Stephen J. Caldas - Böcker

Caldas and Bankston provide a critical, dispassionate analysis of why desegregation in the United States has failed to achieve the goal of providing equal educational opportunities for all students. They offer case histories through dozens of examples of failed desegregation plans from all over the country. The book takes a very broad perspective on race and education, situated in the larger context of the development of individual rights in Western civiliztion.The book traces the long legal history of first racial segregation, and then racial desegregation in America. The authors explain how rapidly changing demographics and family structure in the United States have greatly complicated the project of top-down government efforts to achieve an ideal racial balance in schools. It describes how social capital—a positive outcome of social interaction between and among parents, children, and teachers—creates strong bonds that lead to high academic achievement.The authors show how coercive desegregation weakens bonds and hurts not only students and schools, but also entire communities. Examples from all parts of the United States show how parents undermined desegregation plans by seeking better educational alternatives for their children rather than supporting the public schools to which their children were assigned. Most important, this book offers an alternative, more realistic viewpoint on class, race, and education in America.

In this title, the author traces America's unquestioning faith in the capacity of public education to solve all of our social, economic, and political problems from before the civil war up to the No Child Left Behind legislation and discusses how this faith in education often makes it difficult for Americans to think realistically about the capacities and limitations of public schooling.

Despite decades of effort to reverse such trends, disproportionate numbers of African American students continue to grow up in poverty, in single-parent households, raised by adults with limited education and skills - characteristics that are widely acknowledged as detrimental to academic success. The attempt to improve academic performance by merely rearranging the racial mix through desegregation has proven to be an overly simplistic and inadequate means of providing disadvantaged children with the skills and support they so desperately need. In fact, it appears that coercive desegregation efforts have actually caused school systems to re-segregate, by driving out large numbers of middle-class white students. Using extensive interviews and a wealth of statistical information, this text examines the failed desegregation efforts in Louisiana as a case study of how desegregation has followed the same unsuccessful pattern across the US. It shows that the practical difficulty with desegregation is that academic environments are created by all the students in a school from the the backgrounds that all the students bring with them.

Despite decades of effort to reverse such trends, disproportionate numbers of African American students continue to grow up in poverty, in single-parent households, raised by adults with limited education and skills - characteristics that are widely acknowledged as detrimental to academic success. The attempt to improve academic performance by merely rearranging the racial mix through desegregation has proven to be an overly simplistic and inadequate means of providing disadvantaged children with the skills and support they so desperately need. In fact, it appears that coercive desegregation efforts have actually caused school systems to re-segregate, by driving out large numbers of middle-class white students. Using extensive interviews and a wealth of statistical information, this text examines the failed desegregation efforts in Louisiana as a case study of how desegregation has followed the same unsuccessful pattern across the US. It shows that the practical difficulty with desegregation is that academic environments are created by all the students in a school from the the backgrounds that all the students bring with them.

Many activists and writers have ascribed continuing racial segregation in American schools to a failure of will. In this view, forced transfers of students and other aggressive judicially mandated policies would lead to greater equality in education if only legislators and judges had the will to continue trying to make school districts conform to plans for redesigning schools and even American society. Controls and Choices: The Educational Marketplace and the Failure of School Desegregation provides a detailed examination of the nature of the educational marketplace, supported by historical evidence, to argue that school desegregation failed because it involved monopolistic efforts at redistributing opportunities. These efforts were fundamentally at odds with the self-interest of the families who had the greatest ability to make choices in the educational marketplace. The authors use the concept of the educational marketplace to explain how market-based attempts at school reform, notably vouchers and charter schools, have grown out of the failure of desegregation and remain hampered by lack of recognition of how the schools really function as markets. Some additional key features of this book include:Gives a clear understanding of how schools function as marketsIllustrates the argument with histories of specific school districtsLinks the history of school desegregation to school vouchers and charter schoolsIncludes easy to read and interpret graphs and figures Includes most up-to-date school population and census information

Many activists and writers have ascribed continuing racial segregation in American schools to a failure of will. In this view, forced transfers of students and other aggressive judicially mandated policies would lead to greater equality in education if only legislators and judges had the will to continue trying to make school districts conform to plans for redesigning schools and even American society. Controls and Choices: The Educational Marketplace and the Failure of School Desegregation provides a detailed examination of the nature of the educational marketplace, supported by historical evidence, to argue that school desegregation failed because it involved monopolistic efforts at redistributing opportunities. These efforts were fundamentally at odds with the self-interest of the families who had the greatest ability to make choices in the educational marketplace. The authors use the concept of the educational marketplace to explain how market-based attempts at school reform, notably vouchers and charter schools, have grown out of the failure of desegregation and remain hampered by lack of recognition of how the schools really function as markets. Some additional key features of this book include:Gives a clear understanding of how schools function as marketsIllustrates the argument with histories of specific school districtsLinks the history of school desegregation to school vouchers and charter schoolsIncludes easy to read and interpret graphs and figures Includes most up-to-date school population and census information

