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THESIS

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LIBRARY 302048 8635
Michigan State
University

 

 

This is to certify that the

dissertation entitled
Defining and Seeking a "Good Education":
A Qualitative Study of Black Parents Who
Select Charter Schools for Their Children

presented by

Heather M. Pleasants

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

Ph. D. degree in Educational Psychology

mgr

Major professor

 

 

Date May 30, 2000

 

MS U i: an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution 0-12771

 

PLACE IN

RETlJRN BOX to remove this che
To AVOID FINES return on or befo
MAY BE RECALLED with earlier due date

ckout from your record.
re date due.
if requested.

 

DATE DUE

DATE DUE

 

 

 

OCT 118 2001

i

 

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4?

 

SEP 1 5 2005

 

MAR

l 7 2006

 

 

 

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,__._:.——~——

Defining and Seeking a “Good Education”: A Qualitative Study of Black Parents Who
Select Charter Schools For Their Children

By

Heather M. Pleasants

A DISSERTATION

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

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Special Education

2000

ABSTRACT

Defining and Seeking a “Good Education:” A Qualitative Study of Black Parents Who
Select Charter Schools For Their Children

By

Heather M. Pleasants

Within the debate on charter and choice, researchers have well-represented
specific factors that parents may consider when selecting a charter school for their
children. However, within the body of literature that has accumulated, little research has
explored the experiences and perspectives of Black parents who select charter schools for
their children. Further, few researchers have attempted to understand the meanings that
Black parents attach to their choices, and the process by which these meanings inform
their selection of a charter school. In this study, two questions were considered: (a)
among a group of Black parents who chose charter schools for their children, what issues
and themes are represented in their choice? And (b) how do these parents describe their
decision-making processes? However, both of these questions became subsidiaries of a
larger research question—How is it that this group of parents define and seek a “good
education” for their children? Interviews with ten parents whose children attended an
African-centered charter school and eight parents whose children attended an
"entrepreneurial" charter school were qualitatively analyzed for their thematic content.
From this analysis, four themes representing parents' definitions of a "good education”
were identified: (a) a good education is one in which ones’ children are academically

successful, (b) a good education is one that involves one's parents, (c) a good education

connects family and school in a supportive relationship, and (d) a good education
addresses the impact of race and culture on the education process. In order to provide a
more detailed look at how parents undertook the search for a good education, five parents
were selected from the group of eighteen for an in-depth analysis of their interviews.
These interviews were analyzed and their narratives were presented in order to illustrate
different accounts of the search for a good education. The parents interviewed for this
study enrolled their children in charter schools with the purpose of obtaining for them a
good education. However, their choices may obstruct consideration of enduring issues
central to the improvement of the public education of Black children as a whole and may
inadvertently prevent other children who are left in "traditional" public schools from

gaining a " good education."

COPYRIGHT BY

Heather M. Pleasants
2000

iv

Dedicated to Edward Lafayette Pleasants, III

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

It seems that the journey to get to this point has been so long! But now that I have
reached the end of this road (only to have started down another in the meantime!) I can
truly see that a dissertation is far from a solitary undertaking. My sincere thanks and
appreciation goes to P. David Pearson, my dissertation committee chair (the forward
motion), and Patricia Edwards (the voice of reason) , Dick Prawat (the objectivity), Gary
Sykes (the caringly-critical eye) and Lauren Young (the tireless editor and
writing/thinking coach). Each of you played very important roles, and at various time
“took the reins” in guiding me toward completion of my dissertation. I would also like to
thank Penelope Peterson for the help that she provided me during the time I was at
Michigan State and beyond.

Thanks also to my friends: the MSU crew—Gwen McMillon, Jennifer Danridge,
Shalonda Kelly, Susan Wallace, Steve Sheldon and Brenda Neurnan Sheldon; and to my
best friend, Miko A. Jeffries. Your prayers, critiques and good thoughts got me through!
Thank you to Sharon Ransom and Harley Mikkelson. Clichéd though it may be, you
made it possible for me to get to this point, both by bringing me into the world and by
giving me the tools to survive and persevere no matter what. I also would like to thank
my grandparents, Mattie and Joseph Wright and Betty Mikkelson, as well as Gloria,
John, Daria and Jocklen McMeans (for putting up with my semi-anti-social behavior in
the beginning), and Lydia and Clifton Mattison for teaching me about the meaning of
“family.”

Last, I want to thank my husband, Edward L. Pleasants, III, to whom I've dedicated

this dissertation. Through everything, from beginning to end, you stuck by me, which

vi

was no easy task. You kept it real with me, and always showed me love. I could not have
done this without you (I think you know that). Hopefully I’ll be able to return the favor. I

love you, always.

vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Tables
List of Figures

xi
xii

Chapter One: Voices. Choices and the Continuing Struggle for a “Good Education”

Introduction
The Voice of Brown
Choices and Charter Schools
Pursuing Answers to the Research Questions
Epistemological and Methodological Framework
The Narrative Stance
Emphasis on Temporal Meanings
The Centrality of Language
Human Beings as Active Meaning Constructors
Conclusion

Chapter Two: Literature Review

Introduction

Charter Schools: A National Snapshot

Michigan Charter Schools

Who is Choosing: Charter Schools and the Issue of Race
Why do Parents Choose Charter Schools? Studies of Parental
Choice of Charter Schools

The Search for a Good Education: Shared

Storylines, Different Struggles

Conclusion

Chapter Three: Methodology

Introduction
My Role as Researcher
Negotiating Entry and Participation -
Description of Schools and Participants
Parents
Schools
Umoja Academy
Orange City Academy
Data Collection
Interview Structure
Data Analysis

viii

~H©WWGMWN~

CO

13
15
18
19

20

22
27

29
30
32
35
35
38
38
40
43
43
47

Chapter Four: A Thematic Analysis of Parents' Definitions of a Good Education

Introduction 49

A Good Education is One in Which One’s Children Are Academically

Successful 50
Concerns About Progress 51
Concerns About Attention in Schools and Classroom 55
Concerns About Teachers 58

A Good Education is One That Involves One’s Parents 62
Involvement Through Selection of a Private School 62
Involvement Through Being Present at School 64
Involvement Through Help at Home 65
Involvement Through Encouragement of Learning Opportunities 66
Impact of Parental Involvement 68

A Good Education is One That Connects Family and School

in a Supportive Relationship 70

A Good Education Addresses the Impact of Race and Culture

on the Education Process 73
Race and Parents' Past School Experiences 74
Race and Parents' Definitions of a Good Education 78

Conclusion 82

Chapter Five: A Nar_rative Analysis of Five Parents’ Search for a Good Education

Introduction 88
Jeremy and Tonika 90
Defming Elements of Jeremy and Tonika's Story 91
Jeremy and Tonika's Story: Multicultural Half-Steppin' 91
LaTonya 97
Defining Elements of LaTonya's Story 99
LaTonya's Story: I Want the Best 100
Patricia 103
Defining Elements of Patricia's Story 104
Patricia's Story: Ethnic Pride and Self-Esteem 105
Pamela 109
Defining Elements of Pamela's Story 110
Pamela's Story: Being a School Mommy and Getting Good Vibes 111
Conclusion 116

Chapter Six: Discu_s_sion and Implications

Introduction 1 I9
Defining a Good Education: Findings 120
Searching For a Good Education: Findings 121
Implications 122

ix

Future Research
Conclusions

Amndixes
Appendix A

Appendix B
Appendix C
Appendix D

References

125
125

130
131
133
136

146

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Comparison of Blacks in Charter Schools vs. Public Schools
Table 2 Sheldonville Parent Demographic Information

Table 3 Orange City Parent Demographic Information

Table 4 First Interview Structure and Timeline

Table 5 Second Interview Structure and Timeline

xi

20
36
37
44
45

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Voices, Choices, and the Continuing Struggle for a "Good Education"

" ...by birth we have to struggle." —LaTonya Richardson, mother of Darnell,
Michael and Tera

". . .my son is my heart. He's my heart. . .and of course I'm going to do everything I
possibly can to make sure that he gets a good education. . ."—Camille Collins,
mother of Andre, Adam, Shalonda, Shanice and Sharon
"But when it's like with your kids, you know, you just really want the best
possible situation for them. And it seems like you're always getting, having to
compromise on something as a Black parent. I just, I just hate the thought of
settling. . .you know, if you're settling at like 90 percent, you know, that's cool.
But if you're settling at like 50 and 40 percent, it's like damn, that's so frustrating."
Jeremy Wright, father of Kofi, Malik, and Jada
As I put pen to paper, I am surrounded by the voices of twenty-four Blackl
parents who chose to enroll their children in charter schools. Their voices form the
essence of the story to be told through this dissertation. It is a story of these parents'
definitions of a good education, and of their attempts to obtain this good education for
their children. In this study, I argue that although the context (charter schools) has
changed, these parents' ideas about a good education are consistent with the ideas of
Black parents before them, and like the parents before them, their search for a good
education is complicated by enduring issues of race, culture, and class. In my mind I see
the parents' faces who I interviewed, and I have vivid remembrances of the way they
invited me into their lives. These images tell me that the heart of my dissertation concerns

Black parents and the continuing struggle for the minds, spirits, and futures of their

children. This dissertation is framed within that struggle and within the narratives of

parents who have made decisions for their children in order to provide them with a "good
education." The significance of laying this struggle bare and providing a space for the
voices of Black parents who have selected charter schools for their children is two-fold.
First, in exploring the educational decision-making of this group of parents, my research
adds to the body of work that represents Black parents as responsive, concerned, and
invested participants in the education of their children (Ogawa & Dutton, 1994; Shujaa,
1993). Madhubuti (1994) has written that " The fight to educate African-Americans is a
little told history in this age of integration" (p. 3). Charter schools are the newest arena
within which the battle to educate Black children is fought, but within the research on
parents' selection of charter schools, Black parents' perspectives have not been closely
examined.

Second, my research brings the narratives of Black parents into the broader debate
about how Black children can and should be educated. What comes across clearly is that
parents' ideas about which schools can provide their children with a good education are
based on a variety of experiences that come from the past and present, and on their ideas
about what should happen for their children in the future. Through this idea, the parents
in my study make a connection between a particular kind of school (a charter school) and
the desire for a particular standard of education for their children. Indeed, through their
actions, the parents I interviewed seem to address a question first raised by Dubois
(1935),"Does the Negro need separate schools?" Dubois later answered by saying that

what the Negro needs is better schools and good educational experiences. By focusing on

 

‘ Throughout this dissertation, I use the word “Black” to describe the ethnic background
of the parents I interviewed. I use this descriptor because this is the terminology most
often used by the parents.

the experiences of Black parents who have chosen charter schools for their children, I
provide research that fmther defines what it means to provide better schools and a good
education for Black children.
The "Voice" of Brown

In the history of the education of Black children, the most visible parent voice has
been the voice of Oliver Brownz, father of Linda Brown, who with many other parents
brought suit against the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (Brown v. Board of
Education, 1954). The irony of his place in history is that when we think of Brown, we do
not typically think of Oliver Brown, the parent, but of the critical mass of law suits that
culminated in the Supreme Court's decision that separate is not equal. Kluger (1975)
writes:

It is one of the idiosyncrasies of American constitutional law that cases of

profound consequence are often named for plaintiffs whose involvement in the

original suit is either remote or merely fortuitous. So it was with the Brown of

Brown v. Board of Education. Nothing in his background seemed to suggest that

he would stand against the tide of apathy and fear in the Black community of

Topeka that had accepted segregated grade schools and oppressive economic
racism since long before Oliver Brown's birth in 1919. .. (p. 407).

 

Yet, with his decision to file a law suit against the Topeka Board of Education, Brown
did "stand against the tide of apathy and fear. " Unfortunately, we have very little
evidence about his life and the circumstances surrounding his—and others'—participation
in the fight to desegregate schools. We know little more than that his involvement grew
out of his dissatisfaction with the dangerous walk his daughter made to a colored school
when there was a better quality “Whites only” school seven blocks away. We also

know—through Kluger's meticulously researched and documented retelling of the events

leading up to and following this historic decision—that Oliver Brown was one among a
cast of hundreds of people who raised their voices against the inequities of public
schooling.

It is a sad fact of history that Oliver Brown died before he could tell his story; it is
equally unfortunate that other parents involved in the desegregation of public schools
were not able to tell theirs (Bell, 1993). The power of the present study emanates from
the analysis of the ideas of multiple parents as they responded to the opportunity to tell
their stories about defining and seeking a good education. Through presentation of this
analysis, Black parents' voices will be included in the history of the education of Black
children as it continues to unfold.

