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ALL DRESSED UP WITH NO PLACE TO GO:
A CRITICAL ETHNOGRAPHY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MALE STUDENTS

IN AN URBAN HIGH SCHOOL

BY

Vernon Carey Polite

A DISSERTATION
Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Department of Educational Administration

1991

657/ ~ 4343

ABSTRACT

ALL DRESSED UP WITH NO PLACE TO GO:
A CRITICAL ETHNOGRAPHY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MALE STUDENTS

IN AN URBAN HIGH SCHOOL

BY

Vernon Carey Polite

This critical ethnography examined the academic and
social outcomes of 115 African American male students
who attended an urban school, Metropolitan High School,
between 1986 and 1989. Designed as a negative critique,
the main problem investigated was how effective the
school was in carrying out its mission, "To ensure
quality learning for all students through effective
teaching in a caring environment."

Centered in radical, neo—Marxist theories of
reproduction and resistance, as well as theories of
empowerment, the researcher made an assessment of the
roles played in the schooling of the working-class
African American males by teachers, parents and the
African American males themselves. Changes in the
racial and social class make up of the school between

1970 and 1990 were explored to determine their impact on

the academic outcomes of the African American males at
Metropolitan High.

The study provided a detailed look at the quality
of education received by the graduates, as well as
investigated some of the major factors which contributed
to the lack of academic success, i.e., the drug
subculture, in-school truancy, peer pressure, poor
career planning, expulsions, lack of caring teachers,
and the evolution of negative attitudes toward school on
the part of a large percentage of the 115 African
American males studied. The researcher identified and
described, using the African American male students' own
words and viewpoints regarding their responses to
schooling at Metropolitan High, four groups among the
115 African American males: active conformists, passive
conformists, nonconformists and the overt resistors.

The research was conducted using the traditional
qualitative research strategies. Included among these
strategies were participant observation, a collection
and reduction of field notes, in-depth and informal
interviews, analytical memoranda and an analysis of

official and unofficial documents.

Copyright by
VERNON CAREY POLITE

1991

VITA
August 2, 1948 .. ......... Born, New York, New York

1971 ... ........ .. ....... . B.A., Boston University
Boston, Massachusetts

1979 ......... ............ M.Ed., Boston State College
Boston, Massachusetts

1991 . ............. ....... Ph.D., Michigan State Univ.
East Lansing, Michigan

1971-1977 ....... ......... Classroom Teacher
Boston Public Schools
Boston, Massachusetts
1977-1979 ................ Desegregation Specialist
Boston Public Schools
Boston, Massachusetts
1979-1982 ................ Director, Desegregation
Boston Public Schools
Boston, Massachusetts
1982-1985 ....... . ..... ... Federal Programs Monitor
U.S. Virgin Islands
St. Thomas, USVI

1985-1990 ................ Public School Administrator
Southeastern Michigan

FIELDS OF STUDY

Sociology of Education, Dr. Brian Rowan and
Dr. Richard Hill

Educational Administration, Dr. Philip Cusick and
Dr. Lawrence Lezotte

Qualitative Research, Dr. Douglas Campbell

PUBLICATION

"The Drug Subculture: A Description," Secondary
Education Ioday, ;§(4) 2-10.

iv

"Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee
in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I

have prepared (Exodus 23:20)."

This dissertation is dedicated to my recently
deceased aunt, Mrs. Bearline Brooks. Mrs. Brooks reared
me from the age of four. The love, kindness and support
which she bountifully accorded me throughout my life
could never be repaid. Her most simple, yet vital,
lesson to me and all the children she reared was,
”Divine love, always has met and always will meet every
human need." All that I am or could ever hope to be, I
attribute to her support and the grace of my Higher

Power, God.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am proud to acknowledge those members of my
doctoral committee whose intellectual contributions made
the completion of this work a reality. They are
Dr. Brian Rowan, the chairperson; Dr. Philip Cusick;

Dr. Richard Hill; Dr. Wanda May; and Dr. Barrie Thorne
(my first academic advisor).

Seven individuals, at different times during this
project, undertook the task of intense readings of this
paper. These persons are Mrs. Albertha Ball, Dr. Sandra
Dunn, Mrs. Linda Meester, Mr. Larry Sprauve, Dr. Stanley
Walton, Mrs. Lee Waterstone. I am especially
appreciative of the critical readings of the final
drafts by Dr. May and Dr. Rowan.

Dr. Robert Crump and Mr. Ronald Amos generated
numerous articles pertaining to the conditions
confronting African American males in American society.
Ms. Gail Washington, Mrs. Delaurice Woodson,

Mr. Charles Donald Beall, Mr. Neil Stratton Rodgers,
Dr. Gary Marx, Dr. Marc Rosa and Dr. Matthew Blount
provided emotional support. When I balked and thought,
"God, I can't go through with this," they were always
there for me, providing that emotional 'shot in the
arm.‘

Finally, I gratefully acknowledge those 115

anonymous African American males who allowed me to enter

vi

their personal lives. Through their rigorous honesty,
they afforded me the privilege of explaining the
conditions related to their being, "All Dressed Up With

No Place To Go."

vii

LI ST OF TABLES

Table Page
1. Statistics on African American Males in
Michigan.................... ..... ....... ...... 27
2. Typical Field Notes...................... ..... 77
3. Field notes regarding / Role Conflict.........78

4. Computer-Aided Analysis of Field Notes........81

5. Examples of Key Terms / Drug Culture ......... .83
6. An Analytic Memorandum ...................... ..86
7 0 Documents Exmned. O I O I O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O ........ 88

8. Race by Year Analysis of the Metropolitan

High School Student Population, 1970 - 1990..103
9. Teachers' Highest Degree Earned..............111
10. Metropolitan High School teachers'

Years of Experience..........................111
11. Demographic Description of the 115

Black Males..................................140
12. Black Males' ACT Test Scores by

Students tested..............................142

viii

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Page

1.

Metropolitan High Schools' ground
level....................... ............ 93
Metropolitan High School's Second
Floor.......... ......................... 94
Grade Point Averages / Black male
Graduates .......... .................. .139
Spike Lee by Machupa ................... 211
Detroit Free Press Article Regarding
Stephen Bentley....... ..... . ........... 213
Mac Demonstrating Cartooning

Techniques to Several Elementary

School Boys ........................... 214

ix

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
VITAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO iv

DEDICATION.... ......................................... V
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS................. .......... ............Vi
LIST OF TABLES.................... ........ ..........viii
LIST OF FIGURES.... ....................... . ........... ix
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION AND PROBLEM STATEMENT ......... 1

AFRICAN AMERICAN MALES IN THE UNITED STATES.. ........ 7

Employment Status..................................9
Crime and violence................................12
Familial Relationships........ ........... .........14
Health Issues.....................................16
Schooling and Higher Education Issues....... ...... 19
African American Males in Michigan ................ 26
African American Males at Metropolitan High
School................................. ........ .26

SUMMARY.............................................29
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ............ .....31
ENGELS AND MARX............ ......................... 33
THE REPRODUCTION PARADIGM.................... ....... 37

Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis..................37
Louis Althusser...................................41
Pierre Bourdieu and Claude Passeron... ............ 46
Michael Apple.....................................48
Jean Anyon................................ ..... ...49

CRITIQUES OF REPRODUCTION THEORY....................51
THEORIES OF RESISTANCE. ................. . ........... 55

Paul Willis.... ........... . .................... ...55
Henry Giroux..... ................................. 59
Michael Apple.....................................60
Angela McRobbie... ......... . .................. ....61
Paul Olson.............................. ....... ...62

SUMARYOOOOOOOOOOOOO. ..... ....OOOOOOOOOOOOOO ..... .0064

CHAPTER III RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS ............... 66

Critical Ethnography .............................. 67
The Research Design.... ...... .. ................... 70
Conceptual Framework ..... . ..................... ...71
Research Population ............................... 74
SOURCES OF DATA ..................................... 75
Participant Observation .......................... .75
Field Notes........ ............................... 80
InterVieWSOOOOOOOOOOOO.....OOOOOOOOOO. ...... 0.0.0.82
Analytical Memoranda .............................. 84
Official Documents......... ....................... 85
APPROACHES TO DATA ANALYSIS ....................... ..89
Managing Extensive Data Sets. ..................... 89
Validity Through Triangulation .................... 90
THE SCHOOL DISTRICT AND SCHOOL ...................... 90
SUMMARY ............... . ............................. 97
CHAPTER IV QUALITATIVE FINDINGS .......... . .......... .98
Introduction.......... ......... . ...... . ........... 98
Metropolitan High 1970 - 1990 .................... 101
The Teaching and Administrative Staff.... ........ 106
Teachers as Caring Individuals ................... 115
Parental Involvement ............................. 122
Career Planning ...... .. ...... . ................... 127
Testing.‘.....OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 129
Comparative Insights and Skepticism...... ..... ...132
ACADEMIC AND SOCIAL OUTCOMES.... ..... . ............. 137
Academic Outcomes for the Graduates ............. .137
Peer Pressure and Materialism .................... 147
In-SCh001 Truancy. O O O O O 000000000000 O O I O O O O O O O O O O O 154
The I.D. Policy.............. .......... . ......... 156
Socialization. ....... ... ........ . ................ 159
The Drug Subculture... .................. .... ..... 161
EXPUlSionSe O O O ......... O O O O O O ........ O ........... 174
REPRODUCTION AND RESISTANCE: THE ROLE OF STUDENT
RESPONSES TO SCHOOLING .......... . ............ ....179
Active Conformdsm ................................ 180
Passive Conformism... ...... ........ .............. 185
Nonconformism. O O I O O O O O O ..... O O ...... O .......... O O 189
Overt Resistance..... ...... . ..................... 194

xi

EMANCIPATORY INTERVENTION PROGRAMS ................. 197

Drop-out Prevention and Intervention ............. 198

An Elementary School Assistantship
Program: Machupa's Story ...................... 209
College Entrance Examination Preparation ......... 215
SUMMARY ............................................ 217
CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS. ....... . ....... . ............. 220

THE EDUCATION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MALES -- 19908..235

Specific Focus on the Needs of African

American Males..... ...... ..... ................ .237
Focus on Teaching Staff................ ........ 239
Career Planning...... .......................... 241
African American Parental and Teacher

InVOlvementO......OOOOOOOOOOOOOO..... ........ 242

Comparative School District Awareness .......... 244
TWO CRITICAL ISSUES OF THE 19908.. ................ 246
Deindustrialization and Michigan's
JOb Market ....... 0.00.0.0... OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 246
The New Right and Conservatism /

19808 and 19908 ........... .. ............... ..252
REFERENCESOO..OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 257
APPENDIX A: SAMPLE STUDENT INTERVIEW.. ............... 267
APPENDIX B: SAMPLE TEACHER INTERVIEW ................. 277

xii

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION AND PROBLEM STATEMENT

When I received a telephone call from the associate
superintendent informing me of my new appointment as
assistant principal at Metropolitan High School effec-
tive in the fall, 1986, I was thrilled about the oppor-
tunity to work in a school district which had a reputa-
tion for academic excellence dating back to the mid-
19608.

I visited the district only once prior to my job
interview, and at that time I learned (erroneously, as
it turned out) from various family members and friends
that Metropolitan City was affluent, predominantly
Jewish and a relatively new community. But when the
senior class arrived for registration on the first day
of the school I was shocked. Seven out of 10 students
were African American, and only a few were Jewish or
white.

I immediately questioned how could it be that so
many African Americans had moved to Metropolitan City,
and I wondered what was expected of me as a African
American administrator. The answers were simple.
First, African Americans in Michigan have followed the
migration patterns of Jews for at least eight decades

(Stevenson, 1988.) Metropolitan was simply one more

2
example of this pattern. Second, I was expected to be a
positive role model and disciplinarian for those
students, mostly African American and male, who were
"acting-out," that is, displaying aggressive, violent or
disruptive behaviors.

I wandered about the building and grounds on those
first days and tried to learn as much about my new
position as possible. I observed that most of the
teachers were pleasant, Jewish and advanced in years.
The other assistant principal was African American. All
the members of the security staff were also African
American (which, I was told, were responsible for
securing the building, breaking up fights, and making
sure the halls were cleared of students during class
time).

The building was rather dismal and in disrepair.
But the two student parking lots were oversubscribed
with cars, many of which were rather expensive,
specialty cars and jeeps valued at $30,000 or more.

Inside, a number of loud and unruly black males
(the terms 'black' and 'African American' are used
interchangeably throughout this paper to refer to United
States citizens of African genealogy) paraded about the
building wearing heavy, solid gold chains around their
necks, jogging suits valued between $300 and $500, and
gym shoes valued as much as $250. On the first day, one

of these students called me a "black bastard" when I

3
verbally corrected him for cutting the registration
line. Other young African American males seemed
interested in their education but nevertheless exper-
ienced limited academic success. They had trouble
getting accepted into the universities of their choice
and could not score well on the college entrance
examinations.

No, this was clearly not the affluent Jewish
community I remembered from the 1960s. Instead, it was
predominantly African American and working class. I
came to understand within a short time, that most of
these African American males, both the so-called
troublemakers and the academically-inclined, were ill-
prepared for college and possessed few marketable skills
upon leaving Metropolitan High. They were "all dressed
up" but destined to be either underemployed or perman-
ently unemployed.

This dissertation is about these students and the
school they attended, Metropolitan High School. My
focus is the schooling of 115 African American males and
my role as both researcher and administrator who
attempted to find ways to improve the schooling of these
young men.

Other researchers found that a disturbing number of
African American male students exhibited apathetic, dis-
ruptive, and aggressive behaviors in the urban schools

of this nation (Foster, 1987; Miller, 1986; Phelan,

4
1987; Raffe, 1986; Slater, 1974; Trotter, 1981; and
Woodson, 1978). Although compelled by law to attend
school in most states until they reach the age of 16
(Prince v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1944), these
students are generally underachieving. This lack of
academic success has been attributed to the quality of
the education made available to them, as well as their
individual and/or collective efforts to reject schooling
through nonengagement and other counterproductive
activities. In short, a quality education, the tradi-
tional means of upward social-class mobility for other
minorities in this country, eludes far too many African
American males in the United States.

The purpose of this study is to describe the
changes which occurred at Metropolitan High as it went
from a predominantly middle-class, white school to a
predominantly working-class, black school and to under-
stand how these changes affected the 115 young, African
American males who are the focus of this study. These
phenomena were analyzed from the point of view of
radical theories of reproduction and resistance in
school settings. The events observed at Metropolitan
High School suggested ways in which reproduction and
resistance theories could be revised. The study also
examines a set of interventions that could alter the
adverse circumstances faced by young, African American

males in urban high schools.

5

This school's mission statement read: "The mission
of Metropolitan High School is to ensure quality learn-
ing for all students through effective teaching in a
caring environment." Specifically, this study sought to
determine how the implementation or the lack of imple-
mentation of this educational charge affected 115
African American male students at Metropolitan High
School.

This study, a critical ethnography, identified and
described African American male students' reactions to
schooling. The participants' academic endeavors and
some relevant social interactions were studied over a
three-year period. The findings show that the quality
of schooling at Metropolitan High School was shaped by a
number of factors, including the attitudes and behaviors
of teachers, parents, and students. The findings des-
cribe conditions and circumstances which were conducive
to student accommodation, unstructured opposition, as
well as deliberate resistance to schooling. The study
also drew comparisons between the academic and social
outcomes for African American males at Metropolitan High
School with other African American males throughout
Michigan and the United States at the close of the
1980's.

All names and other explicit details which, if
used, could disclose the identity of the school, the

school district, the students, and other persons associ—

6
ated with this story were altered or deleted in an
effort to maintain anonymity. The student participants
were assigned African (Chuks-orji, 1972) and other names
typically given African American males.
The field site, an urban secondary school referred
to as Metropolitan High School, is located in a small

urban school district in the state of Michigan.

6
ated with this story were altered or deleted in an
effort to maintain anonymity. The student participants
were assigned African (Chuks-orji, 1972) and other names
typically given African American males.
The field site, an urban secondary school referred
to as Metropolitan High School, is located in a small

urban school district in the state of Michigan.

FRICAN AMERIC MALES I THE UNITED STATES

This study emerges from the bleak national plight
of African American males in the United States at the
close of the 1980s. According to Gibbs (1984), African
American men have been distinctly an "at risk" popu—
lation who encounter despairing conditions in most
facets of American economic and social life. Wetzel
(1987) drew several distressing conclusions from his
research with African American youth. Over half of all
African American youth live in the central cities as
compared to less than a quarter of all white youth. The
education they [African American males] receive is
considered "deficient" at best. There is a scarcity of
job opportunities as well. African American youth are
often associated with urban crime, as the opportunities
and enticements to commit crime in their neighborhoods
are facts of their daily existence.

African American males suffer disproportionate
health problems when compared to others in society. Dr.
Mac Otten, Jr., a medical epidemiologist with the Center
for Disease Control in Atlanta, reported in the Journal
of the American Medical Association (1990) that African
American males have a significantly lower life expec—
tancy than white males. This gap between the life
expectancies of black and white males is widening,
according to Otten. Smoking tobacco, obesity, high

blood pressure, poverty, and poor education were cited

8
by Otten (1990) as reasonable explanations for the
differences in the life expectancies of African American
and white males.

African American males also are more often subject
to criminal justice proceedings. This is reflected in
their gross overrepresentation in the nations federal
and state prisons (U.S. Department of Commerce, 1988b).
Although a small percentage of African American males,
benefited from the political, economic, and educational
opportunities made available as a result of the passage
of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, an inordinately large
portion of African American men experience little
prosperity at the close of this century.

Researchers Farley (1977) and Wilson (1978)
demonstrated that the small portion of African American
youth who took advantage of the social reforms of the
19608 achieved academic success and mobility into
skilled occupations and the American middle-class sector
of society. A large portion of African American men,
however, still remain poorly educated and unskilled, the
outcasts of society, and contribute little or nothing to
the country's labor force.

The following sections detail evidence of the dismal
status of African American males throughout the United
States, Michigan, and the Metropolitan High School
community in the areas of employment, crime and

violence, familial issues, health, and education. These

9
data were included to demonstrate the significance and
need to study the education of African American males in

this country.

Employment Status

The National Research Council in its 1989 report, A
Common Destiny: Blacks in American Society, pointed out
that the increase in white-collar jobs enjoyed during
the 1970s for both black and white men started to wane
in the early 1980s. The trend was slower still for
unskilled laborers in general and greater yet for
unskilled African American men.

The Civil Rights movement of the 1960s resulted in
a significant rise in the employment of African American
males in American society (National Research Council,
1989; National Urban League, 1989). Many African
American males and females alike were provided oppor-
tunities for placement in jobs and educational programs
which previously were unavailable to them and other
many minority groups in this country. This was an era
of increased white-collar jobs for people of all races.

However, differences between black and white men's
earnings and hours worked per week continued to manifest
themselves. For example, in regard to the number of
hours worked per week in 1987, African American men
between the ages of aged 25-64 worked far fewer hours

per week than their white counterparts. The men in this

10
age group worked 7 hours less per week than did white
men of the same age group. The year 2000 will find the
average black man earning 58% of the average white man's
earning if the trend continues (National Research
Council, 1989). According to Danziger and Weinberg
(1986), in addition to fewer number of hours worked per
week, African American males, on the average, are twice
. as unemployed as white males. The unemployed status of
a large percentage of African American men contributes
significantly to the problems faced by these men, their
families, their communities, and society in general.

Due to the unemployed and/or underemployed standing
of too many black males, their collective earning
potential is far lower than that of white males. In
fact, the National Urban League (1989) in its annual
report, The State of Biack America, (National Urban
League, 1989), concluded: "For young African American
men, the under 30 years of age group who were attempting
to start families, their real income was half of what it
was in the early 1970s."

African American males experienced an inflation-
adjusted decline in real earnings of ten percent between
1978 and 1987 (National Urban League, 1989). In 1984,
more than 40% of black men had an annual income of less
than $10,000 compared with white males with only 20% of
their population in this category (Jaynes, Tobin, and

Farley, 1986). The federal government determined an

11
annual income of $10,000 or above to be beyond the
poverty line for this period. Consequently, more than
half of the African American male population was
surviving at or near the poverty line. Many African
American males who earned nearly or slightly more than
$10,000 annually were still not experiencing a middle-
class lifestyle, nor were their families exposed to
quality health care and nutrition (U.S. Department of
Commerce, 1988b).

It is essential to report here that the real extent
of the austere plight of underemployed and unemployed
African American males could not be represented accu-
rately due to the fact that many lower and no-income
African American males do not report their status to
federal census takers. Bowman (1984) spoke of the
understated predicament of impoverished young African
American men in this country:

Although staggering, official statistics understate

the problem of joblessness among young Black adults

in several ways. Official unemployment figures
fail to include discouraged workers who have
stopped looking for work because of a belief that
no job is available, other potential workers who
are not looking, but would take a job if offered,
and those who are involuntarily working part—time

and want a job with more hours. (p. 70)

Since 1959 the proportion of men, both African
American and white, who reported no earnings rose, but
the increase was far more critical for African American

men (National Research Council, 1989). In essence, half

of the African American male population in the United

12
States lived in impoverished conditions in the late
1980's. Those who were able to find employment worked
fewer hours per week and earned less than their white
counterparts. Many gave up the search for employment

and resorted to public assistance or crime for survival.

Crime and Violence

Crime and violence by African Americans has
increased sharply since the 1950s (Myers and Sabol,
1987). Along with the trend toward increased crime,
the prison population also reflects a disproportionate
percentage of African American males who are incarce-
rated as compared to the percentage of African American
men who were in America. In 1987 Hawkins reported the
prison population was 46% African American, but in 1939,
African Americans made-up only 26% of the prison pop-
ulation and of course the overwhelming percentage of
these prisoners were men (U.S. Department of Commerce,
1988b).

According to MacGarrell and Flanagan (1985) black
Americans were six times more often than not the victims
of black crime and suffer greater injuries than do
whites when they are victims of crime. Crime is gener-
ally committed near the home for all racial groups.
Because African Americans generally live in communities
which are predominantly African American, there is a

high incident of black on black crime (National Research

13
Council, 1989). The poorer the community, the higher
the crime rate. The highest crime rates are in communi-
ties where the average individual's annual income is
less than $10,000. The obvious linkages between eco-
nomic stability and crime are most blatant with respect
to crime in impoverished areas, especially African
American communities.

The impact of crime on black-owned businesses in
predominantly African American communities is especially
distressing. Such businesses suffered repeated burglar-
ies which result in increased insurance rates and even-
tually the loss of business. The loss of these busi-
nesses to their immediate community negatively impacts
the employment possibilities for African Americans,
especially young African American men. Predominantly
African American communities and other minority
communities are marred by the high incidents of crime
caused by African American males (National Research
Council, 1989; National Urban League, 1989).

The prevalence of violence in African American
communities across the nation is most often related to
drug trafficking, which is heavily concentrated in
African American and Hispanic communities. Rose &
Deskin, 1986, reported on the homicide rate in the
nation's capital in 1987: 57% of the 228 homicides were
considered related to drug trafficking. The high

incidents of homicide also can be attributed to the fact

14
that handguns were weapons of choice in most of the
criminal activities during the 1980s. In the category
of robbery, guns were used in 43% of the cases.

Fingerhut and Klienman (1990) reported in the
Journal of the Americen Medical Association that the
United States had the highest homicide rate of 21
developed countries in 1990. Further, the rate for
African American males is seven times greater than for
white males in the 15 to 24 years-of-age group. Homi-
cide is the leading cause of death for African American
males in this age group.

In considering the crime factor, African American
males are seven times more likely to die as a result of
homicide than are white males. African American males
made up nearly half of the nation's prison population.
Viable black-owned businesses are almost nil in African
American communities as a result of black—on-black

crime.

Familial Relationships

Social researchers attribute much of the dys-
functionalism in the African American family to the
ineffectiveness of the African American male in provid-
ing a steady economic foundation from which the family
could prosper. For more than one third of the African
American male population, their meager earning power

negatively impacts their relationship with their family,

15
contributing to the common incidence of African American
female-headed households. The majority of single,
African American mothers reported that they receive no
financial support from their children's fathers, and a
large percentage of African American children are raised
in destitution (National Research Council, 1989).

The fact is that a large percentage of African
American men are unemployed or underemployed. Conse-
quently, there is a scarcity of African American men,
less than 60%, who are able to support families (Wilson
& Aponte, 1985). The National Research Council (1989)
found that lower-income African American families are
predominantly female-headed households, and middle-
income African American families are predominantly two-
parent households.

In 1985, one third of all single black mothers
reported receiving absolutely no child support from the
fathers of their children, and only 11% of the "never
married" category of African American women had ever
received any financial support (National Research
Council, 1989). Many of these women were left to resort
to public assistance and/or low-paying jobs, which took
them away from their children during their developmental
years. The important factor here is that the black
child's father is twice as likely as the white child's
father to be unemployed. Even if both parents of a

African American child work, they earn only 84% of what

16
a comparable white family earned (National Urban League,
1989).

In 1988, black teens were four times as likely as
whites to have babies out-of-wedlock (National Urban
League, 1989). The real tragedy is the impact of
poverty on the African American child. The cycles of
poverty continue to engulf large portions of the African
American population, and the most persistent and
pervasive impact is concentrated on African American
males. The sad truth is that most African American
males can barely afford a family in the United States.
Their meager (if any) income explains the common pattern
of female-headed households in this country.

Health issues

African American males have a markedly higher death
rate than do white males. The National Center for
Health Statistics (1988) released findings which indi-
cated that the life expectancy of a African American
male in 1985 (65.3 years) was lower than that already
achieved by white males in 1950 (66.5 years). In 1988,
the Center reported that for a second consecutive year
there was a decline in the life expectancy for African
American men. This was the first back-to-back annual
decline in this century, especially when white male life
expectancy continues to increase. Cancer, homicide,
hypertension, acquired immune deficiency syndrome

(AIDS), alcohol, and other substance abuses contribute

17
to the inordinately high premature death rate among
African American males.

Since the 1940s, African American men have
experienced consistent increases in death rates due to
cancer (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
1986). The fact that an overwhelming number of African
American males live in impoverished conditions, where
daily survival is the major consideration, probably
accounts for the poor attention to proper diets and
increased smoking among African American men, two of the
leading causes of cancer.

In 1987 the National Cancer Foundation reported
differences in the tobacco smokers, when considering
African American males and white males over the age of
20 years. Among African American males, 41% were
smokers as compared to white males in the same age group
with 32% smokers of tobacco (National Research Council,
1989). The Foundetion further reported that the annual
death rates as a result of lung cancer were categori-
cally a reflection of the difference in the rate of
smoking. The mortality rate per 100,000 people due to
lung cancer was 95 for African American males and 70 for
white males.

Poor health and health care begins in childhood for
African American males and African Americans in general.
The Stete of Bieck America, (National Urban League,
1989) reported:

18

The greatest barrier to improved health status
for Black children is financial. Decent health
care, including preventive care, is very expensive
in this country. Few can afford health care unless
they are insured, and insurance is very expensive
unless it is provided through employers or public
financing. Millions of families-especially lower-
income working families and unemployed families
were covered by neither private nor public health
insurance. The recent erosion in Black access to
health care is largely a result of poverty, the
decline in public health programs, and a lack of
health insurance.

In 1984 there were 35 million Americans
without either public or private health insurance;
one-third of them were children. One in every four
Black children is completely uninsured. (p. 71)

As poorly-cared for African American children become
adults, their health problems persist and enlarge.
Consequently, African American men who reside mostly in
impoverished or near impoverished conditions are clearly
at risk concerning their health.

Finally, the newest health epidemic in America
smacks hardest at African American men. Farley (1985)
found that the epidemic, AIDS, disproportionately
affects African American males for a number of reasons.
However, their disproportionately high-incidence of
intravenous drug use is the primary cause.

In summary, the cost of health care is exorbitant.
Poor African American families experience ill health and
many family members - especially children - die at
extraordinarily high rates due to the family's inability
to pay for adequate health care. Employment in this

country is essential to procure adequate and affordable

19
health care insurance. As presented previously, African
American males are most often unemployed and their
personal health and the health of their families suffer

immensely because of this.

Segeelimg and Higher Education Issues

This study is about the education of African
American males, a factor that is related to many of the
aforementioned conditions of African American males.
Otten (1990) for example found that the central factors
contributing to the increased death rate for African
American males are their poor economic status and poor
education. The National Urban League (1989), and the
National Research Council (1989) pointed out the need to
improve the education of African Americans in general,
with special attention to African American males.

Too many African American males are born into
impoverished homes. Their chances are less than average
for ever escaping the cycle of poverty into which they
are born. Hofferth and Hayes (1987) studied African
American children of teenage mothers and found that
these children had a far higher rate of health problems
than did white children. These children had greater
risks of lower intellectual and academic achievement and
a wide range of social problems. African American male

students also were often ill-prepared for schooling and

20
experienced social difficulties at school and in their
personal lives.

Many African American children, male and female,
start school with the disadvantage of poverty.
According to Ogbu (1974), these students receive little
emotional support from their teachers and school
administrators. Ogbu established that teachers and
school administrators did not reward these students as
often as they did other students. The lack of reward
was often interpreted by students, as discouragement or
punishment. Ogbu also recounted that school
administrators and teachers often resisted African
American parents' efforts to help their children.
African American students, according to Ogbu, were not
provided information needed to plan their futures.

Fordham and Ogbu (1986) and Hare and Castenell
(1986) studied the negative impact of peer culture on
African American males. Both studies discovered that
peer culture often sabotages the efforts of school and
community persons to encourage goals of academic
excellence for African American youths. Fordham and
Ogbu found African American males in urban areas often
rejected standard language usage, strong study habits,
or receiving above-average grades because they asso-
ciated these traits with "acting white." African
American males, according to Fordham and Ogbu (1986),

were more submissive to peer pressure than were white

21
males. African American males often shy away from
behaviors which could enhance their possibilities for
academic success. African American male students who do
exhibit these traits are generally ridiculed by their
peers and tended not to succeed in their schooling
(Fordham & Ogbu, 1986).

The particularly high unemployment rate experienced
by African Americans in general is another factor which
contributed to the lack of interest in academic
endeavors by many African American males. African
American males observe older brothers, neighbors, their
fathers and other men in their communities who are
unemployed or underemployed. Their own inability to
secure part-time jobs is additional confirming evidence
that hard work and attention to academic matters does
not necessarily result in an improved lifestyle, even if
they are academically successful. Consequently, many
young African American males lose interest in academic
rigor and anticipated little payoff from hard mental
work (National Research Council, 1989).

Recent data from the Census Bureau (U.S. Depart-
ment of Commerce, 1988b) indicates that a higher
percentage of African American males in the 18—to—24—
year-old range completes high school in the latter years
of the 1980s than ever before. However, the number of
African American male graduates, in general, remained

significantly lower than that all other racial and

22
gender cohorts in the United States. African American
females in this age range had a significantly greater
high school completion rate than African American males
in 1986. African American females' graduation rate in
that year was about 80% while the African American
males' graduation rate that same year was about 72%.

Higher education posed another hardship for many
African American males. The National Council on
Education (1989) and the National Urban League (1989)
maintain that getting larger numbers of qualified
African American males involved in higher education is a
key to reversing the economic trends common among
African American males. The vast majority of colleges
and universities, however, require students seeking
admission to submit their college entrance test results.
These post-secondary institutions generally accept
either the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), administered
by the College Board, or the American College Testing
(ACT), an examination administered by the American
College Testing Program. Both tests are designed to
predict academic readiness for college-level work.

The SAT is a multiple-choice test which measures
refined verbal and mathematical reasoning abilities
related to successful performance in college (College
Board and the Educational Testing Service, 1988). The
four ACT multiple-choice tests measure educational

development in the areas of English, mathematics, social

23
studies, and the natural sciences. The administrators
of the ACT believe that the best way to predict success
in post-secondary education is to measure, as directly
as possible, the skills students needed in these
settings (American College Testing Program, 1988).

Historically, African American males perform poorly
on the two college entrance examinations. African
American males as well as other minority groups
demonstrate significant improvement during the past
decade (National Research Council, 1989), but there were
still major gaps between the national scores of African
American males and other minority counterparts. The
betterment is due to improved patterns of course selec-
tion and policies aimed at improving the educational
status of African Americans and other minorities.

The 18-to—24-year-old population is considered the
traditional college-going group (American Council on
Education, 1988). The use of this age group as a
standard provides an understanding of the number of
persons who are actually enrolled in college by race.
Although African American males historically maintain a
higher "in-college" rate than their female counterparts,
that began to wane in the 1980's. In 1986, the partici-
pation rate for African American female high school
graduates was about 29% and about 28% for their African

American male counterparts. In that same year, white

24
high school graduates maintained about a 34% college
enrollment.

The National Center for Education Statistics
reported that among historically black colleges and
universities, enrollment declined drastically between
1980 and 1986. The 222,000 total enrollment in these
schools in 1980 declined to 213,093 students in 1986.
In 1987, there was a 5,000 student gain for these
institutions, and their total enrollment was 218,000 due
to increased recruitment efforts on the part of this
institutions and the increased tuition rate at predomi-
nantly white institutions.

A report from the National Center of Education
Statistics (1989) indicated that by the year 2000 there
will be a 50% turnover in faculty members in the
nation's colleges and universities, and there will be
fewer African American males prepared to fill many of
those vacancies unless there is a concerted effort to
encourage more African Americans and other minorities to
procure doctorates and seek university careers.

African Americans earned 4.5 percent of the
doctorates awarded in 1977 and the number declined to
3.8 percent earned in 1987 (Summary Report 1987, 1989).
During that period (1977-1987), there was a marked
increase in the number of African American women reci-
pients and a decline in the number of African American

male recipients. A contributing factor for these

25

statistics is the ability to finance education at the
doctoral level. Fewer African Americans are financially
able to support the expense of advanced education.
African American women, however, are more likely to
receive scholarships due to pressure for graduate
programs to accommodate multiple minority categories.

The National Research Council, The National Urban
League (1989) reported that African Americans were
overrepresented in the fields of education and the
humanities but grossly underrepresented in the social
sciences and engineering fields. In the ten-year period
between 1977 and 1987, African American male doctorates
in all fields declined by 54% from 684 to 317, respec-
tively. This decline could be attributed to the cost
factor and the retrenchment of scholarships and grants
during the Reagan administration (1980-1988).

