It's Not the Language

Abstract

This article encourages educators and speech-language pathologists to look beyond the language of African American English speakers for an explanation of the Black-White achievement gap in education. A brief historical overview shows that the attention to the performance of African American children in school began many years ago but gained prominence at the height of integration. Explanations typically target the children and their circumstances. However, success stories are evident throughout the professional literature that illustrate that the achievement gap can be reduced by making major changes in the educational environment and teaching strategies.

The obstinate notion that higher education is a meritocracy

“…However, it would be a mistake to conflate proficiency with language as the medium of instruction with access to the literacy practices of the discipline. Various studies have shown how middle-class students with strong schooling backgrounds enjoy far greater levels of higher education success even where they have very low levels of proficiency in the medium of instruction (Sullivan, 2001;Weddington, 2010). Conversely, studies over the years have shown that students' social class correlates to their higher education success even where the whole student body shares the medium of instruction as their home language (Sullivan, 2001;Weddington, 2010).…”

Meet Me at the Corner: The Intersection of Literacy Instruction and Race for Urban Education

“…Various routes have been taken to and through this interdisciplinary literature. For example, research on racial demographics (J. D. Anderson, 2007), history (Morgan, 1995), grade levels (Allington & Johnston, 2000;Irvine, 1986), school types (Hoover, 1978;Lazar, 2007), student centeredness (Compton-Lilly, 2006), teacher centeredness (Weddington, 2010), and research reviews that suggest to me that both student and teacher centered pedagogies 2 are necessary at the intersection of literacy instruction and race (Chall, 2000;Delpit, 1986), to mention a few. I mention these routes to suggest that there are a number of ways to arrive at the intersection of literacy instruction and race.…”