribute racial differences in educational achievement to students' attitudes toward schooling.

Choice - G. L. Ochoa

Kids Don't Want to Fail is quite remarkable in its detail, care, and depth as a critical empirical examination of the oppositionality hypothesis: the widely held belief that black student underachievement is attributable to a cultural resistance to schooling. Harris writes so clearly and in a style free of jargon that the quantitative emphasis of his study should not prove a barrier to non-specialist readers.

William Darity

Sociologist Harris provides an important corrective to academic theories and popular thought that attribute racial differences in educational achievement to students' attitudes toward schooling.
— G. L. Ochoa

Choice