The American Council on Education (1988) articu-
lated the need for a special effort to increase the
number of African American males earning college
degrees. The council listed numerous factors which
accounted for the scarcity of African American males on
college and university campuses of this country, namely,
chronic health problems and lower life expectancy, high
unemployment rates, lower teacher expectations, dispro-
portionate discipline and expulsion incidents, and
disproportionate time spent in special education

classes. Even with increased educational opportunities,

26
there is no guarantee of economic parity with white
males. Among college-educated men with degrees, 1 in 9
are unemployed for African American men as compared to 1

in 29 for white men (National Urban League, 1989).

A 'can erican Males in Michi an

African American males in the state of Michigan,
where this research was conducted, mirror or are far
worse than other African American males nationwide in
the specific aforementioned categories. African
American male Michiganians were disproportionately
overrepresented in the prison population, the population
of AIDS victims, and the population in juvenile
detention, and disproportionately underrepresented in
the college and university populations of the state (as

shown in Table 1).

African American Males at Metropolitan High School

The findings presented in this study will
demonstrate that the educational and social outcomes of
African American males at Metropolitan High are similar
to those experienced by African American males
nationally and in Michigan.

As the racial composition of Metropolitan High
School changed from predominantly white and middle-class
to predominantly African American and working-class, the

quality of the educational outcomes - especially for

27

Table 1

Stetistics on African American Males in Michigan

 

Number in public colleges
Percent of public college enrollment
(fall, 1988 data)

Number in public universities
Percent of total public universities

Number reported with AIDS since 1981
Percent of all reported AIDS cases in
Michigan

Number on General Assistance
Percent of all DSS General Assistance
(May, 1989)

Number unemployed in Michigan
Percent of unemployed
(May, 1989)

Number in prison
Percent of the prison population
(DOC annual report)

Number in juvenile detention centers
Percent of juvenile detention
population

(May, 1989)

Number in juvenile training schools
Percent of the juvenile training
school population

(may, 1989)

Number in foster care
Percent of foster care population
(May, 1989)

8,393
3.8%

6,257
2.5%
436
39%
31,065
32%
45,000
17.7%
15,307
58.2%
151

58.1%

328

58.5%

430
67%

 

Note.
Crisis," March 28, 1990

From The Michigan Chronicle "Black Male in

28
African American males — declined. For example, of the
115 African American males studied over a three-year
period, only slightly more than half actually graduated
with their class, and among those who completed their
education, most were significantly below-average
academically and thus less likely to apply to or be
accepted into four-year colleges. Many others in the
cohort were not attending school regularly, while others
were involved in violent or aggressive behaviors which
resulted in their being incarcerated, expelled, or
dropped from the active enrollment at the school. Thus,
the conditions facing working-class, African American
males at Metropolitan High School are comparable to
those faced by young African American males in other

urban areas of the nation.

SUMMARY

This chapter provided a brief description of the
negative conditions of African American males in this
country, in the state of Michigan, and at Metropolitan
High School in late 1980's. Clinical psychologist,
Gibbs (1984) compared African American males to certain
national wildlife by referring to them, ironically, as
an "endangered species." Considering the facts
presented in this chapter, namely, that African American
males are most often involved in criminal justice
proceedings; die more often from cancer, homicide and
AIDS; experience the highest unemployment and under-
employment rates of all other racial groups in the
nation; and too often live at or near the national
poverty line, one could easily conclude that African
American males are indeed endangered. Even more
distressing is the fact that these conditions have
worsened since the 1950s at a steady annual rate.

This study, like other efforts, presents data to
help explain the status of African American males and to
help improve their conditions. Marshall, in his
foreword to Young, Black, and Male in America (Gibbs,
J.T., Brunswick, A., Connor, M., Dembo, R., Larson, T.,
Reed, R., & Solomon, 8., 1988) concluded that:

It is...very clear that a failure to address the

problems for these young men will be very costly in

material and human terms to the society as a

whole...[and that] we must view interventions as
investments, not merely cost. (p. ii)

29

30

It is clear from the research reviewed in this
chapter that one of the most important investments that
our society can make in young, African American males is
investment in a quality education. Yet the research
also suggests that society is not making this invest-
ment. As a result, this study examined the schooling of
115 young, African American males at a typical urban
high school from the perspective of critical theories of
social reproduction and resistance and attempted to
document interventions that could lead to improved

educational outcomes for these students.

CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES

This study of the educational outcomes of 115
African American males at Metropolitan High School is
grounded in the concepts of reproduction and resistance
as developed in the works of noted radical theorists.
This chapter will provide an analysis and synthesis of
these works.

The notion of reproduction asserts that there is a
"tight fit," or "deterministic," relationship between
public schools and the division of labor in capitalist
societies. The reproduction paradigm assumes that
schools are training grounds for society's laborers,
preparing them for positions of power and subserviency.
Due to poor academic preparation, many other individuals
are relegated to the status surplus laborers for whom
their are no positions.

Theories of resistance, also, acknowledge the
relationship of schooling and work for example, that
working-class schools tend to produce working-class
adults, while upper-class schools produce managers and
persons in leadership positions of power. However,
resistance theories also focus on some degee of autonomy
for both the schoolhouse and human agents in mapping and

shaping their own destines. Theories of resistance, as

31

32
will be highlighted here, explain the development of the
social-class outcomes defined by reproduction theorists.
They suggest that students contribute significantly to
their own social outcomes by resisting the values and
objectives of school.

This chapter describes the evolution of radical
theory from the tight fit or deterministic paradigms
of reproduction, which attempt to explain the economic
and social-class outcomes of public schooling, to the
more widely affirmed resistance paradigms which acknow-
ledge or account for the potential impact of human
agency.

In later chapters, I will examine how well these
concepts explain the case of Metropolitan High School
and the educational outcomes of the 115 African American
males studied. The purpose of this chapter, however, is

the exposition of reproduction and resistance theories.

ENGELS AND MARX

The theoretical perspectives which I am using were
often characterized as radical theories, or simply,
leftist. They take their lead and esprit from the
writings and philosophies of Friedrich Engels (1820-
1895) and Karl Marx (1818-1883). Therefore, a review of
relevant literature pertaining to radical theories must
begin with the contributions of Engels and Marx.

At the close of the 19th century, Engels and Marx
were horrified by the working conditions of the newly
industrialized Europe. Capitalism, in their view, was
the causal factor behind the dehumanization and alien-
ation experienced by workers in the factories of Europe.
According to Marx (1867), men [in factories] were reduc-
ed to the status of "things," while the real power rest-
ed in the hands of the ruling classes. The government,
according to both Marx and Engels, represented and
facilitated the will of the minority ruling classes at
the expense of the impotent majority classes. Engels
and Marx were driven by their desire to have the State
become actively involved in controlling and regulating
industrialism and rehumanizing the work processes for
the masses. This relationship between the ruling and
working classes contributed greatly to the development

of the "correspondence theory," which shall be presented

below.

33

34
Marx (1967) published the first volume of Capital:
A gritigpe of Political Economy in 1867 which addressed
the exploitative and degrading conditions of work under
capitalism. Chapter XV of that volume converged with
specificity upon the deplorable and exploitive condi-

tions of an industrial capitalist society:

The starting point of modern industry is, as we
have shown, the revolution in the instruments of
labour, and this revolution attains its most highly
developed form in the organised system of machinery
in a factory....

In so far as machinery dispenses with the
muscular power, it becomes a means of employing
labourers of slight muscular strength and those
whose bodily development is incomplete, but whose
limbs are all the more supple.... Compulsory work
for the capitalist usurped the place, not only of
the children's play, but also of free labour at
home within moderate limits for the support of the
family....

In order that the family may now live, four
people must now not only labour, but expend surplus
labour for the capitalist. Thus we see that
machinery, while augmenting human material that
forms the principal object of capital's exploiting
power, at the same time raises the degree of
exploitation. (p. 290)

Along the same discourse, Marx and Engels' manu—
script, The German Ideology (1846) concentrated on the
domination of the ruling classes, citing the fact that
even dominant values as a whole in society were in
reality the values of the ruling class, for example, the
class which controls the means of material production.
An ideology, as Marxism purported, was a set of values
which claims universal validity and appeal, but in
reality, represents the interests of a special group or

class in society. Marx concluded that only an analysis

35
of the social function of an ideology discloses which
group, class, or sector in society is being served.

Marx was particularly obsessed with the import of
economic production in 19th-century Europe. He and
others who supported his philosophies believed that
economic production was the basis of life, and all
political, educational, and religious ideas were
resolved by the function and needs of economic produc-
tion in society.

Marx wrote four manuscripts in 1844 which were
later published in 1932. These writings further ad-
dressed his concerns regarding the role and impact of
economic production on industrial societies. In one of
them, Alienated Lebor, he theorized that the demands of
economic production came to dominate the requirements of
human life. He pointed out the emotional impact of
alienated labor, "...he [the worker] has a feeling of
misery rather than well being, does not develop freely
his mental and physical energies but was physically
exhausted and mentally debased" (p. 21).

As a theoretical solution to the on-going tension
between the demands of the capitalists and the frus-
tration felt by the working class, Marx and Engels
(1847) wrote the Mapifesto of the Communist Party. In
this work, they predicted the social outcome of the
struggle between exploiting and exploited classes. They

envisioned an overthrow of the government by the prole-

36

tariat and the abolition of private property ownership
under the communist system of government, where the
masses would rule society. By the latter part of 20th
century, most capitalist governments had addressed the
abominable conditions of industrial labor. The decline
of communism throughout the world was fated, but the
correspondence between schooling and the work world has
remained a central interest of neo-Marxists in Europe,
South America, Australia, Canada, and the United States.

When present-day public schools were examined and
critiqued from these radical perspectives, several
questions came to mind: Where did public schools take
their direction for curriculum development? Did working
class schools produce working class adults? Were cer-
tain schools preparing large numbers of youth for sur-
plus labor positions and permanent unemployment, while
other schools were grooming their youth for positions of
power and control? If there was a deliberate and
directed shaping and molding of teacher and youth in
public schools, did it occur in the absence of struggle?
What can be said of the reproduction of social and
ideological inequities in society? What did we know
about human nature and human agency? The answer to
these and other questions were central to the critical

thinking of radical theorists in education.

THE REPRODUCTION PARADIGM

Theories of social reproduction attempt to address
the above primary questions regarding the objectivity of
schooling in capitalist societies. The theoretical
writings of principal neo-Marxist theorists, such as
Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis (1976) from an economic
perspective and Louis Althusser (1971) from an
ideological perspective, concentrated their efforts
toward grasping the essence of the socioeconomic
function of schooling in capitalist societies. Both
perspectives appeared idealistic and simplified, as will
be discussed below, but did provide a springboard for
analyzing the relationship which continues to exist

between the work force and the capitalists.

Sampel Bewles and Herbert Gintis

Bowles and Gintis (1976) were concerned with an
economic model of social reproduction. Their text,
Schooling ip Capitalist America, received and continued
to receive tremendous attention and criticism since the
mid-1970s and throughout the 1980s by radical theorists
focusing on the development of a theory which better
construed the relationship between schooling and the
division of labor in society.

Bowles and Gintis (1976) contended that educational
systems were considered successful based on how well

their students "fit" into the division of labor upon

37

38
leaving school. They purported that the capitalist
economy and the division of labor were both one and the

same 3

Making U.S. capitalism work involves: insuring the
minimal participation in decision-making by the
majority (the workers); protecting a single
minority (capitalists and managers) against the
wills of a majority; and subjecting the majority to
the maximal influence of this single unrepresenta-
tive minority. A more dramatic contrast one would
be hard pressed to discover. High school textbooks

do not dwell on the discrepancy. (p. 54)

From this perspective, Bowles and Gintis (1976) were
able to advance a discussion of students' personal
satisfaction and the development of their maximum
potential with respect to preparation for the division
of labor.

The production of people, according to Bowles and
Gintis (1976), is far more critical to the capitalist
economy than the production of "things" that are made by
people in industry. They claimed tha, "...people
production in the work place and in school was dominated
by the imperatives of profit and domination rather than
human need." (p.54) Capitalists, according to Bowles
and Gintis, make enormous profits by eliciting high
levels of output from their workforce. By maintaining
the right to hire and fire employees, capitalists are
able to keep their workers in a "productive" frame of
mind.

Further, Bowles and Gintis (1976) view schools

within capitalism as the main and obvious source of

39
production of skilled workers. Schools are responsible
for the production of a large pool of skilled workers
referred to by Bowles and Gintis as the "reserve army".
This excess workforce empowers the capitalists with the
tool of "selection" and leaves the workers impotent.
Bowles and Gintis suggest that major aspects of the
structure of schooling can be understood by studying the
needs of economic production.

Bowles and Gintis took a hard look at the differ-
ences between domestic work prior to the industrial
revolution and work in capitalist societies. They
pointed out one main distinction: Domestic production
was not geared primarily for profit, but rather toward
satisfaction of the needs of the nuclear family.
Capitalist production, on the other hand, was geared
toward increased profits for the capitalists and not the
workers or their nuclear families. Along this course,
Galbrath (1973) wrote:

Decision-making and accountability are organized

according to the hierarchical division of labor,

where control over work processes is arranged in
vertical layers of increasing authority with the
ultimate power resting nearly exclusively in the

top echelon of owners and managers. (p. 27)

Racial and ethnic minorities have to some extent
fallen prey to the needs of production in capitalist
societies. Edwards, Reich, and Gordan (1975) demon-

strated that these groups have historically entered the

workforce and been "superexploited" and socially brand-

40
ed. But with time, political organization, and the
entry of a new wave of laborers into the lowest occupa-
tional slots, they were able to move up the social-class
ladder. African American males, however, have consis-
tently remained on the bottom strata of the social-class
ladder throughout the 20th century.

Bowles and Gintis (1976) also categorized a primary
and secondary labor forces. The primary, labor force
is characterized by high wages and job security, while
the secondary labor force is characterized by low wages,
great employment instability, and high job turn-over.
Bowles and Gintis' findings are important here for an
understanding of the employment probabilities of African
American males. They argued that "...secondary employ—
ment was the expected lot of the most oppressed social
groups: blacks, Puerto Ricans, Chicanos, native
Americans, women, the elderly, youth and other minority
groups” (p. 67).

Bowles and Gintis (1976) are closely identified
with the correspondence principle or theory which
purports that there is an interactive relationship
between what is taught in the classroom of schools and
the skills which are needed in the various divisions of
the workforce. In describing the correspondence theory,
Giroux (1981) writes:

The correspondence theory posits that the

hierarchically structured patterns of values,

norms, and skills, that characterize the work force
and the dynamics of the daily class interaction

41

under capitalism were mirrored in the social

dynamics of the daily classroom interactions.

(p. 262)

In other words, in addition to the curriculum which is
taught in schools, there is an invisible or "hidden
curriculum" which teaches the disposition and attitudes
needed in the workplace. This curriculum is considered
to be the source of inequality in public schools because
it deprives working-class students-generally African
Americans and other minorities-the opportunity to
develop independent thinking skills.

In essence, Bowles and Gintis purported that the
central task of public schools is the shaping and
molding of their students to fit into the divisions of
labor. This has a disportionate, adverse impact on
African American and other minority students, leaving
them to fill secondary positions in the labor market
which generally offers them poor wages, little job
security, and few opportunities for advancement. This
correspondence between school and the work world from an
economic perspective is the major focus of Bowles and

Gintis' work.

W

Louis Althusser (1971) is most often associated
with the neo-Marxist ideological perspective of social
reproduction. He focuses attention on the reproductive

aspects of labor power, while not ignoring the impor-

42
tance of reproducing the material means of production.
"...[N]o production was possible which does not allow
for the reproduction of the material conditions of
production: the reproduction of the means of produc-
tion" (p. 128). In referring to Althusser's (1969,
1971) writings, Willis (1987) concluded:
Education provides the necessary skills for
production, the necessary graded ideologies for the
social division of labour and provides for the
actual formation of subjectivities through the
celebrated "imaginary relationship of individuals
to their real conditions of existence." (p. 115)
Althusser was convinced that the central and
driving force of capitalist societies was the reproduc-
tion of the "labor power," or the people needed to
produce capitalist supplies. This reproduction occurs
outside of the industry or firm, most often within the
family. The motivating factor which produces and
reproduces labor power is the laborers' "wages"
according to Althusser (1971). This relation of laborer
and his/her wages is essential to the reproduction of
the labor power. Wages paid to the laborers allows for
"...raising and educating the children in which the
proletarian reproduces himself" (Althusser, 1971, p.
131). Althusser (1969, 1971) and others (Marx, 1844,
Bowles & Gintis, 1976) considered economics as a
motivator of all social behavior. "Economic deter-
minism" is a common concept among Marxist and neo-

Marxist writings.

43

Althusser also maintained that laborers must be
properly educated in preparation for the tasks of the
work world. This notion of "competencies" for the work
world is critical to Althusser's model of ideological
reproduction. It is within the process of schooling,
according to Althusser (1969, 1971), that the division
of qualities of education occurs. The education of the
common person (or the manual laborer) would be dis-
tinctly contrasted by the educational needs of the
future engineers and other intellectuals in society.
Thus, Althusser (1971) introduced the concept of "know
how" which speaks to the various types of knowledge and
skills needed by laborers in society. The "know how"
needed by the manual laborer, for example, was less in
quantity and different in quality than the knowledge
needed by skilled workers in society. In addition to
the skills needed to complete the tasks of the capi-
talist work world, laborers also needed, according to
Althusser, to possess the proper attitude(s) for work at
the various stations in life:

A child learns the "rules" of good behavior i.e.,

proper attitude that should be observed by every

agent in the division of labour, according to the

job he is "destined" for: rules of morality, civic

and professional conscience, which actually means

rules of respect for the socio-technical division

of labour and ultimately the rules of the

order established by class domination. They also

learn to "speak proper French", to "handle" the

workers correctly, i.e., actually (for the future

capitalists and their servants) to "order them

about" properly, i.e., (ideally) to "speak to them"
in the right way, etc. (p. 132)

44

For Althusser (1971), there is a great deal more
occurring in the schoolhouse and within individual
families than merely the acquisition of mental skills.
He claims that attitudes about work and one's place in
society are also formed in schools to ensure that all
persons involved in the division of labor acquiesce to
the "ruling class ideology". More contemporary radical
theorists (Anyon, 1980; Olson, 1983; Willis,1977)
observe that in working-class schools, punctuality,
neatness, obedience, and structure are stressed
supposedly because these skills and attitudes are
conducive to manual labor. Conversely, creativity,
independence, and higher-level thinking skills are
taught in upper-middle class and elite schools in an
effort to prepare those students for jobs as managers
and capitalists.

Destutt de Tracy, a French philosopher, originated
the term, "ideology" at the beginning of the nineteenth
century. However, it was Karl Marx (1844) who advanced
its significance to include the beliefs, traditions,
principles, and myths of the ruling classes. The
ideology of a capitalist society, according to Althusser
(1971), is generally masked as representative of the
needs of the majority, but in reality serves only the
needs and will of a minority, the ruling class.

Althusser's (1971) model of capitalist societies as

having both an "infrastructure" (the economic base) and

45
a "superstructure" (the politico-legal and ideology
segments of society) is central to his perception of
"ideology." In Ideology and Ideological State
A a atuses, Althusser (1971) theorized that the major
ideological State apparatuses were the family, public
and private school systems, trade unions, and culture,
all part of the superstructure of capitalist societies.
These mechanisms exist to promote the ruling ideology
and the infrastructure, which are the economic base of
capitalist societies, even if they must do so by means
of physical or mental violence. According to Althusser
(1971), "...schools and churches use suitable methods of
punishment, expulsion, selection, etc., to 'discipline'
not only their shepherds, but also their flocks. The
same was true of the family..." (p. 145).

Althusser's model of reproduction focused on the
importance of wages and other economic factors in the
production of specific attitudes and values needed for
the capitalist society. He also suggests that "know
how" or competencies are equally important in the
production of laborers, purporting that workers needed
to acquire the proper attitudes for work. These atti-
tudes are learned in the family, church, and most often
in public schools. Althusser stresses the magnitude of

the ruling-class ideology on the working-class masses.

46

Pierre Bourdieu and Claude Passeron

In addition to theories of social reproduction,
other radical theorists have concentrated on culture as
well. The works of Pierre Bourdieu and Claude Passeron
(1977a, 1977b, 1977c and 1979) in France form the
foundation of the cultural reproduction paradigm. Their
efforts are directed at identifying the relationships
between school and the workplace from a cultural
perspective.

Bourdieu and Passeron (1977a, 1977b) perceived a
dual-faceted paradigm: One side is the relationship
between culture, class, and domination, while on the
other side is the relationship among schooling,
knowledge, and personal biographies. Unlike the
economists, Bowles and Gintis, Bourdieu and Passeron's
model of cultural reproduction views the schools as
being relatively autonomous institutions which are often
influenced by the political and economic prowess of the
ruling classes of society.

Bourdieu (1977a, 1977b) and Passeron and Bourdieu
(1979) concluded that it was precisely through the
external appearance of "neutrality and innocence" that
schools are able to aid in the reproductive process by
determining what knowledge is valuable. In other words,
while schools give the illusion of being "open institu-
tions," in reality, they are value-laden, holding

certain types of school knowledge as more valuable than

47
others. As Giroux (1981) wrote:

Schools play a particularly important role in

both legitimating and reproducing the dominant

culture; for schools, especially at the level of

higher education, embody class interests and
ideologies that capitalize upon a kind of
familiarity and set of skills that only specific
students have received through their family

backgrounds and class relations. (p. 268)

According to Bourdieu and Passeron (1977a, 1977b)
this type of ruling-class preference for school
knowledge is form of "symbolic violence". Symbolic
violence is not overt force, but rather the subtle
pressure caused by the politics and power of the ruling
classes.

In essence, schools assure social disparities,
according to the cultural reproduction model, by what
and how they teach and the criteria used to select staff
and evaluate students' knowledge and academic progress.
Schools in capitalist societies tend to mask their
efforts as "egalitarian". Bourdieu and Passeron (1977)
theorized that those students whose culture is close to
that of the school are exposed to a different set of
learning experiences:

Those whose "culture" is the academic culture as

conveyed by the school have a system of categories

of perceptions, language, thoughts and appreciation
that sets them apart from those whose only training
has been through their work and through their

social contacts with people of their own kind. (p.
80)

48

Michael Apple

The works of curriculum theorist Michael Apple
(1979a, 1979b, 1980, & 1985) are likewise important for
the research reported in this dissertation. Apple
(1979a) gave considerable attention to the roles of
ideology and hegemony in the curriculum of American
schools. With an understanding that the interest of
particular dominating classes are well represented in
the curriculum of public schools, Apple (1979) analyzed
the mechanisms which allowed a dominating ideology to
filter into the mainstream curriculum by focusing on
access to knowledge and the unequal distribution of
knowledge.

Beyond the formal curriculum, Apple (1979) also
highlighted the importance of the informal curricula
which impact students by the fact that they spend a
great amount of time in the school. While in school,
students learn the rules and knowledge which are
important for their lives in the workforce.

To emphasize the shaping and molding which occurred
in school, Apple (1979a) presented ethnographic evidence
of the schooling process as documented by a group of
kindergarten students. He reported that students in
kindergarten learned, upon arriving at school to
distinguish between work and play and to categorize
their belongings by work and play. Kindergarteners

learned the importance of their role and deviance from

49
the norms. Apple's analyses (1979a) of a normal
kindergarten experience was important because he
believed that it was in kindergarten that children
learned the "rules" which prepared them for subsequent
years of schooling. Apple (1985) reported, "...there is
no lack of evidence that a hidden curriculum in schools
exists, one that tacitly attempts to teach norms and
values to students that were related to working in this

unequal society."

QQQDLABXQQ

A critical study of commonly-used history textbooks
by Anyon (1979) revealed that the most influential
publishing companies were few in number; however, they
had the ability to support, through their vigorous
selection/exclusion processes, various ideologies
despite freedom of press and the presumed objectivity of
textbooks. Anyon studied seventeen commonly-used
history textbooks. She discovered that the working
class and the poor did not have their views and
activities clearly represented. This omission and
distortion, according to Anyon, reflected the powerless—
ness of African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans,
and women. Anyon concluded that textbooks not only
represent the interest of the dominant society but also

help to form support of the dominant social class.

50

Another study by Anyon (1980) examined fifth-
grade classes in working-class, middle-class, upper-
income, and capitalist-class communities. She found
that the schools were similar in many respects, but
differed significantly in content of the teaching-
learning processes. In working-class schools, work was
defined as following the steps of a procedure. While in
middle-class schools, work was defined as getting the
right answer. For the upper middle-class students,
working was defined as developing one's analytical,
intellectual powers. Anyon assigned these definitions
of work based on what she observed relative to the
requirements placed on students in the various schools.
This dissertation focuses on a high school which changed
from a middle upper income school system or a "get the
right answer" school to a working-class, "follow the

rules and procedures" school.

CRITI UES OF REPRODUCTION THEORY

As mentioned earlier, the correspondence theory
suggested by Bowles and Gintis (1976) has received
considerable criticism. Giroux (1981) pointed-out that
their main work, Schoolin in Ca italist America, paints
a perfect picture of the relationship between schooling
and the workforce without considering the roles played
by teachers, students, parents, and others. Giroux
(1981) felt that Bowles and Gintis' correspondence
theory “overemphasized domination at the expense of
those contradictions and forms of resistance that also
characterize social sites such as schools and the work
place" (p. 259).

Apple (1979), pointed out that the correspondence
theory as posited by Bowles and Gintis assumes a non-
pragmatic and passive view of socialization and fails to
account for the culture of the school and the resistance
which occurs within schools. As evidence, Apple (1979c)
pointed-out that:

large numbers of inner-city and working class
students creatively adapt their environments so
that they can smoke, get out of class, inject
humor into their routines, informally control the
pacing of classroom life, generally try to make it
through the day. (p. 102)

Apple (1980) suggests that Bowles and Gintis'
theory regarding the hidden curriculum had some strong
elements which merit further research, namely, the fact
that the "hidden curriculum" is different in schools

representing different social classes and expected

51

52
future status in life. Apple points out that lower-
class students are taught punctuality, neatness, respect
for authority, and other elements of habit formation.
The students of middle and upper classes are taught
intellectual open-mindedness, problem solving, flexi-
bility, and skills which enable them to function as
managers and professionals, not as unskilled or semi-
skilled laborers.

MacDonald (1980), in reference to the work of
Althusser and Bowles and Gintis, comparatively analyzed
their works by noting that, "both see the reproduction
of social relations found in the production process as
the central function and determining force in the
shaping of schools within capitalism" (p. 47).
Althusser's work is significant in providing a working
"idealistic" paradigm of the relationship between ruling
ideology, the division of labor in society, and the
relationships between the controlling minority of
society over the impotent majority. His work, however,
fails to account for the "struggle" which occurs within
superstructure agencies, especially schools, among
working—class youth who, according to Althusser, are
seemingly forced into subjection of the ruling ideology
by way of various ideological State apparatuses. As
Giroux reported (1983), the imposition of the ruling
ideology onto the masses seemed to occur "behind the

backs," of teachers and students through hidden messages

53
or a hidden curriculum according to the ideological
model purported by Althusser and others. In essence,
according to Bernstein (1975), Althusser conceptualized
education as the crucial means of ideological control
and reproduction. Bernstein (1975) saw Althusser as
completely disregarding the role played by human agency.

In addressing the fragility of Althusser's and
other reproduction theorists' models, Finn, Grant,
Johnson (1978) characterized their work as rigid and not
accounting for the possibilities or probabilities for
the capacity of "resistance" on the part of the teachers
and students. Such oppositional behavior, as previously
cited here, is common in public schools of this nation
today, especially among working-class youth and
minorities.

Sharp's (1980) thoughts concerning Althusser's
model are helpful in providing an understanding of the
shortcomings of the ideological model:

It suggests a determinist reproduction of the

relations of production by the educational system

which tends to contradict Althusser's own thesis of
the relative autonomy of the ideological and
political levels and leads to a form of
reductionism. It also provides no hope that

subjects can ever escape from ideology. (p. 163)
Although Althusser (1969, 1971) demonstrated concern,
too, for the role of economics in modern industrialized

societies as did all neo-Marxists, his primary concern

was for the multi-dimensional transmission of ruling-

54
class ideology from school to the workplace. Althusser
(1971) echoed this concern in the following statement:
"[O]ne ideological state apparatus certainly has the
dominant role, although hardly anyone lends an ear to
its music; it is so silent! It is the School" (p.

155).

THEORI ES OF RES I STANCE

Several other radical theorists have closely
scrutinized the works of the social and cultural
reproductionists during the 1970s and 1980s. As
reported here, many have found that the "tight fit,"
deterministic concepts of reproduction are not played
out in reality at the social site, especially in the
schoolhouse. The notion of "human agency" and its role
in resisting domination and consequently reproducing a
surplus skilled work force is notably void from the
model suggested by social and cultural reproductionists.
Among the more noted critical thinkers associated with
resistance theory are Paul Willis, Henry Giroux, Michael

Apple, Angela McRobbie, and Paul Olson.

Paui Willis

Willis (1977) documented resistance as a central,
active and driving force of the human agents at a
typical working-class school in England. In his famous
ethnographic research, Learnin to Labor, Willis (1977)
reported on the actual day-to-day experiences of
working-class youth. His findings suggested that the
resistance and oppositional behaviors common among a
group of English working—class youth, referred to by
Willis as the "lads" (the subjects of his research), not
only prepared them for working-class jobs but also

assured them of working-class status. A crucial factor

55

56
of the working-class culture of these youth, as reported
by Willis, was the categorical rejection of authority.
He affirmed that "the most basic, obvious and explicit
dimension of the counter-school culture was entrenched,
general and personalised opposition to authority" (p.
11).

The lads not only rejected the authority imposed by
adult school officials, but they also rejected other
working-class students who acquiesced to school
authority, namely, but not exclusively, the "ear'oles"
(term used by the lads to refer to those students who
comply with the school's rules, their ear holes
accepting everything at face value). Because of their
impulse to follow the rules of the school, the ear'oles
became the target of verbal and physical abuse from the
lads.

Willis (1977, 1981, 1987) cited numerous examples
of the lads' efforts to gain control over their
school lives. Specifically, he demonstrated that the
lads chose, in addition to "bullying" the ear'oles and
attempting to dominate Asian, African descent and female
students, to concentrate their resistance on school
rules in three specific areas which Willis referred to
as their, "elected grounds for struggle over authority:
dress, smoking and drinking alcohol" (p. 11). In his
reference to the opposition which he observed among the

"lads," Willis (1977) noted that the opposition seemed

57
wedged between what was the "formal" and "informal"
culture of the school. Clearly, but not less important,
the counter-school culture was in the "zone" of the
informal.

Willis (1977) pointed out that within the counter-
school culture, certain elements can exist and become
central factors which might appear alien in a more
formal culture. For example, the lads used the "laff"
or (laugh) as a multi-purpose response to a variety of
situations. Willis explained that the laugh and the
ability to produce a "laff" was extraordinarily
important to the counter-school culture. He wrote that
the laff was used to:

defeat boredom and fear, to overcome hardship

and problems -- as a way out of almost anything.

In many respects the "laff" is the priviledged

instrument of the informal as the command is of the

formal. Certainly the "lads" understand the

special importance of the "laff." (p. 29)

The longing to gain informal control at the work

place was also noted by Willis (1977) as he explained
the work place and conditions of these working-class
youth upon "leaving school." He noted the similarities
between the work place and the school were many for
working-class men. He observed that in their working-
class environment, there was a need to control the work
situation and some elements of personal freedom
persisted.

Finally, Willis (1977) discussed the fact that many

working-class youth were preoccupied with opposing

58
authority. Consequently, the "tight fit", deterministic
theories of reproduction offered by Althusser, Bowles
and Gintis, and Bourdieu were incomplete and controver-
tible from Willis' perspective. Willis saw the working
class in a perpetual "struggle," rejecting all that was
formal. African American males (similar to the "lads"),
by rejecting the formal aspects of schooling including
"qualifications" and "credentials", guarantee their
place in the social stratum of the unskilled and poorly
skilled. However, Willis (1977) concluded that the lads
sensed the futility of study and mental labor and
believed that their fate was tied to the working-class
and manual labor. Willis wrote, "No conceivable number
of certificates amongst the working class will make for
a classless society, or convince industrialists and
employers -- even if they were able -- that they should
create more jobs" (p. 127).

In essence, it appears from Willis' ethnographic
work that the working class are more than relegated to
certain stations as a result of domination. They often
contribute to reproduction through their own opposi—
tional behavior and resistance. This dissertation
demonstrates that many African American males reject
mental labor and contribute to their working-class

plight as well.

59
Henpy Giroux

Focusing on the teachers' role, Giroux (1981)
asserted that the deterministic, "tight fit" models of
social and cultural reproduction do not apply. He
affirmed that teachers interpreted their role in the
schooling process and the roles played-out by their
students in a variety of ways. In outlining some of the
factors which account for the differences in teacher
interpretation of their role, Giroux (1981) wrote:

Informal cultural and ideological factors such as

ethnicity, race, world-view, and social class

background often generate oppositional attitudes
among teachers toward school authority, rules,
predefined curriculum structures, and
institutionally sanctioned forms of teacher
accountability.

Giroux (1983a, 1983b) advanced over the
understanding of resistance theory by insisting that
these theories also tend to stress culture and cultural
production with culture referring to the way of life of
a people, shared meanings, language, dress, values, etc.
For Willis' "lads," preference for manual labor over
mental labor was an aspect of their shared meaning or
culture.

Giroux (1983a, 1983b) assessed the weaknesses of
reproduction theories. Their mechanisms of reproduction
are never complete and are always characterized by
elements of contestation.