Choices and Charter Schools

Providing an opportunity for Black parents to be heard is especially important
given that the history of their educational decision-making has been, in large part, a
history of frustration. While some Black parents who have had either the money, the
access, and/or the children with high grades had the option of sending their children to
private, independent or magnet schools, most Black parents have had little choice in the
type of school their children attended (Irvine & Foster, 1996; Kluger, 1975; Perry, 1988;
Ratteray, 1992; Walker, 1993a). However, Charter schools have now provided choice for
a greater number of Black parents, largely because charter schools are public schools
which "operate independently of local school districts," (Medler & Nathan, 1995) and
provide alternatives to neighborhood public schools (Jones-Wilson, Arnez, & Asbury,

1992).

 

2 Oliver Brown's name has become synonymous with the group of cases bearing his name

For Black parents and others who have sought but not found in conventional
public schools the characteristics they want for their children, charter schools may indeed
present an array of options that may more clearly match parents' images of a good
education. However, as Fuller & Elmore (1996) state:

If...we want to develop (school) choice systems that are sensitive to the cultural

and social differences among groups of parents and students, then it seems clear

that we have to understand a good deal more than we presently do about how
individuals understand and construct their choices from their cultural

backgrounds. (p. 200).

Elmore and Fuller are correct in their assertion—we do not yet understand the process
experienced by different groups of parents who make the decision to enroll their children
in charter schools. We are beginning to form understandings of why parents of different
ethnic and socioeconomic groups do or do not get involved in scth choice (Lee,
Croningcr, & Smith, 1996; Martinez, Godwin, Kemerer, 1996; Wells, 1996), but much
remains to be discovered about the thought processes and understandings that underlie
parents' choices.

Because of the over-representation of Black children in Michigan’s charter
schools, I felt that there was a story to be told regarding why these children’s parents
found it necessary to place their children in these new, largely untested environments. I
wanted to represent, as vividly and accurately as I could, the experiences of a group of
parents involved in charter schools; more specifically, I wanted to explore how these

parents’ understandings of their own experiences informed their decisions about the form

and character of their children's schooling.

 

for the simple fact that the law suits were presented in alphabetical order.

Pursuing Answers to the Research Questions

The initial research questions that guided this study were: (a) Among a group of
Black parents who choose charter schools for their children, what issues and themes are
represented in their talk about their choice? and (b) How do these parents describe their
decision-making processes? As the study unfolded, I became aware of the fact that both
of these questions were really part of a larger, more fundamental research question—
How is it that this group of parents define and seek a “good education” for their children?

In order to pursue answers to my research questions, a wide array of qualitative
data were collected: (a) parents' personal histories, (b) parents' ideas about and
perceptions of education and particular schools, (c) parents' perceptions of their children's
needs, and ((1) parents' and children's experiences within traditional public schools,
private schools and charter schools. In effect, I drew on participants’ experiences of the
past and present as well as their ideas about the future in order to understand how and
why Black parents choose charter schools for their children.

Epistemological and Methodological Framework

I contend that Black parents' choice of charter schools can be understood by
examining their definitions and searches for a good education, and that these definitions
and searches are made meaningful through parents' knowledge of their pasts, their
present, and their children’s academic and social futures. By examining the decisions of
the parents interviewed for this study from a constructivist perspective, the socially
grounded and multi-dirnensional nature of what a good education is and how one obtains

a good education for one's children is more directly addressed.

From a constructivist perspective, the activity of making decisions can be
described and analyzed by beginning with the situated activity of individuals, and by
considering that a decision may have several meanings attached to it. Maclntyre (1981)
writes tha “. . .one and the same segment of behavior may be correctly characterized in a
number of different ways” and elaborates through the following example:

To the question “what is he doing?” the answers may with equal truth and

appropriateness be “Digging;” “Gardening;” “Taking exercise;” “Preparing for

winter;” or “Pleasing his wife.” What is important to notice immediately is that
any answer to the questions of how we are to understand or to explain a given
segment of behavior will presuppose some prior answer to the question of how
these different correct answers to the question, “what is he doing?” are related to

each other (p. 243).

It is only when activities are related to each other through narrative that we begin to
understand the meaning of an individual's behavior. Thus, in order to understand the
meanings that Black parents attached to their selection of a charter school for their
children, I was compelled to examine, through their own words, how their actions were
contextually situated. In examining the decision making of individuals, the way people
talk about the decisions they make provides a perspective for understanding their
behavior. Constructivist theories focus on how language use mediates our meaning-
making processes and the activities that we perform in our social worlds.

Constructivist theories also suggest that, in making decisions, people are involved
in actively interpreting themselves, their interactions, and the sociocultural contexts that
surround their decisions. In conjunction with this interpretive focus, constructivist
theories also emphasize the active nature of thinking and the inseparability of the

individual, the particular social environment, and the larger sociocultural context

(Rogoff, 1990).

In short, a constructivist perspective on decision-making emphasizes the centrality
of “meaning making,” language as a mediator of experience, and the constructed nature
of social reality. These three ideas have been developed by psychologists, philosophers,
anthropologists and sociologists, who have utilized a “narrative stance” in interpreting
psychological and social phenomena. It is this narrative that I have used in order to study
the educational decision making of a group of Black parents.

The “Narrative Stance”

Jerome Bruner , Theodore Sarbin, Donald Polkinghorne, and others have
pioneered the study of psychological phenomena through narrative. Hinchman &
Hinchman (1997) give a fundamental definition of narrative as “discourses with a clear
sequential order that connect events in a meaningful way for a definite audience, and thus
offer insights about the world and/or people’s experience of it” (p. xvi). Narrative has
also been broadly defined as "talk organized around consequential events" (Riessman,
1993, p. 3). As a foundation for the study of narrative, Bruner (1986) proposed that there
are two kinds of thought—logico-scientific and narrative. While logico-scientific, or
paradigmatic thought makes use of “categories. . .and the operations by which categories
are established” (p. 12) and is action-oriented; narrative thought “deals in human or
human-like intention and action and the vicissitudes and consequences that mark their
course” (p. 13) and is organized around the construction of meaning. Narrative thought,
in contrast to paradigmatic thought, seeks to make experience vivid, and located “in time
and place” (Bruner, 1986).

Emphasis on Temporal Mew A central concept in the narrative

construction of meaning is the temporal organization of our experiences. In processing

the significance of our daily activities and in our constructions of life events, the use of
words which demarcate what happened and when are ever present. Polkinghome (1988)
writes that “the experience and interpretation of time is a basic and dominant theme of
human reality. Narrative is able to structure and organize time according to hermeneutic
principles and to present time through multiple levels of interpretation” (p. 127). In
bringing together chronological events, and the meaning attached to them, people
construct “meaningful stories” which come to present and represent who we are and why
we do the things we do. Indeed, Cohler (1982) describes personal narratives as “the most
internally consistent interpretation of presently understood past, experienced present, and
anticipated future” (p. 207, as cited in Mishler, 1986).

The Centrality of Lanmge. In Polkinghome’s view, “according to narrative
theory. . .a study needs to focus its attention on existence as it is lived, experienced, and
interpreted by the human person. This interpretation finally involves the process of
language...” (p. 125). In taking the use of language as central to the process of meaning
construction, narrative perspectives are able to transcend original ideas about the place of
language in cognitive theories. In considering the significance of language in the study
of narrative, there are two critical issues. The first has to do with the way that language is
used to structure the representation of experience (V ygotsky, 1978). The second issue of
language relates to the consideration of speech acts within situations where narratives are
shared. This is important because of the ways that meaning (especially in the context of
interview situations) is co-constructed through the “linguistic and social rules” that

structure talk between individuals (Mishler, 1986).

Human Beings as Active Meaning Constructors. Lastly, returning to a central
tenet of constructivist thought, narrative theoretical perspectives support the idea that
human beings are active meaning constructors. Of particular interest in the current
research is the use and development of narratives as a means to develop and clarify one’s
choices and identity. Hinchman & Hinchman (1997) write that:

Who one is, from the perspective of narrative theory, is inseparable fi'om the way

one’s personal history unfolds, the telos (if any) toward which it builds, and the

way that its overall course is emplotted and interpreted by oneself and others. This
process of interpretation, which is continuous though not always firlly conscious,

necessarily utilizes narrative (p. 119).

Within my research, I have used the concept of narrative to analyze the ideas of
the parents whom I interviewed, both in terms of content and as holistic narratives. In
particular, the use of narrative is effective for the study of my research questions because
through narrative it is possible to (a) look at the meanings that human beings create as
being temporally ordered; (b) examine meaning construction from the perspective that
participants are active constructors of meaning through language and (c) provide a way to
discuss psychological phenomena through the perspective of the emerging identities of
those who are the focus of the research.

Conclusion

Although charter schools have existed in Michigan since 1994, the process by
which parents choose charter schools remains relatively under-defined. In lieu of a
standardized process, parents are on their own in determining what school fits their
child's needs. In order to gain a more detailed understanding of how the parents I

interviewed were thinking about securing a “good education” for their children, I have

framed the study within a constructivist perspective, and I have drawn on the idea of

10

narrative. Within narrative research, temporality, the multi-dimensionality of meanings,
and the active construction of meaning through language are taken as central to the
investigation of human experience.

This dissertation is a story of the varying ideas and resources that Black parents
bring to bear on the decision of what school is best for their children. It also addresses the
historical, social, political and cultural contexts which surrounds the decisions Black
parents make on behalf of their children. In the history of the education of Black children

in this country, it has been the Brown v. Board of Education case that has most

 

identifiably shaped our notions of how Black parents define what a " good education"
looks like. With the emergence of charter schools, there is a new opportunity to
understand the voices of Black parents concenring what it means to provide Black
children with a " good education."

In describing how a group of Black parents construct meanings about their
decisions to enroll their children in charter schools, I hope to achieve two interrelated
goals. The first is to insert the narratives of Black parents into the debate about what
constitutes a good education for Black children, particularly as this debate relates to
charter schools. The second is to make a significant contribution to our understanding of
how we can provide schools that give Black children (and all children) what they need
and deserve. This type of knowledge is necessary if public education is to embody the
equity and quality that parents search for, and if we are to truly understand how parents
define a “good education.”

In order to tell this story, I begin with this chapter, which introduces the main

ideas and conceptual framework of the study. In the second chapter, I present a review of

11

the literature pertinent to the research questions that were considered. In particular, I
focus on the historical storylines involved in Black parents’ search for a good education
and on the place of charter schools and increased parental choice within this search. In
the third chapter, I present an explication of the methodological approach and the
research process that occurred during the span of the project. In the fourth and fifth
chapters, I present an analysis of data that was obtained through interviews with parents
and observations within the two charter schools. The sixth chapter focuses on the

implications for the study and discusses future directions for continued research.

12

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
My research questions focus on an explanation of the decision making of a group
of Black parents who selected charter schools for the education of their children:
(a) Among Black parents who choose charter schools for their children, what issues and
themes are represented in their talk about their choice?
(b) How do they describe their decision-making processes?
Both of these questions are part of a larger research question:
(c) How is it that parents define and seek a “good education” for their children?
It is within the literature on school choice and charter schools that I first grounded the
present study. In thinking further about the significance of charter schools to Black
parents, I could not ignore how the parents I interviewed were connected to Black parents
of the past who had struggled to provide their children with a good education. As their
predecessors did, the parents of this study dealt with public schools that did not meet their
standards. Thus, the story to be told had to address these historical connections and make
them explicit. The concept of “story,” or narrative, was central to addressing my
questions because of the existence of earlier personal and historical narratives centering
on Black people's search for a good education and because throughout my study, the
parents I talked with told stories about themselves and their children, about the schools in
their communities, and about the importance of education. Through their stories, I gained
insight into the meanings surrounding their decisions. It is through these stories that one

can begin to reconstruct these parents' processes of deciding the most appropriate options

for their children.

13

This review therefore integrates literature from two sources. The first section of
the review is focused more specifically on how charter schools have come to represent
legitimate and available options for Black parents. Since 1991, the choices available to
many Black parents have been expanded to include the charter school. Presently, as an
alternative to the traditional neighborhood public school, charter schools have provided
Black parents with a new route to what they believe to be a "good" education for their
children. As backdrop for my research, I describe the general characteristics of charter
schools, the national charter school landscape, and the composition of Michigan charter
schools. Additionally, I discuss the empirical research that has focused on the delineation
of factors involved in parents’ choices, the types of information available to parents, and
on the impact that choice of charter schools has on issues of policy. However, this
research has not focused on crafting an understanding of what the process and experience
of selecting a school means to parents, and Black parents in particular. In order to fill this
gap, my study provides an analysis of the narratives of parents regarding their choice.

In the second section, I explore literature relevant to the past and present struggle
of Black parents to provide their children with a good education. In particular, I focus on
the “storylines” which seem to run through this struggle. In tracing these storylines, my
intent is not to provide a comprehensive discussion of the education of Black people in
this country, but to highlight one theme of that history—the ways in which Black parents
have been active advocates for their children, and active constructors of the idea of a

"good education."

