“Just Let the Worst Students Go”

Abstract

We present a case analysis of the controversy and public debate generated from a school district’s efforts to address racial inequities in educational outcomes by diverting special funds from the highest performing students seeking elite college admissions to the lowest performing students who were struggling to graduate from high school. Widespread arguments against the proposed change emphasized the identification of highly successful students as “worthy” and others as “unworthy” of resources. Through an analysis of print and digital public texts, we identify a narrative cycle that informed public debate: (a) colorblind rhetoric, (b) academic performance is presumed to emerge solely from talent and effort, so (c) academic performance then becomes a measure of worth, and finally, (d) efforts to address racial disparities are “unfair.” We argue that narratives identifying some students as worthy and others unworthy are highly influential in the outcomes of many educational policy and funding debates.

Exploring an Unexamined Source of Racial Disparities in Juvenile Court Involvement: Unexcused Absenteeism Policies in U.S. Schools

“…While this dominant frame results in educational inequities, two additional frames are applied to explain them as inevitable, natural occurrences (Bonilla-Silva, 2006). The cultural racism frame posits that racial and ethnic disparities in unexcused absences result from racially minoritized families either valuing education less than White families or failing to understand the importance of school attendance (Zirkel & Pollack, 2016). Minimizing the logistical challenges disproportionately experienced by racially minoritized families due to segregation and poverty (e.g., transportation barriers, lack of reliable child care, and unpredictable work schedules) is an example of conflating impoverished circumstances with impoverished values.…”

“…The third frame used to justify color-blind educational policies, the naturalization frame, attributes racial and ethnic disparities in unexcused absenteeism to societal sources outside the school. This frame manifests as the argument that overburdened schools should not be expected to fix problems beyond their control (Zirkel & Pollack, 2016), which allows Whites to maintain an ethos of fair play even as attendance policies grant them unmerited advantages. As Bonilla-Silva (2006) wrote, "Whites can appear 'reasonable' and even 'moral' while opposing almost all practical approaches to deal with de facto racial inequality" (p. 28).…”

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

“…We see this in research demonstrating that educators often perceive Black youth to be unmotivated and uninterested in education regardless of how the students describe themselves (e.g., P. L. Carter, 2006; Pollack, 2013; Seglem & Garcia, 2015; Warikoo & Carter, 2009; Zirkel, 2016; Zirkel & Pollack, 2016). We see it in arguments suggesting that there is something fundamentally “wrong” with Black culture and ways of being (e.g., Payne, 1996/2005; see also Dumas, 2016b; Dumas & Nelson, 2016; McKenzie & Scheurich, 2003; Valencia, 1997, 2010, for critiques) and that a strong Black identity might lead students away from school for fear of “acting white” 1 (e.g., Fordham, 1988; McWhorter, 2001, 2003, 2006; Ogbu, 1974, 1978).…”

Eliciting Student Voice to Explore the Need for Culturally Responsive Teaching in Secondary Schools

“…These narratives that define some students as worthy and others as unworthy fall along racial lines, exposing underlying beliefs that their worthiness is linked to a natural capacity for success that is given at birth, and inextricable from the visible identifier of skin color. These narratives impact policy and funding in the educational system and help to perpetuate the racial achievement gap (Zirkel & Pollack, 2016).…”

“…Ever since the integration efforts of the 1950's and 1960's, schools in the U.S. have grappled with the challenges of the academic achievement gap (Zirkel & Pollack, 2016). The academic achievement gap is defined as when two groups of students with comparable abilities have markedly different academic achievement levels (Bainbridge & Lasley, 2002).…”