Giroux (1983b) points out two major deficiencies of

resistance theories, as well, which are characteris-

60
tically important for this study. First, not all
oppositional behavior constitutes radical importance nor
is all in response to domination. In this study of
African American youth culture, for example, it was
critical to determine whether observed oppositional
behavior had a direct purpose, whether it was meant to
be emancipatory, or did it simply lack purpose.
According to Giroux (1983b) "students may be totally
indifferent to ideology or domination." Regarding their
personal emancipation and resistance, Giroux wrote:
I think resistance has to be situated in a
perspective or rationality that takes the notion of
emancipation as its guiding interest. That is, the
nature and meaning of an act of resistance has to
be defined next to the degree to which it contains
the possibilities to develop what Marcuse termed "a
commitment to an emancipation of sensibility,
imagination, and reason in all spheres of
subjectivity and objectivity." (Marcuse, 1977)
Second, resistance theories have generally, as
reported by Giroux (1983a, 1983b), not been concerned
with the roles of girls and women; the female
perspective is not properly addressed by resistance
theorists. This research project focused on African

American males because of the distressed predicaments

confronting them in their daily existence.

Micheei Apple
Apple (1979b) offers several explanations regarding
the importance of "struggle" with respect to

reproduction when he reviewed Willis' (1977) Learning to

61
Labor. Apple concluded that considerable evidence
exists to support the relationship between schools and
cultural and economic reproduction, but he pointed out
that a mirror-image relationship between education and
factory (industry) is simply too mechanistic.

In concurrence with Willis' (1979) observation that
resistance and oppositional behavior are common in many
urban areas, Apple (1979) wrote:

Large numbers of them [students] in inner-city and

working class schools, to say nothing of other

areas, creatively adapt their environment so that
they can smoke, get out of class, inject humor into
the routines, informally control the pacing of
classroom life, and generally try to make it
through the day. In these same schools, many
students go even further. They simply reject the
overt and hidden curriculum of the school. The
teacher who is teaching about mathematics, science,
history, careers, etc., is ignored as much as
possible. The covert teaching of punctuality,
neatness, compliance and other more economically
rooted norms is simply dismissed as far as one can

as well. The real task of the students is to last
until the bell rings. (p. 23)

Apgela McRobbie

McRobbie (1978), encouraged by the need to depict
the "missing dimension, namely girls," generated
significant evidence that described the relationship
between schooling and the work world for working-class
females. She discovered that because these girls were
limited in their experiences to the dictated role of
females in society, (i.e., they were more or less
restricted to the home, school, or the club), their

socialization processes were substantially different

62
from the boys of their social class and other middle-
class girls. McRobbie identified the struggle and
conflict which naturally exists between working-class
and middle-class girls.

McRobbie (1978) reported that working-class girls
display one form of contestation against the class—based
and oppressive features of school through asserting
their sexuality, "to introduce into the classroom their
sexuality and their physical maturity in such a way as
to force the teacher to take notice" (p. 104). The
African American males in this dissertation study often
asserted themselves in the classroom through the use of
profane language, physical aggression, dress, and other
attention-getting tactics to project their counter—
school culture.

McRobbie (1978) concluded that "marriage, family
life, fashion and beauty all contributed massively to
this feminine anti-school culture and, in doing so,
nicely illustrated the contradictions inherent in so-

called oppositional activities" (p. 104).

2am; leon

Olson (1983) investigated the validity of the
reproduction theory against a French immersion program
in Ontario, Canada. The program was instituted
throughout Canada with the goal of increasing the number

of bilingual-speaking people living in Canada. Canada

63

became an officially French/English bilingual country in
the early 1960s. Olson found that the program had few
guidelines and no in-service training but generated a
considerable amount of political attention from middle-
class English-speaking parents who wanted their children
to become fully bilingual due to a belief that chances
of employment would be significantly enhanced in the
future for bilingual persons. There was considerable
antagonism from senior teaching staff in these schools
who were losing their better students to the program.

Olson (1983) found that the immersion program
increased tensions among the ethnic and social groups
rather than resolved them. He also concluded that
contrary to Bowles and Gintis' reproduction theory, the
government could not mechanically control every aspect
of schooling and society, the opinion one would glean
from Bowles and Gintis' "tight fit" model. Further,
Olson found that human agency played a major role in the

educational outcomes of students.

SUMMARY

This chapter provided a review of the relevant
literature and theoretical framework which guided
this study. Knowledge of the social outcomes of too
many African American male students who left
Metropolitan High School poorly prepared for the world
of work left me to consider the possibility that certain
economic factors and/or the school system in some ways,
either covertly or overtly, contributed to these doleful
realities. The theories of reproduction and resistance
provided a lens through which I could analyze my
findings.

The reproduction paradigm with its tight-fit
explanations of the schooling process, assumes that
schools serving working-class students have a certain
orientation and agenda: they produce working-class
outcomes. Students leaving working-class schools are
prepared to assume working-class positions in the
division of labor. The shortcoming of the tight-fit
model is that it fails to explain how these outcomes are
achieved.

Theories of resistance, on the other hand, offer
the notion of human agency, the autonomy of teachers,
parents, and students who can play a significent role in
shaping their own outcomes. Much of the working-class
outcomes suggested here are a result of social

resistance.

64

65

In the research presented in this study, I will
describe how the working-class outcomes were achieved at
Metropolitan High School. Metropolitan High changed
from an elite and priviledged school community to a
working-class school community. From the work reviewed
in this chapter related to resistance theories, I
assumed that this change in educational outcomes was not
due to tight controls by the state. Rather, I assumed
some independence on the part of teachers, parents, and
students. Further, I argued that working-class
reproduction results from the complex interplay of many
independent and interdependent forces.

In addition, the case of Metropolitan High School
calls into question the tight-fit assumption specifical-
ly about outcomes. Human agency emerged again as an
important factor. Not all students at Metropolitan
High School were social conformists. Some student
conformed while others did not. Consequently, I note
variable outcomes among the 115 African American male
students studied, but the power of the teachers, pupils
and parents to alter or counter the social reproduction
was apparent.

The following chapter provides a description of the

qualitative methods used in this study.

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

At its inception, this study was not intended to be
a dissertation project, a factor which was central to
the evolution of its methodology. I was initially
concerned only with investigating the drug subculture at
Metropolitan High School. As that case study developed,
my interest shifted naturally from a micro-level,
sociological interpretation of the behaviors associated
with a small group of students who were engaged in drug
trafficking within the school and surrounding communi-
ties to a critical macro-analysis of the social and
pedagogical issues which affected the schooling of 115
African American males. I was also concerned with
transformative research, e.g., research that enhances
opportunities for changes and emancipatory activities
within the schooling processes of these youth.

In essence, I did not enter this research with the
fallacy of "tabula rasa," that is to say, without any
conceptual anticipations. As McKinney (1957) exhorted,
"without anticipatory ideas and conceptual directions,
one cannot know what facts to look for and cannot
recognize what was relevant to the inquiry...deduction
was thus a necessary part or instrument of research" (p.

191). I was keenly aware of the current national plight

66

67
of young African American males as victims of America's
social class struggle and racial injustice (demonstrated
in Chapters I and II) and had experienced such in my
personal life as a African American man. Additionally,
I was employed as an administrator at Metropolitan High
School for the first year of this study and consequently
understood that many African American males at the
school were not benefiting from their schooling oppor-

tunity at that high school.

Critical Ethnography

A critical ethnography, based on the tenets of the
neo-Marxist theories as presented in Chapter II, emerged
as the most applicable genre of inquiry through which I
could conduct this study. In describing the general
charge of critical ethnography, Masemann (1982) states:

"Critical ethnography" refers to studies which use a

basically anthropological, qualitative participant

observer methodology but which rely for their
theoretical formulation on a body of theory deriving

from critical sociology and philosophy (p. 1).

Thus, with a focus on the theories of social and
cultural reproduction and various forms of student re-
sistance and oppositional behaviors, I embarked upon
this dissertation project. I wanted to unmask some of
those incidents of social class, gender, and racial
struggle at Metropolitan High School for the purpose of

initiating local pedagogical discourse and action.

Where possible, I supported changes which would improve

68
the educational possibilities for African American male

students at Metropolitan High School.

Engaging in research which could engender change at
Metropolitan High School was the overarching goal of
this study. Giroux (1983) addresses the role of radical
educators and their relationship to reshaping teaching

and learning:

A radical pedagogy, then, must recognize that
student resistance in all of its forms represents
manifestations of struggle and solidarity that, in
their incompleteness, both challenge and confirm
capitalist hegemony. What is most important is the
willingness of radical educators to search for
emancipatory interests that underlie such resis-
tance and to make them visible to students and
others so that they can become objects of debate
and political analysis (p. 292).

Anderson (1990a) echoed the same possibilities for
critical ethnography:

Unless researchers in the field of educational

administration find ways to study the invisible and

unobtrusive forms of control that are exercised in
schools and school districts, administrative
theories that grow out of empirical research --
whether quantitative or qualitative —- will
continue to perpetuate a View of school effective-
ness that is unable to address in any significant
manner the problems of their under-privileged

clients (p. 39).

In defining critical ethnography as compared to
other interpretive research, Anderson (1990) suggests
that "the overriding goal of critical ethnography is to
free individuals from sources of domination and repres-
sion" (p. 249). Based on the educational outcomes of

the overwhelming percentage of Metropolitan High's

69

African American males, I deduced that, at a minimum,
sources of dominance, and oppressive were negatively
impacting African American males at Metropolitan High,
even if self-imposed. Therefore, disclosing the reality
of their plight as uneducated African American men in
American society, they could begin to take emancipatory
action that would improve their lot as suggested by
Freire (1990):

In order for the oppressed to be able to wage the

struggle for their liberation, they must perceive

the reality of oppression not as a closed world from

which there is no exit, but as a limiting situation

which they can transform (p. 34).

Other researchers have attempted to eliminate
oppressive conditions and self-destructive behaviors
among their subjects. Roman (1989), for example, set
out to conduct a "traditional" ethnographic study of
punk women. As a consequence of her feminist episte-
mology, she began to form tentative notions regarding
the women under study. Roman tried to adjust repressive
ways of thinking among the women during the course of
her study.

The decision to take a critical approach to the
study of the experience of 115 African American males
was based on a conscious effort to produce "action"
research that could easily be distinguished from
traditional ethnographic studies by its focus on the

potential of the African American male participants and

the school's staff as "human agents." This was accom-

70

plished by linking this study to the radical theories of
social and cultural reproduction and resistance as well
as social class empowering theory. Masemann (1982)
concluded that, "critical approaches emphasize class
conflict, the dissimilar interests of various classes,
and their differing relationship to (and benefits from)
the workings of the educational system" (p. 1).

This study examined social-class issues along with

gender and racial issues at Metropolitan High School.

The Research Desigp

This study was conducted over a three-year period
with several phases of data collection and analysis.
The first phase included on-going observation of the
115 African American males as they interacted with each
other and staff members at Metropolitan High and
informal interviews for a period of a school year and
one semester. The second phase involved one semester of
formal in-depth interviewing and document collection and
analysis. The final year of study involved follow-up
interviews, additional data collection and analysis, and
observing and interviewing various members of the popu-
lation in their workplaces and/or post-school settings.
The collection of "slices" of data was an endless
process, as predicted by Strauss (1987): "Data collec-
tion never entirely ceases because coding and memoing

continue to raise fresh questions that can only be

71
addressed by the gathering of new data or examining of
previous data" (p. 27).

One important factor which will be discussed
further below, was my employment at Metropolitan High
School as one of two assistant principals during the
first phase of the data collection. I was not employed
at the site during the subsequent phases of the study,
but continued to visit and collect data. The later
phase was much less subject to role conflicts in that
the students did not see me as an authority figure.
Interviews with consenting participants were conducted
away from Metropolitan, but I continued to visit the
site to collect data and observe African American male

students.

Conceptual Framework

My investigation utilized participant observation,
field notes, manual and computer-aided coding and
analysis of the data, analytical memoranda, informal and
tape—recorded in-depth interviews and triangulation
across data sources. I also worked closely with key
student and staff informants to gain the more accurate
insider perspectives.

The conceptual framework for the study began to
emerge as early as the fall of 1986 when completing my
doctoral coursework at Michigan State University and

taking a course with Phillip Cusick entitled Field

72
Research Methods in Education. Through course readings,
personal inquiry, and class discussions, I had an oppor-
tunity to examine some of the more revered and critical
field studies in education (Cusick, 1973 and 1983;
Everhart, 1983; Johnson, 1985; Ogbu, 1974; Weis, 1985;
Willis, 1977) which emerged during the 1970s and 1980's
during the course. Each graduate student was required
to undertake some field study related to education. I
elected to engage in a case study of the esoteric
activities of a drug subculture at Metropolitan High
School (Polite, 1987).

The central findings of my investigation of the
drug subculture were linked to its members' obsession
with materialism and consumerism and their resistance to
the values and culture of the school.

Metropolitan High was a predominantly African
American urban high school, and consequently the major-
ity of the students involved in the drug subculture were
African American males. There were many other African
American males attending Metropolitan as well. The
majority of the African American male students were not
associated with the drug subculture, and a minority were
excelling in their academic endeavors, or at least they
were receiving good grades in their courses. Most
African American males were attending school but not
engaged in their studies and consequently experienced

limited academic success. I felt that there was a need

73
for a longitudinal study which would examine the school-
ing of a relatively large group of African American
males throughout their senior high school experience.

Several factors heightened my interest in the
possibilities of this study. I was acutely aware of the
widening national fissure between the unskilled,
working-class and highly skilled, middle-class African
American Americans, especially among African American
men (Omi & Winant, 1986; Wilson, 1987). Further,
several studies demonstrated that many African American
males develop negative attitudes about schooling as a
result of their home environments, drugs in their com-
munities, and their personal experience with unem-
ployment (Gibbs, 1984; Glasgow, 1981; Wilson, 1987). I
incorporated many of the traditionally suggested aspects
of a qualitative investigation in this dissertation
research (Bogdan and Biklen, 1982; Erikson, 1973;
Erikson, 1985; Florio, 1978; Glasser & Strauss, 1967;
Ives, 1974; Schatzman & Strauss, 1973; Strauss, 1987 and
Van Maanen, 1988).

It was important for me to learn more than about
academic outcomes. I sought an understanding of how
these African American males made sense of their
schooling experience. What influenced their decisions
to either engage in or resist school? I was also
interested in the school's role in engendering con-

formity and resistance to its values and norms as it

74
carried out its stated mission to provide a quality

education for all students.

Research Population

Metropolitan High School had four grades, 9—12. I
selected all of the African American males in the tenth
grade during the 1986-1987 school year as participants
in this longitudinal study because I wanted to follow a
group for a minimum of three years. Additionally, the
majority of the African American males originally
studied in the drug project (Polite, 1987) were in tenth
grade during that academic year.

There were 115 African American male tenth graders,
and their average age was sixteen at the outset. They
were followed over a three-year period with a spotlight
on their individual and collective academic choices,
incidents of discipline procedures, attendance patterns,
short-term suspensions and permanent expulsions,
academic performances, co-curricular activities, changes
in school policies which impacted them, and their
activities upon leaving school.

Based on their academic and social activities,
these 115 African American males were tentatively
categorized during the first year of study into four

cohort groups: active conformists, passive conformists,

75
covert resistors, and overt resistors (see descriptions

above) Chapter IV.

SOURCES OF DATA
Perticipant Observation

I was able to observe the above referenced students
in various parts of the school building, record field
notes, and interview consenting students for the first
two years of this study by special permission from the
school's principal and school district's superintendent.

On three days per week, I would station myself in
various parts of the building and outside certain
classrooms for two-hour sessions. When appropriate, I
would record detailed notes or brief statements which
would later jar my memory when writing accounts of what
was observed in the hallways of the school. I also
recorded incidents which I observed during my normal day
to-day work operations as assistant principal. Table 2
provides an example of typical field notes.

As a participant observer during the first year and
half of the study, I was consistently reminded of the
role conflict in which I found myself, that is to say,
that I was a school administrator and researcher. Many
of the responses and observations were influenced in
some way by this reality. I often attempted to account
for the impact of this role conflict. Bogdan and Biklen

(1982) suggested "how much participation is the right

76
amount and how you should participate has to be
calculated with the particulars of your study in mind"
(p. 128). Table 3 provides evidence of my interest in
addressing the role conflict as researcher and school
administrator at the beginning stages of the data
collection.

In the initial stages (a school year and a half) of
the data collection, objectivity was a significant
factor to account for consistently. However, I believe
that the constant guarding against subjectivity possibi-
lities compensated for this predicament. As LeCompte
(1987) expressed, "...while ethnographers, or inter-
pretive researchers are held to the same standards
[validity], they are not held to mathematical explan-
ations of bias. Rather, they are held to the highest
form of disciplined honesty (p. 43)."

I was appointed to a principalship at another
school within the school district during the second year
of this study, but I was also permitted to continue my
data collection at Metropolitan High School. This
change eased the research process and enhanced the

integrity of this study.

77

Table 2

ical Field Notes

 

Mr. Jones (teacher) came to talk with me regarding
Matthew T. (student). He said that most of the students
in his third hour class think that Matthew regularly
pulls the fire alarm and in fact, had pulled it that
morning because, "...whenever he is kicked-out of class,
the alarm gets pulled immediately thereafter....it has
to be him." He also mentioned that Matthew had
mentioned to the other students in the class that he
often pulls the fire alarm. Later during that period,
one of the security guards mentioned to me that Matthew
is also responsible for knocking out the ceiling tiles

in the E. Wing (code 024)

 

NQLQ- These notes were recorded on January 13,

1988.

78

Table 3

Field Notes Z Role Conflict

 

As I was driving to work today, I recorded these

thoughts on my observations:

1. The conflict that I am experiencing seems to stem
from the "change" in roles which I am attempting to
play—out at Metropolitan High School. The students
are already clear as to what my role is and the
entire school will probably never accept my "new
role" as a researcher. This impacts the level of
trust which I can expect and without key informants
it will be difficult to get to the heart of many

observations.

2. The research function could probably better be
played-out if I restrict my research solely to
observations and avoid any conversations with
students, in public. at this time. For example,
when I asked a student why he is not attending
class, the student automatically assumed that my
purpose for questioning is for disciplinary
possibilities, not for research. It would be very
difficult to convince him that I simply wanted to

research his behaviors, especially when I have been

79

Table 3 continued.

 

known to suspend students for such behaviors in the

past.

I have also noticed that even my tone of voice is
that of an "assistant principal," meaning that when
I talk with the students I tend to be more directive

and clearly not a neutral voice of a researcher.

The teachers and students seem to appreciate seeing
me seated in the hall, but as an administrator, not

a researcher.

 

Note. Recorded on January 14, 1988, while driving

 

to work, the research site.

80
Field Notes

Various types of field notes were collected over
the course of the study, both descriptive and reflective
(Bogdan & Biklen, 1982) with on-site written recordings
and taped messages (Schatzman & Strauss, 1973). Notes,
taped interviews, and interviews were transcribed,
stored on a personal computer, and coded. Personal
computer-aided coding was an important aspect of the
data analysis. The IBM compatible personal computer and
software greatly enhanced the accounting for frequency
of codes and the retrieval and isolation of various
emerging themes and concepts. Unlike Clark (1987), I
found the expense associated with the use of a personal
computer minimal and access to the data, greatly
facilitated. An example of my personal computer-aided
field notes is found in Table 4.

The notes shown in Table 4 were coded "023," or
examples of student socialization. Later, the same
notes were re-coded to demonstrate examples of "teacher
caring" and "school policies." The use of a "search
and/or replace" command on the computer made manipu-
lation of data relatively easy. Hard copies of official
documents were coded manually. Approximately 120 hours

were devoted to field observation.

81
Table 4

Computer-Aided Field Notes Analysis

 

Date: 88/01/24 Time: 10:05
Actor(s): 4Bk males, 38k females
Setting: 8 Wing

Observation Notes: As I arrived for my observation
session at the intersection of B and D Wings
(corridors), I observed seven (7) students in the 8
Wing. There were four black males and three black
females. These students were not within hearing
range. I could see that they were talking and
fooling around in the hallway, laughing and
seemingly playing. All the classroom doors were
closed and there were no adults in the entire wing.
All of these students were exchanging materials
(books, clothing, etc.) in their lockers. This
wing houses the lockers for the 10th graders and
the classes taught in this wing are English and
social studies.

Theoretical Notes: Many students take extra filing
time to allow time to talk and socialize with their
friends.

Personal Notes: Many students have complained that
five minutes is not sufficient time for filing in
such a large building. Adults have determined that
five minutes are sufficient for filing, but this
does not allow time for students to socialize.

Afterthoughts: Why are all the doors closed before

the students have cleared the hallway? Do teachers
care what is going on directly outside their door?

Do teachers need to take ownership for what happens
outside their classrooms?

Code: 023

 

82
Interviews

Informal and formal in-depth interviews generated a
large portion of the raw data for this study. Informal
interviews consisted of concise conversations with key
informants, school staff, administrators, or who ever
could provide detailed information needed to explain
some particular aspect of the emerging research. As an
example, when attempting to describe the workings of the
drug subculture, it was most difficult to understand all
the idiomatic expressions and "buzzwords" common to that
subculture. Two key informants were asked to provide me
with a list of key terms. As new terms were identified,
the informants were asked to continue updating my
glossary of drug subculture terms. Four examples of
those terms which emerged from this process are listed
in Table 5.

In the absence of on-going informal interviews with
key informants, my comprehension of the workings and
language of those African American males involved in the
Metropolitan High School's drug subculture would be
incredulous at best, and my ability to use these terms
when working with these students, unfeasible. More than
60 informal interviews were conducted during the field
observation period. Denzin's (1978) work supported the

use of key informants in this manner:

Table 5

83

Examples of Key Terms 1 Drug culture

 

 

Definition

 

51:

downest:

flippin':

put me down:

(n) A cigarette which contains both
marijuana and crack.

(adj) A compliment. A term used to describe
a person who wears expensive clothing,
drives expensive cars or is heavily
involved in the drug world.

(v) The act of selling drugs solely for the
purpose of making a profit. The profit is
used to purchase larger quantities of
drugs.

A manner of requesting to become a lower-

level drug dealer for a particular person.

 

84

By informants I refer to those persons who,
ideally, trust the investigator; freely give
information about their problems and fears and
frankly attempt to explain their own motivation;
demonstrate that they will not jeopardize the
study; accept information given them by the
investigator....the primary functions of the
informant are to act as a "de facto" observer for
the investigator; provide a unique inside
perspective on events that the investigator is
still outside of; and serve as a sounding board for
insight (p. 198).

Additionally, 65 in-depth formal interviews were
conducted with a cross section of the African American
male students, teachers, administrators, counselors,
school security guards, and local business and police
personnel. Each in-depth interview lasted a minimum of

one-half hour and was tape recorded and transcribed.

The Tape-Recorded Interview: A Manual for Field Workers
in Eolklore and Oral History by Ives (1974) was helpful

in fine-tuning the logistics of the recorded interview
(i.e., selection of taping device, finding informants,
details of formulating questions and transcription of

taped interviews.

Apaiytical Memoranda

Glasser and Strauss (1967) point out the value of
writing memoranda for the purpose of analysis of field
notes: "memo writing on the field notes provides an

immediate illustration for an idea" (p. 108). Through-

85
out the study, memoranda were generated to focus on
specific emerging themes. An example of one such

memorandum is shown in Table 6.

Official Documents

Bogdan and Biklen (1982) pointed-out the fact that
schools tend to produce a profusion of written
communication and files. In the case of Metropolitan
High School, there were numerous documents, computer
files and reports to examine. Many of these data
provided concrete evidence and clues regarding the
school's academic outcomes prior to the arrival of large
numbers of African American students, some of the
changes in curriculum offerings during the 1970's and
80's, course descriptions, and a description of the
curriculum made available to the 115 African American
male participants of this study and a sense of how
African American male students generally participated in

the schooling process.

86

Table 6

An Analytic Memorandum

 

One afternoon, immediately following the close of
school, a black male was assigned to serve detention for
an hour in the assistant principal's office for
disruptive behavior; typical of ninth graders at the
school. The student was known to me as a playful young
man with the potential to be an outstanding football
player. He played football during the fall of this
school year as a reserve quarterback.

While serving his detention, I overheard him asking
the secretary in the outer office where he might locate
a tulip which he could dissect for a science project.
Realizing that at that time of the year tulips were in
the height of their season, I walked-out and asked the
student why was it so difficult to get a tulip when
there were thousands available in every yard. He
replied, "...but Mr. Polite, I live in "Borough"
...there are no tulips in my section of the Borough (the
Borough is a tiny, impoverished, totally black township
which is part of the Metropolitan School District). I
was stunned! The student's brief comment afforded me a
microscopic insight into the dialectical tension which
can exist between the culture of the school and the
culture of the home. In this example, neither his
teacher nor I had ever considered the possibility that
the student or many students might reside in locations
where tulips are rare, at best, especially since most
teachers have probably never visited the Borough. This
type of tension can result in a lack of concern or
empathy for the students' personal situation. This was
a good example of social-class conflict.

 

87

I have characterized the various types of documents
analyzed by category: internal and external documents.
The internal documents were those documents not made
readily available to the general public, but detailed
valuable information about the organization of the
school and student academic outcomes. For the purpose
of conducting this study, internal documents were made
accessible to me by special permission granted by the
school district's superintendent and building principal.
The external documents were created to provide general
information for public use. However, some external
documents, such as the accreditation reports provided to
the North Central Accreditation Association, also
provided detailed information regarding the internal
operations of the school. Table 7 provides a listing of
both the internal and external documents accessible to

me and utilized in this research study.

88
Table 7

Documents Examiped

 

Internal Documents

 

Official class rank 1988-1989

Official transcripts for the 115 black male

participants

Attendance reports 1986-1989

Drop from School report 1986-1989

Student discipline files

a. in-school suspensions

b. suspensions

Expulsion Hearings Transcripts 1970, 1986-1989

Race by school analysis, 1969-1989

Report of official transcripts forwarded to

colleges and universities, 1986-1989

Race by grade analysis of students enrolled in

special education programs

10. Study of class offerings by enrollment 1970-1975
and 1985-1989

11. Official retention reports 1986-1989

12. Teacher discipline referrals

13. Listing of students by grade, eligible for free or
reduced school lunch

14. Listing of students who qualify for Chapter I
reading services.

15. Parents academic background report

16. Student athletics eligibility report

17. Grade point average report 1989

18. Course enrollment by grade and gender

19. Collective bargaining agreements between the

teachers and the Metropolitan School District 1966,

1980, 1989

NH
0 e

01.5w

mum

\D
0

External Documents

 

Yearbooks 1965-1990

North Central Accreditation Reports 1970-1989
Course descriptions and offerings

Student Code of Conduct

Graduation report

School and public newspaper articles

Journal articles pertaining to the school

\lO‘U‘lthI-J

 

A PROACHES TO DATA ANALYSIS
Managing Extensive Data Sets

Bogdan and Biklen (1982) provided the most helpful
suggestion for handling extensive data sets, their "cut
and put in folder" approach a method used for sorting
slices of data. As I neared the end of the data collec-
tion process, it was apparent that the volumes of data
from interviews, official documents, field note, and
analytical memoranda were too difficult to manage
without a specific means of categorizing the data by
subject and topic. I opted to make photocopies of
everything. I used the photocopies for coding and
categorizing the data. The data were coded in the left—
hand margin, and pages were cut up, sorted, and filed in
manila folders by the numerous categories.

Evidence and statements regarding teachers as
"caring individuals" were identified from the interviews
with students, staff, administrators, yearbooks, etc.
When these various pieces of data regarding caring were
aggregated in one folder and re-read, the assertions
emerged rather easily. In the event that there was
little or weak evidence to support various themes, those
themes were eliminated from the final analysis.

Op-goipg Apelysis

I continued, even after the data were categorized,

to make on-going analyses, collected additional

information, and sought clarification on themes which

89

9O
emerged. For example, I decided to hold informal,
telephone interviews with those African American male
graduates who had attended college to determine their
thoughts on their readiness for college work and other

related college issues.

Velidity Through Triangplation

Cross-checking, with a variety of data sources, the
above referenced research techniques yielded multiple
perspectives on the various themes which emerged
throughout this study. Gordon (1975) reported that
through triangulation, valid accounts of the research
milieu were enhanced:

[T]he various methods give totally different kinds

of information that can supplement each other,

because we do not know how to interpret some of the

information unless we can couple it with other

information, or because we need a cross-check to
verify the validity of our observations (p. 40).

THE SCH OL D STRIC AND SCHOOL

In keeping with the macro-ethnographic tradition,
this section provides a description of the school
community and the physical make-up of Metropolitan High
School.

The school district, located in the state of
Michigan, is part of an urban metropolis. The district
was formerly a historically White, middle—income

community. The majority of the district's current

91
teaching staff were former residents of the district,
who presently reside in other nearby communities. Many
of the teachers' children graduated from Metropolitan
High School. Metropolitan was the only high school in
the district at the time of the study. Students
residing within the district's boundaries attended
either Metropolitan High School or a private school
outside the district.

Metropolitan High opened in early 1954 and
graduated its first class in 1957. The school served
students in grades 10 through 12 between 1954 and 1972,
but in 1973 the Board of Education approved and
implemented a grades 9 - 12 academic program. The
student capacity of the high school was 3000 and during
the 19608 and 19708, the school operated at near
capacity. Metropolitan High received national recog-
nition during the late 19608 and early 19708 because of
its students' outstanding academic achievements.

Metropolitan High School experienced an increasing
number of African American and minority student
enrollments during the 19708 and 19808. The 1100
students attending Metropolitan High School during the
time of this study were predominantly lower-middle
income African Americans. A small percentage were
representative of the impoverished, lower socioeconomic
and working-class backgrounds as well. An increasing

number of behaviors defined in this study as noncon—

92
formity and resistance to schooling were apparent
throughout the 19808. Examples of these behaviors were
habitual class-cutting, aggressive and violent behav-
iors, and nonengagement in the educational processes of
the school.

Students attending Metropolitan High enjoyed many
"luxury" facilities, e.g., television and radio stations
which broadcast throughout the immediate community.
There were also tennis courts, baseball, football, and
soccer fields, deep diving and an Olympic-sized swimming
pools.

The school building had several halls known as
"wings." Wings A, B and C were parallel, running north
to south, and were joined at the northern end by D wing
and the southern end by E wing. The D and E wings were
also parallel, running east and west. The D wing housed
the athletic facilities, counseling offices, and the
principal's office. The E wing housed the science and
foreign language departments, the media services, and
the library. Wings A, B, C and upper E housed the
classrooms and laboratories. Figures 1 and 2 provide

diagrams of the school's ground and upper levels.

93
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95

The school building was in disrepair. There was a
need for considerable work to improve the structure
(i.e., new roofing material, asbestos abatement, and
improved lighting in the wings). The building had not
undergone any major renovations since its construction
in 1954 and this fact accounted for much of disrepair.
The school district proposed a bond election in the fall
of 1989 to correct most of the structural problems. The
bond proposal was passed by the voters.

A 1985, a local demographic report estimated the
population at 31,500 residents who represented 12,000
households in the school district. The per capita
income was near $10,000. City officials also projected
a decline in the population which would scale down to
25,000 residents by the year 2000.

The majority of the local residents found employ-
ment outside the community due to the small number of
employers within the city's boundaries. Among the
businesses located within the city, two-thirds or 320
were either retail trade or wholesale trade firms.

Unemployment was escalating in the School District
and neared 8% in 1989 with a work force of 10,000. The
average housing cost in the district was $40,000. The
tax rate was exorbitant, compared to the nearby major
city, at $76.25 - $79.46 per $1,000 per state equalized

value.

96

The majority of the residents were former residents
of the inner city. These residents migrated to the
school district for self-improvement and to reap the
benefits of the one-time exemplary school system. The
racial composition and social class make-up of the
school district changed from majority white middle-class
to majority African American, lowest-middle class bet-
ween 1970 and 1990. As these racial and ethnic demo-
graphic changes occurred, there was a simultaneous
decline in the quality of educational outcomes for the

new migrants to the district.

SUMMARY
This chapter explained the framework and procedures

used in the collection and analysis of data for this
study. The fact that the study was designed to be a
critical ethnography impacted my choices of data
collected. I was concerned with both the obvious and
hidden forms of dominance which adversely affected the
education of 115 African American male students and
consequently deliberately sought that type of data. I
tried to verify my findings through triangulation and
the enduring search for disconfirming evidence.

The formal and informal interviews, field observa-
tions, official internal and external documents, and
analytical memoranda were all helpful in gaining a vivid
picture of the quality of education provided for African

American males at Metropolitan High School.

97

CHAPTER IV
FINDINGS
Introduction

This chapter describes the experiences of the 115
African American males in the class of 1989 at Metro-
politan High School by reference to two key concepts of
reproduction and resistance as discussed in Chapter II.
This chapter begins with a discussion of the demographic
transition at Metropolitan High School, a transition
that led the school to change from one serving a prima—
rily white, middle-class population to a school serving
a predominantly african american, working-class and
lower—class population. The chapter then explores the
consequences of this change relative to the quality of
educational outcomes for African American males.

As the social class composition of the student body
at Metropolitan High School changed, the quality of
schooling at Metropolitan also changed. Relationships
between teachers and students, which in the 19608 and
early 19708 were characterized by "caring informality",
were in the late 19808 characterized by "high formal-
ity", much social distance, and a lack of close atten-
tion to career counseling and student attendance. Simi-
larly, the close relationships among parents and the
school, which typified Metropolitan High throughout much
of the 19608 and early 19708, were lost in the 19808 as

working-class African American parents became increas-

98

99
ingly detached from the life of the school. As a
result, the peer culture of the teenagers in the school
assumed ascendency in the socialization of African
American male students, and to a large extent, this
culture was in opposition to the central values of the
school system. Among the African American male students
of the class of 1989, a drug culture emerged in the
school, episodes of in-school truancy increased, and
expulsions from school became more frequent.

I will argue that these outcomes are consistent
with reproduction theory. As the social class composi-
tion of the school changed, so did the nature of the
school environment and outcomes experienced by the 115
African American male students I studied. The school
became more formal and oriented to order and discipline,
while the academic outcomes of the students were such
that most of the students left unprepared for the
demands of college and university work and ill-prepared
for the post-industrial work world in Michigan. As a
result, education -- a major route out of the working
and lower-class situation in which these students found
themselves -- was closed off to most of the African
American male students at Metropolitan High School.

Yet, this chapter also demonstrates that human
agency was important to the story of Metropolitan High
School and to the outcomes of the 115 African American

male students who were the focus of this study. The

100
data in this chapter shows that the story of Metro-
politan High School is about the variable accommodation
of teachers, parents, and students to the social situa-
tion in school.