14

Charter Schools: A National Snapshot
Definitions of charter schools vary somewhat, but contain roughly the same key
words and ideas: public, choice, accountability, and performance (Medler & Nathan,
1995; Corwin & F laherty, 1999). These key words are found within the definition of
charter schools given below, which is excerpted from the US Charter Schools web site:

Charter schools are nonsectarian public schools of choice that operate with
freedom from many of the regulations that apply to traditional public schools. The
“charter” establishing such a school is a performance contract detailing the
school’s rrrission, program, goals, students served, methods of assessment, and
ways to measure success. The length of time for which charters are granted varies,
but most are granted for 3-5 years. At the end of the term, the entity granting the
charter may renew the school’s contract. Charter schools are accountable to their
sponsor—usually a state or local school board—to produce positive academic
results and adhere to the charter contract. The basic concept of charter schools is
that they exercise increased autonomy in return for the accountability. They are
accountable for both academic results and fiscal practices to several groups: the
sponsor that grants them, the parents who choose them and the public that funds
them (www.uscharterschools.orgl).

In general, several characteristics separate charter schools from “traditional”
public schools. First, unlike other public schools, charter schools have an agreement with
a sponsor (e.g., a school district, state board, university) that specifies "how the schools
will be run, what will be taught, how success will be measured, and what students will
achieve" (AFT, 1996, p. 4). Secondly, charter schools are held accountable for meeting
the terms of the charter and for producing positive educational results in its students.
Third, as a "reward" for meeting these standards, charter schools are often provided
exemption from "restrictions and bureaucratic rules" (Nathan, 1996) that traditional

public schools are bound by3.

 

3 As research on charter schools continues to grow, it is clear that charter schools may be
more encumbered by rules and regulations than traditional public schools——in many
states, waivers of rules are not automatically given, and many charter schools are

15

Charter schools are also different from schools of choice in key ways. Unlike
charter schools, schools of choice do not have a performance-based contract with a
governing body. And, while charter schools must admit all students up to their enrollment
limit, schools of choice such as magnet schools are often able to control enrollment
through entrance requirements (Dall, 1999; Viadero, 1999). On a state-by-state basis,
charter schools can also differ from schools of choice in their relationship to school
districts. In Michigan, for example, schools of choice are managed by individual school
districts (V retis, 2000), while charter schools are considered their own school district and
are managed as such.

Charter schools vary significantly across states and even within states. Differences
among charter schools, and the way they are operated is in part due to the state laws
enacting them. These laws specify:

(a) who is allowed to operate a charter school (e.g., groups of teachers and/or parents,
private or non-profit organizations, higher education institutions);

(b) who is allowed to grant (sponsor) a charter (e.g., district, state board, higher education
institution);

(c) whether charter schools are granted legal, independent status;

(c) how they are funded and what percentage of state funds they receive and have control
over;

(d) type of regulation waivers (automatic exemption or waiver-by-waiver);

(e) employee requirements and restrictions;

 

therefore under pressure to be accountable for meeting state guidelines, as well as the
objectives listed in the charter. Additionally, since some charter schools act as

16

(0 student performance requirements; and
(g) limits on the number of charters per state and the duration of the charter (WestEd,
1999).

Depending on the state, a charter school could take one of several forms. Some
charter schools are owned and operated by “educational corporations” such as Edison
Schools (www.cdisonschools.com), a private company that manages charter schools
under an umbrella curriculum used in conjunction with state curricula. Currently, Edison
schools operates 79 public schools in sixteen states, has a combined student enrollment of
38,000, and is continuing to expand. Another form a charter school can take is a
conglomeration of home schools that are “lumped” together under the direction of a
principal.

Other charter schools are created when private schools become public through
obtaining a charter. These schools are likely to be either former independent secular or
religious schools, and can exist as charter schools, provided that they do not include
religion in their curriculum and teaching practices. Traditional public schools can also
become charter schools as a way to gain more local control or enact a specialized
mission.

Finally, charter schools can also be entirely new schools, founded through the
efforts of community leaders, parents, teachers, and/or educational corporations. This
type of charter school is the most common (WestEd, 1999). In the State of Charter

Schools 3'" year Report, the authors state that “as of the 1997-98 school year, most

 

autonomous school districts, they are also responsible for managing the day-to-day
operations of the school that would normally be handled by the district (Neuman, 2000).

17

charter schools—70%--were newly created, while 19 percent were pre-existing public
schools, and 11 percent were pre-existing private schools.“

Now that charter schools have been in existence for almost a decade, there is a
substantial database, at both the national and state levels, detailing the demographic
characteristics of charter schools (Bierlein, 1996; Medler & Nathan, 1995, Tracy, 1992).
Since 1991, thirty-four of fifty states have passed charter school legislation and of these,
twenty-eight have operating charter schools (see Appendix A). Since the 1992-93 school
year, the number of charter schools has grown from two to 1,050 (U .S. Department of
Education, 1999). National data on charter schools state that there is an average of 38
charter schools in states with charter school legislation (as of September 1998). The most
recent statistics regarding the number of students in charter and public schools state that
among states with both charter and public schools, less than 1% of the student population
(160,000 students) attend charter schools (U .S. Department of Education, 1999).

Michigan Charter Schools

Michigan charter schools, or public school academies (PSA’s) are defined as
follows:

Public school academies, (PSA's), (charter schools) in Michigan operate

under the leadership and supervision of the state board. Sponsorship and

approval of Michigan PSA's come from local boards, universities, and

community colleges. There currently exists no absolute cap on the number

of total schools allowed in the state, but by 1999 university sponsored

schools will be up to a 150 maximum. PSA's are not automatically waived

of state education laws and regulations. Schools operate under limited-

term performance-based contract with funding that is capped at the

statewide average.
(www.charterschools.org)

 

4 It should be noted that in providing this statistic, the authors do not differentiate
between “grass-roots” charter schools and those schools which are run and managed by

18

In Michigan, charter schools generally fall into one of three categories—the public school
owned and operated by a corporate entity (such as Edison Schools), the private school
which has been converted to a charter school, and the relatively small “grass roots” or
“visionary inspired” charter school.

Michigan is one of several states that have a much higher percentage of Black
students in charter schools compared to other public schools; in Michigan charter schools
Blacks made up 42.8% of the student population in 1998. Evidently, for Black parents,
particularly those living in urban areas, (where many charter schools have a student
enrollment that is 96-100% Black), charter schools are an attractive option to traditional
neighborhood public schools. In the next section, I turn more specifically to an
examination of the empirical research that provides both a foundation and a rationale for
the current study.

Who is Choosing: Charter Schools and the Issue of Race

Despite the relatively small number of charter school students, charter schools
have been embroiled in controversy since they were first conceptualized and established.
Charter schools have been criticized as a first step toward policies supporting vouchers,
they have been hypothesized as encouraging “White flight,” and they have been thought
to "cream” the best minority students from urban public schools. In fact, research reports
that have looked at charter schools nation wide show that on average, there are higher
percentages of minority students in charter schools than in traditional public schools
(Finn, Manno, Bierlein, 1996; (US. Department of Education, 1999). More specifically,

nationally, the percentage of students in charter schools who are Black is slightly higher

 

educational corporations.

19

than in public schools (19% versus 11%) and several states (North Carolina, Arizona,
Connecticut for example) have higher percentages of Black students than Whites enrolled
in charter schools. Further, when the enrollment of Black students in charter schools and
public schools is compared, several states have significantly higher percentages of Black
students enrolled in charter schools (see Table 1 below).

Table 1: Comparison Of Blacks In Charter Schools Vs. Public Schools

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

State Black Black # of Charter
Students students (%) Schools
(%) in Public
In Charter School
School

Pennsylvania 67.7 14.2 3 1
Louisiana 64.8 46.4 10
Illinois 60.5 21.1 14
North Carolina 53.1 30.8 59
Connecticut 49.7 13.5 16
Michigan 42.8 1 1.1 132
Florida 41.3 25.4 70
New Jersey 30.1 18.5 30
Massachusetts 27.1 27.1 34
Minnesota 23.6 5.2 38
Wisconsin 19.4 9.6 30
Arizona 9.8 4.3 180

 

 

 

 

 

Data are sorted by percentage of Black students in charter schools, in descending
order. Number of charter schools is the number operational as of September 1998.

This data and initial research (V anourek, Manno, Finn, & Bierlein, 1997) suggests that
Black parents see charter schools as a viable option to the “public schools’ disastrous
record of teaching Black children” (Shokraii, 1996, p. 20). In the next section, I focus
more specifically on research about why parents choose charter schools.
Why Do Parents Choose? Studies of Parental Choice of Charter Schools
Very little research has been conducted on the reasons why parents choose charter

schools. Prior to charter schools, the parental choice literature consisted mainly of studies

20

focused on private schools. For example, parents in a study conducted by Edwards and
Richardson (1981) self-reported the most important reasons for enrolling their children in
a private school were lack of discipline in public schools, their desire to have their
children taught values/religion, smaller class sizes in private schools and more
individualized attention (cited in Amez and Jones-Wilson, 1988). In a follow-up study
conducted by F retchling and Frankel (1983) it was found that smaller classes,
individualized instruction, and higher academic standards were the main reasons parents
cited for choosing private schools for their children. In similar studies done by Gibson
(1994) and Griffeth (1991), parents cited religion/values, warmth of school climate, small
class size, committed teachers, quality instruction and curriculum, responsiveness to
parental expectations, personal attention and discipline as the most important reasons for
enrolling their children in private independent or religious schools. As mentioned above,
it has been only recently, and with the development of reform efforts focused on choice,
that research attention has turned to parental choice of public schools.
In 1994, Ogawa and Dutton wrote that:
Research on parental choice is sparse. Very few studies of choice programs have
been reported. In addition, the research base is very fragmented. . .Thus the little
research on educational choice that has been reported is spread over a wide array
of program types. This may be due to the scarcity of choice programs. .Whatever
the reasons, it leaves a body of literature that is not only thin, but also contains
many important gaps (p. 275).
This “thin” body of literature on parental choice was soon augmented by several
dissertations written in the area of parental choice of public school (Lobdell, 1995; Joyce,
1992; Moran, 1994; Richmond, 1999; Roden, 1992). Each of these studies focused

primarily on exploring the question of what factors were seen as most important by

parents who selected a public school other than their child’s neighborhood school. Within

21

the various studies, convenience, safety, high academic standards, teacher quality, school
order and discipline, specialized curricula, teacher morale and accessibility, teaching
approaches, responsiveness of school, family values, class/school size, and individualized
attention were the factors important to parents. These findings echo those of the Hudson
Institute, whose researchers found that the top reasons parents selected charter schools
were small class size, higher standards, educational philosophy, greater opportunities for
parent involvement and better teachers. (Vanourek, Manno, Finn, & Bierlein, 1997).
Interestingly, the authors of the aforementioned research have relied almost exclusively
on surveys and telephone interviews as a means for addressing their research questions.
As a consequence, we have learned about the factors parents consider important in a
school, but we have not gained any insight about how parents may “fit” the factors
together in their decisions and in their understanding of what constitutes a good
education. Across the history of the education of Black children in this country, there are
recurring ideas concerning a "good education" which can ground the present exploration
of Black parents' choice of charter schools, and it is this literature to which I now turn.
The Search for a Good Education: Shared Storylines, Different Struggles

The search for a good education for one’s children seems deeply entrenched in the
collective consciousness of Black people. Through first and second person accounts of
the education of slaves and ex-slaves (Jones, 1862; Stowe, 1879), in historical documents
which provide evidence of the establishment of schools and colleges for Blacks in the
North (Tyack, 1974), and in depictions of the fight for desegregation (Kluger, 1975),
Black parents have sought a good education for themselves and their children. In

examining the historical literature, a shared “storyline” emerges among many Blacks.

22

This storyline has been preserved and adapted over time and it draws on two ideas: (a)
that education for many Blacks has never met the quality of many predominantly White
schools and (b) that the pursuit of better schools and better education is a goal of the
utmost importance.

The storyline begins in the South (where most free Blacks and slaves lived)
during the 1800’s. Anderson (1988), in describing the education of Blacks in the South
from 1860 to 1935 writes that:

There developed in the slave community a fundamental belief in learning and

self-improvement and a shared belief in universal education as a necessary basis

for freedom and citizenship. . .education was fundamentally linked to freedom and

dignity. This distinctive orientation toward learning was transmitted over time. . .

(p. 281-282).

This orientation developed in the harshest of circumstances; educating slaves (or seeking
to obtain an education if you were a slave) was illegal in most Southern states, and those
who violated this law received harsh punishment. Even so, Anderson and others (Jones,
1862; Stowe, 1879) have documented how slaves struggled and sacrificed so that they
might become literate.