Forced to Fail traces the long legal history of first racial segregation, and then racial desegregation in America. The authors explain how rapidly changing demographics and family structure in the United States have greatly complicated the project of top-down government efforts to achieve an "ideal" racial balance in schools. It describes how social capital—a positive outcome of social interaction between and among parents, children, and teachers—creates strong bonds that lead to high academic achievement. The authors show how coercive desegregation weakens bonds and hurts not only students and schools, but also entire communities. Examples from all parts of the United States show how parents undermined desegregation plans by seeking better educational alternatives for their children rather than supporting the public schools to which their children were assigned. Most important, this book offers an alternative, more realistic viewpoint on class, race, and education in America.

Still Failing: The Continuing Paradox of School Desegregation is a significantly updated and revised version of Caldas and Bankston’s previous book Forced to Fail: The Paradox of School Desegregation. The book includes an analysis of the most significant Supreme Court cases that have been decided in the ten years since the first edition of the book appeared. The authors consider the important implications of these recent rulings for the future of school desegregation in America’s schools. Social capital theory is used to explain why schools and communities continue to be segregated along racial and ethnic lines. Still Failing also provides the most recent U.S. census and Department of Education statistics documenting the continuing segregation of American schools and districts. The book also continues to track the persistent racial achievement gap, using the newest ACT, SAT, and NAEP testing figures. Finally, the book considers what present segregation trends portend for future efforts to racially and ethnically integrate schools, and close achievement gaps. Additional key features of this book include:Historical antecedents showing how and why American schooling became racially segregatedSocial capital theory to explain school and community segregationThe legal history of all important supreme court cases, congressional laws and presidential executive orders related to school segregation and desegregationEasy-to-read and interpret graphs and figuresThe most up-to-date school population and census information

Still Failing: The Continuing Paradox of School Desegregation is a significantly updated and revised version of Caldas and Bankston’s previous book Forced to Fail: The Paradox of School Desegregation. The book includes an analysis of the most significant Supreme Court cases that have been decided in the ten years since the first edition of the book appeared. The authors consider the important implications of these recent rulings for the future of school desegregation in America’s schools. Social capital theory is used to explain why schools and communities continue to be segregated along racial and ethnic lines. Still Failing also provides the most recent U.S. census and Department of Education statistics documenting the continuing segregation of American schools and districts. The book also continues to track the persistent racial achievement gap, using the newest ACT, SAT, and NAEP testing figures. Finally, the book considers what present segregation trends portend for future efforts to racially and ethnically integrate schools, and close achievement gaps. Additional key features of this book include:Historical antecedents showing how and why American schooling became racially segregatedSocial capital theory to explain school and community segregationThe legal history of all important supreme court cases, congressional laws and presidential executive orders related to school segregation and desegregationEasy-to-read and interpret graphs and figuresThe most up-to-date school population and census information

This book is a case study carefully detailing the French/English bilingual and biliterate development of three children in one family beginning with their births and ending in late adolescence. The author and researcher is the children’s French/English bilingual American father, who was aided by his bilingual French Canadian wife (also the children’s mother). We reared our three children in two different cultures— essentially monolingual English-speaking Louisiana, and totally monolingual French-speaking Québec. The family spent academic years in Louisiana, and the summer months in Québec. Our strategy was to speak only French to our son and our identical twin daughters. We artificially orchestrated and manipulated both the strategies, and to the extent possible, even the children’s environments to ensure the success of our project. Additionally, I carefully documented our progress using a variety of research tools, including audio and videotape recordings, teacher and child surveys, interviews with teachers, fieldnotes, psychological and diagnostic testing, and standardized assessment instruments.

This book is a case study carefully detailing the French/English bilingual and biliterate development of three children in one family beginning with their births and ending in late adolescence. The author and researcher is the children’s French/English bilingual American father, who was aided by his bilingual French Canadian wife (also the children’s mother). We reared our three children in two different cultures— essentially monolingual English-speaking Louisiana, and totally monolingual French-speaking Québec. The family spent academic years in Louisiana, and the summer months in Québec. Our strategy was to speak only French to our son and our identical twin daughters. We artificially orchestrated and manipulated both the strategies, and to the extent possible, even the children’s environments to ensure the success of our project. Additionally, I carefully documented our progress using a variety of research tools, including audio and videotape recordings, teacher and child surveys, interviews with teachers, fieldnotes, psychological and diagnostic testing, and standardized assessment instruments.