As we see below, many teachers at Metropolitan High
chose to distance themselves from the students they
served, in part because of teachers' life circumstan-
ces. And many parents likewise were led by life circum-
stances to distance themselves from the school. But
other teachers and parents did not follow this pattern.
Similarly, the data examined below will show that
students developed different patterns of response to the
school environment. Some engaged in the kinds of oppo-
sitional behaviors noted by resistance theorists, but
there were other accommodation to schooling as well. An
important part of this chapter is to describe these
various patterns.

Finally, this chapter describes three interventions
designed to "liberate" students from the cycle of repro—
duction and counter-productive forms of resistance. The
import of these interventions should be obvious. To the
extent that a change in the social relations among
school staff and students and in the patterns of accom-
modation student make to these social relations work to
improve the academic outcomes of African American male
students, there is hope that patterns of reproduction

and resistance found in urban schools can be overcome

101
and that the educational and social outcomes of African

American males in the United States can be improved.

METRQEOLITAN flIGH 1970 - 1990

I began this examination of the quality of educa-
tion received by the 115 African American males in the
class of 1989 by reviewing the changes that occurred at
Metropolitan High School between 1970 and 1990 and by
discussing how these changes altered the educational
environment of the school.

There were slightly more than 100 African American
students attending Metropolitan High School in the very
early 19708. This was slightly less than nine percent
of the total student body. These 100 African Americans
did not actually reside within the city limits, but
rather lived in a lower socio-economic borough approxi-
mately two miles away.

The district lost an average of 90 white students
each year between 1970 and 1990, while it gained appro-
ximately the same number of African American students
each year during that same time period. Conversations
with adults, both black and white, confirmed that the
white residents moved out of the district as a result of
their improved socio-economic status, concern for the
declining quality of education and fear of student
racial unrest at school. Therefore, the most obvious

change, the racial make-up of the school, was clear to

102

teachers, parents, and students alike. African
americans began moving directly into Metropolitan City
during the mid-19708. Table 8 provides an analysis of
the changes in the racial composition of Metropolitan
High School for the twenty-year period.

In 1969, the Principal of Metropolitan High School
described the school in an article published in a

national journal:

[Metropolitan High School] has an enrollment of
about 1550 students in grades 10, 11, and 12.
About 100 students are black. The rest are white
with only a sprinkling of Orientals. The white
students come mostly from middle- and upper-income
homes within walking distance, while the black
students are bussed from an adjacent, but segre-
gated community and have a lower socio-economic
background. Over 80 percent of the graduates...go
on to higher education.

Although small in number in 1970, the African
American students expressed their anger over conditions
of discrimination and alienation at Metropolitan High
School. The African American students staged a walk-out
and demanded the following social changes:

1. More black participation
a. black student officers on Student Council
b. black girls on homecoming court
c. Better election procedures; fair elections
d. black teachers to support an Afro-American
Club
2. More black recognition
a. black page in the school newspaper, also
black staff members
b. black culture week
c. black speakers on racism, assemblies

103
Table 8

Race by year analysis of the Metropolitan High School

stugent population, 1970-1989

 

 

Year Black % White % Total
1970 115 7 1534 93 1649
1971 126 8 1434 91 1576
1972* NA NA NA
1973 189 11 1536 89 1726
1974 189 12 1883 88 1572
1975 267 18 1216 82 1488
1976 288 21 1084 79 1372
1977 394 29 966 71 1360
1978 445 33 906 67 1352
1979 522 40 784 60 1306
1980 600 45 733 55 1333
1981 593 50 594 50 1187
1982 646 54 551 46 1197
1983 701 60 467 40 1168
1984 770 65 415 35 1185
1985 822 68 385 32 1207
1986 870 74 306 26 1176
1987 834 78 236 22 1070
1988 802 80 201 20 1003
1989 771 80 193 20 964

 

Note. Data not available for 1972.

104

3. Black history course be taught

4. Black qualified teachers

5. Incidents involving racism investigated, perhaps
reprimands

6. Temporary bussing for black students

investigated further
7. Homage paid to Martin Luther King, Jr.

The students were granted their demands by the
school's administration. They were, however, required
in return for these concessions to sign an agreement
with the principal "to conduct themselves in an exem-
plary manner and to abide by all the rules, regulations,
and policies of the school." The principal, in his
remarks to the student body at an assembly planned to
discuss the walk-out and the agreements reached, con-
cluded with the following statement:

But I would also say that we have a great school
that turns out great scholars and students who
achieve and succeed in the colleges and
universities and in the vocations of their choices
to a greater degree than other schools. This is a
tribute to a fine student body and to one of the
finest staff of teachers I have ever worked with.
The student walk-out was followed by riots which
included racial violence in both 1970 and 1974. The
riots resulted in local School Board discipline hear-
ings. These hearings were emotional, volatile, and well
publicized. The Michigan State Board of Education sent
representatives from Lansing, Michigan to monitor the

discipline hearings to assure that the decisions reached

were unbiased. Several African American males were

105
expelled and many others were placed on long-term
suspension as a result of these hearings.

It was significant for me to assume, at the outset
of this critical ethnography, that the history of
African American males at Metropolitan High School was
marred by social issues of alienation, political impo-
tence, and resistance. This historical factor was to
have some impact on the delivery of educational
services. The racial unrest of the 19708 was never
forgotten. African American males who I interviewed in
1989 mentioned that they were related to some of the
students who participated in the walk-out and race riots
in the 19708. Several others were keenly aware and
affected by the history of racial unrest at Metropolitan
High. This knowledge evolved and shaped African
American males' attitudes about the school, staff, and
community.

Since it was clear that there were major concerns
relative to race and social-class issues, I decided that
my next procedure was to determine specifically from my
field observations and personal interviews with students
and staff, exactly what were the issues, other than
those historical issues previously mentioned, which may
have engendered feelings of alienation for some or all
African American males at Metropolitan High School in

1986. I examined changes in the teaching and adminis-

106
trative staff, the building, and the relations between

the school and the parents.

The leaching and Administrative Staff

An obvious change which occurred during the twenty-
year period was in the texture of the relationship
between teacher and student. Tonnies (1957) introduced
two sociological categories of society, gemeinschaft and
gesellschaft. The gemeinschaft society was character-
ized, according to Tonnies, by its close friendships and
familial relations, a highly personal and informal type
of community which stressed consensus and tradition. By
contrast, the gesellschaft society was characterized by
its secondary, formal relations and impersonal interac-
tions. These two types of communities were basically
ideal models of society conceived by Tonnies. Most
communities, in reality, consist of a combination of
both types of interactions, highly personal and imper-
sonal relations. The Metropolitan High School community
of early 19708 was very clearly based on highly personal
interactions as opposed to the school community of the
late 19808 which was most impersonal and highly special—
ized.

The majority of the teachers who were teaching when
I started this project in 1986 had taught at the school
since the early 19708 and maintained very strong per—

sonal relationships among themselves. In fact, many of

107
the teachers had known each other since their high
school years in the inner city. The students who
attended school during the early 19708 were most often
their own sons, daughters, and neighbors, since many of
the teachers were residents of Metropolitan City at that
time.

The school was built with all the amenities of an
upper socio-economic community of the late 19508 to
serve a "known" population. The administrators who
designed the school actually designed a school for their
own children, complete with a radio station, plane-
tarium, television station, theater, and deep diving and
Olympic-sized swimming pools.

The relationship, according to teachers who taught
in the system back in the 19708, was highly personal and
carried over into the community and their religious and
political affairs. Most of the teachers and students
were Jewish, attended the same Temples, and met regular-
ly at religious and social activities outside of school.

Many of the teachers' sons and daughters graduated
from Metropolitan High School and were practicing
doctors, lawyers, politicians, and teachers. I often
heard teachers discussing their sons and daughters in
the teachers' cafeteria during the collection of the
data for this project. They often mentioned the year
that their son or daughter graduated from Metropolitan

High School, always with a sense of pride and the sen-

108

timent that "those were the days." When I heard these
conversations, I felt that whatever happened in the
early 19708 was exciting and intellectually stimulating
and the teachers were an intricate, causal factor for
that excitement vis a‘ vis the tense, impersonal envi-
ronment of the late 19808. As the community's racial
composition changed, most of the teachers moved to the
more affluent suburbs nearby. They began commuting
daily back to Metropolitan High School to complete their
work careers.

The relationship between the student and teacher in
1986 was one of professional and client, a highly
specialized and impersonal relationship. In my analysis
of this change in teacher/student relationship from the
highly personal to the impersonal, I considered Tonnies'
(1957) conceptual framework of the gemeinschaft and
gesellschaft societies, but I also was reminded of
Freire's (1989) concepts of "subjects" and "objects."
The students of the early 19708 were, using Freire's
terminology, subjects who "knew" their teachers person-
ally and "acted" upon that knowledge. The African
American males of the late 19808, on the other hand,
were like objects, "known" by their teachers and "acted
upon" by their teachers and others. The latter group
had little input into their schooling and consequently

could not influence their education, while the former

109
group had considerable control and influence over their
destiny.

A typical expression of this difference in teachers'
relationships with their students was expressed by one
white teacher. This teacher had worked in the district
for more than twenty-five years:

First of all, it was population - and it was mainly

a white population. And the kids were more
motivated...

And slowly the population changed...and things
just sort of evolved from there....

Well, when I hear a lot of people,
unfortunately, they compare how it was then and how
the kids are now. And it really is too bad because
I do see a difference in test scores. And we still
have some real terrific kids but we don't have as
many...but I see teachers get upset, really get

upset. And I think this is what they want...
(pause) they want to retire because it isn't like

it used to be.

The changes in the texture of the relationship
between teacher and student also was reflected in the
changes which occurred over the years in the contractual
agreements between the school district and the teachers.
A review of several contracts pointed out a major change
in the relationship, namely, accessibility of the
teachers to the parents and students. The original
teachers' contract of mid-608 and the 1989 contract were
good examples of the changes in expectation of teachers
supported by legal contract -- changes which were

initiated by and for the teachers' self-interests.

110
The high expectations of teachers were expressed in

the 1966 teachers' contract:

The Board and the Union recognize a teacher's duties
as professional duties which cannot be confined to a
fixed number of hours per day or per week. The
teachers' responsibilities to their students and
their profession entails the performances of duties
and the expenditure of time beyond regular classroom
duty hours and the teachers will continue to attend
or participate in PTA meetings on occasion, attend
faculty and professional meetings, confer with
parents upon reasonable notice, assist in student
extracurricular activities, supervise student
functions, and perform similar assignments which are
a part of their basic professional responsibility.

The 1989 contract provided a different expectation
of the relationship between teacher and student:
Teachers shall be free to attend or participate in
PTA meetings.... Teachers shall attend one (1) open
house or similar function if scheduled and parent
teacher conferences and shall assist in the
supervision of two (2) sponsored non-paid student
functions during the school year. Assignment shall
be made on a rotational basis at the early part of
each semester whenever possible. The teacher's
choice of each sponsorship shall be honored whenever
possible. As provided, all teachers who participate
in the regularly scheduled parent teacher
conferences shall receive the compensatory time.
This change in relationship between teachers and clients
impacted the quality and intensity of educational
services provided at Metropolitan High.

The academic preparation of teachers was another
factor examined. Teacher qualifications and experience
were not lacking. The teachers at Metropolitan High
were among the most highly educated and well-trained in

the county. Table 9 demonstrates the educational

111

Table 9

Teechers' highest degree earned

 

 

Degree Number 3
Bachelor Degree 11 18
Masters Degree 44 73
Doctorate Degree 5 8

66 To

 

Note. As of July, 1988

Table 10

Meprepoiitan Eigh School teachere' years of experience

 

 

Years of Experience Number of Teachers
1-5 9
6-10 5
11-15 6
16-20 11
21-25 12
26-30 13
31-35 5
36-40 1

 

 

Note. As of July, 1988

112

percent of the teachers held at least a master's degree.
background of the teaching staff at Metropolitan High
School in 1988, while Table 10 indicates the number of
years of teaching experience for the same year. Eighty
They were graduates of the finest colleges and univer-
sities in the nation. Many of them earned their degrees
at the University of Michigan and Michigan State Univer-
sity and other major state institutions.

As Table 10 depicts, the average teacher at Metro-
politan was very experienced. In fact, most teachers at
the time of this study had worked at the school for a
minimum of 16 years and saw the school change from one
of the most outstanding schools in the state to a school
which academically ranked among the lowest in the state.

There were 60 full-time teachers for whom I had
demographic information for this project and another 10
teachers who served in various part-time capacities for
whom I had limited information. There were no african
american male teachers at the school nor in the entire
district, even though the racial composition of the
school was 80% african american at the time of this
study. There were five (7%) african american female
teachers and sixty-five (93%) white teachers.

One might conclude that the district made little
effort to hire african american teachers, especially
african american males. This may or may not be true,

but it was essential to understand that, unlike larger

113
urban school districts which existed for as long as 100
years, Metropolitan School District existed only since
the late 19508. The majority of teachers who were hired
when the school originally opened or during the decade
thereafter, still remained in their positions until well
into the 19808. Many were nearing their retirement date
in 1986. In fact, fourteen new teachers were hired
between 1986 and 1988 to replace teachers who retired as
a result of a handsome retirement incentive program
provided by the district at the close of 1988-1989
school year.

There were not many teacher vacancies during the
19708 and early 19808. Due to declining enrollment,
those vacancies which did occur were filled by the sons
and daughters of people in the community or former
residents of the community. African American or other
minorities who were representative of working-class
backgrounds were not hired. African American teachers
were very difficult to recruit even at the time of this
dissertation study, and the principal spent a consider
able amount of time attempting to recruit African
Americans for vacant teaching positions. Only one of
the fourteen new teachers was African American. African
American teachers were more available during the 19708
and early 19808.

The building had only one principal between 1969

and 1986. The principal of the school at the time when

114
this study was conducted was newly appointed, a white
man, who worked in the building for more than twenty
years as a science teacher and assistant principal
before being appointed to the principalship in the fall,
1986. The first black administrator of the school was
hired in 1983 to serve as assistant principal. In 1986,
I was hired as a second assistant principal.

In conclusion, at the time that this research was
conducted, teachers were beginning to reach their
retirement age. The majority of the teachers working at
Metropolitan High School in the late 1980's were there
for an average of nearly twenty years. They had seen
the student population change from a known group of
students to an unknown foreign population. The teachers
relocated outside of the district and there was a per-
vasive feeling of nostalgia among them. This was not to
imply that educational services were denied African
American males, but definitely to evidence the fact that
the quality of service changed over the twenty-year
period.

A final factor that I considered was the aging
process and the impact that it had on services delivered
by these teachers. One could not expect teachers who
had advanced in their years to participate in co-cur-
ricular and academic efforts at the same level as they

had when they were neophytes in the educational

115
arena. There were, however, no compensations made to

students for this aging process.

Teachers as Caring Individuals

Above all other factors which surfaced throughout
this project, none was more pervasive than the issue of
teachers as "caring" individuals in the minds of the
black males observed and interviewed and my own personal
observations of what was happening in the building. I
reviewed my data to find that I had collected more than
seventy incidents where the issue of teacher caring was
the focus. The change in the general make-up of the
student body over the past twenty years impacted the
quality of instruction, but the African American males
were most concerned with the fact that many teachers
simply did not demonstrate caring.

Teachers, counselors, and other staff, too many to
exhibit here, habitually mentioned the "push-out" or
forcing unruly students out of classrooms as a factor
which existed in many classes. The expressed feeling of
apathy or the attitude towards the students that "either
you perform or you don't, I don't care" was frequently
mentioned.

Many caring teachers experienced very different
types of relationships with their students, especially
many of the teachers in the business department who were

gearing their students for the work world immediately

116
following graduation. Several teachers in the business
department and other departments commented on the wide-
spread lack of concern for the students by the teachers.
One black teacher commented that, "the feeling of
disinterest seems to increase with each passing year."

Students, teachers, and administrators agreed that
there were many caring teachers at Metropolitan High
School, but far too many had given up and awaiting their
retirement. Kunjufu (1984), renowned for numerous books
and articles regarding the education and discipline of
black children, asserted that:

Parents often inform me of how superlative their

children's previous teacher was, but during the

current year this is not the case. Principals also
are quick to mention who are the stalwarts. This
scenario is completed by the comments from students
about which teachers care. What I received from
these encounters is that all four groups—-students,
parents, teachers, and administrators—-recognize

quality. Therefore, you are a member of a

conspiracy if you allow a student to sit in a

classroom one extra day with an unconcerned

teacher (pp. 12-13)!

Surprisingly, the African American males had little
respect for those teachers who could not control their
classes or who failed to demand quality work from their
students. Many other African American males felt that
their cultural and ethnic needs were not met, that they
learned very little about themselves and their history.
For example, there were several white teachers who
became offended when a black gospel group was invited to

Metropolitan High School to join in the celebration of

black History month. African American male students at

117

Metropolitan High School felt that their teachers were

not sensitive to the needs for African American identity

and were offended by the singing of black gospel and

spiritual songs:

Polite:

Butch:

Polite:

Butch:

Polite:

Butch:

Polite:

Butch:
Polite:
Butch:

Polite:

Butch:

What type of things happened at the high
school that probably shouldn't have
happened?

...last year St. Catherine's High School
came over for Black History Month and
there was a big confusion about that
because there were some teachers that
didn't like it.

Who?

All the teachers at Metropolitan High
didn't like the choir from St.
Catherine's.

Why?

Mainly because most of the teachers there
were Jewish and they felt offended or
whatever....I can't remember what
happened...but it started a big commotion.

Did the choir do anything to offend
anybody?

No, nothing!
Then what was the problem?
I don't know...(1ong pause)

Do you think that they understand the kids
here.

Hmmmmm...No not really.

Conversely, teachers felt that too many of their

students simply were not interested in school and that

their parents were not involved in the process of

schooling.

My point in this research was to determine

the opinions and not to lay blame. All of these factors

118
were true. Many teachers demonstrated on a daily basis
that they did not care; parents were only seen at the
parent-teacher conferences, and not many attended those
sessions; and many students were not serious about their
work.

I have included evidence from my field notes and
interviews which support the assertion that many tea-
chers failed to demonstrate caring in their classrooms.
For example, a security person commented on the fact
that teachers pushed unruly students out of their
classrooms.

Polite: I noticed that many of the students who
are in halls have permission from their
teachers and hall passes.

Security: That creates a large problem for the
security staff and we often talk about it
amongst ourselves...when the teachers
give these kids passes due to the fact
that they just don't want the kid in
class.

One day while driving, I saw Lateef driving an old
car on one of the main streets in the community. He had
recently dropped out of school. I asked him if he would
pull over and talk with me about his schooling since we
were on good terms when he was attending Metropolitan
High until he started selling drugs and lost interest in
school. We pulled into a bank parking lot and I infor-
mally interviewed him. I asked him to reflect on his

relationship with his teachers when he attended Metro-

politan High School. These were his comments:

119

Teachers never understood my life...they don't know

what's going on out here with us [black males].

There are many broken families, different from in

the 19608...many students are caught in the middle

of fights between the parents, mothers and fathers.

...I have a single mom who had to work and take

care of us.

Since leaving high school, Lateef had a successful
period of dealing drugs. He was very smart, a B-student
when he attended Metropolitan High. Since leaving
school, he opened his own lawn-care service and placed
his younger brother in a job with his company. His goal
was to leave the drug world and become an entrepreneur.
I took him to lunch and continued my interview. I was
especially impressed with his knowledge of government
regulations pertaining to purchasing property and small
business loans for start-up companies.

Lateef was no longer living at home. He had gotten
an apartment and lived with his girlfriend and younger
brother. His girlfriend was pregnant. Tragically, at
the young age of 16, he was an established drug dealer,
parent to a younger brother, spouse to his girlfriend,
and an expectant father while living in constant fear of
losing his life.

Another perspective on this issue of teacher caring
came from those college-bound students who felt that
they were not pushed to achieve their maximum potential.
Akil had the highest grade-point average and college

entrance test score of all of the black participants in

this study. His grades and score were comparable to

120

other outstanding students on the national level. Akil

provided some valuable insights into the chemistry class

taught by a teacher who did not demonstrate very much

caring. Very few African American students passed his

class with a grade higher than a C between 1986 and

1989:

Akil:

Polite:

Akil:

I may have liked chemistry, had I liked the
teacher, but I didn't really care for the
teacher and I already didn't like chemistry
and he just made it two negatives. The
first card marking I got an A in chemistry.
The second card marking, we were discussing
what we do next semester (there are two
card markings in each semester), I made the
mistake of telling the teacher that I
didn't plan on taking chemistry...then that
set him off and I got a B the next marking
period and I got a B on my report card.

Can you make a statement about the
education you've received at Metropolitan
High School?

Well, if you try to learn, you will learn.
There are a lot of teachers that will teach
you, but if you have no intention of coming
to school to work, if you're coming just to
be coming, there are a lot of teachers who
won't care. Certain teachers will make you
learn. Nothing is really preoccupying
their time its just that they [black males]
are not motivated to do the work. Its no
great emphasis placed on it. Even with me.
even though I got good grades and stuff, it
wasn't...I was never told that I had to get
an A. I got an A because I wanted an A. By
the same token, they [black males] do
things that barely gets them by, like they
might get a C or D and pass the class and
they think that everything is okay because
they still got credit. A lot of the time I
just did what I had to, get by to get an A.
If I didn't have to do extra work, I didn't
do any. I didn't really reach my maximum
potential because I could probably have
gotten A's in every class.

121

Finally, another counselor provided me with her

thoughts on why so many students were seen in the halls

with their teachers' permission.

Polite:

Counselor:
Polite:

Counselor:

Polite:

Counselor:

I observed one group of students hanging
posters which advertised a dance which
was planned for the weekend. I asked
them why were they hanging posters.

They said that Ms. so and so gave them a
pass. Can you comment on why this
happens?

I think it's typical.
Will you talk more about it?

I think that a lot of teachers don't get
into their teaching and they're always
looking for ways to get rid of some of
these students. It's a terrible thing
to say, but I feel that they are always
trying to get rid of them.

Is it that they can't handle them or
they don't like them or they have
problems with them or themselves or...

They...just...don't...care...they
...just...don't...care. It's like those
teachers who come in everyday and have a
book assignment and as long as they sit
and be quiet, they could be doing
anything. There is not a lot of
interaction between the teachers and
students here anymore.

I concluded that far too many teachers demonstrated

little or no caring for the African American male parti—

cipants in this study. For many students, their reac-

tion was to stop caring, to continue disrupting, and to

put forth very little effort. Teachers could not be

solely blamed for poor academic outcomes. Parents share

a major part of the responsibility for their sons' poor

122
education. They could not expect the school to shoulder
the complete responsibility for educating these

students.

Parental Involvement

African American parents were rarely seen in the
school or at school-related activities, including those
meetings sponsored by the parent-teacher organization.
The only times that parents were seen in the building
were during the two annual parent conferences, one in
the fall and one in the spring, and when students --
generally African American males -- were suspended from
classes. Less than one quarter of the parents attended
the two annual parent conferences. Most African
American parents rarely visited and many never visited
the school during their sons' high school careers.

Teachers often commented that the lack of parental
input contributed greatly to the lack of interest and
motivation on the part of many of the African American
students. The teachers viewed the lack of parental
involvement as another major difference between the
parents of the late 19808 and the parents of the early
19708. One teacher reflected on the quality of parental
involvement of early 19708:

Parents were very much involved. Any project you

wanted to do, parents did for you. Everything you

needed, they brought. Whatever you said - let's do

this, let's do that, everybody got involved and

volunteered. If you had a little play in the
classroom, they would come and see it. Whatever

123

you did, they were right there behind you.

The overwhelming number of African American males
in this study were living with single mothers who
worked. They had less time to be available for school-
sponsored activities, but their understanding of what
the school could do without their support, as two

teachers put it, was totally unrealistic:

Teacher #1: Many of the parents that I see are very
tough to call (understand) and a lot of
the times you see some parents think
that the school should do it all and
follow these kids along, which is
totally an impossible task. I think
the parents at some point are unreason-
able in what they think that we can
do...

Teacher #2: Some parents didn't want to come (when
called for discipline procedures).
Some parents are supportive but they
will call up and say, '18 my kid in
school today? How the hell do I know!
They have unrealistic expectations of
the school and what teachers know and
what teachers don't know.

It is important to point out here that a reduction
in support staff over the decade of the 19808 greatly
hindered parents from receiving the quality of infor-
mation which was essential for them as parents. For
example, there were full-time staff persons assigned in
the early 19708 to keep track of student attendance on a
daily basis. These persons were available to parents
and informed parents by telephone when their children

were not attending classes.

124

Parents received mailed notices periodically

throughout the marking period during the late 19808.

Most often, however, the parents of African American

male students never received letters from the school

because they were intercepted by their sons. The

following was a typical example of one student's

irresponsible
aware:

Student:

Polite:

Student:

Polite:

Student:

Polite:

behavior, of which the parents were not

If somebody had a car, we could go up to
other schools and meet girls and stuff.
Sometimes we would get a room at the
local motel, get a buz' (get drunk or
high) and have a party for the day.

What did your parents say about all of
that?

Most of the parents didn't know until it
was too late, by the end of the second
card marking or something.

Why didn't they know?

They didn't go to parent—teacher
conferences and we would beat them home
and get the mail from the mailbox or the
mailman would just give us the mail.

What would have happened if they had
(parent) known?

Student: They probably would have gotten on our

case .

It was essential to learn that the majority of the

African American male students whose academic perfor-

mance was above average and average had some degree of

parental support. The degree of parental support most

often determined whether they were generally in compli-

ance with the policies of the school.

Conversely, those

125
students who were poor students academically had little
or no parental support at home. There were, of course,
some discrepant cases, but generally speaking, parental
support was a determining factor in the African American
male students' level of activity and productivity at
school.

My second observation was that there were a few
African American parents who worked within, but mainly
outside of, the school to assure that certain African
American males, generally the better students, took the
proper courses, were involved and supported in the
school's sports programs, were appropriately dressed,
and received ample information needed to make rational
decisions about college and summer employment. I ques—
tioned one student about his mother's involvement in
planning his high school courses. It was clear that his
mother and other mothers worked "behind the scenes" to
assure that their sons received the best possible edu-
cation. They did not rely on the school:

Polite: Did your mother know what classes you
took?

Naeem: (laugh) 0h she definitely knew!
Polite: Did she check your report card?
Naeem: Yeap!

Polite: All the way through?

Naeem: Definitely!

Polite: Do you think that other black males had
that type of support?

126

Naeem: No...I'm sure that they don't (laugh, but
sadly).

Polite: That makes a difference? I know that was
true for TJ and Pele. Did you know their
parents?

Naeem: hum...hum. They were very nice and
helpful. TJ's mother was always asking me
about my schedule. She had all the
information from when TJ was applying for
college last year and taking the entrance
tests and stuff, so she gave it to my mom
too.

Unfortunately, too few African American parents
were ever actively involved in the education of their
sons. Sports events, even when the teams were vying for
division championships, were poorly attended. Few
parents attended honors or sporting programs at the
school. Plays and other exhibits were poorly attended
by parents. There was a faithful, but small, group of

parents who supported everything from the booster clubs

to the honors activities.

Hare (1985) addressed the declining involvement of
African American parents in the rearing of their chil-

dren:

Many parents have now come to maturity under post-
industrial society's new norms of permissiveness
and parental commitment or preoccupation outside
the home. They've grown up essentially unparented
themselves. In a deeper sense, they no longer know
how to parent. Rather than rely on their memory
pictures of how their parents dealt with them, they
may depend on how-to books, searching for some
unknown formulas or techniques. This very search
impresses them with the discouraging possibility
that some workable parenting techniques exists but
continues to elude them. This in turn compounds
their feelings of parental inadequacy and guilt and
can lead to further ingratiation to the child.

127
The lack of african american parental support and
involvement contributed significantly to the quality of
education available to black males at Metropolitan High
School. Administrators, teachers, concerned parents and
students agreed that most black parents were not

involved in the schooling process.

Cereer Planning

There was little evidence that African American
male students were adequately prepared to make decisions
regarding their choices of careers. There were no op-
portunities for students to meet with a counselor other
than to plan class schedules or resolve scheduling con-
flicts. There were only two career day activities bet-
ween 1986 and 1988 and they were restricted to a small
group of students. Few students expressed knowledge of
the job market, except those students who participated
in the vocational training programs. I asked one coun-
selor about the extent of career planning available to
the students at Metropolitan High School and she res-
ponded:

Counselor: I do not feel that the school does
enough kids need to have more
information which I feel we are really
lacking....

Polite: What type of things does the school do?

Counselor: Not a great deal! The voc. school that
we affiliate with has career day where
we take a select number of students...

or [there is] a hit and miss type of
thing which is done within the

128

classrooms. I don't think that there
is a great deal done within the
counseling department. I know that we
need to work with all the students in
that area...they need direction and
options.

Marvin explained what happened to him in his early
years of high school as a result of not having career
planning.

When I came here in the 9th grade, I hung with the
older students and in my mind, all I wanted to do
was just party and I think that if I would have had
more people to talk to me about school to say,
"Marvin, if you don't study now, you will have a
difficult time in your senior year," I would have
kind of tried in the 9th grade year, that's when I
started experiencing girls, parties, and just going
out a lot, that's what really messed me up.

Many African American males were left to rely on
their parents for guidance and direction. Few parents
were committed to providing this type of support as was
suggested in the previous section. One student, Nassor,
explained that he received all of his career planning
support from his mother:

Polite: Did you receive enough career guidance?

Nassor: No...absolutely not....I really haven't

had any except my mother, she is a teacher
in the inner-city. She went to Wayne
State University and I would go with her
for career counseling, but in this school
I really haven't had any career counsel-
ing. They will ask you if you're going to
college or what you're going to do...not
really sit down with you to talk about
jobs of the future...No, absolutely not.

Students, counselors, and teachers agreed that
career counseling and planning were extremely limited

for the 115 African American male students. It was

129
apparent from the lack of career planning, that most
African American males without the advantage of skilled
parents received in most cases, no information regarding
the future job market or the prerequisites needed for
entry into specific careers upon leaving high school.

I was a guest lecturer for several sociology
classes during the data collection. I always queried
the students about their plans after high school.
Generally, every student would indicate, by show of
raised hand, that he planned to attend college, but only
a small number were enrolled in college-preparatory
courses and received above-average grades.

In the absence of an organized career development
program, the school was not providing much information
to African American males regarding career possibilities
and the work world. In addition, many African American
males remained unaware of the close connection between
excellent academic performance and college attendance.
As a result, these students often held unrealistic views

about their future careers.

Testing

Student achievement testing was frequent throughout
the schooling careers of the students in this study.
But the import of this testing was not clear to many of
the 115 African American males; it was instead, a big

gray area for most. This is not to imply that these

130
students were totally oblivious to the need and purpose
of testing, but many were not conditioned to taking
tests in a very serious manner. This was not sur-
prising, considering that most did not really believe
that they were prepared for the testing or were actually
going to be able to gain admission at the college of
their choice.

As a result, testing posed a major burden on
African American male students who were generally
unprepared academically or emotionally for the tests.
This included the state-administered Michigan Educa-
tional Assessment Program (MEAP Test) and college
entrance examinations.

One student provided me with a typical testing
scenario for African American males at Metropolitan High

School:

Student: ...well, you know those tests that we take
called the MEAP test that are given so
early in the year when you just gettin'
out of summer, and then they be so long
too. We were saying in Mrs. Brooks' class
when she was asking us why our test scores
are so low...and was telling her that it's
so early in the year that we were just
getting back to school and you have to
start remembering stuff and you can't
remember that quick...They should make it
in February or sometime like that so that
you could be ready. I know when I took
the test, we would be there and there
would be a time when you really get tired
and bored with reading it, you just mark
off the answer and some people just marked
off the answers and you know that they are
not reading it because they are marking
too fast. A lot of people didn't care
'cause the test was too long.

131

Polite: But everyone in the state takes the tests
at the same time. Do you think that they
should have training for the students to
prepare them?

Student: Yes they need more training and under-
standing about how important the test
is....I know Mrs. Bonelli, for the math
part of the test, gave us the last year's
test and our class really did good on it.
When we took it, we did better because we
were prepared.

Testing was a source of frustration for all of the
college-bound black males. I observed that several of
these males took the college-entrance examination as
many as five times, hoping to achieve a score high
enough to be accepted into a four-year college, or if
accepted, a score high enough to be eligible to play
college-level sports. Shakir, for example, had a
difficult time with his college entrance testing. He
explained it in the following excerpt from a in-depth
interview:

Polite: What did you get on the ACT?

Shakir: (long pause)...I don't remember.

Polite: Did you do well?

Shakir: I took it three times. The first time I

just barely made it and my mother thought
that I could do better than that, so I
took it again and it [score] dropped...and
then the third time I took it, I scored a
little higher than the first time.

Polite: Did you take the SAT too?

Shakir: Yes, I took both of them three times.

Polite: (expressed shock) You took six exams in
one year?

Shakir: Yes!

132
Polite: Why do you think that you had to take them
six times?

Shakir: 'Cause I knew that I could do better than
that.

Shakir was a B - average student at Metropolitan.
There were many cases similar to Shakir's with respect

to testing, especially college-entrance examinations.

Comparative Insights and Skepticism

The African American male students I studied were
aware of the changes that occurred at Metropolitan High
over the years and were skeptical about the quality of
education that they received at Metropolitan High. One
reason for this was that African American male students'
knowledge and experiences with secondary schooling were
not limited to those at Metropolitan High School. In
fact, students at Metropolitan High participated in two
programs that provided them with opportunities to meet,
develop friendships, compare insights, and draw conclu-
sions about the quality of education afforded students
at other schools. These two programs were a multi-
district vocational education program and a tri-district
advanced placement program for the academically gifted
and talented. Students were bused to these two programs
daily. Most students, once enrolled, remained in these

programs for two or three years, developing strong rela—

133
tionships and friendships with students from a variety
of schools.

Other students compared their experiences at
Metropolitan High with their relatives' experiences from
other public and private schools. They heard comments
from adults in the community and read articles in the
area's newspapers regarding the declining quality of
education at Metropolitan High School.