In the post-slavery South, some Black parents made the decision to send their
children to school even under threats of eviction by White property owners (Anderson,
1988). For these parents, enduring economic hardship was a risk they were willing to take
so that their children might receive a formal education and through doing so, escape the
cycle of poverty in which they were trapped. Even given their choice, the quality of
schools for Blacks in the South was low. Although there were a few Black parents who

could afford to send their children to private schools in order to get a good education, the

majority of parents could not. Consequently, in the last half of the nineteenth century in

23

the Souths, many parents were often involved in efforts to gain state-supported public
education (Anderson, 1988, p. 16). State-supported education meant that it might become
possible to improve the chances Black children had to become educated, and the overall
condition in which they were educated. During the early 1900’s Blacks in the states of
Louisiana, Georgia, North and South Carolina all lobbied heavily for state-supported
schools. In her examination of the efforts of Black parents in Augusta, Georgia to open
and maintain Ware High School, Patton (1978) explored the agency of Black parents in
their pursuit of a good education, and cited Black newspaper editor John T. Shuften in his
admonition to Black parents to:

“toil a little harder and a little longer so as to allow your sons and daughters the

inestirnable privilege of learning. . ..Remember they will have to take your place in

the great drama of life. . .they will have to take care of themselves. . .and

nothing. . .can aid them to do this better than a good education” (p. 48-49).

Parents in Georgia were not the only ones encouraged to make sacrifices for the
sake of their children’s education. This concern and commitment has been described in
other historical research; a notable example is the work of E.V. Siddle Walker on the
Caswell County Training School (1996). In her book, she chronicles the successes of
Black parents in supporting CCTS and providing their children with an exemplary
education, even while they lived in a social context of “discrimination and expectations
of self-help” (p.25). Walker cites a former student as contending that “. . .the priority was
on White people. Black was secondary” (p. 25). Through Walker’s work, it is further

evident that an emerging struggle for Blacks in the South revolved around attaining

schools for their children that were of equal quality to schools of Whites.

 

’ Ninety percent of Blacks lived in the South at the turn of the century, thus the focus on
the South in this review (Anderson, 1988).

24

The push to improve Black schools in the face of racism and discrimination can
be seen in historical texts about the experiences of Blacks in the North and West as well.
Even though discriminatory practices and racist attitudes among Whites in the 1800’s and
1900’s stood in the way of the improvement of education of Black children, Northern and
Western Blacks also fought to gain access to better schools (T yack, 1974). Two examples

of this fight stand above the rest. The first is the Sumner v. Board of Education of Boston

 

case. More than a century before B_ro_w_n v. B_o_ard of Education of TmrcLa (1954), in
Boston, Charles Sumner directed a lawsuit in which he contended that Sarah Roberts,
“had every right, legal and moral, to attend the White school she passed on her way to the
Black school.” (Tyack, 1974, p. 114). In cases similar to the Roberts case, Black parents
and community leaders in California also fought to open segregated schools to Black
children between 1860 and 1870 (Hendrick, 1981). Although these efforts were also
unsuccessful, they point to a common theme in the Black community—Blacks wanted
better schooling opportunities for their children, and one index of "better" was what was
available to White children; thus the push for "equal" schools.

The theme of inequitable schooling is most recognizable in the group of lawsuits
initiated by Oliver Brown and other litigants; these lawsuits eventually led to the
Supreme Court’s decision that separate is not equal. Through Richard Kluger’s account
of the legal history leading to desegregation decisions, again it is possible to see that the
Roberts and the Brown case were not isolated occurrences. Instead, Roberts, several
California cases, and the group of cases assembled under the name of Oliver Brown
demonstrated that many Black people in this country reacted to the unequal treatment of

their children in school not with deference or apathy, but instead challenged the political

25

and legal system to institute practices that would lead to the improvement of their
children’s schools.

Since Brown, the struggle for a good education in the last forty years has
continued to be defined as a struggle for equality. Within this struggle, desegregation
achieved through forced integration or through magnet schools and schools of choice
have garnered the most attention in research and public literature (Joyce, 1992; Lomotey,
1996; Shujaa, 1996; Viadero; 1999). Additionally, Black parents seeking a good
education for their children have also selected private religious or secular schools (Bryk,
Lee, & Holland, 1993; Cibulka, O’Brien & Zewe, 1982; Coleman, Defoe & Johnson,
1988; Irvine & Foster, 1996)". Still other Black parents in the past and present have seen
the route to providing a better education for Black children as necessarily involving the
control of schools and education by Blacks (Akoyo, 1994; Asante, 1991; Lee, 1994;
Shujaa, 1994). For over twenty years, Blacks have been sending their children to
independent (often private) schools that are owned, operated, and controlled by Blacks.
Many of these schools have focused on nurturing both the academic and social
development of Black children fi'om an Afrocentric perspective, which is something that
often cannot be said of public schools or private secular and religious schools. In
particular, many independent schools focus on nurturing the ethnic identity of their
students. Regardless of the position of Black parents, the common quest throughout the
history of this country is Black parents choosing, to the extent of their options and

resources, to provide a better education for their children.

 

6 Historically, Black children have had entry into Catholic schools for over one hundred
years (Irvine & Foster, 1996).

26

Conclusion

As a Black child, adolescent, and adult, I heard told and retold narratives that rose
above the status of accounts of “everyday life” (Hinchman & Hinchman, 1997) to
become meaning-laden, larger than life stories. In my life and the lives of other Black
children, the stories of Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther
King, Jr. were much more than accounts of people and events—they were representations
of cultural and historical identity. The story of Oliver Brown and his choice stands among
these. As an iconic narrative, Brown’s story represents not only a watershed moment in
American history, but also the cultural importance the Black community places on
education and the historical predisposition of Black parents to seek out the best education
possible for their children.

In fact, Brown’s narrative lives on through the choices of countless Black parents
who have selected alternatives to traditional public schools for their children. This
phenomenon is evident in past research on Black parents who select private schools for
their children (Bryk, Lee, & Holland, 1993; Slaughter & Johnson, 1988) and in the more
recent research focused on how choice in education impacts Black families and
communities (Fuller & Elmore, 1996). Indeed, echoes of Brown’s narrative were often
present in the stories I was told about the struggles that members of my family had
undertaken in order to become educated and provide their children with a good education.

Although research on Black parents’ choices has focused on the outcomes of
charter and private schooling for Black children (Bamds, 1988), on parental goals
(Slaughter, Johnson, & Schneider, 1988), and on policy issues (Yeakey, 1988), little

attention has been paid to the narratives which contextualize the decisions of Black

27

parents. In this literature review, I have argued that parents may hold powerful narratives
through which the past is connected to the present. These narratives draw on parents’
experiences and values, reveal how parents utilize information to make choices, and
address how parents define a “good education” and their role in providing it for their
children. In the next chapter, I focus on the methodology which has been used to address
my research questions and which has been used to analyze the interviews of the

participants in this study.

28

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY
Introduction

Research reported here about Black parents’ selection of charter schools for their
children has mainly been conducted from a depersonalized, or paradigmatic perspective
(Brunet, 1986) and very few studies have approached this issue from a narrative
approach. In keeping with the idea that understanding how Black parents define and
obtain a good education for their children is gained through parents’ own words, I have
chosen a methodological perspective consistent with narrative inquiry that (1) privileges
participants’ knowledge and (2) uses a research strategy and analytical framework that
emphasizes an understanding and interpretation of individuals’ “life world” (Kvale,
1996) and an understanding of the contexts in which individuals interact. 1

Based on these ideas that the meanings we attach to our behavior and the social
contexts in which we live are mutual influences on each other, I consider my research to
be within a socio-cultural, interpretivist framework. In listening to the participants of my
study and analyzing their words, in observing the interactions of parents and others and
making sense of these interactions, I am engaged in acts of interpretation. Meaning-
making (which is the result of interpretation) and the “elucidation of the process of
meaning construction” (Schwandt, 1994) are essential to the analysis of the data I have
collected.

Through observing and listening carefully to the participants of my study, I have
directed my attention to the ways in which a group of Black parents has developed an
understanding of which schools are (or are not) the best educational environments for

their children, given their available choices. Additionally, I have sought to explore the

29

differences and commonalities in participants’ understandings of charter schools. In other

words, I have placed an emphasis on the socially constructed realities, local
generalizations, "interpretive resources, stocks of knowledge, and intersubjectivity" (as
defined through commonalties in meaning and perception) (Holstein & Gubrium, 1994,
p. 263) of the participants in my study. In analyzing the data I collected, I have attempted
to " . . .organize the interviews to present a narrative that explains what happened or
provide a description of the norms and values that underlie cultural behavior" (Rubin &
Rubin, 1995).
My Role As Researcher
An important part of the methodology of this research involves an explication of
the way I have conceptualized my role within the research project. In his work on
interviewing, Steiner Kvale (1996) alternately describes the role of the researcher as
“miner” and “traveler,” with each representing a different way of approaching interview
research:
In the miner metaphor, knowledge is understood as buried metal and the
interviewer is a miner who unearths the valuable metal. . .The interviewer digs
nuggets of data or meanings out of a subject’s interior to be uncovered,
uncontaminated by the miner. . . precious facts and meanings are purified by
transcribing them from the oral to the written mode. The knowledge nuggets
remain constant through the transformation of appearances on the conveyor belt
from the oral stage to written storage. By analysis. . .the essential facts are drawn
out by various techniques and molded into their definitive form.
The alternative traveler metaphor understands the interviewer as a traveler on a
journey that leads to a tale to be told upon returning home. . .the traveler may also
deliberately seek specific sites or topics by following a method. . .What the
traveling reporter hears and sees is described qualitatively and is reconstructed as
stories to be told to the people of the interviewer’s own country, and possibly to

those with whom the interviewer wandered. The journey may not only lead to
new knowledge; the traveler might change as well.

30

As seen in these descriptions, the miner metaphor treats “knowledge as a given,” while
the traveler metaphor is guided by a constructive, postmodern perspective (Kvale, p. 4).
These metaphors are useful ways of explaining how I have come to conceptualize my
role within the present study.

In constructing an account of the research findings, I began with very clear-cut
ideas about the form and structure that my investigation would take. I would obtain the
data, it would be transcribed, and I would look for recurrent themes, ideas, and patterns
which would allow me to come to certain conclusions. I began as a miner, panning for
gold. However, I very quickly began to realize several things. First, my role as “the
researcher” could not be ignored. Although I initially intended to “fade into the
backgroun ” as participants talked about their lives, experiences, and choices, I began to
understand that who I was as a person was an important influence on the conversations
that I had with participants, and that by simply choosing to interview parents in their
homes, the form and content of our conversations was affected.

Through listening to the interviews and visiting the schools that were the subject
of parents’ conversations, I became increasingly aware that their discussions about
schools were guided by their own and by their children's past and present experiences,
and by the parents' expectations for their children's futures. At the same time that I
realized I was affecting parents’ talk, I also began to realize that what I had heard and
experienced was also influencing my own thinking about the research project and
process, and about the decisions I envisioned I would one day make concerning my own
children’s education. In short, through the research process, I came to accept that the

more accurate metaphor for my approach was that of traveler. Although I still believed

31

that I was forming meaning through observations and analyses of participants’ words, I

could not ignore the importance of my presence within the research and the ways in

which understandings of my interviews and observations were co-constructed.
Negotiating Entry and Participation

In studying the decision-making and involvement of Black parents in charter
schools, I was initially interested in exploring how parents’ own experiences, their socio-
economic status (SES) and the type of charter school might all play a part in the decisions
parents make to choose a charter school and then become involved in it. My first interest
was in interviewing parents who had selected charter schools with different curricular
foci. Therefore, two schools were sought as sites through which to gain parent
participation. Specifically, I was interested in selecting schools that were located in urban
environments, had predominantly Black student populations, and whose philosophy/focus
differed significantly from each other. Through selecting for schools with these
characteristics, I hoped to tap into the phenomenon surrounding Black parents selection
of charter schools, while still be able to explore the possible importance of the (we of
charter school in their decision making process.

