Role Models and Expectations
By Albert B. Kelly
As far back as I can remember, at least when it came to
equality, the main underlying assumption was that remedies had to center on integration
of one sort or another whether in the area of housing, education, healthcare,
or in whatever area of American life was being considered at the time. The idea
of integration in the pursuit of equality is still a given today, as it should
be, even though we seem to be as divided as ever. It’s not that progress hasn’t
been made because it has, but maybe integration as it’s understood in its
rudimentary form is only one part of the equation.
I’m not sure, but maybe it helps to define the word. According
to the dictionary, integration is defined as “the process of opening a group,
community, place, or organization to all, regardless of race, ethnicity,
religion, gender, or social class” If that were the extent of it (i.e. one part
of the equation), then someone might assume there’s little left to do. Yet,
integration is also defined as “a combination of parts or objects that work
together well” and if that’s the measure, then things aren’t where they need to
be.
Along these lines, maybe it’s time to shift gears a little, perhaps
starting in areas such as education or healthcare, to move beyond the idea of just
opening something up to provide access and actually drilling down a little
deeper into relationships- into the “work together well” part of the equation. As
an example, over the last few years several studies have been done in the area
of same-race teachers and same-race doctors and there are some important
takeaways.
Focusing on the subject of education, authors Seth
Gershenson, Constance Lindsey, Cassandra Hart, and Nicholas Papageorge did a
paper for the IZA Institute of Labor Economics that discussed the long term
impacts of same-race teachers. In a nutshell, they demonstrate that assigning
black male students to black teachers in 3rd, 4th, or 5th
grade significantly lowers the chance that these students, especially at-risk
students, will drop out of high school. They also show that for at-risk black students
of both sexes, having at least one black teacher in those formative years
increases the likelihood that these students will attend a four-year college. These
findings were featured in the podcast Hidden
Brain in an episode entitled “People Like Us: How Our Identities Shape
Health and Educational Success”.
As to why this should be so, giving educators the benefit of
the doubt, I think these findings come down to expectations or what the authors
refer to as “differences in perceptions and expectations”. Simply put, black
teachers expect more from black students than white teachers do and they cite a
2016 study that looked at this very thing. If adults don’t expect much, they
won’t invest much. When that happens, children know, they just do, and it
shapes how they see themselves in the world whether in college or flipping
burgers or worse.
The other factor in my view, likely involves discipline. I’m
referring to the 2018 Government Accounting Office (GAO) report entitled
“Discipline Disparities for Black Students, Boys, and Students with
disabilities” which highlights disparities in disciplinary actions in public
schools and how these broke down along racial lines. This has to be considered as
well. Low expectations and harsh discipline, when a student lives down to those
expectations, is a set-up for failure.
As far as possible measures to increase the exposure of
black students to black teachers during these formative years, the authors
wrote; “the number of black teachers need not be dramatically increased to
close racial gaps in educational attainment. Rather, our results suggest that
efforts to match black students with at least one black teacher in primary
school could begin immediately, by thoughtfully matching students to current
teachers.”
This is encouraging because the start of solution doesn’t
necessarily mean throwing more money at a problem as much as it means
reconsidering how existing personnel are used and deployed. My guess is that
these findings may well hold true for other racial and ethnic groups.
When it comes to integration, the focus has been mainly on
opening things up and accessing opportunity. This effort needs to continue, but
when it comes to sparking deeper more lasting generational change, maybe it’s
time to focus on the combination of parts or objects and whether or not they’re
working together well.