I was convinced from my interview data that this
type of comparative knowledge had a negative impact on
these students and altered their thinking and enthusiasm
about both Metropolitan High School and college, too.
They did not attend high school with great hopes of
receiving a high-caliber education. They knew that
their education was not highly regarded outside the
Metropolitan High School community. Many of them also
felt that the general public's opinion of their edu-
cation severely limited their opportunities for higher
education. As an example, when I interviewed Ahmed, he
simply explained how he had developed this type of com—
parative knowledge at the Vocational Center:

Ahmed: ...it seemed that their school was so much
better than our school in terms of
atmosphere and teaching staff.

Polite: Why would you say that?

Ahmed: There was one student in my voc. class who
had an English book...the English that I
was taking, he had in the 9th grade...their

school was more ahead than Metropolitan
High.

Polite:
Ahmed:
Polite:

Ahmed:

134
What school was he attending?
(he gave the name of the school)
Were you friendly with this guy?

Yes, he used to sit next to me in class and
we were friends.

Fadil also attended the Vocational Center and

shared similar experiences, but he was far more critical

than Ahmed in his perceptions regarding the differences

in the quality of educational opportunities.

Fadil:

Polite:

Fadil:

Polite:

Fadil:

cause a lot of teachers didn't apply
themselves to their job [at Metropolitan
High]. A lot of teachers were good for me
during the last two years...my first couple
of years, I didn't have anybody that really
motivated me to learn. They [teachers]
said that high school is different and you
don't get babied as much as middle school,
but I figured if you ask questions,... my
father said that they should be able to
help you, that's their job. I got friends
at voc school, they are students at [other
schools] and stuff and they tell you that
they have to stay after school and that
their teachers are willing to help them.

So you knew kids who went to other schools?

I know a lot of kids that go to other
schools all over and when you talk to them
in class and they tell you everything that
happens in their school and when you tell
them about Metropolitan, they be like "wow"
and they can't believe what happens at
Metropolitan, especially about the attitude
of some teachers.

What type of things do they say?

Like the help that you [they] get from your
teachers. They all say that their teachers
really care and the principal knows you
really well. They get to know all their
students. 'Cause my counselor didn't even
know that I was assigned to her until an
incident had came up my senior year and I
had to go to her....also I know like the

135
army recruiters told me that Metropolitan
...our learning isn't as high as some other
schools is. I was telling him what I got
on the ACT test and he was like asking what
my grade—point average was and he said that
it would be different if I was going to
some other school, I (according to the
recruiter) would probably have a D average.

Polite: How did he know that?

Fadil: I guess he had inside information....He
said that most people when they look at the
news, they see our school at the bottom of
the state [Michigan]. He was saying look
at what the state is saying and if I was to
go to another school I wouldn't do so well.
I said it depends on how much you study and
he said that is true, but you kids [at
Metropolitan] don't really study, you're
into selling drugs and stuff.

Polite: Did you know that guy?

Fadil: Yes, he's Sgt. Smith.

There was an abundance of evidence from the in-
depth interviews that led me to conclude that most Afri-
can American males had very negative attitudes about the
quality of education available at Metropolitan High
School. Whether their information was accurate or not,
they believed it. I also suspected that this knowledge
affected their motivation and interest in school. They
viewed their schooling as not as serious as schooling in
other nearby school districts.

Additionally, approximately 30% of the total
enrollment at Metropolitan High participated in these
off-campus type programs during the 1986-1987 school

year. The degree of infiltration of these negative

136
opinions throughout the school, and especially among
African American males, was immeasurable, qualitatively.
But I believe it is accurate to observe that most of the
African American males in this study were doubtful that
the reputation and quality of their schooling was equal
to that of other neighboring suburban schools.

This observation corresponds to Willis' (1977)
observations. The "lads" in his study also developed
pessimistic opinions regarding a plausible egalitarian,
educational opportunity for working-class students in
England. Like the lads, the African American males
studied here indicated in their own words their belief
that different schools, representing different socio-
economic populations, provide different qualities of

education.

ACADEMIC AND SOCIAL OUTCOMES

To this point, the data have been used to describe
the changes that occurred at Metropolitan High School
between 1970 and 1990. These data demonstrate as the
social composition of the of the student body at Metro-
politan High changed, the quality of education at the
school changed as students, parents, and teachers became
increasingly disengaged from the academic life of the
school.

In this section, I turn to a description of aca-
demic and social outcomes of the 115 African American
male students I studied. The section demonstrates that
the Metropolitan High School of the late 19808 was
characterized by (a) low levels of academic achievement
among African American males; (b) increased concern on
the part of African American males with consumerism and
materialistic values; (c) increased participation among
African American males in criminal activities related to
drug trafficking; and (d) increased participation among
African American males in activities called "in-school

truancy".

Academic Outcome for the Graduates

Metropolitan High School used a letter grade system
for reporting quarterly academic progress with an 'A'
grade representing superior academic performance and a

'E' grade representing academic failure. A point system

137

138
also was used, with a 4.0 representing superior academic
performance and 1.0 as the lowest passing point for
reporting career and annual academic performance.

Few of the 115 African American males I studied
were academically ready for higher education upon reach-
ing their scheduled graduation date in June of 1989. In
fact, only slightly more than half (63 African American
males) actually received a diploma as of June, 1990.
Two-thirds of those who graduated were acade-mically
average or below-average students. Eight out of the 115
earned a grade-point average of C+ or better and only 4
graduated with honors. Figure 3 provides a sum-mary of
the grade point averages received by the 63 African
American male graduates. Table 11 provides a descrip—
tion of other academic and social outcomes of these 115
African American males.

It was clear that not more than 1 out of 15 African
American males was actually prepared for college-level
work. Consequently, many of the college-bound students
had a difficult time getting admitted into four-year
colleges and universities. For example, major colleges
and universities commonly required all applicants to
take either the ACT or SAT college entrance examination
and submit their test scores as a prerequisite for
admission. It was highly unlikely that any student
could be accepted without taking one of those two

examinations. Most college-bound students at

African American Male

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139

140

Table 11
Dempgraphic Description of the 115 African American

Eeles

N = 115
Factor number of incidents
Graduated with class/June, 1989 60
Graduated late 3
Graduated below average (2.00 or C) 39
Graduated above average (2.75 or B-) 8
Graduated with honors (3.0 or better) 4
Took ACT college entrance examination 17
Scored 16 or higher* 4
Dropped for non-attendance 28
Expelled by the Board of Education 8
Moved out of school district 8
GED adult education 4
Killed 1
Unknown 3
11116—1 1_§
Adgipional Factors number of known incidents
Shot by gunfire 3

Incarcerated between Sept.

1986 - June, 1990 23

Note. A score of 15 or higher is considered
acceptable for some colleges and sports programs.

 

141

Metropolitan High School and throughout the mid-western
states traditionally took the ACT examination according

to Farrant (1990). Yet, only 17 of the 60 African
American males who graduated from Metropolitan High
School's class of 1989 took the ACT examination.
Moreover, no African American male scored within the
highest interval and only three scored within the upper-
middle interval. Table 12 presents the ACT composite
scores of each of the tested African American male
graduates in the class of 1989.

The American College Testing Program, as reported

by Farrant (1990), aggregate the ACT composite scores in

four intervals:

26 - 36 highest interval
21 - 25 upper—middle interval
16 - 20 lower-middle interval
1 - 15 lowest interval

Several African American males planned to play
college-level sports as a means of financing their
college education, but due to their poor scores on the
college entrance examinations they were not eligible by
the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA)
"Proposition 48," which requires a minimum composite
score of 15 on the ACT for eligibility. The large per-
centage of Metropolitan High School's African American
males who failed to qualify was not consistent with NCAA
findings with respect to African American athletes

Table 12

Table 12

African American Males' ACT Test Scores by Students

 

Tested

c MPOSITE SCORE m" ME.
25 upper-middle interval Akil
24 upper-middle interval Waleed
22 upper-middle interval Mapira
16 lower-middle interval Naeem
15 lowest interval Tebogo
15 lowest interval Pili
15 lowest interval Kunle
13 lowest interval Weke
13 lowest interval Onani
13 lowest interval Moyo
12 lowest interval Tsoka
09 lowest interval Juma
08 lowest interval Thako
08 lowest interval Coujee
08 lowest interval Akono
07 lowest interval Sultan
05 lowest interval Nassor
03 lowest interval Chuma

 

*Note. Based on the High School Profile Report: A
description of the academic abilities and
non—academic characteristics of your ACT

tested graduates 1989.
Testing Program.

142

The American College

143
at the national level. Many more African American than
white males, proportionately, failed to qualify nation-
ally. At Metropolitan High School only 5% of the cohort
qualified to play sports at major institutions their
freshman year based on their ACT composite score. The
NCAA (1989) reported that 85% of African American can-
didates to Division I colleges and universities quali-
fied.

Of the total number of black student-athletes who

were recruited by and admitted to Division I

institutions in the fall of 1988, 85.5 percent were

qualifiers and thus eligible to participate in
their freshman year. Of the total number of white
student-athletes, 97.8 percent were qualifiers.

I interviewed several African American males who
entered college to determine what their first year's
experiences were like and whether or not they felt
academically prepared. Akil, the African American male
who had the highest academic performance of the 115, was
accepted at several major institutions, including the
University of Michigan and Michigan State University.

He opted to attend a small, historically black univer-
sity in the state of Florida known for its distinguished
business programs. I questioned him in an interview
during the summer of 1990, following his first year of
college. I inquired about his readiness for college.

It appeared that college was not as a dreadful exper-
ience for him as was the case with several others of his

African American male classmates. He had achieved a

3.50 grade point average for the first year of college

144
and was excited about returning to college in the fall,
1990. He had not participated in many co-curricular
activities, choosing instead to spend much of his time
studying.

Tsoka, another graduate who earned a 2.91 grade
point average at Metropolitan High and scored within the
lowest interval on the ACT examination (12), was report-
edly doing well at a small four-year college in Mich-
igan. His mother indicated that he had taken several
remedial courses during the first semester and began his
regular courses during the second semester. His overall
grade-point average for the first year of college was
3.2 on a 4.0 point scale. When I contacted Tsoka's
mother for an interview, she was very concerned that
Tsoka was required to take a full semester of remedial
classes before entering his regular college program.
Tsoka said college was like an extended high school
program.

Aside from Akil and Tsoka, two discrepant cases, I
was unable to find any other African American male
graduates who were faring well, socially and academi-
cally, at four-year colleges following their graduation
from Metropolitan High School. Many African American
males had not received adequate information needed to
make rational decisions regarding their college choice.
Naeem, for example, was an above-average student at

Metropolitan High and attended Utah Valley College in

145

the state of Utah. He had a very negative experience.
His academic performance was slightly above average at
Utah Valley, earning a 2.8 on a 4.0-point grading scale.
However, he felt compelled to transfer to Central
Michigan University for the fall of 1990 because he was
unaware that Utah Valley was predominantly Mormon. He
complained during a follow-up interview with me that
there was tremendous pressure placed on him and other
African American students to convert to Mormonism. He
felt that if he had received more information from his
high school teachers and counselors, he would never have
attended Utah Valley. He planned to major in legal
assistance and hoped eventually to become a lawyer.

Pili, as well, had a distressing first-year college
experience. His grade-point average was 1.70 on a 4.0
scale at a small black college in Virginia. He felt
that he was totally unprepared for college. He claimed
that his study habits were not properly developed at
Metropolitan High School and that the lack of on-going
academic challenges in high school severely hindered his
development and readiness for college. Pili received
the fourth highest grade-point average (3.2) of the 115
African American males at Metropolitan High School.

Pili, Akil, and Tsoka were above-average high
school students and were expected to do well in college.
Other students like Salim were average academically, but

somewhat interested in personal development. Salim

146
attended an urban university as a part-time student for
the first semester following graduation and dropped out
of college during the second semester. When I asked him
about his experiences in college during a follow-up
interview, he reported that he had passed two classes
but had received incomplete grades in two other classes.
He remarked, "In high school, I figured that I was smart
and if I did the work, I would be a show-off....I wanted
to fit in with the crow ." Salim did not plan to not
return to the university in the fall of 1990, but rather
hoped to attend a small Bible college to major in
pastoral counseling. His two brothers also attended
Metropolitan High School, but dropped out to sell drugs.
Salim felt that his mother's support and his determi-
nation not to make the same mistakes as his brothers
were the only two factors which prevented him from
becoming involved in similar circumstances.

Finally, Nassor was an example of the underemployed
African American male graduate. Nassor, like most of
the African American males in his class, graduated with
a below-average academic record. He earned a 1.3 grade
point average and scored 05 on the ACT examination. He
was not accepted at any four-year college or university
and was eligible only for the open admission schools and
junior colleges. He opted to work rather than attend a

junior college.

147

I had observed Nassor for more than three months
prior to asking for a follow-up interview. I inter-
viewed him at the restaurant where he was employed as a
bus boy. He admitted that he felt embarrassed every
time I came into the restaurant because he had not
gotten himself accepted into college and was working in
a "low paying job." He mentioned that he planned to
attend a junior college in the fall of 1990, but he had
not obtained an application or visited a junior college
as of July, 1990. He confirmed that he had "expected
more out of life." I asked him what were his com-
plaints, and he replied, "I'm tired of depending on my
parents and I only make $4.35 per hour: I'm dirty at the
end of everyday."

Thus, for those black males who graduated, it
appeared that widespread underemployment or unemployment
was their plight. In fact, most of the 63 African
American male graduates did not attend college, and
among those who did attend, few had successful first-

year experiences.

Peer Pressure and Materialism

One explanation for the dismal academic outcomes of
the African American males studied here was suggested by
Ogbu (1974). He pointed out the severity of negative
peer pressure on working-class African American males.

Aside from the lack of caring on the part of some

148
teachers, peer pressure seemed to be the most prominent
factor leading to poor academic performance for African
American males at Metropolitan High School, especially
for the poorer African American male.

Peer pressure accounted for much of the preoccup-
ation with activities which isolated African American
males from the benefits of schooling. Many students
were consumed by the need to dress in certain fashions,
while others refrained from attending certain classes
and school in general for fear of name-calling and
ridicule because of their style of clothing. In efforts
to procure the clothing, valued at as much as $500 per
outfit, many students were drawn into drug trafficking,
a lucrative alternative to underemployment and unemploy-
ment. A later section in this chapter will discuss the
details of the drug subculture at Metropolitan High,
while this section will provide some evidence of the
impact of peer pressure at Metropolitan High School on
African American males.

In my field observations, I often visited nearby
businesses and shopping malls and discovered large
numbers of Metropolitan African American male students.
These students were commonly dropped-off for school by
their parents. They entered the front door of the
school and walked out the back door with their friends.
Often, these students went to the more exorbitant

shopping malls to purchase their daily outfits valued at

149
between $250 and $500. Storekeepers provided numerous
stories of regular customers who attended Metropolitan
High and spent hundreds of dollars shopping each week.

On one occasion, a African American male went to
the mall during the school morning and purchased a new
pair of designer gym shoes which were priced at $250.

He returned to school and showed them and the bag in
which they came to several other African American males
during an exchange of classes. He left his shoes in his
locker. He returned to his locker at lunch to find it
vandalized and his shoes stolen. He became outraged and
ran through the building, yelling that he was going

to "kill the mother f...who took my shoes, and I will
know because I'm the only one with a pair like them in
this mother f...school." He left the school at lunch
and purchased a second pair of shoes at the same price.
When he returned that afternoon with a second pair of
shoes, he was the talk and wonderment of his friends.

He was later arrested during the school year for
attempting to sell $10,000 worth of cocaine to a drug
enforcement agent.

There were numerous incidents where students felt
compelled to get into gang fights in support of their
neighborhood or friends. If one influential student was
suspended from school, other friends would attempt to
get themselves suspended or simply did not attend

classes so that they could be with their friend. On one

150
occasion, a student gave me a personal note which read,
"Mr. Polite, you know all those kids who are rollin'
(selling drugs) always talk about me and the way I
dress. So sometimes I don't feel like hearing it and I
just cut class." I questioned that student about the
note, and he assured me that the reason he did not
attend many classes was because his parents were unable
to provide him with the high-fashioned clothing worn by
so many of the other popular African American males. He
later began selling drugs before dropping out of school.

Hare (1985), a famed African American sociologist,
explained the negative impact of peer pressure on
African American males, especially those from single-
parent households headed by the mother, as was the case
with the majority of the 115 African American males in
this study:

The peer group sets the standards and perimeter of

their behavior. It builds disdain and contempt for

the values and advice of the parents. In the
absence of the father and his relentless model for
the boy, with no one of authority and forcefulness
to backup the mother's decrees, the boy is all the
more easily instigated to oppose his mother's
authority. In the best of circumstances, half of

the parental force is missing (p. 17).

The effect of peer pressure often resulted in
aggressive, violent, and criminal behaviors. Many
African American males at Metropolitan High School were
shot, paralyzed, or incarcerated, and three were killed

during the time that this study was conducted. Most

expulsions were based on behavioral incidents related to

151
negative peer pressure. Knowledge of these events was
commonly discussed among the students, teachers,
administrators, and parents. I participated in such
discussion with a guidance counselor:

Counselor: I have two kids [students] that have
been shot and were dealing with drugs
at one time or another.

Polite: They were shot?

Counselor: Yes, in the legs, both of them.

Polite: Are they still involved (selling
drugs)?

Counselor: One has dropped out of my support group
and I haven't seen him. The other said
that his friend has died and every time
I talk to him he tells me someone else
has been shot or killed.

Polite: Well school is a hard act to come
behind all those competing forces.

Counselor: Well, he is not doing very well.

I asked one of the African American male security
guards who had worked in the school for more than a
decade and coached a number of sports, what were some of
the reasons so many students were in school, but not

attending classes? He responded:

Family problems...stability...one kid that I know,
for example, is not in class and he walks the
halls...it might seem trivial, but he sees kids
with things that he can't have (afford), so he says
that he wants them and he walks the halls because
he doesn't want to go to class and be ashamed.

As mentioned in the introduction, the school
district is composed of Metropolitan City and several

small boroughs. One of those boroughs was composed of

152
mainly lower-income households. The students who lived
in that borough were all African American. Throughout
the data collection, there were numerous fights between
students based on their residence. Much of it was
grounded in materialism and peer pressure. One of the
students, a Metropolitan City resident who was even-
tually expelled by the District's School Board for his
involvement in a fight, explained the peer pressure felt
by African American males this way:

Student: It seems that the students from
Metropolitan City were too busy fighting
against the students of other communities
and sometimes fighting amongst themselves.
It was like a show-off at Metropolitan
High. You always had to have the highest—
priced clothes and roll (sell drugs) to be
in the in-group..or you had to do
something to keep your name out there like
a landmark...you had to be somebody.
...the main reason I got kicked—out of
school was that I had a fight with the
Borough kids...it was like a gang
fight...a guy named Hondo was jealous of
this friend [of mine] named Tale.

Polite: Why was Hondo jealous of Tale?

Student: ...'cause of the girls and stuff like
that.

Polite: Tale had all those things?

Student: Yes...a lot of girls liked him...what can
I say?

Polite: Was there something special about Tale?

Student: Maybe it was his clothes and the way he
looked...I don't know!

Polite: So you think that Hondo was jealous of
that?

Student: Yeah...'cause he [Hondo] wanted to be top

Polite:

Student:
Polite:
Student:
Polite:

Student:

153

man at Metropolitan High...you know that
status thing...and he wanted to be
somethin'...you know...you know there was
a party and this friend of mine and Tale
were run-out of the party by these guys
from the Borough... Eventually everybody
associated with the Metropolitan City
group and the kids from the Borough were
always bothering us.... I would talk with
some of my friends in the Borough to tell
them to tell the leaders to chill (stop)
from fighting...but it seemed that the
people that I talked to were scared to
talk to the leaders, those guys who were
supposed to be on the top...so it came out
to be a fight.

How does a person get on top to be a
leader of these groups?

...money!

How did they get the money?
Rollin'!

Selling drugs?

Right...they sell drugs...mmm and dress
nice with the money.

As a final example of impact of peer pressure and

materialism, I spoke with Atsu, an average student who

provided some general insights about the reputation the

school had based on materialism and peer pressure:

Polite:

Atsu:

Polite:

Atsu:

What about peer pressure?

It's a lot of that... most people that I
know from other schools think that
Metropolitan High is just a drug school.
When you say what school you graduated
from or you say Metropolitan City, they
ask... Do you sell drugs?

Why is that true?

I don't know... I look at Metropolitan
High and it's not the school, it's the
people in the school...they make the

154

school...they all want to dress nice!
They want the girls and they feel if they
don't have money then they can't have
those things...so they sell drugs.

Polite: What do they do with all their money from
selling drugs?

Atsu: Clothes, cars...clothes and cars are the
main things, and they keep the money to
show it off.

Materialism and consumerism, two prerequisites for
a strong capitalist society, very clearly worked their
way down to working-class African American males at
Metropolitan High and were reflected in the focus of the
peer pressure among the students. Hare concluded in his
published interview with Pete (1986) that materialism
prevents rather than promotes success for many African
American males.

In the following sections, I illustrate three kinds
of schooling outcomes that appeared related to peer
pressure and that were very common the large number of
African American males who did not graduate. These were

non-attendance, drug trafficking, and expulsions.

In-School Truancy

Table 11 (p. 137) indicates that 1 out of 5 African
American males was dropped from the school's active
rolls due to non-attendance. Most of the African
American males who were dropped attended certain
classes, but missed other classes. They were in or near

school, but refrained from attending classes.

155

I decided to observe what I termed "in-school
truancy" to determine what were the common activities of
the in-school truant. I stationed myself in various
parts of the school, for example, at the intersection of
B and E wings, outside the assistant principal's office
in the D wing, in and near the school Media Center, in
the cafeteria, etc., for a four-week period. I observed
and took field notes on the activities involving African
American male students who were in-school truants. The
behaviors of these students were number coded. For
example, 008 was the number code used for the activity
of "socializing."

Nine categories of behaviors and/or activities
emerged as common among the African American male in-
school truants. They were:

1. I.D.-related activities

2. radio station related activities
3. locker activities

4. ‘socializing

5. school work-related activities
6. disruptive behaviors

7. hall passes

8. eating

9. wandering

156

Several other categories of behaviors, some far
more injurious and illegal activities, were associated
with the African American male in-school truants. Those
behaviors were generally initiated in school and carried
on outside of the school facility. Some of those
behaviors were drug trafficking, sexual misconduct,
theft, destruction of property in the neighborhoods near
the school, disruption of nearby commercial businesses,
and aggressive and violent behaviors involving other
students at Metropolitan High as well as other schools
in the district. These outside activities, which often
began in the school, were commonly reported to the
school's administrators by community persons and police

personnel.

Tne I.D. Policy

Many African American males were in-school truants.
This occurred as a result of either deliberately not
wearing a student identification card in an effort to
get rejected from class or because they accidently
forgot their cards. The school issued, free-of-charge,
an identification card to all students upon entry.
Students were expected to keep this card for the entire
four years of high school. The Student Handbook

indicated the cost of a replacement of a card at $2.00.

157
The handbook also stated that, "Students MUST wear their
I.D. card at all times when they are on the school
grounds. Students who do not wear their I.D. will be
suspended from school."

An informal interview with the secretary who was
responsible for issuing new I.D. cards revealed that the
school sold more than 3000 cards each year. The student
population was only 1050. Some students, however, never
needed to purchase cards, while other individual
students purchased as many as 75 cards in one school
year, according to the secretary.

One out of 10 in-school truants was involved in
some activities related to their I. D. card. African
American males were observed either purchasing a new
card during class time, missing classes because they did
not have an I.D. card, or leaving the building to return
home to pick-up a forgotten card.

A typical example of how I.D. cards related to in-
school truancy was the African American male who, for
whatever reason, did not have a card. The student may
have attended classes where the teacher did not adhere
to the policy and either left the building during those
other classes where the card was required, wandered
about the school, or left to frequent a local restaurant
or friend's home.

I noticed at one observation, a African American

male student leaving the building. I asked, "Where are

158
you going?" He replied, "I have to run home ....I forgot
my I.D." He ran off to the east of the school building
and missed the entire class period because he was with-
out an I.D.

Many African American males missed valuable class
time as a result of a policy which, according to the
principal, was instituted to protect the students and
staff from outsiders. There were many racial distur-
bances and conflicts during the 19708 and consequently,
the I.D. policy emerged as a means of identifying which
students were duly enrolled at Metropolitan High.

Another example of this issue being played out was
Jamie's case. A school security officer, at about 2:00
p.m., brought Jamie into the assistant principal's
office. The security guard indicated that Jamie had not
attended classes for the entire afternoon. When Jamie
was asked why he had not attended class, he responded,
"I didn't have an I.D." He was asked what he had done
for the entire afternoon. He said, "I went to two
lunches (two lunch periods in the school) and I went to
Hardies (a local restaurant)."

The I.D. policy was a common excuse used by African
American males for not attending classes. Many of these
students had actually misplaced their cards while others

merely used the policy as an excuse for not attending

assigned classes.

159
Socialization:

The student body underwent some major changes
during the high school careers of the 115 African
American males which had adversely impacted students'
social time.

The biggest change involved the school's lunch
schedule. Until the 1986 academic year, there was a 60-
minute lunch period when all students were free to eat
and wander about the building and community. There were
hundreds of complaints, including those which detailed
accounts of serious fights and violent behaviors
involving African American male students. Many students
never returned from the lunch hour. Most adminis—
trators, including myself, felt that the lunch time was
too long and that the students were unable to handle an
hour of free time. Consequently, the administration was
forced to consider changing the lunch program to a
three-session program for the school. The Board of
Education approved and implemented the change, effective
September, 1987.

The change in the lunch program resulted in
students having less time to socialize. The community
and school seemed far more orderly without the large
masses of students free to wander for an hour each day.

Socializing remained the most common activity of African

160
American male in-school truants. I observed 280
incidents of in-school truancy. One out of 4 incidents
were centered around socializing.

Often, whatever happened in the community impacted
many African American males' attendance. Many took
class time to simply up date each other on the events of
the community. For example, following a shooting in the
community involving two African American male graduates
of 1986, there was much talk in the school hallways
concerning the incident. Many students who were
neighbors and relatives of the two affected students
involved were shocked by the fact that these two
students actually attempted murder. The students were
preoccupied with the details of the shooting. The
excitement of what happened with these African American
males easily rivaled what was happening in the class-
rooms. In this case, what happened external to the
learning environment was more exciting and interesting
for many African American males than what was going on
in the class. Often African American males were heard
discussing drugs, cars, and the "fast life" while

socializing during class time.

Ciass Disruptions
Disrupting ongoing class sessions was a common
behavior of many in-school truants. One out of every 10

in-school truants was known to be disrupting the educa-

162

teachers cannot control them when they do--
education throughout the school suffers.

Although the subcultural activities observed at
Metropolitan High School were carried out throughout the
school building and affected many students, the majority
of the activities were concentrated in three primary
locations:

1. outside the main office;

2. the student parking lot to the west of the

school; and

3. the student parking lot to the east of the

building.

African American male dealers or "rollers" as they
were called at Metropolitan High, were approximately
thirty (30) in number. However, a much larger number of
African American males associated with these rollers
because the rollers provided them with rides in their
cars and drugs. This small core of thirty was actually
responsible for most of the drug distribution or rollin'
carried out within the school.

Recruitment of new members was on—going. The new
members were recruited by older members, and there was a
constant flow and change in membership. Many of the
African American males who dropped out of school
operated "dope houses" (a house in the community where
drugs are sold twenty-four hours a day), a smaller

number stayed in school and somehow managed to graduate.

162

teachers cannot control them when they do--
education throughout the school suffers.

Although the subcultural activities observed at
Metropolitan High School were carried out throughout the
school building and affected many students, the majority
of the activities were concentrated in three primary
locations:

1. outside the main office;

2. the student parking lot to the west of the

school; and

3. the student parking lot to the east of the

building.

African American male dealers or "rollers" as they
were called at Metropolitan High, were approximately
thirty (30) in number. However, a much larger number of
African American males associated with these rollers
because the rollers provided them with rides in their
cars and drugs. This small core of thirty was actually
responsible for most of the drug distribution or rollin'
carried out within the school.

Recruitment of new members was on-going. The new
members were recruited by older members, and there was a
constant flow and change in membership. Many of the
African American males who dropped out of school
operated "dope houses" (a house in the community where
drugs are sold twenty—four hours a day), a smaller

number stayed in school and somehow managed to graduate.

163

I interviewed several rollers to inquire how might
teenagers get involved in rollin' or selling drugs. The
responses were consistent: by recruitment by older,
seasoned members, or by volunteering. Some African
American males gave accounts of older students or adults
in the community who took young boys "shopping" and
purchased material items ranging from clothing to motor
bikes, depending on how badly these new recruits were
needed to maintain the distribution of the drugs in the
community and nearby suburbs. Generally, clothing
seemed to be a very high priority and a major attraction
which seduced young African American males into the drug
culture at Metropolitan High. Once a member or roller,
jewelry, cars, and travel became important goals of the
roller.

"Put me down" was the term used by young recruits
when requesting permission to get involved in the drug
dealing business. "Gettin" paid," "on the payroll,"
"down," and "word up" referred also to those students
who sold drugs. One student informed me that,

Once a young "dude" gets tired of not having the

amount or type of clothing he wants, he merely has

to walk up to an older known roller and say "put me
down" or "put me on the payroll" or simply--"word"
and the older roller will get the younger dude
started by providing him with a small amount of
drugs to sell. If the novice proves dependable, he
can become a serious roller with his own clientele
and "partnerships."

The majority of the rollers were African American

and resided in the Borough. However, there were rollers

164
residing in Metropolitan City as well. According to the
students interviewed, many of the "big men" or the
"man," (the persons who procured the drugs in large
quantities for distribution), lived in Metropolitan
City. There were no known white student rollers, but
many white students purchased drugs regularly from the
rollers, and made up a large portion of the "clientele."
Generally, the rollers operated in small groups of
two or three "rollers" referred to as "partnerships."
Within the partnership, each member was responsible for
contributing an equal amount of "start-up" money. The
start-up money was used to purchase a small quantity of
drugs, usually marijuana because it was the cheapest
drug on the street market. Then the process known as
"flippin' began whereby all or most of the profits from
the drug dealings were used to purchase larger
quantities of drugs. This process continued within a
particular category of drugs until the partners had
saved enough money to afford to move into a higher
category and so on until they reached the "coke" or
cocaine level where the greatest profits were to be
made. An example of flippin' was provided by one
African American male:
Say you and me want to roll together....OK we form
like a partnership and put our money together and
purchase a small amount of marijuana to sell until
we get enough money to buy the "eight ball" ( a
powder form of cocaine which must be processed by
adding additives such as quinine or baking soda

prior to selling). After we sell a few eight
balls, we're into the big time.

165

Each member of the partnership checked and balanced the
others. Should one member be dishonest, some very
serious sanctions were generally imposed. These
sanctions included isolations from the partnership,
beatings, and sometimes, extremely violent attacks and
shootings.

Most African American male rollers interviewed
responded that the reason they became involved in drug
dealing was because they wanted things which their
parents could not afford to buy for them. Rollin' was
easy money and the profit came quickly with little
effort. Based on these characteristics, I concluded
that many of the rollers also suffered from low self-
esteem. As was mentioned, two communities made up the
Metropolitan School District. The average African
American parent in Metropolitan City could provide
expensive designer clothing, motor bikes, and cars for
their children, while such items were generally far
beyond the reach of most parents residing in the
Borough. One theory which emerged was that poor
students who suffered from low self-esteem were more
likely to turn to drug dealing than poor students who
had a positive self-image. Two of the school's rollers
were stopped during the course of this study in the

Borough and searched by the police for possible drug

166
trafficking. Both had more than $900 on their persons,
and neither had ever held a job.

Most of the African American male rollers
interviewed seemed to be normal, urban, street-smart
students. However the types of activities in which they
were involved often-times placed them in extremely
dangerous situations. Many rollers reported that they
owned and at times carried guns and other weapons due to
the need to protect themselves and their goods. One of
the rollers appeared in the front of the school building
driving a late model Cadillac on one day while I was
observing. When a security person asked him to move the
car from the front of the building, he refused. The
police were called for assistance. A small hand gun was
found in a special compartment during a routine search
of the car by the police.

Among the major rules of the drug subculture,
honesty among the dealers and distributors is a must.
Each student interviewed recounted at least one story of
a teenager who was shot or killed because he "messed up
the man's money". If you were a roller, you had to pay
for drugs entrusted in your care. This is the first law
of the subculture. "The man wanted either the drugs or
the money when he shows (comes) and you'd better give it
up or you're dead." One student interviewed was

assaulted by several rollers in the boys' locker room

167
during the course of this project because he did not
"pay his debts."

Confidentiality was another important norm of the
rollers' subculture. Each informant interviewed re-
minded me that it was absolutely essential that neither
his identity be disclosed nor the identities of other
persons involved in the drug dealings of the school for
fear of bodily injury or even death. Most of the stu-
dents interviewed were close associates of one another
and apparently none mentioned the fact that they were
interviewed by me, or that they had provided me with
information concerning the workings of the drug sub-
culture within the school.

Protection of the membership was important, also.
When students were asked if they were afraid to be
caught or jailed by police or federal drug agents, all
replied 'no' because "the man" would bail them out.
There were two reasons for this; one, rollers were
needed to carry on the drug traffic, and two, the man
was "responsible" for the young rollers in his charge.
If the word was out on the street that a certain big man
failed to take care of his rollers, other rollers in his
charge would feel insecure and seek other suppliers.
This is very much like prostitution in street corner
society. For example, two black graduating seniors in
1989 were out of jail on $25,000 cash bond because they

were caught driving around the community with a large

168

quantity of cocaine in their car with the intention to
sell it. Their suppliers posted the bail for both.
Each of these two rollers purchased identical $30,000
cars and neither had ever held a full-time job. Both of
the young men had not yet reached their eighteenth
birthday, were flippin' for several years and were
'middle men' with an assemblage of younger rollers
working for them.