My selection of the first school was the result of a three-year-long process of
research and volunteer work at an African-centered charter school near the university
where I was enrolled as a student. In 1994, I was teaching “Reflections on Learning,” a
beginning teacher education course at the same university, and I was invited by one of
my students to visit a preschool in Sheldonville at which a charismatic teacher was
organizing plans for an African-centered charter school. In 1995, I eventually did visit the

preschool, and did some volunteer work for Wanda Howard, the charismatic teacher my

32

student had described to me. As I volunteered at the school, I became increasingly
interested in understanding Wanda’s ideas and vision. Even though it was unclear
whether her vision would become a reality (charter schools in Michigan were originally
declared unconstitutional, a decision that was later reversed) she was intent on making
the idea of the school come to fruition. A couple months later, I attended an
organizational meeting, at which more than thirty parents were briefed by Wanda about
the plans for the school. During the summer of 1995, I again spent a period of time
volunteering for Wanda—at this point her school was in the works, and she was
operating a preschool program out of a community church. In the fall of 1995, Umoja
Academy opened and it was at this point when I began a research project centered around
case studies of two parents’ and two teachers’ past educational experiences. During the
next two years, I completed this project, but still continued to volunteer occasionally at
the school. In order to maintain an understanding of the development of the school, I
attended Harambe meetings (monthly whole school meetings for parents, teachers, and
students) and helped Wanda with school-related projects. As I developed my dissertation
proposal, Umoja Academy remained an important influence on my thinking and I
decided that it would be an appropriate site through which to gain parent participant in
my study.

At Umoja Academy, the first step towards obtaining the participation of parents
was accomplished through working with an informant, Carolyn, a parent who was
temporarily employed as an administrative assistant for the school. Through the course of
my research and volunteer work at Umoja, Carolyn and I established a friendship, and

she became an important resource for my data collection. Initially, Carolyn identified a

33

list of parents “who would probably agree to be interviewed.” As Carolyn wrote names
on the list, I asked her to indicate whether she thought each parent was low, middle, or
high SES, with the idea that I could cross check her assessments through a demographic
questionnaire and my eventual conversations with parents. Additionally, Carolyn
volunteered information related to the parents that she thought might be “good to know.”
I used this list to write letters to parents and begin calling them (see Appendix B). In this
first attempt at obtaining participants, the majority of parents declined participation. I
then asked to meet with Wanda Parks, the principal of the school. At this meeting, I
discussed my plans with her, and supplied her with a memo that described these plans.
After the conversation, Wanda agreed to provide me with a list of all the school’s parents.
Using this list, I again asked Carolyn’s opinion on who might be willing to speak with me
(and what SES group they might belong to) and using this information, I sent letters to 25
parents. From this group, I selected and interviewed ten parents (six single, separated,
divorced mothers and two couples).

In order to select a second school, I searched the internet for a listing of all charter
schools in Michigan, and I identified five schools which fit the characteristics I had
established for my work (urban, predominantly Black student body, different curricular
foci). I then sent letters to the principals of these schools introducing myself and asking
for an opportunity to talk with them further about the possibility of including their school
in my study. After little response and several unsuccessful attempts to meet with
principals of four of the schools, I made an appointment with the principal of Orange City
Academy (OCA). At this meeting, the principal of the school agreed to allow me to use

the school as the second site for my research. In ten visits to the school, I observed in

34

classrooms, I attended a school-wide assembly and after school meetings, and I
interviewed the principal and parent involvement coordinators of the school.

After interviewing the principal, I spoke with him about obtaining parent
participation, and he agreed to allow me to send a letter home with students, on the
condition that the students’ teachers would agree to collect these letters (see Appendix
B). In the letter I briefly introduced myself, discussed my research project and my interest
in speaking with them, and told them that of the parents who returned the letter, one
parent would be randomly selected to receive $50.00. I gave four teachers a total of
seventy letters; twenty-three were returned and I used these to contact parents to be
involved in the study.

Description of Schools and Participants
Emit».

Data from twenty-three parents were used in the analyses—of this group, eighteen

parent interviews provided information for the bulk of the data analysis7 (see Table 2 and

3 below).

 

7 Four of the five parents were excluded from the analyses because only one interview
was completed; the other parent was not included because she did not gain custody of her
niece, who she was planning to enroll in Umoja Shule.

35

Table 2: Sheldonville Parent Demographic Information

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parent Occupation Income Education Age Children Other Ed.
Info. About
Parent
Daphne Admin. 25,000 Undergrad. 28 Amber: 5 Not educated
Richmond Assistant Mitchell: in same city,
1 some Catholic
school
Jeremy Asst. 58,000 Doctorate 39 Jade: 12 Not educated
Wright professor Malik: 4 in
Kofi: 5 same city
Tonya Asst. 58,000 Doctorate 38 Same as Not educated
Harper- professor above in
Wrigli same city
Koretta Unemployed 20,000 Some 28 Ron: 4 Educated in
Taylor at time of undergrad. same city,
study some Catholic
school
Camille Unemployed High School 41 Adam: 4 Not educated
Collins at time of Andre: 18 in
study Sharmin: same city
1 6
Shalonda:
14
Shanice:
11
Valinda Legal 22,000 Associate 36 Marcus: 9 Same city,
Young Secretary Degree Mya: 4 some Catholic
School
Pamela Data 30,000 Masters 35 Douglas: Ed. primarily
Richardson management 4 in same city
Ron Harper Refuse 64,000 Some 39 Carl: 7 Same city for
Management community Jasmine: Secondary Ed.
college 4
Jenay Admin. 64,000 Some 37 Same as Ed. in same
Harper Assistant undergrad. above city
Carolyn Clinical 16,000 Masters 48 Justice: Not educated
Williston Social 10 in same city
Worker Sam: 7

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

36

 

Table 3: Orange City Parent Demographic Information

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parent Occupation Income Highest Ed. Age Children Other Ed.
Attained Info.
Pamela Singer 28,000 Undergraduate 42 Amara: Ed. in
Sutton Degree 8 same city
LaTrice Residential Care 9,000 High School 26 Marcus: Ed. in
Morgan Worker 6 same city
Carl: 3
Sharmaine Factory Worker 25,000 High School 25 Tamara: Ed. in
Jackson 5 same city
Tracy Ross Packaging Clerk 15,000 High School 25 Shawn: Ed. in
5 same city,
some
Catholic
school
Tricia Computers/Car 42,000 Undergraduate 34 Eric: 7 Ed. in
Parker Industry Degree same city,
some
Catholic
school
Arlene Residential Care 26,000 High School 52 Gena: 8 Ed. in
Montcalm Worker same city
Rochelle Unemployed at High School 26 Charles: Ed. in
Allen time of study 8 same city
LaTonya Factory Worker 28,000 High School 25 Darnell: Ed. in
Richardson 5 same city
Tera: 3
David: 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of the eighteen parents interviewed, ten parents had children attending Umoja

Shule, and eight parents had children enrolled at Orange City Academy. Within both

schools, parents were selected from both low and mid/high SES groups. I also selected

parents according to the length of time their children had been at the school—half had

children enrolled for two years or less (I designated these as “old” parents), half had just

enrolled their children for the school year beginning at the time when the data was

collected (1 designated these as “new” parents). Through interviewing both “old” and

37

 

“new” parents, I hoped to determine if the length of time since parents made their initial
selection had any effect on the detail with which they talked about their decision.

All of the parents who participated in my research were high school graduates. In
addition, four held advanced degrees (Masters and Ph.D.) and several were working on
obtaining college degrees as the time of the interviews. During their primary education,
half of the parents at Umoja Shule were educated in Sheldonville, while most of the
parents who had children enrolled at Orange City Academy were educated in
neighborhood schools close to the one their children now attended. Six of the twenty-
three parents were educated in Catholic schools. About half of the parents were in their
mid-twenties, with the other half being in their early thirties to early forties. Most parents
had more than one child, and most were single, unmarried parents.
§ch_00l8.

Umoja Academy. Umoja Academy, the first school selected for the study, is a K-6
African-centered charter school that received charter school status in 1994. Housed in a
former vocational school, the building is gray and modern with large windows on the
south side entrance. Before attaining this leased building, the school operated in a
community church, and before that, at a nearby preschool. Presently, the principal
continues to encourage school parents to financially support a plan to build a school
which can more adequately support the type of learning environment originally
envisioned. Since the building is leased, the school has not been able to build any
playground equipment in the adjoining grassy lot it shares with a large church.

Although the building is relatively large, space usage continues to be an

unresolved issue; on one side of the building four classrooms have been built. On the

38

other side is a large open space with a high ceiling (known as the “big room”) which has
been divided into several classrooms, although no walls have been erected. In the four

classrooms and in the big room area, children rotate teachers every fifty minutes. This
results in a lot of noise and activity, and the principal and the teachers at the school admit

that for children in the big room, the level of noise and activity “takes a little getting used

9,

to.

As stated in the school’s brochure, the focus of the school is “African-centered
curriculum, with multi—sensory, multi-modal, multi-dimensional, and multi-cultural
strategies for an experiential school-based model of empowerment.” The mission of the
school is “to center, educate, and nurture all students to achieve their maximum potential
while developing future world leaders.” In accordance with the focus of the school, the
principal’s vision of the school is firmly grounded in an Afiican-centered perspective
which reflects the philosophies of Maulana Karenga, Haki Madhubuti, Asa Hilliard,
Jawanza Kunjufu and other Afrocentric theorists. The school day begins with a Zulu
Affirmation:

I

I am

I am alive

I am conscious and aware

I am unique

I am the face of humanity

The face of humanity is my face...

The infinity is a unity; it cannot be destroyed;

I am a constituent of the unity

I cannot be destroyed;

The infinity and I are inseparable...

I am eternal; I am the secret that drives out all fear.

Perpetual evolution is my destiny.

1 evolve forever, in response to the challenge of being human...
(Excerpt from The Zulu Declaration)

39

The empowerment of the Black community is a central theme for the school—through
the education and socialization of the students at the school, it is the principal’s vision
that the students of Umoja Academy will be able to “reach back” and help to make
positive change for other Blacks. The curriculum at Umoja Academy is Afi'ican-centered
with “a strong emphasis on individualized reading, reasoning and critical thinking.” In
addition to studying Japanese, Spanish, and French, the children go on many field trips
during the year, and participate in a variety of after school clubs, including African
drumming, drama, and science. All of the 156 students at Umoja Academy are Black, and
range from preschool age to eighth grade. All students are required to wear a uniform
consisting of jeans or slacks, tennis shoes and a shirt over which a “buba” (a smock,
preferably in a Kente cloth or other African-inspired print) is worn.

There are ten regular teachers at the school, in addition to several part-time
teachers. With the exception of the Japanese language teacher, all are Black. Since the
school opened, staff turnover has been a recurrent challenge. Wanda's strategy of
attracting many of “the best and the brightest” comes with a hidden cost; several teachers
who originally formed the ideological backbone of the school have left to pursue “bigger
and better” opportunities in private business and educational administration.

Despite teacher turnover and problems with space, in the years since Umoja
Academy as been open, it has consistently maintained a waiting list. Umoja's students
have a reputation in the Black community for excelling academically, and they often give
plays and other performances at the local university and at city functions during Black
Heritage month. The school has also been profiled in the Wall Street Journal and US.

News and World Report. Local newspapers have done stories on the school and of the

40

charter schools in the city, it has had the most success, as measured by the academic
achievement of its students and the lack of bad publicity and controversy it has
experienced (as compared to other charter schools in the area).

Orange Cig Academy. Orange City Academy (OCA), a K-5 school is
located in a south suburb of the large, metropolitan city of Monroe. Although the suburb
is predominantly White and middle to lower-middle income, it borders another suburb
which is predominantly Black and lower middle income to lower income community.
Unnristakable racial lines divide the two communities—as one parent says “you can be in
this neighborhood, which is all Black, and cross Hillsdale Road and be in an all White
neighborhood. It’s like fish in a lakebif we (Black people) put one toe in, they (White
people) all scatter.” The school itself serves as a geographical marker between the two
communities, and it has a student body that is ninety-eight percent Black.

The school sits across the street from an apartment complex, and appears to have
been built in the late sixties to mid-seventies. Like many charter schools located in
renovated older public schools, it experiences problems with its ventilation system. In the
summer months, classroom doors must be propped open so that air circulates from the
outside and through the building. The interior of the school complements the style of the
outside. Long, tiled hallways lead to classrooms, students’ work is displayed on painted
cement walls, there are waist-high drinking fountains at several places, and a small
gym/auditorium serves as the meeting place for school-wide assemblies.

As stated in the student-parent handbook, OCA’s mission is to:

.. .offer the finest academic program possible; to improve pupil learning by

creating a school with high and rigorous standards for pupil performance; to teach

self-discipline, honor and high moral standards; to teach students to understand
the American “free enterprise system” and encourage them to fully participate; to

41

encourage and allow the most effective teaching methods in an environment
where each student is well known, to provide teachers with the opportunity,
responsibility, and accountability for the management and control of the total
school curriculum and environment; and to foster student, parent, and community
involvement through the use of community resources and partnerships.

The principal of OCA, Walter Neuman, is a former Orange City public school
principal. On weekends, he teaches at the Jewish Saturday school, and it is clear that
being involved in education has been a lifelong endeavor for him. As principal, Mr.
Neuman see himself as “the captain of the ship,” which he must keep running smoothly,
while at the same time trying to maneuver improvements for the students and the staff.
Despite being the “captain,” Mr. Neuman is also very conscious of the fact that OCA is
part of a city-wide organization of Orange City Academy charter schools, and it is his
responsibility to make sure that his school follows the ideals upon which all of the City
Charter Corporation (CCC) schools were founded.

The operation of OCA is based on four “operational goals:” (1) creating an
environment where all students leam (curriculum), (2) continued improvement of
professional skill and development (professional development), (3) create a collaborative
partnership with district, parents, and community (parent-community involvement and
(4) maximize our management system (school climate).

There are eighteen teachers at the school (two teachers per grade), in addtion, the
school employs a "parent coordinator," a part-time music teacher, and local college
students volunteer to staff the computer lab. Many of the students at OCA come from
families that are low income and ninety-eight percent of the students are Black. Although
most of the students live within a few miles of the school, students also come from within

the city of Monroe.

42

Data Collection

Interviews and observations were the tools used to collect the data for this study.
Because I wanted to explore parents’ choices and involvement in charter schools, from
their perspective, using interviews as a method of data collection was a necessity. Rubin
& Rubin (1995) state that “qualitative interviewing is a way of finding out what others
feel and think about their worlds. Through qualitative interviews you can understand
experiences and reconstruct events in which you did not participate” (p. 1). Further,
because I believe that parents’ choices and involvement in charter schools cannot be fully
explained without paying attention to the contextual influence of the charter school, it
was also necessary for me to observe parents, teachers, and students interacting within
Umoja Academy and Orange City Academy (Hammersley & Atkinson, 1983).
I_r_r_t_§rview Structure

Of the twenty-three parents who participated in the study, eighteen were
interviewed twice. The remaining five parents were interviewed once“. Through two
interviews, I was able to ask participants questions related to (1) their past educational
and life experiences, and (2) their decision-making processes. The first interview was to
be semi-structured; I had a list of questions (see Appendix C) related to their past
educational experiences and based on previous research using the questions, I felt
confident that this would supply me with data necessary to discuss the impact of parents'
own educational experiences on the choices they made for their children. Using this

protocol, I completed five of the first interviews with parents at Umoja Academy. After

 

8 Of the five parents who were interviewed once, two moved during the time of the study,
two were unable to be contacted for a second interview, and one individual was not
included because she did not become a guardian of her niece during the time of the study.

43

taking notes on these interviews, I realized that although I was obtaining a good amount
of information about parents’ past school experiences, I needed to know more about them
as parents and their lives in general in order to better understand their choices and
thinking process—I see this as a conceptual turning point in my thinking about the data
collection process. With this in mind, I altered the protocol to first include questions
about their family, work, religion/spirituality, ethnicity, and community. Using this
revised protocol, I interviewed three parents at OCA. I continued using this protocol for
the remainder of the first interviews with parents at both schools.

I began my work on the second interviews by drafting a semi-structured protocol
(see Appendix C) and piloting it with my informant, Carolyn. After the interview, I asked
Carolyn to give me information about the structure of the questionnaire, and based on her
suggestions I eliminated some repetitive questions. After four interviews with parents
from Umoja Academy, I decided that the structure of the protocol was not conducive to
eliciting the in-depth information I originally sought—this was another conceptual
turning point in the data collection—and I moved toward an open-ended protocol that
began by asking parents to “tell the story” of their decision-making process:

The first thing that I want you to do today is to tell me the story of all that went

into your decision to put into Umoja Academy. I’d like you to take a

moment, and think of the first time you had thoughts about going
into kindergarten, and begin your story at that point.

 

This interview procedure was used with the remaining second interviews (see Tables 4

and 5 below for a timeline describing the interview process).

Table 4: First Interview Structure and Timeline

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parent Date
Patricia Reynolds 4/18/98
Valinda Young 4/28/98
Daphne Richmond 5/2/98
Ron and Jenay Harper 6/1/98
Koretta Taylor 6/26/98
Conceptual Turning Point: First Interview Protocol Revised
Tracy Ross 7/9/98
Tricia Parker 7/10/98
Carolyn Williston 8/20/98
Jeremy and Tonika Wright 10/9/98
Camille Collins 10/14/98
Pamela Sutton 10/20/98
LaTrice Morgan 11/10/98
Sharmaine Jackson 11/9/98
LaTonya Richardson 11/14/98
Arlene Montcalm 11/30/98
Rochelle Allen 11/20/98
Table 5: Second Interview Structure and Timeline
Parent Date
Daphne Richmond 5/2/98
Valinda Young 5/11/98
Patricia Reynolds 5/28/98
Ron and Jenay Harper 6/6/98
Conceptual Turning Point: Second Interview Protocol Revised
Koretta Taylor 7/20/98
Tracy Ross 7/30/98
Tricia Parker 8/1/98
Paamela Sutton 10/26/98
Arlene Montcalm 12/7/98
Carolyn Williston 9/ 17/98
Jeremy and Tonika Wright 12/16/98
Camille Collins 11/1/98
LaTonya Richardson 11/22/98
LaTrice Morgan 1 1/17/98
Rochelle Allen 11/21/98
Sharmaine Jackson 11/11/ 98

 

 

45

 

 

In addition to interviews with parents, I also conducted interviews with the
principals and teachers9 at both schools. In particular, I focused on obtaining information
about the person being interviewed, how they came to the school, and on the nature of the
school environment itself, as they perceived it (see Appendix E). A table below describes
the sequence of interviews that I completed during the data collection for this study.

In writing their chapter on interviews in the Handbook of Qualitative Research,
F ontana and Frey (1994) have said that “asking questions and getting answers is a much
harder task than it may seem at first”(p. 361). This indeed proved to be the case with the
interviewing that was completed through this research project. Though I understood that
there was a process involved in understanding what kinds of data are necessary to
describe a particular phenomenon. The more difficult recognition was that I, too, was
undergoing a process of learning what it took to become a good researcher and a good
interviewer. I often tried to hold myself to the standards Kvale outlines in his “Quality
Criteria for an Interview” (p. 45):
(a) The extent of spontaneous, rich, specific, and relevant answers from the interviewee.
(b) The shorter the interviewer’s questions and the longer the subject’s answers, the
better.
(c) The degree to which the interviewer follows up and clarifies the meanings of the
relevant aspects of the answers.
(d) The interviewer attempts to verify his or her interpretations of the subject’s answers in

the course of the interview.

 

9 The teachers interviewed were kindergarten and first grade teachers, since they were
those most likely to be teaching students who were new, or who had been at the charter
school for two years or less.

46

(e) The interview is “self-communicating”—it is a story contained in itself that hardly
requires much extra descriptions and explanations.
However, with each interview I completed, I more fully realized that Kvale’s criteria (and
my own criteria) were ideals to strive for, and that the interview situations were an
unpredictable combination of my own developing expertise, my expectations of the
interview, my interviewee’s expectations of the interview and the reality formed when
these things came together through our conversations.
Data Analysis

The data analysis process for this study was completed in two interconnected
phases. In the first phase, the interviews of the group of parents were analyzed by
thematic content (Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach, & Zilber, 1998). In this phase of the
analysis, each transcript was coded according to the identification of four primary themes
which had been uncovered through prior research (Pleasants, 1996): (l) Good/Bad
School Characteristics, (2) Parent Roles, (3) Child’s School Experiences, and (4) Parent’s
Past Experiences with Education. The data was then recoded through a process of
completing chronological summaries of each parents' transcripts, through examining the
summaries for themes and coding the summaries, then the summaries were given to two
other people and they were asked to code the summaries. This approach to thematic
analysis was data-driven, and based on this second analytical pass through the data, four
themes were identified as salient to a " good education"—academic progress/achievement,
parent involvement, connection between home and school, and the importance of race

and culture in the schooling process. After identifying these themes, the themes were

47

discussed with parents, in order to determine their perceptions of the relevancy of the
themes to their decision making process.

In the second phase of data analysis, I examined the transcripts and identified
instances in which parents gave narratives about their experiences and/or their child’s
experiences. Within this phase of data analysis, I concentrated on analyzing parents’
narratives holistically, in order to ground my interpretations and understanding of their
narratives within the larger context of the complete text of their interviews. The result of
these two phases of analysis was an understanding of the data that combined specific
attention to content with a contextualized perspective on the lives of individual parents
who were interviewed. In the next chapter, I discuss my analysis in light of the research

questions of this study.

48

CHAPTER FOUR: A THEMATIC ANALYSIS OF PARENTS’ DEFINITIONS OF
A GOOD EDUCATION

Introduction

. . .you are always trying to improve every generation. That’s how we were raised.

To improve every generation. . .You want the best. You want them to go further

than you did—Patricia

We kind of made the decision of trying it out because Tina was always a brilliant

child, even in public schools, but, you know, we desired something more for her.

-Koretta

And, uhm, so I am always believing in giving my kids the best of what ever, but I

don’t always mean that, material wise. I just mean the best, I want to give them

the best education they can get—LaTonya

If defined solely by the statements above, a " good education" would be embodied
by several characteristics; it would be better than the education that one had as a parent. It
would be something more than what is available through "traditional" public schooling.
In short, it would be the “best education that they (one’s children) can get.” These ideas
are a general representation of what a good education meant to the group of Black parents
interviewed. However, through their reflections on their own school experiences and their
evaluations of the learning environments in which their children were a part, this group of
parents also conveyed deeper and more detailed ideas about their definitions of a good
education. These themes were important because they bind the stories of the parents
together and they also connect the parents I interviewed to the literature concerning how
Black children can and should receive a good education. In order to illuminate the

definitions of a good education, in this chapter I explore the themes evident in interviews

done with a group of Black parents who selected charter schools for their children.

49

Through data-based thematic analysis (Boyatzis, 1998), four main themes relating to a
good education were identified:
Theme One: A Good Education Is One in Which One’s Children Are Academically
Theme Two: A Good Education Involves One’s Parents
Theme Three: A Good Education Connects Families and Schools Together in Support of
Children
Theme F our: A Good Education Addresses the Impact of Culture and Race on the
Schooling of Black Children
In the following sections, I describe how each of these themes was represented across
parent interviews and I link these themes to research relevant to providing a good
education for Black children. Although the parents interviewed did not cite research
literature and rarely specific terminology related to the education of Black children, their
thoughts about what was necessary for the attainment of a good education clearly
resonated with research on policies and practices (Ladson-Billings, 1994; Mehan, 1993)
associated with the education of Black students.

A Good Education is One in Which One’s Children Are Academically Successful

The parents interviewed for this study enrolled their children in charter schools in

order to promote the academic success of their children. In their interviews, parents
conceptualized academic success as involving several components and they showed
concern about obtaining these components for their children. Most immediately, they
were concerned about their children’s academic progress, their children’s classroom and
school environments, and their children’s teachers. In the following section, I discuss

how these concerns comprise one piece of parents’ definitions of a good education.

50

Concern About Progr_e§_s_

Academic progress was first construed by the parents as academic work that was
challenging and that helped their children go "a step firrther" than their current academic
level. As Mehan (1997) writes, when Black children, particularly low-income Black
children, are provided with structured academic challenges, they often do as well or
better than their more well-to-do peers. And, as Sizemore (1990) points out, one
important correlate of effective schools is "high expectations for student performance" (p.
41). The idea that high expectations promote academic progress is also represented in the
literature on the Catholic school experiences of Black people, highlighted in the last
chapter. Importantly, the parents interviewed for this study indicated that they did not
believe that the environments their children were in would promote the academic
progress of their children, and they were invested in finding schools which were more
academically rigorous than what was offered in their children's preschool or public
school environments. This idea is represented in Daphne's reaction to her daughter's
report of what she did at her preschool:

...when she would come home I’d say “well... what did you do in daycare

today?” And she’s like “we played.” And I was like “did you count?” “No.”

“Did you write?” “No.” I was like “what are you doing there all day?”

“Playing.” I was like Oh Lord. You know I gotta get her out of this place.

(Laughs) I was like man I’m gonna call Umoja again and sure enough they had

an opening. And they said she can start on Monday and I said thank you Lord!

-Daphne Richmond

Daphne, a young single parent of two living in Sheldonville worried about

whether her daughter Amber’s preschool was an environment in which she could attain

that success. In voicing these worries, Daphne referenced both knowledge about her

51

daughter and her own beliefs about what schools should do to support the academic
achievement of students:

. . .she was speaking in complete sentences by the time she was like a year and a

half. I mean she could communicate very well with people and so I knew that she

was. . .. she was going to be very intelligent and uhm, so that was all the more

reason for me to get her into a good school. I mean that’s very important to me to

keep that up and get her to the point where she’s not bored with school. Because

that’s when you lose a lot of kids. Where they’re bored with what they’re doing.
Daphne went on to describe Amber as “a bundle of energy. . .headstrong and strong-
willed.” Because of this, finding a school in which “they were challenging her and not
saying ‘oh well, you know, those little kids can’t do that” was very important to Daphne.
As a student working toward her master’s degree, and as an administrative assistant for a
prominent businesswoman in the community, Daphne also expressed concerns that
Amber should be able to “compete with everyone else” for a good job when she got
older, and an early academic start was a part of what Daphne saw as a necessary
foundation for Amber. Thus, a preschool environment in which her daughter just
“played” was not consistent with Daphne’s definitions of a good education.