Sefu was known by all the African American males as
a good student and outstanding basketball player.
Several students suggested that I interview him
regarding his rollin' experiences. I contacted Sefu.
He refused to come in for an interview, but did agree to
talk with me over the telephone. Sefu told me that he
was ashamed to return to school because everyone knew
that he was a big man in the drug world. He assured me
that he discouraged other African American males from
becoming involved with drugs and hoped to get out of the
trafficking as soon as he could. Several students told
me that Sefu purchased several condominiums with the
profits from rollin' and that his parents were living in
one of these properties. Sefu was driving a 1989
Mercedes Benz when he was arrested by the police with
cocaine valued at $20,000.

Finally, not taking drugs became a very important
norm among the rollers. This was most unlike the drug

subcultures of the 19608 and 19708. These young rollers

169
in the late 19808 were well aware of the ill affects of
drugs on their bodies and generally never consumed their
own products. Several rollers referred to those
dealers, who also used drugs, as "junkies" and "dope
heads." Those rollers who also abused drugs were
considered deviant and "weak" among their peers because
this deviant group sold not for a profit, but to support
their own addiction.

One interesting feature of the drug subculture was
its value system. The materialistic "good life," big
cars, expensive clothing, jewelry, and travel were the
preoccupation of those involved in the drug culture.
While involved in the project, I spent a considerable
amount of time listening to television and radio
advertisements which were commonly aired throughout the
day on all stations in the Borough and Metropolitan
City. All of these aforementioned material items were
constantly being presented by way of the media.

Rollin', in the opinion of those involved, was the best
way to preclude all the hard work required to procure
the things which were important to them in life and
society. The alternative of rollin' was especially
important for African American males who were average or
below-average students and who faced long-term or
permanent unemployment. Selling drugs could be viewed
as the only solution to impoverished conditions in a

materialistic society. As mentioned, there were

170
approximately thirty true rollers at Metropolitan High.
Most had never held a job. Several of those rollers
were profiting, tax free, an average of a thousand
dollars per week with little overhead and no responsi-
bilities. Much of this money was spent on clothing and
other material items and, of course, for purchasing more
drugs.

One young roller was very depressed as he discussed
his involvement with drugs with me, stating that his
mother could barely provide him with the necessities of
life. He was only sixteen years old. His question for
me was, "Do you want me to fry hamburgers and clean out
McDonald's bathrooms for minimum wages, when I can make
one 'thou' (a thousand dollars) a week?" He and several
of his friends took a weekend trip to Las Vegas to
attend a professional boxing match and upon their return
were admired by other African American males at school.

Members of the drug subculture spent large amounts
of money on very expensive, large gold chains which were
worn around the necks of these rollers in the mid-19808.
Such audacious behaviors attracted the attention of the
police and other legal authorities and identified the
rollers by their appearance. The rollers at Metropo-
litan High in the late 19808 opted for more expensive
and conservative clothing commonly sold in the most
exclusive shops and boutiques in the Metropolitan

area, tasteful jewelry, and expensive cars, giving them

171
the appearance of upper middle-class teenagers. Addi-
tionally, because so many were identified by their
clothing in earlier 19808, few rollers carried drugs on
their person. The accepted procedure, to which their
clientele had to adhere, required those interested in
purchasing drugs during school time to place an order
during the morning which was filled during the lunch
period. Crack was sold in the front of the school,
directly outside the main office, while "coke" was sold
in either of the two student parking lots.

Jojo, a roller, was known personally by me. He had
numerous, informal interviews with me regarding the drug
activities at Metropolitan High. He provided some help-
ful information during an in—depth interview. He spoke
freely concerning the rollin' in the school. He esti-
mated that 7 out of 10 seniors had smoked a "51" (a
marijuana cigarette with traces of crack cocaine added).
He told me that his dealings were rarely in the school.
He preferred to sell to rich, white clients in the
nearby suburbs. Jojo confirmed that he earned approxi-
mately $1,500 per week "when times are good."

When asked about his parents, Jojo responded that
he lived with his mother and that she really did not
care what he did. He stated that his grandmother was
more of a positive influence than his mother. Jojo
claimed to have given his mother money on one occasion,

but she only "messed it up." He felt that many of the

172
parents of the rollers did not care, and some actually
encouraged the drug dealings because they shared in its
profits. Most parents of rollers were unaware that
their children were involved in drugs, according to
Jojo. Several rollers purchased expensive clothing and
left them at a friend's house. Each day, these students
met to change clothing at a neutral location in order to
preclude the possibility of their parents learning of
their involvement with drugs.

Jojo indicated that he attended school because he
realized that it was important for his future. He hoped
to attend college after graduation. He stated that if
he did not attend school, he could work at a "dope
house" and earn $700 per three-day week, packaging and
selling drugs. He added that he had seen several
friends killed in drug-related wars. Jojo also confirm-
ed the number of rollers in the school and indicated
that the majority of sales occurred during the lunch
period. However, the largest portion of the money was
made after school.

Kofi, another roller, believed that most students
had experienced smoking a "51." And more than twenty
students were profiting more than a $1,000 per week from
their rollin,‘ while students at Metropolitan High. He
mentioned that two students had purchased $30,000 cars
and three "Arabs" had a large number of African American

students rollin' for them. Kofi was concerned that

173
several middle school students had gotten involved in
the drug dealing business in return for a motor bikes
and other gifts from the man. Kofi informed me that
there were "many" drug houses in Metropolitan City, the
Borough, and nearby communities.

Seyaki explained the flippin' process to move up
the drug-dealing ladder. He felt the main attraction
for rollers was the immediate profit. He admitted
having rolled himself, but had to stop because his
mother was concerned for his safety.

Finally, language was very important to members of
the drug subculture within the school. Listed in
Appendix A is a list of terms commonly used by the
rollers to set them apart from the dominant culture of
the school. Many of the terms were understood by a
minority of the dominant culture, but clearly
established the uniqueness of the rollers' subculture.

Bilal was a good example of how the drug subculture
affected the normal lives of African American male
students at Metropolitan High School. Bilal was an
average student. He was associated with a number of the
rollers but never became involved himself. During the
first semester of the 1989-1990 school year, he was shot
in the chest just slightly to the right of his heart.
From all accounts, he was merely attending a party and
several rollers were also in attendance at the same

party. During the party, Bilal got into an argument

174
with one of the rollers over Bilal's girlfriend and
clothing. The roller shot Bilal. Bilal was hospi-
talized for more than a month. When he returned to
school he was extremely withdrawn and isolated himself
from all of his friends.

I spoke with Bilal about the incident and he
convinced me that he was merely attending a party and
that he barely knew the boys who shot him. Bilal
graduated, but his grades had fallen below the average
mark. He had no plans for future schooling or employ-
ment.

Nothing posed a greater menace to the normal
functioning of Metropolitan High School than the drug
subculture of the school. Drugs impacted African
American male students' interest in schooling, led to an
obsession with materialism, and resulted in many African
American males failing to graduate from high school,

incarceration and even death.

Empglsions

Expulsions within the Metropolitan School District
were conducted by the Board of Education as the terminal
discipline procedure upon recommendation of a school
administrator. There were 31 expulsions during the two
years that this study was underway. Twenty-nine of the
31 expulsion hearings were for African American male

students who were generally involved in violent and

175

aggressive behaviors at school or on the school grounds.

Once expelled from school, these students had no
recourse but to seek to further their education in a
private school or another school outside the school
district, or attempt to carry on their lives without the
benefit of a high school education. Several students
were given an opportunity to attend an alternative
educational program designed for students who had
exhibited antisocial behaviors and were habitually
truant from school, the incorrigible student.

The expulsion was the final action taken after
numerous indications that a student was obviously
rejecting most aspects of schooling. Prior to the
expulsion hearings, African American male students were
generally suspended from school for multiple offenses
against the school's code of conduct, with little or no
intervention or counseling provided. Many of the
students who were eventually expelled by the Board of
Education had a history of aggressive and violent
behavior. For example, one student was recommended for
expulsion for the following charges:

1. Gross disrespect to a staff member

2. Racial and ethnic slurs directed toward a staff
member

3. Disruption of the educational process

4. Threatening a staff member

5. Assault on a staff member

176
6. Use of inappropriate and abusive language
7. Repeated violation of school rules
This was a typical scenario for a African American

male student who was recommended for expulsion, being
rude toward staff and resisting school rules. From a
theoretical perspective, it seemed that although these
students were far more aggressive than the lads in
Willis' (1977) ethnography, the direction of their
resistance to formal schooling and school-related
procedures was the same. These students had generally
demonstrated from their elementary and middle school
experiences that they were intelligent and capable of
learning, but they seemed to reject school in favor of
the more lucrative drug world and peer culture. They
resisted everything related to school, especially its
teachers.

One teacher wrote the following letter to the
assistant principal to describe one expelled student's
classroom behavior, an incorrigible African American
male named Moswen:

Today was my second encounter with Moswen.
This whole thing began yesterday. Moswen came to

class---late as usual. Moswen asked me if he could

go to the Counseling Office because he said his
locker was broken into. I said that he could go,
but I would not write him a hall pass and would
mark him absent. He has given every excuse
possible for missing class during the entire ten

weeks that school has been in session. I explained

to him that he could not be in class and the
Counseling Office at the same time. At this time,
Moswen became belligerent and argumentative. He
did not give me a chance to explain that all he

needed was a hall pass from the Counseling Office

177

back to class (proof that, in fact, he did go to
the Counseling Office and that his locker was
broken into). Moswen seems to have more stories
than Aesop. Moswen then gave me a dirty look and
called me a "whore" and stormed out of the door
slamming it with his entire body weight. The door
and frame are still shaking!]

About ten minutes later, he pounded on the
door and was let back into the classroom. Moswen
then pointed his finger at me and said, 'I don't
care if you tell my mother about all this shit.‘
Moswen then left the classroom again. I've talked
to his mother twice this semester about his
attendance and attitude, and she was very
supportive. A short time later, there was a loud
thud against the door as if somebody threw an
object at it or tried to kick it in. I opened the
door and looked down the hall. I thought I saw
Moswen in a rose-colored "Troop" jacket running
toward the Auto Shop.

Moswen came to class today; and, after I took
attendance, I asked him to leave because the
assistant principal wished to see him. With his
typical indignant attitude, he walked toward the
door. I opened the door for him to prevent another
"slamming door" incident. On his way out, he

intentionally walked into me and threw a shoulder

into me. He came back ten minutes later and said
that the assistant principal wasn't in. I told him
that he wasn't going to stay in class, and I told
him to leave. He refused and said that he wasn't
going. I then sent another student for a staff
security person. Approximately ten minutes later,
Mrs. Doe (security) came into the classroom. She
told him that he had to leave. He complied with
her order and started walking out of the room.
Mrs. Doe walked out of the room and was in the
hallway waiting for Moswen. As Moswen walked past
me, he pointed his finger at me and called me a
"whore" and walked away.

I was able, after a careful study of the African
American males who were expelled over the two—year
period, to develop a description of the stereotypical
expulsion candidates at Metropolitan High School. The
first type had a history of aggressive and disruptive
behaviors. They were considered leaders among the

African American male students and generally lived in

178
single-parent households in lower-income neighborhoods.
Their anger was clearly directed at life in general and
the school specifically.

The second type focused their aggression toward
other students. They were often guilty of sexually
aggressive behavior against female students.

Expulsions are discussed further under the section
focused on the overt resistors. Due to their violent
and aggressive behavior directed at teachers and other
staff, as well as, other students, 10% of the 115
African American male students were expelled from school

by the District's Board of Education.

REPRODUCTION AND RESISTANCE:
THE ROLE OF STUDENT RESPONSES TO SCHOOLING

In this final section, I turn to a consideration of
students' responses to schooling as a means of explain-
ing student outcomes at Metropolitan High School. Pre-
vious work emerging from the critical perspective on
schooling tends to emphasize the capacity of students to
resist reproduction through overt, oppositional behav-
iors. This same work also suggests that this opposi-
tional behavior tends to reinforce social reproduction
rather than liberate students from it.

My examination of 115 African American males'
course selections, academic and discipline records, and
the interview data showed that the 115 African American
males could be grouped into four categories that typi-
fied their responses to their schooling circumstances.
These four general categories were not intended to be
exhaustive. In fact, I knew that there were numerous
other modes of categorizing these students based on
their behaviors, for example, the athletic and socially
active versus the non-engaged students or students with
strong parental and other outside support versus those
students who had little or no support.

I categorized the 115 African American males, as
represented by the following continuum, based on their
responses in the area of academic interests and achieve—

ment as well as their social interactions:

179

180

active passive overt
—-conformist-—--conformist--nonconformist---resistor----
Using this continuum, the antithesis of the active

conformist was the overt resistor.

Active Conformism:

The active conformists were fully aware of the
goals, rules, and objectives of the high school. These
African American males conceptualized their future place
in society and acquiesced to the school's rules and
procedures with the hope of obtaining their goals in
life. At Metropolitan High School these students were
generally functioning at or above average and were never
in conflict with the school's policies and guidelines.
They were determined to make their lives successful by
working within the traditional academic and athletic
spheres. Several of the active conformists were
exceptional athletes as well as above average students.
The active conformists were few in number. These
students were not necessarily "perfect"; and many
deliberately cut classes or engaged in minor deviant
behaviors, but always with a clear understanding of
their behavior and the potential impact of their
behavior on their grades.

The active conformists, with very few exceptions,
had strong parental support. Generally, they lived with

both parents and at least one of their parents was

181

college—educated. Their parents oversaw their high
school course selection, provided sufficient career
counseling, assured that college entrance examinations
were taken in a timely manner, and that college applica-
tions were submitted to the appropriate institutions.

Several of the active conformists were athletes who
received additional incentive and support from the
school's coaching staff. Their participation in the
school's sports program was contingent upon their
compliance with the school rules, policies and their
academic success. Grades and academic honors were the
driving forces behind the active conformists. One
teacher's comments pertaining to these students who
occasionally cut classes were helpful in understanding

the active conformist:

Polite: We have a lot of students who are regular
attenders. They go to class. They don't
miss their classes. How do they manage
with all the loopholes? Why do some
students go to class and do well and
others don't?

Teacher: Well, I think that these students are
highly motivated.

Polite: What is their motivation? What is their
direction?

Teacher: Their grades...They know that they need
decent grades in order to get into the
college of their choice...and they are
very smart as far as knowing the number of
days they can miss without it becoming a
problem.

Polite: What are the differences between the
students?

Teacher: The highly motivated, self—directed

182

students are very selective in how they do
it [cut classes]. They know what they can
get away with and what their limits are.

It was apparent from my interview with Akil that he

fit the description of an active conformist. He clearly

understood the value of his education as compared with

other students who were passive or resistant to school-

ing at Metropolitan High. Again, Akil had the highest

grade-point average of all the African American males in

this research population:

Polite:

Akil:

Polite:

Akil:

Polite:

Akil:

Are drugs consuming the school? 18 that
why so many black males are

uninterested in education and resist
school?

A lot are interested in education, but
they don't have pride and high goals for
what they are going to do....or realistic
goals I should say. They think that they
can go to Western [Western Michigan
University] or Eastern [Eastern Michigan
University] and get C's or D's or whatever
in their classes and when they get out
they will be hired with a degree and all
this money...They don't look at getting
better grades and you need to attend a
better school [college or university] in
order to get things that they want out of
life.

How many of the black males who graduated
with you last week will be able to get
into a decent college?

Maybe 10 or 15 will go on to a decent
school. Some of them will go on to no
where. Others will join the army or one
of the military forces.

Do you think that this is unusual that out
of 115 black males, only 15 will go to
college?

Maybe they'll go to a junior college or
something like that. I'm not knocking

183

Eastern [Michigan] but that's not a school
that's on the map as far as the country is
concerned. In the 9th and 10th grade a
lot of the students played around...it was
high school, it was a new experience, you
could skip class easily, after they got
matured more they realized that there will
be some days when you don't want to go to
class, but you got to pick those days that
you're not going and do what you have to
do in the class, but in the 9th and 10th
they felt that they didn't have to go.
...If I didn't feel like really going to a
class, I just skipped. I was normal! I
wasn't one of those students who just sat
around and did school work all day...then
again, I knew when I had to do work even
if I didn't feel like it. I knew that I
had information that I had to get or when
the teacher was going to give a lecture, I
had to take notes.

Generally, the active conformists viewed their

conformism as the only realistic choice. They viewed

the resistance and drug dealing as a sure means to a

short life.

Naeem, an active conformist, felt that

those students who were involved in the drug world were

destined for prison or murder, and he made a choice to

work hard at his academics in order to be accepted into

the college of his choice:

Naeem:

Polite:

Naeem:
Polite:

Naeem:

Well, in a way it's my parents, they made
sure that I didn't go in the wrong
direction, but it was me also....I didn't
want to go that way. Too quick, its so
out of balance, you can make a lot of
money, but you can also die; that's not
what I'm here [in school] for.

Could you have gotten into drugs or
violence if you wanted to?

Yeah...
Did you know how?

Yeah...

Polite:

Naeem:

Polite:

Naeem:

Polite:

Naeem:

Polite:

Naeem:

184

How would you have gotten into drugs for
example?

I knew a couple of people who were already
dealing in drugs and sometimes they asked

me if I wanted to start rollin' with them,
or whatever.

Did anybody ever ask you that
specifically?

Yeah...first they wanted me, since I did
have access to a car to drive them to drop
off drugs and they would pay me. I didn't
want to do that and then they asked me if
I just wanted to come in and sell with
them.

What happened?

Nothing, they just said, "You're a loss"
and asked somebody else.

Do students have an opportunity to decide
to follow the rules or get involved in
drugs and negative behaviors?

Probably, but they see so many others who
are dealing drugs and gettin' clothes and
the lifestyle that they lead and they
think, "I can do that too!"

I understood, based on this study, that the active

conformists comprehended the work ethic of western

capitalist societies. They accepted their place in the

capitalist system and sincerely believed that with hard

work and academic success there would be opportunities

for them to enjoy a productive life. They had very

specific career goals; that is, they had planned to

study accounting, business, pre-medicine, or pre-law.

They knew the best college or university for their

academic field of interest and the particulars of the

college program. They understood the time commitment

185
needed to complete a college program, but the most
important factor about this group was that they were
willing to comply with the rules of society in general
and the school's policies specifically in an effort to
obtain their goals.

The active conformists, like Willis' (1977)
ear'oles, were often ridiculed by a few of those
students who displayed various degrees of resistance to
the school's policies. However, unlike the ear'oles,
the active conformists at Metropolitan High School were
generally very stable and popular among the majority of
students, including the resistors. The active
conformists 'knew' what was expected of them as students
at Metropolitan High School. They acquiesced to those
expectations and consequently received good grades and
were understood by teachers and administrators to be the

"college-bound group."

Passive Conformism:

The passive conformists had little knowledge of the
impact of the policies and guidelines but merely
acquiesced without questioning. These students had
little or no connectiveness to the purposes of
schooling but viewed themselves as part of the system,
even if their knowledge of the system and its operations
were limited.

The passive conformist was a "typical" African

186
American male student at Metropolitan High School. They
had thoughts of college but generally avoided rigorous
academic effort and those advanced courses which would
have prepared them for college. They commonly lived in
single-parent households with their working, divorced or
separated mother.

My assertion was that if the passive conformist
knew what to do about their high school careers and the
social problems which haunted them, their high school
experiences would have been significantly different.
They were generally consumed by personal problems and
peer pressure, always on the edge of compliance and
resistance.

Augustine was a typical passive conformist. He was
emotionally distressed throughout much of his high
school career. The following is an excerpt from my
interview with August which demonstrates his passive
attitude towards school:

Polite: You were doing well at Metropolitan High?

August: No.

Polite: Why?

August: Because at that point that's when the
divorce and everything was going on.

Polite: With your parents?
August: Yes...and we [he and his mother] were

living with some people I didn't like
so...

Polite: 80 high school was a difficult time for
you?

August:

Polite:

August:
Polite:

August:

Polite:

August:
Polite:

August:

Polite:
August:
Polite:

August:

Polite:
August:

Polite:

August:
Polite:
August:
Polite:

August:

187
(very sadly) Yeah.

Do you think a lot of students at the high
school have similar home problems?

Yes.

Do you know that, or do you just think?
You see certain kids acting up and you
figure most likely it comes from their

home situation.

And that can impact the way they learn and
their interest in school?

Yes.

Did it impact you?

(very sad) Yeah...it kind of closed me
off towards school. I daydreamed all the
time.

What were you daydreaming about?

Money!

Money, why money?

When they got a divorce, everything went
down, money went down, clothes, everything
went down.

Was that a big problem?

Yeah, for me it was a big problem.

But I always remembered you as having
everything. You were always well dressed.

I got it all on my own eventually.

What did you do?

I got a job.

What type of job did you get?

Worked at Farmer Jack and the A & P [two
well-known grocery stores]. I moved
around a lot but I always had one [job],

which also interfered with my school work
though.

Polite:

August:
Polite:
August:

Polite:

August:
Polite:
August:

Polite:

August:

Polite:

August:

Polite:

August:
Polite:

August:

Polite:

August:

Polite:

188

Why was it so important for you to have
all this stuff?

I felt more secure when I had money.
Do you see your father now?

Yeah O O 0

What do you think that you will be doing
ten years from now?

Hmmmm...probably in college still.
Ten years? What are you going to study?
Dentistry.

You're going to dental school? What do
you have to do to get into dental school?

I will be a dental tec. in the army. I
have a lot of schooling to do...make-up
for some credits from high school.

What do you mean?
Bring my average up.

You mentioned teachers that you liked, a
number of English teachers, but now you're
telling me that you want to do something
that's in the hard sciences. Do you think
that you will be able to make the switch
to math and science? You've never taken
advanced math or science.

Huh...I think that I can handle it.

Why do you want to be a dentist?

Huh...the money...I enjoy science. I have
always done good in that...math is the
hardest.

So you are going to four years of college
after the army and then dental school.
What does your mother do?

She is a waitress. She's going to school
to be a nurse at night.

What does your father do?

189
August: Huh...he's an insurance manager.

Augustine, like other passive conformists, had some
rough short-term and long-term career goals, but lacked
sufficient information to make the appropriate, best
choices while a student at Metropolitan High School. He
was intelligent, again like other passive conformists,
but was consumed by his personal problems. Most of the
passive conformists were not emotionally free to learn.
Metropolitan High's passive conformists were identified
by the fact that they seemed to lack direction. They

simply did not have sufficient information to make

appropriate decisions about college or the work world.

Nonconformism:

The nonconformists failed to see the worth of the
educational process. These students were often regular
attenders but rarely engaged in the educational process.
The "system" was covertly rejected by this silent group.
They saw no need to plan for the future through academic
preparation for a position as a wage earner. The non-
conformists made up the largest number of African
American males at Metropolitan High School. There were
innumerable types of evidence to support the fact that
the largest portion of the 115 African American males
saw little use for the educational process and covertly

resisted it.

190

Many of the nonconformists were habitual in-school
truants, and when they did attend classes, they were
ill-prepared and rarely contributed to class discussions
nor did they produce homework on a regular basis. Many
of them were influenced by the drug subculture in the
school and were overly concerned with clothing and
materialism.

The typical nonconformist held the opinion that
what was offered at the school was not meeting their
interests. Many of them were extremely talented but
often were eventually dropped from the school's active
enrollment due to lack of regular attendance. Sekani
demonstrated these characteristics:

Polite: Sekani as you can see what this interview
is all about...(interrupted)

Sekani: I know what it is. I know exactly what it
IS.

Polite: What is it about?

Sekani: It's about us black males who messed up.
I read about your project over at Bill's
house.

Polite: You wrote me a letter one time and you
said...I still have the letter...you said
that the reason that you didn't go to
class was because...(interrupted)

Sekani: I was immature when I said that, I
shouldn't have wrote it...about the
clothes and stuff? That was back when all
those dope dealers were running the
school. I can't say their names, right?
They were dominating the school. It was
hard to be a student then....school is not
just learning, it's social too, a big part
of it [is social]. All of them were
dealing dope. I wanted to be in that
group.

Polite:

Sekani:

Polite:

Sekani:

Polite:

Sekani:

Polite:

Sekani:

Polite:

Sekani:

191

Did you want to be in the group with the
dope dealers?

Yeah, I wanted to be a dope dealer, but I
didn't do it.

What made you think that you would want to
be a dope dealer?

'Cause I did (laugh)...I just never did
anything about...I just thought it was
cool.

Well, why didn't you get to do it?

I just said forget it...played ball

I started thinking that these people who
I'm trying to impress, in like five or six
years I won't even remember their names,
so I said its useless....

After school, a whole lot of things
happen...you'll want to go to this party
and do this and hang-out with these
people, they won't even look at you if you
are not wearing a certain type of
clothing. Like this guy with all the gold
and diamonds, will look at you as if you
ain't nothin....Girls are better at
handling it than boys.

Why do you think so?

Girls don't get into all that stuff.
The girls that I like, the nice girls,
don't even like the dope dealers.

How many dope dealers were there?

When I was in the ten grade there were 1,
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8....They had to be at
least a good 30...at least....I mean there
were people rollin' that other people
didn't even know, they just would wear
plain clothes as long as they got a pocket
full of money they would come to school
and get into the lunch line and pull out a
thousand dollars in twenty dollar bills
and everybody would go like "wow," ah, and
all the girls would try to talk to
them...then they would end up going to
jail.

Polite:
Sekani:

Polite:

Sekani:

Polite:

Sekani:

Polite:

Sekani:

Polite:

Sekani:

192

When did you get to play basketball?

This year.

After three years you were finally able to
play because of eligibility rulings,
right?

I played when I was at Sprauve High.
That's because I had my coach on me. If I
had stayed there, I would have played all
four years...'cause he stayed on everybody
about their grades. Another reason I
played is because I got this girlfriend
and she told me that if I didn't play, I
couldn't be with her no more...so I
played. She made me get myself together.

That's what it took?

Yeah...when we were first together I was
messing up. She finally told me that if I
didn't get myself together, it's over...so
I got myself together. I'm going to
college in about a month, month and a
half.

How did you get a GED? Did you get it
already?

Yeah...I just got the result the day
before yesterday...'cause I was talking to
my coach at practice. He was having all
these coaches from colleges and junior
colleges come in to talk with me and they
said you got the potential, you could go
'pro,' you could do this, you could do
that...all you have to do is get out of
high school. I talked to my counselor and
she said that I had enough credits to be a
junior and I would have to go to summer
school and all next year to graduate....

I couldn't play ball until next year and
my game would deteriorate. I talked to my
coach and went back to talk with my
counselor to ask if I could get the GED
test....I asked the coach could I go to
college with the test and he said, "Yes."
So I went to the adult education program.

When did you go, at night?

No...see it was a series of classes, I
didn't take them. I went to the bookstore

193
and there is a book about the GED test...
its about as big as the yellow pages...
they go over all different studies that
you got to know to pass...I was reading
every morning for a couple of hours...
especially the parts that I didn't know.
I just went through the math and the
social studies...my writing and readin'
...I had real high scores in that...and I
went and took it one day...and I passed
it....I knew I passed it because it was
real easy...and then I was thinking how
stupid I was not to go on and do it in
high school instead of rushin' at the last
minute.

Polite: All of your teachers thought you were
smart. I thought you were smart, but you
would never go to class...why?

Sekani: Lazy, shit, that's all it was...lazy.

Sekani attended a small junior college in the

southwestern part of the country. He came to visit me
after the first year and provided me with an opportunity
for a follow-up interview. He indicated that his
college life is very structured. He had a strong
basketball coach who required all of the players to live
with a host family. Sekani's host family was, according
to him, white and very wealthy. He enjoyed the
relationship which he had developed with this host
family. His grades were above average, and he planned
to attend a major university in New Jersey for his last
two years of college.

Sekani was the typical nonconformist at Metropo—

litan High School. He, like the other noncon-formists,
saw no value to the educational program and he did not

subscribe to it. He was sufficiently intelligent as

194

evidenced by his ability to pass the GED examination,
which was commonly understood to be rather difficult for
most high school drop-outs. The coaches at Metropolitan
High School told me that he demonstrated more natural
ball-handling potential than any student who ever
attended the school. He clearly had the potential to
become a professional basketball player. His problem,
like so many other nonconformists, was that he rejected

schooling at Metropolitan High.

Over; Resistance:

The final group, the overt resistors, openly
rejected the educational system, rarely attended
classes, disrupted the educational processes of others,
and engaged in a number of oppositional behaviors which
were geared towards changing their status in the system.
Willis (1977) saw similar aggressive behaviors among the
"lads" in England as an example of this emancipatory
behavior.

There were three essential factors that I used to
determine whether oppositional students were actually
involved in deliberate resistance. First, the resistors
generally attempted to reject their structuralist
environment. This rejection was seen in the repeated
violation of the school policies and rules and
attempting repeatedly to change the policies to better

meet the interests of the resisting students. These

195
efforts to change policy occurred generally by forcing
acceptance or tolerance of oppositional behaviors.

Second, the students associated with overt resis—
tance generally felt subject to some form of social
injustice. They were most concerned with issues of
inequality, discrimination, and prejudice. They
expressed feelings of inferiority or social inadequacy.

The third factor associated with the resisting
students was their need to use symbolic interaction to
build group support. These interactions were identified
in their manner of dress, walking gate, vernacular, and
need to identify places to "hang out." McRobbie (1978)
observed similar behaviors among the working-class girls
in England who used sexually explicit dress to resist
the dominance and status-quo dress of their society.

The overt resistors were generally expelled or
dropped from the active enrollment at Metropolitan High
School due to their repeated violation of school rules
and policies, violent and aggressive behavior, or non-
attendance. I established that nearly 10% of the
African American male students met the aforementioned
criteria and considered them to be overt resistors.

In conclusion, it is consequential to reiterate the
fact that African American male student responses to
their conditions of schooling at Metropolitan High
School were clearly varied; not all African American

male students resisted schooling. Issues of human

196
agency are closely identified with the various
categories and the distinctions between the groups. The
conformists seemed committed to a school work ethic
which mirrored that of our capitalist society. They
believed that hard mental work would be rewarded by the
opportunities it would provide for college and
university training. Conversely, the resistors
maintained an open rejection of mental labor, aligned
themselves closely with street and peer cultures, and
were often in deliberate violation of school policies
and procedures in favor of their own personal interests.
Their aggressive, sometimes violent behaviors at school
often resulted in long-term suspension and expulsions
from school.

The responses displayed by the four groups of
African American males to the schooling received at
Metropolitan High School were most significant in
determining their educational outcomes and probably
their future status in the division of labor in our
society. The conformists had higher grade-point
averages and were more often better prepared academi-
cally and emotionally for higher education. The noncon—
formists had poor academic outcomes and most often
failed to graduate with their class, a factor which

inevitably will result in rejection from four-year

197
colleges and high probability of underemployment and

unemployed status following high school.

EMANCI ATORY INTERVENTION PROGRAMS

In the final sections of this paper, I report on my
role as both an administrator and a critical ethnogra-
pher, attempting to impact change and improve the condi-
tions of schooling which were oppressive for many of the
African American male students at Metropolitan High
School. Anderson (1989) suggests that one significant
factor associated with critical research is the fact
that the researcher makes an effort to find ways to
expose oppression by placing emphasis on social class
conflict and dissimilar interests of the various social
classes.

In the case of Metropolitan High School, the 115
African American male students represented working and
lower socio-economic classes who were generally leaving
school prepared to assume working-class positions in the
division of labor in our society. The plight of these
students was grounded in the quality of education made
available to them, the change in the relationship
between the teachers and students, the role played by
their parents in the education of these students. Many
of these African American males were destined to be
permanently unemployed or underemployed.

One point of this critical ethnography was to

198
suggest strategies which might preclude the possibility
of so many of these students being relegated to the
lowest socio-economic classes of our society. This
section details my effort to impact change in the
quality of schooling received by these students through
a drop-out prevention program, an elementary school

assistantship program, and two curriculum changes.

Drep-out Prevention and Intervention

It became apparent that many of the in-school
truants were in need of immediate attention. Some had
missed more than 25 classes in individual courses during
the first semester of the 1987-1988 school year and were
likely to fail. Complete failure in a course for an in—
school truant only served to perpetuate the problem of
in-school truancy and eventually led to either dropping
out of school or being dropped by the school's adminis-
tration.

In my capacity as an assistant principal, I
regularly informed the principal of my findings per-
taining to occurrences of in-school truancy without
disclosing the identities of the in-school truants. The
principal concurred with my decision to attempt a pilot
intervention program, which included 15 African American
males with the hope of precluding complete failure and
the loss of academic credits for the semester.

Commonly, these in-school truants were dropped from

199
the active roster of Metropolitan High by the assistant
principal. Once dropped, they were free to roam the
streets of the community and become a menace to their
parents and community.

The school maintained a policy of placing these in-
school truants on "attendance probation," which meant
informing their parents that the student's poor atten-
dance was resulting in academic failure, monitoring
attendance records, and subsequently dropping those
students who failed to improve their attendance
patterns. Those in-school truants who had reached the
age of sixteen subsequently were dropped if their
attendance failed to improve.

The attendance probation policy failed to influence
many African American male in-school truants to begin
attending classes. A review of the records of the
students who were placed on attendance probation during
the 1986-1987 school year revealed there was no sub-
stantial change in their attendance patterns. More than
90% of those in-school truants placed on attendance
probation were subsequently dropped from school because
they refused to resume attending classes. I questioned
the two other administrators at Metropolitan High. Both
administrators concurred that attendance probation
status generally resulted in the affected African
American males being dropped and rarely served to alter

the truant's behaviors.

200

I decided to structure a different type of in—
school truancy intervention program. I included more
exacting guidelines for both the parents and students
involved. The attendance probation had formerly
involved mailing a form letter to the parent indicating
that the student was not attending classes. This
procedure was far from efficient because the parents
often did not receive the letters.

I developed the following guidelines for the pilot
drop-out intervention program:

1. Each affected parent was required to meet with
me and the student's counselor to discuss their
son's attendance patterns, hear the details of
the intervention program, and sign an
intervention agreement statement.

2. The students were required to attend all classes
and participate in a group intervention meeting
on Wednesdays after school for one hour. The
purpose of mandatory after-school meetings was a
time for discussion groups and was not meant to
be a form of punishment. This point was
stressed to the parents and the students. The
meetings allowed the students an opportunity to
voice their opinions regarding their individual
personal problems, classes, and teachers. The
counselor was the mediator between the in-school
truant and their teachers to arrange make-up
work and other activities which would assure
that the student could pass his class. If
needed, students were referred for additional
counseling situations and other professional
services.