Although Daphne’s perspective is in opposition to how some early childhood
educators would define “developmentally appropriate” classroom practice (Bodrova,
Leong, & Paynter, 1999), her worries about her the progression of her daughter's
preschool learning were also shared by parents like Sharmaine, an Orange City parent.
After a new teacher at her daughter's Head Start Center was prevented from teaching
children how to write their names using a “dot-to-dot format,” Sharmaine went to the
Head Start Center director to ask her why it wasn’t allowed:

She said, uhm, she said “well, I feel that you’re pushing Tamara too much.” But

how do I know if she can do things unless I help her do it? I said “my child could
be two years old and know every state.” . . .to me, it’s just the parent introducing it

52

to their child. You know, I said “my child is four years old and she. . .can learn
how to spell her name through a song.” You know, and she was like, “well, we
don’t do that here in Head Start. In Head Start they like to do play only” . . .You
know, and I am like, I asked, “how can you say that when so many kids that was
in the program last year or even six months ago before Ms. Murphy became a
teacher, I said, they couldn’t recognize their name and now they can?” They
knew the beginning, the letter their name started with, but they couldn’t recognize
their whole name. I was like, “how can you say that,” and me and her argued for
like an hour and she was like, “girl”, that is howl feel because what I say the
program guidelines, they are the program guidelines.”

After this conversation, Sharmaine resolved to find her daughter an elementary
school environment in which she was doing work that was “more advanced” than the
Center and “regular public schools.” In a similar way, Jenay and Ron Jones, Sheldonville
parents, also talked about their son’s needs relative to the educational experiences that he
had already had in preschool:

.. .he went to Sharon’s preschool for two years and we just felt like he had really

outgrown them. You know, they start them off with the basic shapes and colors

and all that. . .And he had mastered those skills pretty, very well, you know, so
there was like no need in putting him through that again. . .So, then we looked for

something that was maybe a little more structured. Uhm, where they had gone a

step further past the preschool. He was in preschool, but basically he was doing

kindergarten work when we put him in Umoja. "Jenay

In addition to verbalizing specific ideas about appropriate early childhood
practices and drawing on their knowledge of their children’s individual needs in order to
determine if their children were experiencing academic progress, parents discussed the
importance of high academic standards in their children's schools. Arletta, one of the
older parents in the study and an Orange City resident, talked about how “advanced” her

granddaughter’s charter school seemed compared to the schools her sons had attended.

 

'0 In this instance the use of the word “girl” was used as a term of familiarity; both
Sharmaine and the Head Start Director were Black, and “gir ” signified a change from
what had been a more formal meeting to an informal and candid conversation.

53

Because only one of her sons had “made it” she felt that it was very important for schools
to go beyond a traditional curriculum:
You just can't go to school and say, and learn reading, and writing and arithmetic.
...You've got to beyond that. and if you want anything in life, if you want to

strive to be the best that you could be, you have to go beyond and above. And
that's what they teaching them...And I love that.

Among several of the parents interviewed, there was the conception that some preschools
and public schools just weren’t aggressively promoting high academic standards for their
students. This was made known to some parents directly through their children’s
experiences, as in Koretta’s experience in observing of her niece’s lack of interest in
school after transferring from a Catholic school to the neighborhood public school:
...It’s, it’s all due to the fact that she just totally lost interest because you know,
she is frustrated. She is like “it’s stupid, I already know what they’re
teaching”. . ..I seen a difference in her attitude, she started getting to the point that
oh I don’t want to go to school, I don’t want to go to school. . .and before, she just
loved to go to school.
As product of Catholic schools, Koretta often characterized the academic environment of
public schools as below her standards. For other parents, variation in the academic pace
of preschools and public schools was made even more apparent when their children were
enrolled in charter schools:
. . .I think, that they (Head Start teachers) would be like, like here is the ABC’s.
We had the ABC’s on our refrigerator, that doesn’t interest him. You know, it’s
like that babyfied stuff, now he is doing things with more maturity (at the charter
school). . .But it’s it’s more of a faster pace and it is more interesting to him and I
can see that he is learning. If you say Adam, write your name or spell book, book,
he can write that without saying this is how a b goes, you know, that is good for a
five year old. So, I’m I’m really really impressed. —Camille
Daphne, Koretta, Ron, Jenay, Sharmaine and Camille talked often of the ways in which
preschool or Head Start programs did not meet the learning needs of their children. For

parents like Koretta this was a “terrible situation” to be in, because as she put it,

54

“Our kids are our future so to me that is my future. . .I am looking at my whole
entire future just being, you know, torn apart. You know, I just seen it breaking
down and deteriorating right before my eyes. I’m like, oh, no, we gotta get her
out of this public school thing.”
Perhaps because of the pressure exerted upon them to be successful in promoting the
academic and social achievement of students, charter schools were perceived by most
parents as being more dedicated to the learning and understanding of their students.
Sharmaine, provided a specific example of this, saying:
The one thing that that really impressed me about the school was, like for science
or environmental observation, that was one of my cousin’s classes, her homework
was she had to sit in the window or sit outside and sit and wait for an animal to
come. It could be a squirrel, dog, cat, or anything, wait for it to come along, see
what it does, describe the animal, see what it does, where it goes, how it walks or
runs or whatever, tell about it. Put it in essay form. She had to write that down.
That was the homework for that class. . .a lot of schools won’ tell you. They just

tell you okay, this is a squirrel and there is a nut and that’s it. You know, what
goes in the trees, that’s it...Orange City (Academy) is kind of the Cadillac of the

sublic schools, it’s like I like how they they start quicker than the regular schools
0.
In all, most parents felt that after their children had been enrolled in charter schools, the
pace at which they learned and their general engagement in school increased. In
discussing what promoted these increases, parents often compared and contrasted their
children’s previous and present schools. Within these comparisons, their comments fell
into two main areas; the classroom/school environments of their children’s previous and
present school, and the teachers that. their children were instructed by in the past and
present.
Concern About Attention in Schools and Classrooms

Almost all of the parents interviewed (sixteen of eighteen) expressed the concern

that their children were not receiving enough “one-on-one” or “individualized attention”

in their schools. In talking about attention issues, the importance of small class sizes was

55

mentioned frequently. Although the advantages of small class-size have been contested
by different researchers (Finn & Petrilli, 1998; Hanushek, 1999), class-size reduction,
particularly for low-income and minority students, has had beneficial results in various
schools and school districts (Bracey, 1999) and small-class sizes and "individualized
attention" were among the most specifically mentioned aspects of schools that parents
interviewed for this study were concerned about. Tricia, a computer programmer and
Orange City parent, expressed this idea:
That size thing is so important to me, the size of the classroom. As I said, I did the
substitute teaching thing, and having more than twenty is just too much for one
person to be able to get their points across when they are that little. And even
when they get bigger too. . .
Particularly for the parents living in Orange City, the perception existed that Orange City
Schools were overcrowded. When asked what “large classes” or “too many kids” meant,
parents talked about classrooms that had thirty to forty students in them, often with no
more than one teacher and one teacher’s aidel '. Because of this perception, many parents
talked about feeling as if their children were not “really known” as individuals. This idea
was expressed by LaTonya, who described the private school that her son had been
enrolled in previously:
Yeah. And so, this school was what I was looking for. It was small, uhm, it was
personable. You know, you were actually a name and like they say, not a
number. That is how it was at that school and I really liked it. I really liked
it...they took it upon themselves. They would take Daniel out of class a half hour
to like 15 minutes because Daniel had a problem reading. . .They took it upon

themselves. They didn’t send a letter home saying your son has a problem
reading and you need to do something about it. They did something about it.

 

1' In talking with the administrative assistant for the Superintendent of Orange City
public schools, I was informed that the class sizes in Orange City schools range from one
to thirty (Murray, 2000).

56

The idea that a school or classroom would be small enough so that a child would get
needed attention if they were experiencing academic difficulties was critical to several
parents, and was integral to their conceptions of the conditions under which their children
could attain academic success. As Tricia said, it was important to her that the

school/teachers:

. . .would actually care if something happened to your child. They would be able
to see that he needs attention or see that he is doing great, like. . .if he has a
problem with reading, you know, or spelling a word, that he would get the
attention. That he wouldn’t have 40 other kids or 39 other kids wanting the same
thing. He would only have to fight with 15 other ones for attention if that would
be the case.

The importance parents attached to small class sizes and individual attention came
primarily from experiences of either having their children in schools which did not meet
this criteria, or having their children in schools that did meet this criteria and then having
to put them in schools that had much larger class sizes. For example, Koretta related a
specific experience she had in realizing that her niece (whom she had assumed custody
of) was struggling in school because of the lack of attention she was receiving in her
classroom:

. . .she came home one day and she says “my teacher does not like me.” I was like
“your teacher doesn’t like you?” “My teacher does not like me.” “What does she
do to you?” “Well, she doesn’t talk to me, she doesn’t, you know, she is always
nice to everybody else” and so I had to go up here to the school and you know get
the principal involved. I have never gone through no mess like that before. And I
talked to her teacher and I was like “Tina is under the impression that you don’t
like her, that you don’t talk to her.“ Well, Tina is used to that individual attention.
She was like “well if I had time to stop and talk to every student in my class,
that’s all I would do”. . .I felt like a fool, you know, after I left there. . .Because
you know, you’re so, you get so used to one thing, you kind of block out the
reality. In public schools there is just too many kids, they are not going to get
individual treatment, there are going to be many kids that are going to be
completely looked over as though they don’t exist. And my niece, in my opinion,
is too good for that. She is too smart and I saw a difference in her grades, I am
like, oh no.

57

Whether through situations like this, through experience in substitute teaching, or simply
through general perceptions of what children need in classrooms, the majority of parents
interviewed for the study saw it as extremely important that their children were in
classrooms that had “small class size” and “individualized attention” in order to ensure
that their children would get the time and attention needed to be academically successful.
Concern About Teachers
In addition to academic progress and individual attention, parents discussed the
importance of teachers who had a sincere and caring attitude about students as
individuals and toward students' learning in particular. In her book, The Challenge to
Care in Schools: An Alternative Approach to Education (1992), Nel Noddings discusses
the idea that "the desire to be cared for is almost certainly a universal human
characteristic" (p. 17) and supports the notion that the school's first priority should be "to
establish and maintain a climate of continuity and care" (p. 64). Within this study, parents
often reflected on particular teachers with whom they had had this kind of caring
relationship. Sharmaine, who talked often of being alienated from school and from
teachers, reflected on one teacher she had who made a lasting impression on her:
Well, when I was in the second grade, I had this one teacher and I used to love
her. She cared if you knew it or not. It was like if you don’t know it, she wasn’t
the kind of teacher that say, okay, everybody knows this stuff except for Thomas
so Thomas you got to talk to me later, it wasn’t like that. If Thomas didn’t
understand, we stopped until Thomas got it. She didn’t go on until everybody
knew. You know, then if Thomas couldn’t get it the way she was saying, she was
like is there anybody to get Thomas to know it. You know, that’s how she did it.
I guess from that point I was always like that.
Unfortunately, Sharmaine was most able to talk about the teachers she had that did not fit

the example given above. She described most of her teachers as having an attitude of “I

58

am saying this once and one time only and if you don’t get it, oh well.” For Sharmaine,
and for other parents interviewed, teachers’ attitudes toward their students’ learning and
understanding were very important, as well as their attitude toward students as young
people in general. Specifically, it was important that teachers demonstrate a caring
attitude in three ways. In parents’ eyes, teachers should care about whether or not
students learned, have a generally positive attitude toward the children they taught, and
they should be able to tackle challenging situations by communicating quickly with
parents and by taking the initiative in solving problems. This first form of caring, a
general positive attitude toward students, was evident as Gena, Arletta’s third-grade
granddaughter, talked about one of her “favorite teachers,” Miss Campbell, in
comparison to another teacher:

Gena: . . .Miss Campbell, she was nice every day. Miss Stone, she wasn't nice

every day. It have to be a, it have to be a simple day that she had to be

nice. . .Like when it was Thanksgiving, Christmas, uhm, it had to be a simple day.

Arletta: A certain type of day? A holiday?

Gena: A certain type of holiday or anything like if she was getting married. She

would act nice or if she got some flowers, she'd act nice.
Heather: And Miss Campbell was nice every day?