3. The student was responsible for getting a
progress report from the counselor's office on
Wednesday mornings and having each of his
teachers complete the appropriate sections of
the form to verify that the student was actually
attending classes and attempting to make
progress.

4. Students who failed to follow these guidelines
were considered candidates to be dropped from

201
Metropolitan High School. Final sessions were
planned with the counselor, me, and the parent
to assure that everything was done to get the
student to attend classes.

The program was developed based on the fact that
many students in the school, mainly African American
males, in the school were under tremendous pressures at
school, home, and in the community. It was hoped that
the small-group concept would afford these troubled
students an opportunity to vent their anger or express
their feelings regarding school or other social matters
which made regular class attendance difficult or
pointless.

Two counselors were asked to volunteer to work with
the intervention program. Both agreed and each accepted
ten chronic in—school truants for the after-school pro-
gram. These counselors, aware of the seriousness of the
situations involving these students, were anxious to be
of assistance. They were not compensated for their
additional time rendered. However, both seemed to agree
that the project had major merits and should, if pos-
sible, be expanded to include more in-school truants in
subsequent semesters.

As a result of my dual role in the situation as
researcher and administrator, I refrained from meeting
with the groups and did not conduct interviews with the
African American male students involved in the inter-

vention program after the initial selection and place-

ment processes and meetings with their parents. This

202

afforded the in-school truants an opportunity to work
with their counselors and peers without fear that an
administrator, who could possibly discipline them or
report their illegal behaviors to the police author-
ities, would be knowledgeable of their conversations.

My work was restricted to reviewing progress
reports submitted weekly by the students, meeting with
the counselors weekly to review the groups' outcomes,
discussing individual participants' problems and
concerns, and assisting the counselors in their efforts
to get cooperation from certain teachers. These pro-
cesses involved an average of six hours per week for
five weeks.
Ougcomes

The intervention program had been in place the
entire 1988-1989 school year. The success of the pro-
gram depended on the counselors who volunteered their
services. The two counselors mentioned in this section
volunteered for the project. However, based on the
success of the pilot program, two other counselors were
directed to develop a similar program for additional
students by the principal. The latter two counselors,
who were forced to participate, had very poor results.
Their intervention meetings were irregular and poorly
attended by their students. Both participating coun-
selors felt that the success experienced in their groups

was directly associated with the fact that they had

203
volunteered to work with the program and the students
could sense their sincerity. When asked what their
original thinking was regarding the program, both
counselors echoed that, "It was worth a try to save
these kids."

Although each student in the program had a unique
set of circumstances which impacted and influenced that
student in his decision to not attend classes, the group
of students with which they associated, the lack of
self-esteem and self-respect, and poor relationships
with their teachers were common problems for all the in-
school truants assigned to the intervention program.

One of the two counselors stated:

"I think the teachers identify them as students who
are really not motivated or students who don't want
to be there. These teachers give them little
positive reinforcement in the classroom. Many of
the students in my group say over and over again
that the teachers are 'picking on them.'" The
second counselor concurred, "They [the in-school
truants in her group] say the teachers won't listen
to them and the teachers simply write, them,
off...when they ask questions, they are merely
dismissed and they're not reinforced!"

The two counselors and I felt that the in-school truants
were caught academically in a vicious circle for example
based on their poor attendance of the past, their tea-
chers felt that the questions raised by these students
were previously addressed in class and they could not
take precious class time to review information for these

students who may or may not be in class for several

days.

204

Based on their comments in group, these in-school
truants experienced major difficulties relating with
adults, especially their parents. The majority of in-
school truants experienced difficulties with their
parents. One counselor stated, "The kids are missing
'parenting' and day-to-day contact with their parents.
Many are angry because their parents were involved in
marriages and relationships which have not been
successful."

Richard, for example, was reported by his mother as
missing from the home. His mother established a rela-
tionship with a man residing in the community, left her
apartment, and was cohabiting at the man's home. This
required Richard to live with them, also. Richard had
not slept in the home for more than a month. Each night
he would leave the home after midnight through a second—
floor window. He returned in the morning around 6:00
a.m. His mother worked all night and he did not want to
be in the home with his so-called step-father. Richard
began to cry during one of the after-school sessions and
explained how much he disliked his step-father. He
expressed anger with his mother for placing him in such
a difficult situation. When his mother learned from the
counselor that Richard was in school, she came to meet
with him and his counselor. His mother began yelling at
Richard...she left the school and took Richard to the

county authorities to report him as a status offender.

205
She explained that she, "hoped that they would lock him
up." Richard's mother reported him as missing, a second
time, for more than eight days. He was seen by some
Metropolitan students in possession of a gun and
bullets.

There are many students who have troubled personal
lives. However, in-school truants seemed particularly
unable to cope with their personal problems. Davie, one
of the African American males selected for the inter-
vention program, was new to Metropolitan High. He
formerly resided in the inner city where many of his
friends were killed by gunfire as they were involved in
drug-related activities. His counselor felt that he
feared meeting and making new friends at Metropolitan
High, and that he avoided people and classes for the
first few weeks of school during the second semester.
Davie expressed his fear of making and losing new
friends because he had lost other friends in the past.

The personal problems faced by the in-school
truants assigned to the intervention program ranged from
serious to life threatening. Seemingly, according to
the counselors, attending or not attending classes was a
minor problem when compared to the personal problems
experienced by these students. Among those students
whose lives were in turmoil, it is easy to infer that
the program's continued interest in the students through

the regular weekly sessions provided much needed

206
attention and positive reinforcement. Additionally, the
fact that the in-school truant realized that other
students were experiencing similar difficulties was
another strong point of the program.

Both counselors felt that scheduling the program
after school was a negative factor. It seemed that many
students had responsibilities after school, and the fact
that they were forced to attend these sessions on
Wednesday was considered to be a drawback. However,
both counselors also agreed that the students in
question missed too much school to attempt to run the
sessions during the regular school day. If the
intervention program was held during the school day, it
would only enhance the problem of being in school but
out-of-class.

Martin, for example, was responsible for meeting
his younger sister at the elementary school and
supervising her until his mother returned from work.
Martin missed most of his classes during the first
marking period of the second semester of 1987-1988. He
was seen in school every day, and his mother attested
that she delivered him to school every morning. If the
program was held during the day, Martin would surely
never make up all the work missed.

The two counselors agreed that students who were
under the age of 16 had little success in the inter~

vention program because they realized that they could

207
not be dropped from school, even if they never attended
either classes or the program until they had reached the
age of sixteen. Omar, at the start of the program, was
fifteen years and three months old. He never attended
classes or the afterschool sessions. He told me, "You
can't drop me; I'm only 15." Often students were very
familiar with the limits of the law and used their
knowledge of the law to their disadvantage. Omar's
counselor met with him and his mother on several
occasions. Omar repeated the fact that he was a "minor"
and could not be dropped from school in the presence of
his mother.

Based on the students' responsiveness, almost 75%
remained in the program after the first five weeks. I
concluded that the small-group concept was positively
influencing the in-school truant group. Due to their
inability to cope with the turmoil in their lives, the
small groups were helpful. Both counselors supported my
assertion that the small-group concept was effective for
many in-school truants.

In-school truancy was commonly associated with
parental conflicts and problems, drugs, violence and
aggressive behaviors, sexual misconduct, and a multi-
plicity of other issues. The small group allowed for
some degree of positive bonding and mutual support among
students who shared similar dysfunctional situations

outside of school.

208

There was a need for a particular, well thought-out
approach, such as the "12 Step Recovery Program for
Alcoholism." The counselors needed more of a concrete
way of addressing all the problems which surfaced in the
groups which were related to in-school truancy.

The in-school truancy project was not initially
planned as part of this dissertation project. However,
the intervention program was a natural outcome of this
type of research. It provided a much needed service to
some of the many troubled youths at Metropolitan High
School, and more than half of the African American males
who participated in the project remained in school and
graduated.

The principal of Metropolitan High School made a
sincere commitment to carry over the project for sub-
sequent years. That commitment was based on the posi-
tive impact enjoyed by the pilot program.

The drop-out intervention program is an example of
how African American male students might respond to
small-group endeavors to change negative and self-
destructive behaviors. Groups to address issues of
attendance, alcohol and drug abuse, goal setting and
career planning, and dysfunctional families might be
supportive for African American male students at
Metropolitan High in decreasing in-school truancy and

other social issues.

209
An Elementagy School Assistantship Program: Machupe's
£92;

I was appointed to a principalship at one of the
elementary schools in the school district during the
winter of 1988. I continued collecting data for this
study and asked the principal of Metropolitan High
School for permission to work with a small number of
students who were not having success at the high school.
I wanted these students to earn academic credit for
coming to work with small groups of elementary school
students, with the condition that they had to also
attend their regular classes at Metropolitan High.

The principal agreed and set up the course for an
academic half-credit to be provided to individual study
by contract. I worked with one of the counselors at the
high school to recruit three students, one African
American female and two African American males. The
African American female was an outstanding student who
had served on the Student Council and was captain of the
girls' basketball team.

Machupa (Mac) was one of the African American males
selected, and the other African American male did not
complete the program. Mac, a passive conformist, felt
that the school did not meet his needs in any way. He
was a gifted artist who was only interested in cartoon-
ing. He, like other passive conformists, had little

knowledge about college, portfolios, art degree pro—

210

grams, or what was required to become a syndicated
cartoonist. Mac dropped out of school, was an active
alcoholic, and took a job working for minimum wages at
one of the local lawn care nurseries. I found him at
work one day moving trees onto a truck. I asked if he
would come to the elementary school to talk with me
about returning to school.

I knew that Mac was very committed to cartooning.
He did weekly cartoon series after dropping out of
school, depicting the gang fights between the students
from the Borough and Metropolitan City. He sold photo-
copies of his cartoon strips to various members of the
gangs for one dollar per copy. Hi8 cartoons were very
popular among those students involved in disputes over
drugs, neighborhood, etc. I asked him if he would
provide me with a sample of his art work. Figure 4 is a
pencil drawing of the famed African American film
director, Spike Lee.

I also asked Mac if he would return to Metropolitan
High and work with five of the elementary school males
who had demonstrated potential artistic talents. I
explained that he would receive high school credit if he
attended the elementary school program and assisted the
young artists. He agreed, met with a counselor, and was

re-admitted to Metropolitan High School.

211
Eigpge 4: Spike Lee by Machupa

 

212

Once he started working with the elementary
students, he never missed a single day of school. He
reported to the elementary school even on days when
there was no school at the high school. I had an
opportunity to speak and counsel him about the
development of his artistic talents. On one occasion,
I provided him with a copy of an article which appeared
in the Detroit Free Press (August 4, 1989) regarding a
African American male, Stephen Bentley who was able to
have his cartoon strip, Herb and Jamaai, syndicated
nationwide. Figure 5 is a copy of the article which
provided Mac with some interesting background infor-
mation about Stephen Bentley's career as a commercial
artist. This information provided Mac with a more
realistic picture of what is required to become a
syndicated cartoonist.

Figure 6 shows Mac working with several elementary
school males. Mac became very interested, yet realistic
about his future as a cartoonist. He decided to enlist
in the army's college training program to major in
architecture, while maintaining his career interests in
cartooning. He has also decided to enter a program to
address his alcoholic issues.

Mac graduated with his class and planned to enter

the armed forces in the September, 1990.

213

Detroit Free article regarding Stephen Bentley

 

 

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215

College Entrance Examination Preparation
As discussed, many college-bound students experi—

enced difficulty scoring high enough on the ACT and SAT
college entrance examinations to secure acceptance at
the college and universities of their choice. Many were
accepted at major colleges and universities, but due to
their low test scores, were unable to participate in
collegiate sports programs by NCAA eligibility require—
ments.

The principal of Metropolitan High School and I had
several meetings to discuss the problem and some of the
options available to us. As a final result, a new
course was added to the curriculum to prepare students
for the college entrance examinations. The principal
and I took special care to select two teachers who were
strong in their academic preparation and willing to work
with students to ensure that their scores improved.

The course was designed to afford students to focus
for 10 weeks on mathematics and science and 10 on
English. Several students commented that their scores
improved and that their confidence was enhanced as a
result of taking this new course. The two teachers who
team—taught the course, one taught the English and other
taught the math, were somewhat concerned about the out-
comes at the outset of the course but later commented
that they felt that the course was beneficial to the
students who had poor test—taking skills.

Changes in High School Level Mathematics

216

Many students were not ready for college due to
their poor academic performance during their high school
years. Following many discussions regarding my findings
with this research project, I received a telephone call
from the principal of Metropolitan High School. His
comments to me were, "Vernon, do you remember all those
conversations we had about insisting on student achieve-
ment? Well, we have decided to make all students take
algebra in the 9th grade, and they will take it until
they pass."

The principal was open to trying whatever possible
to improve the educational outcomes for African American
male students at Metropolitan High School. At the open-
ing of the 1990-1991 school year, the following excerpt
from an article about the high school appeared in the

school district's newspaper:

Ninth Grade English and Mathematic Initiative

All 9th grade students will learn Algebra this
year at Metropolitan High. This strong statement
is based on the school district's mission state-
ment: To ensure quality learning for all students.

The Metropolitan High School mathematics
department has developed a curriculum that will
facilitate this program. The Metropolitan Board of
Education is supporting and encouraging the
increased expectancies for all students.

217
SUMMARY

One of the most consequential findings presented in
this chapter relates to the changes which occurred in
Metropolitan High during the 20-year period between 1970
and 1990. The student racial and socio-economic compo-
sition steadily changed from predominantly white, middle
and upper income to African American, lower-middle and
low income. There were several racial disturbances
during this same period which served as evidence that
racial unrest has been part of the history of the
school.

I also demonstrated in this chapter the change in
interpersonal relationships between teachers and
students over the years. At one point, the students and
their parents were an intricate part of the school and
community; they had knowledge and acted upon their
knowledge. During the time of this research, the
African American male students and their parents
maintained a very impersonal relationship with the
school's teachers and administration.

The fact that African American male students had
comparative knowledge about their schooling, derived
from numerous outside sources and experiences as
compared with other middle and upper middle-income
school districts, was pointed out in this chapter to
demonstrate that these African American male students

attended school with a negative attitude about their

218
experiences there. They knew that the schooling was not
as productive as other students' experiences in other
school districts.

College testing, the key to entry into major
colleges and universities, was presented as a major
problem for African American male students, along with
peer pressure and the feeling that many teachers lacked
caring attitudes towards these African American male
students. Additionally, the fact that few African
American parents were involved in the schooling of
African American male students was advanced as one
possible factor which impacted the poor academic
outcomes of many African American male students. It
was clear that most African American parents knew little
about the education of their sons at Metropolitan High
School.

It was also demonstrated that career planning was
almost nil at Metropolitan High School. There was no
evidence that detailed career planning was available to
African American male students at Metropolitan High
School.

As a result of all of these issues, I argued that
many African American males were poorly educated,
received extremely low grade-point averages, and were
generally not prepared for higher education. In fact,
few even attempted to gain acceptance in a college or

university as compared with the 80% who went on to

219
college in the early 1970s.

For those students who did not graduate, in-school
truancy, the drug subculture, and expulsion following
aggressive behaviors were common trends. These students
seemed destined for unemployment or underemployment.

After a careful analysis of the responses to
schooling on the part of African American male students,
I was able to categorize their behaviors as either
active or passive conformism, nonconformism, or overt
resistance.

In short, the research presented in this chapter
supports the existence of social class reproduction in
that working-class African American males studied were
left school underprepared academically. Education, the
traditional means to improved economic and social
conditions, eluded most of the students who were the
subject of this study.

Equally important, this research detailed how these
circumstances were created by focusing on the changes in
the school over a 20-year period, and the interactive
roles of parents, teachers, and students. Many African
American males contributed significantly to their
social-class status by resisting mental work and
favoring peer culture.

Finally, this chapter demonstrated that when
knowledge is presented in more appropriate and suppor-

tive manner, changes can occur in the schooling of

220
African American male students. A pilot drop-out
prevention intervention program, an elementary school
assistantship program, changes in the curriculum to
include courses to prepare students for college testing
and in mathematics were examples of more promising

possibilities in schooling.

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS

The primary thrust of this research was to deter-
mine to what extent Metropolitan High School fulfilled
its mission with respect to African American male
students: "To ensure quality learning for all students
through effective teaching in a caring environment." I
chose to examine this question from the perspectives of
radical theories of reproduction and resistance as
discussed in Chapter II.

I was able at the outset to establish the signifi-
cance of the study by carefully detailing the status of
African American males in the United States at the close
of the 19808. My findings, as exhibited in Chapter I,
revealed that the conditions facing African American
males were atrocious in most facets of American life in
general and particularly in the state of Michigan where
this study was conducted. Some of the critical areas
examined were health, life expectancy, employment,
wages, housing, imprisonment, and education. The
conditions experienced by African American men were so

perilous that several renown researchers began in the

220

221

late 19803 to refer to African American males as an
"endangered species".

With respect to health conditions and life
expectancy, I demonstrated that at the close of the
19808, at both the national and state levels, African
American men generally endured far more detrimental
health conditions than did their white counterparts in
society. In 1985, for example, the average life
expectancy for black men was 65.3 as compared with 73.5
for white men in the U.S. I reported that while the
average life expectancy for white men has increased
annually, the life expectancy for black males has
declined annually since the mid-1980s. Additionally,
cancer, homicide, hypertension, AIDS, alcohol-related
diseases and other substance abuses account for the
premature deaths of many African American males.

In the area of employment, I demonstrated research
in Chapter I which addressed the employment conditions
of African American men since the early 1980s. Follow-
ing the Civil Rights movement and race riots of the
1960s, there was a significant rise in employment rates
for black men and all minorities in this country. In
the early 19808 this trend began to lag, especially for

black men. At the close of the 1980s, black men worked

222

fewer hours per week (approximately 7 hours less per
week) than their white counterparts. In fact in 1984
when this study's 115 African American male entered
secondary school, 40 percent of all black men in the
U.S. had an annual income of less than $10,000 (poverty
conditions) compared with only 20 percent of the white
male population in this income status. In essence,
slightly more than half of the black male population
lived in impoverished conditions at the close of the
19808.

In October 1990, unemployment was 7.2 percent in
the state of Michigan. Only West Virginia (8.1 percent)
and Alabama (7.3 percent) had higher unmeployment rates.
The impact of such high rates of umemployment in the
state of Michigan continues to disproportionately impact
black men (United States Department of Labor, January,

1991).

Nonfarm payroll employment, as measured by the
monthly survey of establishments, rose by 2 percent
or more between October 1989 and 1990 in 13 states.
Nevada continued to report the largest percentage
gain (6.6 percent), and Utah was the only state with
an increase in excess of 4 percent. All six New
England states, the District of Columbia, Michigan,
New Jersey, and New York reported over-the-year
employment losses.

Nearly all states reported over-the-year job
gains in services, and three-fourth of the states
had increases in transportation and public utili-
ties, trade, and government. In contrast, over half

223

of the states reported over-the-year employment
losses in construction and manufacturing (United
States Department of Labor, January, 1991 p. 2).

Nearly 50 percent of the nation's prison population
was composed of African American men in 1987, a 100
percent increase since the very early 1940s. Black on
black crime soared in the mid-19803 resulting in the
loss of viable black-owned businesses in the predomi-
nantly black, urban communities of the U.S. The
increase in drug trafficking and drug-related crimes was
demonstrated as the causal factor for much of the
crime in this communities.

There were linkages exhibited in Chapter I between
the impoverished conditions experienced by 50 percent of
the African American male population and their educa-
tional outcomes. The role of teacher expectation,
increased poverty, the lack of parental involvement and
in the ascendency of the peer culture in the lives of
young black males were several factors explored to
account for the poor academic outcomes for black males
in the nation's public schools.

Additionally, although the academic outcomes for
many African American males are clearly repugnant, only
a few studies (Fordham & Ogbu, 1986; Gibbs, 1984; Gibbs

et al., 1988; Hale-Benson, 1982; Hare, 1986; and Weis,

224

1988) provide descriptions of African American males'
responses to public schooling during the 19805. There-
fore, I found it reasonable to conclude that there are
very few researchers involved in studies focused on
African American males, thus, this critical ethnographic
work is especially meaningful. My goal was to provide
the African American male students' perspective regard-
ing public schooling at Metropolitan High School by
focusing on theories of social reproduction and resist-
ance.

Chapter II provided a discussion of the basic
tenets of the theories of reproduction and resistance.
The chapter began with Marx and Engels' concern for
social class struggle in industrialized Europe. Chapter
II demonstrated that some radical theorists have at-
tempted to explain the relationship between schooling
and the division of labor in capitalist societies. The
reproduction theorists purported that public schools
served the will of the minority ruling classes at the
expense of the majority classes and use public schools
to prepare children for unequal futures.

Other radical theorists, the resistance theorists,
focus more on human agency. In the case of the public

school in capitalist societies, the student is one of

225

the key human agents in determining his or her own
destiny by conforming to and resisting schooling.
Teachers and parents, of course, have agency as well and
have a major impact on the quality of educational out-
comes.

As the reproduction theory purports, Metropolitan
High School was functioning as a working-class school
with educational outcomes for African American males
which most assuredly relegated them to working-class
positions in the division of labor of our society. In
fact, based on their educational outcomes at Metropo—
litan High, few African American male students were
prepared academically for college and many were destined
to fill the surplus labor strata of society. In
essence, Metropolitan High School produced, by and
large, working-class African American males, and most of
them will find themselves without meaningful employment
upon leaving high school.

The traditional reproduction case stories tend to
lodge schools in static communities which seemed to
undergo simple social-class reproduction of values and
culture. Rarely have we examined the dynamic develop-
ment and shifting of these values and culture over time.

Metropolitan High School highlighted the dynamic nature

226

of working-class reproduction by focusing on the changes
which occurred at the school as it went from an elite
school with a rigorous academic program and exceptional
educational outcomes to a working-class school which
served a predominantly African American population and
produced poor educational outcomes.

The study demonstrated that teachers withdrew and
lost contact with the emerging predominantly African
American school population. There was a true sense of
loss of community felt by the teachers who lamented over
the changes which occurred in the community and school
over a period of time. They moved away from the school
community and began maintaining a formal relationship
with their students as opposed to the informal relation-
ships which typified the school and community during the
1960s and early 19708.

Parents, too, were overwhelmed by their own
personal problems. Most were working-class and single
mothers who were not generally actively involved in the
school-ing of their sons. Rarely did they visit the
school and few were ever involved in their sons'
academic programs. Teachers sensed that these parents
were less concerned than the parents who sent their

children to the high school in the earlier years of the

227

school. Parents, by and large, had very little contact
with the school.

Under these conditions, a negative peer culture
gained ascendency throughout the school, especially
among African American male students. This peer culture
was in direct contradiction to the goals and values of
the school. It stressed materialism, consumerism,
socialization, and abhorred mental work. Consequently,
many African American males were disengaged from the
academic aspects of schooling at Metropolitan High
School. Many were engaged in activities associated with
the school's drug culture to accommodate their inflated
concern with dress and money.

The school, through retrenchment, limited many of
the services which could have positively impacted the
educational outcomes for African American men and other
working-class students. No one was assigned the task of
actively monitoring and addressing the attendance of
these students. Counseling services at Metropolitan
High were limited to course selection and emergency
matters. Career counseling was non-creative and
unrelated to the labor market in our decreasingly
industrial and and increasingly service and high

technology society.

228

All of these factors contributed to the second
concept of this study, resistance. Resistance theory
suggest that students are aware of the academic and
social outcomes of their schooling and by their own
oppositional behaviors often contribute to social
reproduction and inequality. The evidence from the case
at Metropolitan High School extends this line of theory.
The research detailed accounts of how African American
male students developed substantive and warranted
opinions about the quality of their educational exper-
ience at Metropolitan High School. They were fully
aware that students attending neighboring schools were
better prepared academically, a fact that had a definite
impact on their personal interest and enthusiasm about
school at Metropolitan High. But not all students
resisted schooling. In fact, I identified four
different responses to schooling. Generally speaking,
the conformists found their way through the school
system with the help of their parents and other outside
support. The resistors rejected the values of the
school in favor of the values of the peer culture.

As similar to other work (Willis (1977) the latter
group contributed to the reproduction through their

rejection of mental work and forms of resistance.

229

Finally, there was evidence of the potential to
channel some of this resistance into emancipatory
interventions. By working closely with small groups of
African American male students through a drop-out
prevention and intervention program, by allowing another
group of African American males to increase their self-
esteem by sharing their talents with younger students in
a elementary school assistantship program, and by
working closely with the administration to create
changes in the curriculum which made the school's
learning environment more conducive to African American
male students, there was evidence that attitudes towards
mental work and schooling in general could be improved
for African American males at Metropolitan High School.
These interventions heightened the awareness of the
problems associated with the schooling process at
Metropolitan High School for the students, teachers, and
administration.

In this study, I was able to draw numerous
conclusions about the quality of education received by
the 115 African American males at Metropolitan High
School. Using qualitative research strategies of
participant observation, interviews, document review,

etc. (discussed in Chapter III), I concluded that most

230

African American males examined, like their counterparts
in other urban schools in the state and the U.S., left
school poorly educated.

The changes in the racial composition of the school
over the 20-year period between 1970 and 1990 were in
direct alignment with the decline in the quality of
educational outcomes for students at Metropolitan High
School, especially for African American male students.
As the students became "unknown" to the teachers, as
teachers began moving out of the immediate community,
and as parental involvement and support for the school
and their children diminished, there developed a
different quality relationship between home and school,
teachers and students.

In the early 19705, Metropolitan High's teachers
resided in or near the community and knew their students
and parents personally. The change in the relationship
between home and school resulted in a negative impact on
the quality of education made available to the 115
African American males at Metropolitan High School.
Little was accomplished to hire African American and
other minority teachers. Over the years, there were few

vacancies within the school district, and those vacan-

231

cies which did exist were generally filled by people
known to the community.

Most African American male students were poorly
prepared for college testing. During their senior year
of high school, few even applied to take the college
entrance examinations. Peer pressure consumed many of
the 115 African American males at Metropolitan High
School. Much of their energy was focused on materialism
and consumerism. Their disinterest in schooling was
absolutely pervasive.

Additionally, there were examples in every academic
department at Metropolitan High School of teachers who
simply failed to demonstrate caring attitudes for
African American male students. In the students' own
voices, the issue of teachers' lack of caring for them
was most obvious. Although there were examples of
teachers as positive, caring individuals, the feeling on
the part of most African American males, the achievers
and the nonachievers alike, was that too many teachers
did not demonstrate caring.

The African American males, ironically, demon-
strated in this study that they respected and posi-
tively responded to those teachers who, in their

opinions, were caring, fair and firm in their approach

232

to students and education regardless of their race or
ethnic background. This minority of strong, caring
teachers represented both African American and white
teachers. Interviewed black males readily provided
examples of both black and white teachers whom they
viewed as 'good teachers.‘

The fact that African American parents continued to
vote for tax increases to improve the educational faci-
lities but failed to attend parent conferences or
involve themselves in the monitoring of their sons'
education or to even visit the school on a regular basis
was another major factor disclosed in this study which
apparently impacted the quality of education received by
African American males. Few African American parents
were found to be actively involved in the schooling of
their sons.

The fact that Metropolitan High School provided
little career planning assistance for African American
male students was another factor which emerged as
critical to the underdevelopment of these African
American male students. African American males had
limited knowledge about college and preparation for the

work world.

233

As a result of these factors, slightly more than
half of the 115 African American males actually
graduated. Few even applied for college and only 3 out
of the original 115 scored within the upper-middle
interval on the ACT examination. Among those who went
to college, their first year's experiences were
generally not positive.

Among the non-graduates, in—school truancy, drug
trafficking, and expulsions were common factors which
contributed to their academic failure. Many African
American males simply did not attend school on a regular
basis. When they did attend school, they were most
often disruptive, engaged in illegal drug trafficking,
or assaulting teachers and other students. One out of
every four black males at Metropolitan High School was
arrested at least once prior to June, 1989 for various
crimes.

The conditions of schooling and responses exhibited
by the Metropolitan High School's 115 African American
males in this study were not very different than the
conditions of schooling and responses of other African
American males in urban areas of the United States.
There are numerous similarities between the social and

academic outcomes for African American males at

234

Metropolitan High and African American males who are the
subject of critical concern for school administrators in
this country.

Like other black males across the country,
Metropolitan' black males were ill prepared for higher
education and most had few skills to offer the
increasingly high technology and service-oriented work
force in which they would soon have to compete for
positions. In essence, as a result of poor career
planning and counseling, few of these students were
ready for the deindustrializing conditions of work
destined to dominate the labor force in the 1990s in the

state of Michigan.

235

THE EDUCATION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MALES -- 19908

As a final consideration, education and educational
policies at Metropolitan High have undergone numerous
changes even as this research project evolved. The
school has entered into an accreditation process with
the North Central Association based on educational
outcomes for its students, the administrators and
special teams consisting of parents and teachers are
developing a school improvement plan in accordance with
the state mandates which require a school improvement
plan, a description of the core curriculum, and a
description of student retention and achievement
outcomes.

Some of the more critical changes which have
occurred during the course of this research were changes
in the school's lunch program, termination of the
school's unpopular I.D. policy, the addition of a course
to provide students with test wiseness strategies in
preparation for college testing, the clustering of ninth
grade students to insure mastery of skills especially in
the areas of reading and mathematics, and changes in the
mathematics requirement for all students. As plans
continue to emerge in the early 19905 and educational

policies are established, there are many factors which

236

this research disclosed regarding the education of
African American males at Metropolitan High from my
observations and the students' perspective and the
education of African American men in the U.S. in general
which might be helpful to consider. This section will
discuss some of those factors which the school's staff
might consider when questioning the status quo of
conditions impacting the educational outcomes for
African American males at Metropolitan High School in
the 19905.

It is extremely important to reiterate here that
the depressing educational and social outcomes for the
African American males at Metropolitan High School are
similar to the outcomes for African American males in
urban schools across this country. As was evidenced in
the study, black males are disproportionately
represented among prison populations, more often
unemployed as teenagers and young adults, they are the
poorest of the poor, disproportionately represented in
special education programs, most often suspended and
expelled from school at the local, state, and national
levels. The recommendations which follow might appear
somewhat insipid and even impotent in their ability to

significantly alter these outcomes. I believe that the

237

problems of African American men, the so-called human
endangered specie, in public school is indistinguishable
from the plight of these men in society in general. If
there are to be changes in the schooling outcomes for
these males, there must first be changes in society's
attitudes and social policies toward black males. Black
men, too, must begin to see the worth of schooling and

its relationship to an improved lifestyle.

Specific Focus on the Needs of African American Males

Metropolitan High School remains a multi-cultural
and multi-ethnic school district. Its students are
African American and African Caribbean; Middle
Easterners representing several countries, religious and
ethnic heritages; Jews from various countries, and
Asians representing a myriad of countries and culture.
However, the African American population overwhelmingly
outnumbers any of the other groups. At nearly 80
percent in 1990, there is certainly sufficient numbers
and reason to develop programs, hire,staff, and even
focus curricula so as to better serve the African
American population.

Twenty years ago when African Americans made up

only 10 percent of the student population, there were

238

student riots and demonstrations in support of basic
needs for the African American student population.
Included among these students demands in 1970 were
demands for increased African American participation in
social activities, a focus on African American culture
and history including African American courses and
increased qualified African American teachers and staff.
Although these demand were met in the early 19705,
little occurs presently to continue to focus on the
development of African American culture at Metropolitan
High School in the early 19905.

Aside from the need to address the culture and
history of African Americans from the vieWpoint of
programming and curriculum, there is also a need to
focus specifically on the education of African American
males. The study presented more than sufficient
evidence which described the despairing state of black
men in society and specifically at Metropolitan High
School. A viable African American male mentorship
program, starting at the elementary school level and
realistic career planning beginning at the middle school
level are two the main factors which could help in the
development of positive self-imagery and enhanced self-

esteem for African American males.

239

Focus on Teaching Staff

Another factor which emerged from this dissertation
was the culture gap between the students and teachers.
Evidence was represented in this research from numerous
sources which supported the notion that caring teachers
are absolutely essential to the academic outcomes of
African American students, particularly African American
males. In the teachers' and students' own comments were
evidence that as the school changed from predominantly
white, middle-class, and somewhat elitist to
predominantly black and working—class, there was also a
change in the texture of the relationship between
students and teachers. This problem could gradually be
relieved through attrition, as many of the present
teaching staff will leave the system through retirement
within five years. However, there is a need to replace
retiring teachers with qualified persons, who are
sensitive to the needs of African American and working-
class students. Those persons with limited knowledge of
African American culture and history and lack a
sensitivity to the needs of the working-class will
probably experience little success in the classroom at

Metropolitan High School.

240

From my research at Metropolitan High School, it is
clear that caring, productive and sensitive teachers are
not exclusively teacher of African American descent.
However, they are teachers who view their jobs as more
than a 'nine to five' positions. They are generally
willing to expend a tremendous amount of personal time
and energy to assure that the needs of their students
are met.

Caring teachers were viewed as those persons who
questioned students who are chronically truant and/or
absent. They demand academic growth for all of their
students and are not afraid to consult with parents
regularly either at meetings at school or by telephone.
They demonstrate that they are concerned about the
students in their charge.

As I pointed-out in the section on higher education
in Chapter I, there is dearth of African Americans
entering the colleges and universities of this country,
especially in the field of education. When administra-
tors complain that recruiting African American
teachers is almost impossible, there is validity to
their claims. However, there are non-African American
teachers who represent or are at least sensitive to the

minorities and working-class epistemologies. Such

241

persons could better serve the students of Metropolitan

High School.

Career Planning

Michigan is well into its post-industrial period.
Thousands of jobs in the automobile-related field have
been terminated since the early 19805, positions which
are not likely to return to the state's economy. The
positions which were lost were generally characterized
by high-wage, labor-intensive jobs in factories.
Similar deindustrialization processes have occurred
throughout the Midwest, resulting in thousands of
unemployed men and women.

In Michigan, many thousands of new jobs have been
added to the labor force of the state's economy, but
they are characterized by low-wage, service and high
tech positions. In my interviews with the 115 African
American males, none reported knowledge of any recent
high school graduates who secured employment in the
factories in the state. Many of these students' fathers
earned a very good living in the auto factories through
the 19705 but were laid-off in the mid-19805. However,
automobile-related, high wage positions will not be an

option for young African American men of the 19905.

242

This information concerning the emerging economy must be
shared with African Americans and all students. There
is a need to inform students of the careers of the
future. Local universities which engage in research on
the state's economy and labor force should work
collaboratively with Metropolitan High School to ensure
that accurate career information is made available to
all students.

I further suggest that all students, especially
African American males, be required to identity their
career goals as early as sixth grade and their course
selections should be in support of their goals. An
annual, honest assessment with the student and his/her
parents of the students' accomplishments towards the
realization of these goals through the completion of the
suggested courses and career choices adjusted to reflect

the students accomplishments and realistic career goals.

Afrigan American Panental and Tencher Involvement
African American parents are often the products of
segregated and/or inferior educational opportunities,
especially black females. Commonly, black, female heads
of house were also victims of poor educational environ-

ments interrupted education, and teenage pregnancies.

243

However, school officials must continue to work with
black parents, secure their input regarding the educa-
tion of their children the expenditure of their tax
dollars with respect to education.

African American parents must begin to realize that
the public school can not shoulder the full burden of
educating their children. Attendance at parent
conferences and school activities, assist when possible
with course selection and curriculum decisions are
essential to the educational outcomes of African
American students, especially black males. The research
presented here clearly showed a strong relationship
between the educational and social outcomes of African
American males who had competent parental support as
opposed to those African males who had little or no
parental support. Parents must understand that they can
not merely deposit their sons at public schools and
expect that they will emerge four years later, educated,
motivated, and prepared for the work world or higher
education without parental support.

Across the country, there are strong, parent—led
movements developing in urban areas where educators and
working—class parents are making tough decisions about

the education of urban youth. In the city of Milwaukee,

244

for example, one such group has developed an urban
educational journal entitled, Rethinking Schools.

A desciption of critical questions raised by Milwaukee's
parents and educators were found in Rethinking Schools'
(January/February, 1991) entitled "Who We Are":

1) How parents, teachers, and students gain more
powerful roles in determining school policies

2) What must be done to overcome the significant
racial, gender, and class inequities which prevent
many children from receiving an equal and
effective education?

3) What specific approaches can teachers use to
empower students within the classroom and
community? How can we make meaningful community-
based work experience an integral part of each
child's education?

4) What can we do to insure that multicultural and
anti-racist education takes place?

5) What creative and peaceful methods can we use to
resolve conflicts among students, and conflicts
between students and teachers?

6) What specific teaching techniques and materials
have proven successful in our efforts to motivate
students (p. 2)?

Metropolitan High School's parents must begin to
work with the school teachers and administrators to
address some of the critical issues of equity and
gender, effective schooling, and the parents' role in

the education of their children.

Comparative School District Awareness

African American males demonstrated that they

believed that white students who attended neighboring

245

schools were receiving superior educational outcomes
from a variety of sources. Most district within the
County served upper-middle and middle-class students.
Efforts should be made to assure that the students at
Metropolitan High School are ensured a quality
educational experience similar to that provided other
students in the County. The educational parity with
other districts in the County should include academic
courses and programs, career education, athletic
competition, and job training and placement.

This section provided recommendations which the
school administrators might consider when examining the

educational outcomes of African American male students.

246

TWO CRITICAL ISSUES OF THE 19908

There are two critical factors which serve to
predict the grim social and economy conditions of
African American men during the 19905. First, the Plant
closings as a result of the continued deindustriali-
zation of urban areas of the Midwest will undoubtedly
result in higher unemployment and increased crime for
black men. The impact of the New Right and conservatism
which became popular during the Reagan and Bush
administrations will also negatively impact social

services and programs for African American men in the

U.S.

Deindustrialization and Michigan's Job Market
Metropolitan High's African American men will
especially feel the impact of the changing conditions of

work in the Midwest and particularly in Michigan. The
working-class who reside in the Midwest section of the
country were able for three decades to enjoy high wages
which were generated mainly from the automobile
industries and other forms of manufacturing. This was
especially true in Michigan where the automobile-related
industries accounted for 30 percent of the labor force

in the state in the mid-19705 (Schmidt, 1988). There

247

was, however, a sharp shift in the state from factory-
oriented to service-oriented and high-tech form of
employment during the past decade. Michigan, for
example, shifted to lower-paying service jobs.

There was a 20 percent drop in manufacturing jobs
from 1.18 million in 1978 to 934,000 in 1988. However,
during that same period, service jobs increased by more
than 35 percent from 614,000 to 836,000 (Boyle, 1988).
More than 23,200 General Motors Corporation's (GM)
hourly workers and another 10,000 salaried workers lost
their positions as a result of 14 plant closings.
Jackson (1988) reported that, "between 1979 and 1986,
Michigan lost a net 136,400 manufacturing jobs in
higher-wage industries--$34,300 a year and above and
gained a net 122,300 non-manufacturing jobs in lower
wage industries paying less than $17,000."

Young African American men who left school at the
close of 19805 will compete for jobs with thousands of
dislocated workers as a result of the plant closings in
the state. Both groups of unemployed, unskilled,
surplus workers will seek employment in an economy where
total employment is declining annually (Price, 1987).
Additionally, there seems to a widening gap between the

skills of young African American men and the

248

demands of the emerging job market.

Many of the dislocated workers will take advantage
of offers for job retraining programs which are funded
by the state and coordinated through the local plant.
According to Baldwin (1987) workers who lost their jobs
between 1979 and 1984 and were hired in new positions
experienced an average loss in gross weekly earnings of
25 percent. Mbst of the lucky ones (65%) were placed in
non-union positions. Only 63 percent of those in new
jobs received any form of health insurance. Dislocated
workers have a fairly good chance of finding employment
in lower paying service-oriented positions, some form of
employment is still better than total and permanent
unemployment.

On the other hand, the working-class man,
especially young African American men, will generally
leave school ill-prepared for the emerging new economy
with its focus on service and high-tech employment. In
Oakland County where Metropolitan High School's young
African American men are most likely to seek employment
upon leaving school, there were 13,000 automotive-
related jobs lost in 1987 as a result of General Motors
plant and foundry closings, but the County remains the

so—called 'jewel' of the state's economy according to a

249

University of Michigan researcher (Ourlian, 1988) due to
increasing numbers of high-tech firms which are emerging
in the County. Metropolitan High School's African
American males are residing in the County where the
largest growth in employment is expected for the next
several years into the 19905. One study by Cognetics
Inc. of Cambridge, Massachusetts reported that the city
of Troy in Oakland County will be among the top five job
growth spots through 1993 (Jackson, 1989). Few African
American men will be prepared to take advantage of these
job possibilities because of their lack of training in
computers and high-technology.

There was a drastic shift in employment for workers
in Michigan between the years 1978 and 1988. This
information should signal school officials in the state,
especially in the Oakland County, to begin working with
organizations which study these trends so that the
appropriate adjustments can be made in the urban
schools' curriculum to assure that black male graduates
from surrounding schools are prepared in seeking further
education designed to prepare them for the available
jobs and to insure that graduates can compete for entry-
level positions upon leaving school. Since 1978

Michigan's economy has become far more diversified with

250

significant increases in non-manufacturing positions in
both retail and service industries and critical
decreases in available positions in the area of
manufacturing during the past decade according to the
Detroit Free Press (April 4, 1988). Employment in the
retail and service sectors has grown 24 percent since
1978 (Schmidt, 1988).

The deindustrialization of the urban areas and
economies in the United States is a key factor in the
evolution of multinational corporations in this and
other First World countries. The 'offshore sourcing'
practice results in a shift of low-skilled, labor-
intensive type jobs from First World countries to the
newly industrializing Third World countries (Fuentes &
Ehrenreich, 1983). Multinational corporations in
countries like the United States, Japan, Germany, the
so-called First World, maintains control over management
and technology in the first world. Little regard is
afforded to the loss of livelihood for thousands of
unskilled workers in the First World countries.

The main driving force is increased profits for the
multinational corporation. For example, according to

Fuentes & Ehrenreich (1983):

251

A female assembly line worker in the U.S., is
likely to earn between $3.10 and $5.00 an hour. In
many Third World countries a woman doing the same
work will earn $3 to $5 a day. Corporate
executives with their eyes glued on the bottom
line, wonder why they should pay someone in
Massachusetts on hourly basis what someone in the
Philippines will earn in a day" p. 5.

In the case of a multinational auto industries, GM
for example in 1987 opened two new plants in South Korea
where workers rights were severely limited by martial
law. And in 1987, GM opened twelve new plants in Mexico
in 1987 making a total of twenty-nine plants in that
country where the average wage rate is less than a
dollar an hour. The high-wage positions are quickly
disappearing from the urban labor market and
accessibility to African American men. African American
men traditionally left school in the 19605 through the
mid-19705 and secured high-wage jobs in the manufactur-
ing industries of the Midwest. In the Detroit metropo-
litan area, the main manufacturing outlet was, of
course, the various automobile factories. African
American men who left school in the mid-19805 through
the early 19905 will have little opportunities to make
the type of income that their fathers and other African
American men made in earlier decades. Much of this

shift in economy in due the multinational nature of the

major corpora-tions of America. McCloskey (1985) wrote,

252

regarding the impact plant closings and other
multinational activities had on dislocated workers in
the labor force that "a piece of economic analysis is
not complete until everyone is earning only normal
profits, or at least until the analyst has identified a
reason why not" p. 299. African American men attending
public schools in urban areas, especially in the Midwest
and specifically the state of Michigan will need to
clearly understand that high-wage positions in labor-
intensive manufacturing industries will most likely not
exist for them. They are likely to be unemployed unless
they can demonstrate the ability to fit into the
computer, high-tech, and service-oriented positions
which are categorically the employment trend of the

19905.

The New Right and Conservatism [ 19805 and 19905

A powerful conservative movement, often referred to
as the New Right, emerged during the 19705 and gained
prominence and political power in the 19805 under Ronald
Reagan's Presidential administration. According to
Brodinsky (1982), "the public schools are under attack
from the New Right, an attack that threatens their

[public school] very existence." The movement is led by

253

strong politicians and television evangleists who attack
those aspects of American life, especially public
education, which are objectionable to the right wing
zealots of our society. Their goal is to reshape
schools and and restore the importance of the nuclear
family, all in support their conservative ideals. Some
of the typical foci of the New Right are the
strengthening of the role of the family and eliminating
government supported social services such as child care
centers, forcing women to remain at home to raise their
children; termination of the teaching of human
secularism in schools, favoring the centorship of books;
legalization of prayer in schools and teaching of
creationism, opposition to any arms-control agreement
with the Soviet Union, against gun control, labor
unions, and civil rights for accused law breakers
(Pierard & Clouse, 1983).

The New Right has become an extremely powerful
force in American society and most of their goals seem
to be opposition to the well-being of women, African
Americans and other minorities, the working-class and
the poor. As reported by Pierard & Clouse (1983), "by
their successful efforts in blocking the ratification of

the Equal Rights Amendment, rightists have ensured that

254

the virtual male monopoly over the centers of power in

government, business, and the profession will challenged

(p. 195)"

The trend towards extreme conservatism has carried
over from the Reagan to the Bush Administration. Reagan
successfully placed conservative judges on the Supreme
Court. These judges immediately began to reverse some
of the historical civil rights laws which prohibited
discrimination in the workplace. In 1990 under the Bush
administration another bill was denied by the President,
the Civil Rights Act of 1990. According to the
Congressional Digest (August - September, 1990) with
respect to the lost of protection against
discrimination:

In general, the proponents of the Civil Rights
Act of 1990 view the Supreme Court decisions as a
major and abrupt departure from the previous anti-
discrimination rulings and a step backward in the in
the enforcement of civil rights legislation.

They argue that discrimination, though often
subtle is still widespread in the United States,
that minorities and women have been losing ground in
job opportunities in recent years, and that the
government's historical protection of the rights of
these groups must be reaffirmed .....

Opponents of the legislation fear that its
enactment would result in the use of quotas, since
employers would be put in the position of having to
produce an employee pool that is a reflection of the
racial makeup of the community (p. 196).

255

The failure of the Civil Rights Act of 1990 to
become law was considered a major impediment for
improved social and economic conditions for black
Americans, other minorities and women in this country.
As was mentioned, many blacks made major economic gains
as a result of the Civil rights movement of the 19605.
African Americans, especially men, can only expect
further discrimination in employment hiring practices in
the 19905.

At the state level, Michigan's conservative new
governor, John Engler, in his attempts to tackle the
economic problems of the state has proposed 536 million
dollar cut in the state's budget. His cuts, which will
negatively affect African Americans and the poor are a
17 percent cut to houshold receiving welfare; closing of
prisons and mental hospitals, increases in health care
costs including medicaid and health insurance to the
working poor.

In essence, the trend of the country in the
direction of services to African Americans, minorities
and the poor has been ultra conservative since the early
19805. It would appear that as the 19905 proceed, this
retrenchment in civil rights and services will continue

to have a detrimental impact on African American men,

256

those who are most needful of employment and social

services.

This study of 115 African American males at one
urban high school began with a look at the status of
African American men in the United States at the close
of the 19805. As the research emerged, there were very
clear similarities between the national plight of black
youth in the urban schools of this country and the
social and academic outcomes for black males at
Metropolitan High School. The facts are clear.

Black men are poorly educated, receive little support
from their parents, are often exposed to teachers who
fail to motivate them, are heavily influenced by their
peer culture, often involved in crime, and have few job
options upon leaving school. Too many African American
men are all dressed with no place to go!

The important outcome of this study was its
reliance on qualitative research to explain how these
deleterious outcomes were achieved in one educational

setting, Metropolitan High School.

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Price, C. (1987). Making the cut. Michigan Auainess.
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266

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A

Sample Student Interview: Interview with Adiso

Polite:

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Where do you go from here [following
graduation]?

Now I'm working at a hospital and I got a job at
an optical company and I'm going to technical
school at OCC. I got my two-year certificate in
computers and a certificate in optical mechanics
from the voc. program. After that I'm going to
Ferris State College to go into optical.

You are going to make eye glasses?

hum hum

Your responses to my questionnaire were really
interesting, that's why I called you in...you
said that teachers rarely cared.

Some of them cared, but sometimes a couple of
them like Mr. B and teachers like that, they
didn't care what you do. You sit in class and
do your work...you passed. He really don't put
no effort towards it. He will say come back
later on and he won't be there. And you tell
him that about four or five times and ask him
for help, and he won't be there at the end of
the day.

Are there a lot of those kind of teachers?
Yeah, it's a lot.

And they don't care?.. what do you mean [when
you say] they don't care?

If you asked for help and they say come in after
class, and you come after class and they say
they got something else to do or they got to
leave and they put you off and you feel that you
are wasting your time because you go and they
are never there [after school].

What impact did that have on your education?
The class, they [certain teachers] really don't
have time to teach you because they got so many
other students.

What was your g.p.a. [grade point average]?

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2.4 or 2.3
What was your class rank?
I don't even know.

What do you think happened to so many of your
classmates?

Most of them, they wanted to get
making money in the drugs...then
tried and they found out that it
they thought it would be and not
everybody said it was.

into the money,
most of them
wasn't what

as easy as

Did anybody ask you about that kind of thing?
It's a lot of kids that ask you if you can get
in touch with somebody or do you know of
somebody.

What do they mean, get in touch?

Like if you want to start to rollin', if they
wanted to start rollin', if you know anybody
that they could go to or if you anybody know
that they can get stuff from...some them carry
it around with them?

Have you ever been asked to do that?

hum hum

And you just backed off?

Yeah....I have cousins that got killed over that
stuff. And my family, they say whatever I want,
to ask and they'll get it for me and don't go
that way.

Did your cousin go to Metropolitan High?

Yeah, one of them did, Leon.

How long ago did he graduate.

He didn't graduate, he dropped out.

And he got killed?

No, that was another cousin, he didn't
get killed. He's still in school now.

What about (he appears sad) and that's kind of

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269
embarrassing, right?

Yeah, it is. .cause he's smart, he's very smart.
He was in geometry and passed that, but he
didn't have any drive for school. He wanted to
make money. And wanted to make it quick and
fast without working for it. I was telling him
that he was going to end-up dying.

So what's he doing now?
The same thing he was doing then.
How well is he doing?

He's got a Benz [Mercedez], and a penthouse
apartment in a hotel downtown.

Where is the penthouse?

Downtown, I don't know the name and all that.
He got a house and all that. He has a house in
Saginaw too.

How old is he?
19
Wow...how long do you think that he will last?

I don't know. He's got a couple of contracts on
his head, so I don't know.

How do you feel about him?

He's still my cousin and everything, but I told
him that he's killing his own people. And he
said, "I' m not the one doing it. They know what
they are getting into before they get on the
stuff."

That's really strength situating because like my
cousin, he can't cross the state line. But I
grew up with him and so you still feel close to
these people because you've known them since you
were a little kid, but you still feel kind of
ashamed to know that somebody in your family is
involved with that. Do you think that a lot of
kids at the high school have that kind of
experience?

Yeah. .it's a lot. its lot of kids that you
wouldn't even expect to be in it that are in it
and they keep themselves to where you wouldn't

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know about them. For example, like the new
beeper law, that really didn't help because you
can turn your beeper off and you even have it
where it just vibrates. I know a lot of people
that have those. I have one cause of father is
handicapped and he just told me to have it in my
pocket, but I don't have it on me now, but if he
got into any trouble at home, He could hit the
button and it will go off. Then I have a note
so that when I go down to the office I could
leave, but a lot of people have beepers and
stuff like that.

What about expectations for students?

Yeah, many did, Mrs. Balwin expected you to do
everything that she gave you in her plan and
Mrs. Brooks. Mrs. Brooks has high expectations
for Blacks, especially, I know when I was in her
class, I got an A in the first card marking.
During the second marking I started foolin'
around and not doing my work because I got the A
the first marking. She was like "no don't do
that, get another A." She was hard on you. She
was very hard on you. She would call home and
tell my dad when I was slacking off.

How did you feel about her calling your dad?

It made me feel better that she cared. Mrs.
Balwin does too.

Did you get mad with her when she called your
father?

No...I thanked her...well kind of mad because my
father punished me, but when you think about it,
she was doing what was right for you.

But you really felt that she cared about you?

It's interesting that out of all the interviews
with these black males, everybody said that Mrs.
Brooks really cared...talk about being hard and
caring at the same time.

Well...a couple time I had some bad things going
on at home and she would talk to me about it and
she knew that something was going on. And when
me and this girl had broken up, she knew about
it and she told me don't take it so hard because
she [his girlfriend] was going with somebody
else, she said don't even think about it.

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What kind of things went wrong at home that she
knew about?

My parents had separated for a while and she
knew about it. My father told her. She was
still hard on me about my work and said don't
use that as a reason for not doing my work.
"Still do your work because they still both care
about you and everything," and after a while
they got back together and she said, "See, I
told you that I was right."

How does she know all that, do other teachers
know all that about their students?

No, she's close to your parents, like if my
parents go to a conference, she'll sit there and
talk about your grades and she'll go over more
than just your school work, what she noticed in
school or out of class and stuff. Whether or
not you were a good student...she keeps up with
her students, she know most of the class...like
everybody that graduated she knew them when they
were coming up the stairs and she gave them all
a hug and told them so long and said thanks for
being in her class. 'Cause when I was up there,
she hugged me for about three minutes and told
me to take care and keep on going for the
optical field, 'cause she always asked what
field that we wanted to go into. She really
cared.

And that makes a big difference. Did Mrs.
Balwin care as much...were there white teachers
that cared as much?

Mrs. Balwin, Mr. Goldwin, Mrs. Bonelli really
helped me 'cause I didn't like math, especially
when I first came in the 9th grade I had Mr.
Brown for the whole 9th grade year

and wasn't really learning anything in his
classes. When I got in her [Mrs. Bonelli's]
class she taught me and I came after class and
she noticed that I had a little talent but I was
backing off 'cause I really didn't want to do no
math. So she asked me to come after class and
she called home and asked if my parent could get
me a tutor and Mrs. Smith is my mom's best
friend and she tutored me. Mrs. Bonelli really
cared.

What classes did you have her for?

Pre-algebra and algebra.

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272

Mrs. Bonelli actually called your parents and
asked them?

hum, hum.

So it's not just black teachers, it's white
teachers too. It depends on the individual
whether they really care.

It's not like they are racist against you, I
haven't met a teacher who was like. Mr.
Rhinestein was like that too.

He cared or he didn't care?

Yes, he cared, he would fool around with you and
stuff. And if you seen him in the store, he
would talk with you for a long amount of time.
I've seen him at basketball games and we sat
right near each other. Yes, he cared.

That's wonderful. What about student
activities? Where you involved in any kind of
student activities?

Yes, I played football and basketball and
baseball. I wanted to go out for track, but I
didn't have time.

How many years did you play sports?

3.
Do you think that helped you?

Yes, a little bit. It gave you discipline and it
kind of made you disappointed like when Mr.
Garrison stole our money when he was

our coach.

You said that teachers seldom check when
students cut classes. Why?

I know my friend Kevin, He didn't graduate
because the last semester, he skipped the whole
semester and they [teachers] didn't call home or
send any letters.

He failed in class and we were telling him to go
to class, all he needed were the two classes.

He had more [credits] than what you were
supposed to have from going to voc. He got
lazy, I guess 'seniorighties' got to him and he

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273

just didn't want to go and all he needed was
them last two classes.

He was missing too much school?
Right.
What was he doing?

He would be across the street playing
basketball.

And nobody checked on him?

Nope!

He wouldn't come and he had Mrs. Lomax and she
cared but she would tell him he just didn't
care, but she didn't send home any letter to his
parents. I guess it wouldn't have made any
sense anyway.

Did his parent know that he was missing all that
school?

Nope. They didn't even know 'cause they were
like really up-set when they found out. So now
he's got to go to summer school.

What about caring? You said there is not a
strong sense of caring. Why?

Nobody really cared about the school. All they
really cared about was themselves and even when
Homecoming came, nobody was really there. They
say who cares about Metropolitan, they only care
about themselves and making money and do
whatever they want to do.

What could they do to change things?

I'm not really sure what they can do. 'Cause my
friend Ahmed, he said that he has to come
tomorrow, he was in the school and everything
and then this one incident came up and he had to
go to the alternative program. He had a machete
in his locker, some of them get into stuff.

Why would Ahmed bring a machete to school?

I don't know. I think that he was going to sell
it to Carlos, but I'm not sure 'cause he had
sold Carlos a couple knives before and Carlos
liked the machete and Ahmed "brung" them to
school and the security saw it and he got sent

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to the alternative program....We said why did
you bring a knife to school, you could have sold
it out of school.

But they said Ahmed was involved in some fight
or hassle or something like that.

No, he was not because he would have told me and
Kevin 'cause we all grew up tight. If he was

going to get into something, he would have told
us first.

And he brought it [machete] to school to sell.
Yes, but he didn't explain it that way.

He told me that he's going to Central State.
Didn't you think that you needed to go away to
college?

No, I want to go to Ferris. I want to go
somewhere for my field...and my voc. teachers
told me that the best place to go is to Ferris
in Michigan. I didn't really want to go to far
because of my dad's condition. I could be here
and study at the same time. 'Cause me and my
girlfriend and my mother got into a car accident
Friday and the car got messed up and was going
to the bank at the time to get the money to get
my car. And when we got in the accident that
stopped me from getting my car and now we've got
to get new car 'cause the engine went into the
hood of the car.

Are you going to a junior college first?
No, I'm going to Ferris.

But that's still a long way; Ferris is 3 hours.
Have you been accepted?

Yes.

Did you take the ACT test?

Yes, I got an 18.

What did you get on the SAT?

I didn't take that one. I took the class

[college entrance testing class] but I didn't
take the test.

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275
How did you prepare for the ACT?

I took the class and plus me and Mike had a
whole bunch of textbooks from when David took
the exam. Mrs. Smith sent them over to my mom
and we sat around and studied them.

I don't think that Mike got an 18. Was you
score higher than his?

I'm not sure.

Why do you think so many kids did not do well
[on the test]?

A lot of them did OK, but it was so long until
they just started guessing.

Do you think that they were prepared for it?

No, not that many, they just took it because it
is required.

Why do some get good grades and poor scores on
the tests? Does that mean that you were not
taught the right stuff or not deep enough into
the subject matter or you didn't take the right
classes...what happens?

I know like the army recruiters told me that
Metropolitan High, our learning isn't as high as
some other schools is. I was telling him what I
got on the test, and he was like asking what my
gpa was and said that it would be different if
you were going to Groves, you would probably
have a D average.

How did he know that?

I guess he had inside information. He said that
most people when they look at the news they see
that our school at the bottom of the school in
the state. He was saying look at what the state
is saying and if you were to go to another
school you wouldn't do so well. I said it
depends on how much you study and he said that
true but you kids don't study, you're into
selling drugs and stuff.

Did you know that guy?
Yes, he's Sgt. Jamison.

Do you think that a lot of kids have family

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276
problems?

Some have parents yelling at them and dogging
them out, but that's part of being in a family.

You said that the boys are treated different
than the girls.

For an example the hat situation, you can't wear
a hat to school... girls walk around school
right by security, and security won't say
anything and girls get away with more 'cause I
know some girls if they did take their hat,
they'll give it right back to them but the boys,
they'll take his hat and keep it all year. A
lot girls roll at Metropolitan High, and they
have beepers too.

There are a lot of girls rolling now? Do they
have other people working for them too?

My cousin was telling me who's in and who's out
because he rolls and knows who in it and he
comes around here because most of the people are
familiar to him.

This is the same one with the Benz?
hum, hum.

You said that the rules got out of hand and that
security sucks. What does that mean?

All the rules that they started to bring out
like the minute bell and the breakfast club, I
mean that it really didn't make a difference
'cause like Kevin and a couple of other people
were still coming in late anyway and the
teachers didn't apply to the rule anyway.

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APPENDIX B

Sample Teacher Interview: Interview with OD

Would you be able to talk about the school's
policy for late students?

A student who is fifteen or twenty minutes late
is considered absent for the period. They can
go up to the room, but if the teacher won't
allow them in they are out the remainder of the
hour...many times teachers will lock the door
or not allow the students to enter the room, so
therefore they are walking the halls or simply
leave.

Does that happen often?
I would say, yes.

Are there times when that would be more common
than at other times?

It might first period for student arriving late
for school; it could also be after the lunch
hour...

You mentioned that teachers might lock the door
and not allow students in.

That is correct.

What would these students do if there were a
large number of teachers that would do that?

I think it's significant enough.

What would be a reasonable estimate of the
number of students who forget their I.D.
everyday? .

A large percentage of them either forget or
pocket their I.D...I think this is a game some
of the kids play if they don't want to be in a
certain classroom, they tell the teacher they
don't have their I.D. and the teacher kicks
them out of the room and they play games as far
as the I.D. is concerned. One kid I remember
had about thirty I.D.‘s all on a little rope;
it was like a status thing.

I have observed a lot for the past few weeks. I
was aware that the I.D. policy contributes to

277

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278

the number of kids in the hall, but I found in
my own observations that it is a much bigger
problem than I had anticipated. Would you
think that it's a big problem?

I think it's a big problem.
What is the problem with the I.D.?

...because the teacher is put between the rock
and the hard place when the kid says that I
don't have an I.D. The school rule that the
student must have an I.D. Now the teacher can
say remain in the classroom or go down and get
another I.D. When I was in the classroom I
would always keep them without an I.D. but I
knew that I was breaking the school rule.

Some teachers are not willing and they want to
get rid of the kid?

Right!
So the I.D. policy is not closely followed?

No it is not...but I don't know what the choice
is...I think something should be done about the
I.D.

What could be done?

They could be charged [like a credit card].
That might remove the excuse that I don't have
the money. Something needs to be done...even
if the kid doesn't have an I.D., the teacher
knows who the kid is.

How does the school handle kids that are in
school and out of class?

One year, which I thought was good, hall
sweeps...I don't recall any hall sweeps this
year...the kids seem to respect the sweep...and
it round-up the kids that are in the halls...
and also puts them on notice that this can't go
on. And that someone is actually concerned
about them.

You mentioned that some teachers exclude kids
that they don't want. Are there other reasons
why kids would be in school and not in class?

Well, if the kid is here for socialization or
other kinds of things that might not be part of

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279
the educational process.

How effective can four or five security
officers be?

Not very good because it is a large building.
it's a large area to cover. Some of the
security. .their age is a factor in terms of
how well they can do their jobs.

What about their age?

I just don't think they have the ability to
move around...they're really not able to handle
this type of job.

As a former classroom teacher, what would be
the guidelines for giving students a pass to
leave the classroom?

I think weak teachers set-up their own rules
and regulations whether they give a pass or
not. . .I think it depends on the teacher. .some
won't give a pass for any reason whatsoever...
there is no consistent policy within the
school.

I've noticed that when the bell rings, the
doors are closed and teachers are not in the
hallways. Does this have an impact on the
number of students who actually get to class?

Yeah....I think teachers do that to show their
displeasure that the student is not in the
classroom on time. I think it's also very
disruptive to the classroom. I don't think
teachers take the onus to supervise the
hallways...they look at their job as in the
classroom!

What impact does that have on the school?
Oh, great impact.

Is that only here or can that be generalized to
other schools as well?

I don't think that I have been in enough other
schools to see what is going on during that
time to really talk regarding what happens in
other schools. .I think our school, I don't
feel there' 5 a good deal of school spirit. I
think everything is centered around

depts.. .centered around their classroom...I

 

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280

don't think there's a lot of interaction
between departments.

Does that have an impact on attendance?

I think many...particularly a number of
teachers, and I'm not saying every teacher, but
I think there are a number of teachers that are
here to put in their years to finish up their
years I think that really I think that students
sense that they know what teachers are
committed and know what teachers are not. I
think there are enough teachers that are not
committed where it does have an impact. The
kids know that they really don't care.

What percent of the teachers are within 5 or 7
years of retirement?

I would say a good portion. I'm not going to
give you a percentage but a good portion
because we are just starting to change...
where we are getting younger teachers in.. I
think we do have a large number of teachers
whose interest is not here.

I observed one group of students hanging
posters for an activity that was planned for
the weekend...and I asked them why were they
hanging the posters...they said Ms. so and so
gave us a pass and the pass that they waved at
me was like cart blanc...I have the right to do
that....Is that the typical thing that happens?

I think that is typical.
Can you talk some more about this?

I think that a lot of teachers don't get into
their teaching and their always looking for
ways to get rid of some of these students...
it's a terrible thing to say but I feel that

they are always trying to get rid...it doesn't
matter.

Is it because they can't handle them or they
don't like them or they have problems with them
or...?

They just don't care!
They just don't care. It's like those teachers

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that come in everyday and have a book
assignment and as long as they sit and be
quiet, they could be doing anything. .There is
not a lot of interaction between the teacher
and the students.

Talk about the administrators and the class
cutting problem...how can they help?

I think that the administration and I see there
is a trend changing in this school...we have a
big turn over in our administration.. I see
there is improvement. .I think that the
administration has to take the job of
supervising the faculty and letting them know
what they expect, and if they do not measure
up, they have to let the faculty know that
there is a problem; whether it is through the
administration or through the dept. heads. And
I think a lot of the dept. heads are in the
same category as the teachers; the older dept.
heads are counting days waiting to get out;
they really don't care what's going on in their
dept. either. Some of teachers are working to
what the school use to be. I don't think that
they think the school has the prestige that it
use to have and therefore, there is a lack of
motivation.

Are a lot of the students who fall into the in-
school truant category, are they coming to
school with baggage do you think. . .in terms of
home life problems?

Oh definitely....There are a lot of those kinds
of problems that need to be addressed that are
not addressed within the school...

Can you think of one or two problems other than
the obvious failure rate, that have existed
because kids are not in class when they were
suppose to be?

Getting involved in alcohol and drugs.. .that
type of thing. .smokin' out in the community
causing disruption. .there are break-ins.

Have all those things happened here?

Yes.

What about career goal...

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I do not feel that the school does
enough...kids need to have more information
which I feel we are really lacking....

What type of thing does the school do?...

Not a great deal!...The voc. school that we are
affiliated with has a career day where we take
a select number of students...a hit and miss
type of things which are done within the
classroom, I don't think that there is a great
deal done within the counseling dept...I think
that we need to work with all students within
that area...they need direction and options.

I think that there is a definite link between
having a kid make a statement...commitment
saying that I want to be a lawyer or doctor or
brick layer or whatever and how they behave in
school...whether or not they attend classes..
from your observations of kids that have not
done well, would you think that many of these
kids have clearly defined career goals?

Many...of the kids that are doing very poorly
in the classroom don't see the relationship
between good grades in the classroom and being
able to obtain their objectives in life?

How do we get younger students to understand
what it takes at the high school level to
become a doctor?

I think that is one of the things that the
counselors point out to the students, but I
think there needs to be more integration within
the subject matter. You need to have teachers
explain to the students why they need to know
this kind of material because it relates to
such and such...I think that if you repeat
things over and over again, students will start
changing and seeing that there is a
relationship between what they do in the
classroom and what their potential is for the
future once they graduate from school.

We have a lot of regular attendance students
that go to class and don't miss class. How do
they manage with all the loopholes? Why do
they go?

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Well, I think that these students are highly
motivated.

What is their motivation?
direction?

What is their

Their grade; they know that they need decent
grades in order to get into college of their
choice, and they are very smart as far as
knowing the number of days they can miss
without becoming a problem.

Would you say that all students, even the
better students have cut class on occasion?

Oh sure, but they are very selective in how
they do it and they know what they can get away
with and what the limits are.

One of the assertions that I made is that all
students will occasionally cut a class.

I think that it is unrealistic to think that
they won't.

I wonder if that is true in all school though?
I believe it is.
Is that a change in today's thinking about

schooling or is it that they have more toys,
cars, etc.

I think that all of a sudden they feel that
they need to take a blow-out day.

How would you rate in-school truancy on a scale
of 1 to 10?

6.
What would be a bigger problem?

A lot of problems that students have that need
to be addressed, even your better students have
these problems and I think your average
students have a lot of problems, that they are
afraid to discuss.