Gena: Yep. And she, and it wasn't, it just didn't have to be on a type of day, Miss

Campbell had to be nice. She'd be nice every day.

In addition to the general attitude of teachers toward their students, parents also
talked about the importance of teachers’ attitudes toward their students’ learning. In fact,
their thoughts often reflected the “all children can learn” philosophy that current
education documents highlight (Office of Educational Research and Improvement, 1998).
For Rochelle, a single parent of two in Orange City, it was important for children to have

teachers

...who seemed very involved, they took things personal, you know, the child
learning was everything to them. Uhm, they rewarded the children for their

59

efforts and successes and you know, all kinds of things to me that are important
when you are trying to inspire little people and you can make them because, what

you do, say, and how you treat them can have an effect on them for the rest of
their life.

Camille was probably the most adamant and specific about her definition of caring
teachers. It was important to her that her children have “motherly” teachers who “had a
knack and a love for kids:”

I think teachers are just like mothers. . .You have to understand them (children).
They are yours all day long. No, you didn't go to raise them, but you need to have
a love for them. So, therefore, even when you see them in the street, you’re not
saying, I am so glad that he's not in my, my classroom you know what I am
saying? You know, I've had teachers that said that. . .they would like to be a
mentor for my kids, they are like little blessings to say, well, this is what she does
good and I want you to watch out for her and just encourage her just to make sure
she stays on the right track.

Lastly, it was important to parents that their children’s teachers demonstrate
caring for students by letting parents know quickly, and by being able to solve the day-to-
day problems without involving parents. As Arletta says about the teachers at her
granddaughter’s (charter) school:

. . . I mean, the teachers, they're aware, very much aware of the students' needs,

you know. And I like that, that uhm, they care, they've showed that they care. If

there is a problem, they will call you before it gets out of hand, you know, and let
you know that, you know, we gon’ have to start working on this before it gets out
of hand. I like that, I mean, don't wait til everything blow out of proportion and
then, ”Oh, this been goin’ on for six months." Well, where were you six months
ago? Why you didn't give me a call, maybe we could do something about it then?

That type of firings. Those type of things I like about it.

The emphasis placed on appropriate kinds of communication was evident as parents
talked about what teacher qualities were involved in providing their children with a
“good education.” In particular, while parents wanted very much to be notified if there
was a potential reoccurring problem with their child, it seemed that they also wanted

teachers and school personnel to be able to handle problems at school without

60

unnecessarily involving them in daily situations. In Carnille’s eyes, this approach was
equivalent to teachers taking a “motherly/fatherly” approach with their students:

When we have kids that small, that is very important because if they're having a
bad day or what ever, they need like a motherly/fatlrerly nourishment and when
my son was in Wexton the teachers and the principals of all different colors--he
was cutting up and he would run and hide under the tables--They didn’t so much
call me or call me to come-J didn’t have that problem. They would. . .pick my son
up, pat him, take him in the room, calm him down, you know, wasn’t scared to
wipe his little snotty nose and this is the thing that when you have young
children. . .if Adam is being mistreated or he is having a bad day and they are
acting like he is acting like he is having a bad day. .. and they are using that type
of voice, that upset voice instead of a soft, gentle voice, then this child is going to
pick this up.

LaTrice most aptly summed up the concerns parents had about the perceived lack of
caring that some teachers expressed in her comments about her son’s ex-public school
teacher:

...The way that she talked for one. It was like she didn't teach the kids. As long
as they were there and she was there...and they were getting paid...l just started
noticing after he didn’t know, you know, anything outside of what I was teaching
him at home...I mean you sit down, you can tell, if you are into your kid’s
learning and you sit down with and you can tell, basically. You know, who you
know how a teacher is supposed to teach, you went through school. And when
your kid's not learning like that it's just not good. You can, you can, I can

tell. ...By the way they talk to the kids for one, or handle like discipline. When
they come to school like, my kids came home just last week telling me that our
teacher said, "Sit down, you are acting like damn kindergartners." I am like, she
is not supposed to use that kind of language. you know? It's a way that you talk to
kids and then when you go to be a teacher, you have to take psychology and
things like so you know how to deal with kids, you know...And that's not a way.
You don't talk to kids like that...The one way is the talking and then the way that
they teach them. I mean you can tell when your kid’s learning. ..

In sum, the parents in this study made it their first priority to consider whether or not their
child was learning and progressing academically. Generally speaking, they wanted their
children to be in an environment that gave them access and opportunity to develop

academically. More specifically, their conception of a good education included

61

environments in which children got the time and attention they needed in order to be
academically successful, and it involved access to teachers who “truly cared” about
whether students learned something or not.
A Good Education is One That Involves Ones’ Parents

The parents in this study also defined a good education as one that involves one’s
parents. Commitment to this idea was clearly evident in the reflections of parents about
their childhood experiences and their own parents’ philosophies regarding the education
and social development of children. The majority of the parents had families in which
their parents—particularly their mothers—were actively involved in their educational
experiences. However, the involvement of their parents (mothers) took different forms.
Their mothers were involved by enrolling them in private schools, by being present at
school, by helping with homework, through providing support for their children’s
education, and through encouraging their children to become involved in learning
opportunities outside of school. The critical point is that the parents interviewed
considered their parents to have been involved in their education, and they considered
themselves to be involved in their children's education. It is likely that not all Black
parents who select charter schools for their children are as involved as the parents
interviewed for this study; this idea was supported by several parents who differentiated
themselves fiom other parents who they saw as noninvolved and who pointed to the lack
of parent involvement as a aspect of their children's schools that needed improvement.
Involvement Through Selgtion of a b’vate School.

Koretta, Valinda, Daphne, Tracy, and Tricia all attended private, Catholic schools

during some point in their primary and/or secondary education. This choice, made by

62

their parents, can be considered a form of involvement, and it is a particular approach to
ensuring that their child receives a “good education.” As discussed by Franklin (1996),
Black parents have chosen Catholic schools for their children for over one hundred years.
And, as documented by Bryk, Lee, & Holland (1993) and York (1996), Catholic schools
have successfully educated the Black students who have been their patrons. There have
been many reasons hypothesized for their success, but perhaps the most often cited is the
rigorous and disciplined environment focused on academic achievement, combined with
the fact that parents were invested (financially and emotionally) in making sure that their
children did well. As Daphne says:

But I can say once I started going to Catholic school, everybody was there

to learn. . .Because you know, your parents were paying for you to go there

(laughs) and you better not get into any trouble!
Because of the cost associated with a private school education, there was a high priority
placed on Daphne’s parents getting what they paid for. In parents’ descriptions of
Catholic schools, the environment was strict, the teachers committed, and the expectation
for success unyielding. As Koretta says:

Catholic school in, in junior high was hard. It was hard. I mean, we took home so

much homework that we had two book bags. . .It was, they were very, very strict. I

mean, you, you have no choice but to learn. Whether you want to or not. And if
you want to get out of there, you had better learn quickly (laughs) and try to move

up.
For some who attended Catholic schools, receiving a “good education” from a private
school implied certain things about the schools that they were not attending. One of the
implications of attending Catholic schools was the knowledge that it was an education
that few Black children were able to receive:

Uhm, and it was indeed a privilege to say that you went to a Catholic School, you
know, it was not like every little Black child that you know, was going to Catholic

63

Schools. And I know that my parents sacrificed in other areas so that I could get
an education that they thought was comparable to what White people were
getting.-Valinda

Tracy voiced similar thoughts about the differences in her public school and private
school experiences. Tracy’s public elementary school was predominantly Black, and her
Catholic school was predominantly White. And, as she described the difference between
the two schools, she stated that it was because of Catholic schools that she “turned out
better:”

. . .I just went to a Catholic school, everything was on schedule, everything is done
a certain way, you prepare for this, you did this that way. . .There was no control
in the public schools. It was just “come to class please” type of thing. Whereas if
you didn’t go to class at that (Catholic) school, they called your house and your
mother would see that it was followed up. . .as (compared to public school) where
“oh, she didn’t come to school for about two or three weeks and we were
wondering if she was alive” you know, type of thing.

Involvemera Through Being Present at School

Most of the parents interviewed did not attend private schools. However, their

 

parents were also involved in their educational process. Several parents talked about their
mothers and/or fathers being “in education” as a career, and as a result, being very active
in monitoring their children’s progress and being a positive force in their children’s lives:
. . .I mean, you know she was always pushing, pushing. That was one thing about
us you know because she was in the schools, she was a school counselor, she was
always pushing. And then she and my father were both involved in schools, you
know, in our education, calling the teachers and wanting the teachers to contact
them, you know, if there was ever anything. If we were doing things we
shouldn’t have been doing, or if we were lacking in this or not doing this, they
always wanted to know-«Jenay
Through their parents’ involvement in their education (particularly their mothers'
involvement), parents conceptualized their own attitudes, understanding, and practices

related to the importance and definition of parental involvement. The significance of this

involvement should not be underestimated; in their book on home and school influences
on literacy, Snow, Barnes, Chandler, Goodman, & Hemphill (1991) found that found that
parent involvement was related to academic achievement and could mediate the effects of
classroom instruction that was not effective. The way that parent involvement functioned
to support and uplift student achievement is clear in the talk of the parents of this study
about the role their parents played in their educational process. As Patricia says,
.. .my mom has always been an involved parent in our education. . ..Being
involved in education, taking a, making sure, it is not just a teacher. The schools
have your kids most of the day and their ethics are taught to the children and all
kinds of things, but the real ground training, how your child acts in school is done
at home. . .vvith my mom, she went up there and she went “how is she doing in
this” or “what are they doing there.” She is always just that way. . .she has always
been very involved in our education, so of course, I take that same aspect.
Rochelle, in particular, had vivid memories of her mother being in her school and being
volunteering on a daily basis; these memories served as a very strong foundation on
which she built her own ideas about parent involvement:
...my parents were always involved in the school too. No matter what, I mean,
when my mom came in the school door I could tell the sound of her keys or the
sound of her shoes, because that’s how much she was there. Just checking in on
everybody or helping out, always, she was always a school mom. And if there

was ever a problem, all my teachers knew my mom personally and they would get
right on the case and the problem would be solved, automatically.

Involvement Through Help at Home.

Given the fact that many parents interviewed had one or both parents that worked
full-time outside the home, parental involvement as defined through in- school
volunteering and visits to school was not always possible. Even so, parents helped their
children with homework when they came home from school in the afternoons and

evenings:

65

Yeah, even though my mother wasn’t able to volunteer in the class, it was like
when we got home and did our homework, she would sit down and if we didn’t
understand it the way the book said to do it or the way our teacher showed us how
to do it, she would try to help to find an easier way to do it. You know, to come
up with the answer. . .It was that and before we ever started school, she would take
us to a church right here on Franklin, that church used to have a math class, a
uhm, a word pronunciation class, when we was little and she would take us to
that. I still remember that. I remember going there to do additions and
subtractions.—Sharmaine

Similarly, LaTrice talks about how her father made her “strive” and “think:

. . .like writing reports, he made sure they were like right. I don't care what grade I
was in. They were right. I couldn't just sit there and write something, you know,
he was teaching me punctuation and correct spelling and how to say stuff in the
right way. You know, he was like, "You don't just write it like that. .." "What do
you mean when you say this?" "Tell me what you mean". . . ...He made me

Perhaps as the result of being the wife of a person in the military, Patricia’s mother was
the most “militant” in her approach to helping her children with their school work:

Well, let’s put it like this. We would have to take our stuff home to mom and
mom would drill you. I remember even having a chalk board. She bought one of
those huge chalk boards at home and you would go through this that and the other
and of course there was always a corporal punishment afterwards if you didn’t get
it right, you know, that kind of thing. So, so, and ah, she didn’t over do that, but
you know, it was, it was, yeah, (laugh). You better not bring home any bad
grades. I mean that was like (laugh) you had to try your hardest, in other words.
She wanted to know, she wanted to know that you tried and that you were really
consistent in doing it. Not just laying back and not doing anything. And. . .I train
my son basically the same way I was trained and explain to him even a little bit
more than I felt my parents kind of missed it on. ..

Involvement Through Encouraging Learning Opmrtunities.

In addition to being directly connected to what their children were doing
academically in school and with homework, several parents discussed the ways in which
their parents were supportive of their participation in activities outside of school.

...mostly she did volunteer in the PTA she was a girl scout mother and a den

mother she did a lot of volunteering stuff when I was coming up. Church down
the street, the neighborhood church and that was also where we went every

66

Sunday and Saturday and they had youth programs and I spent a lot of time also at
the church.
«Tonika

For Tonika, who was already doing well in school academically, her mother’s orientation
toward supporting her sometimes-fleeting interests reinforced the orientation she had of
providing her own children with multiple “choices:”
. . .a lot of the choices, I don’t feel like my mother pushed us in any particular
direction uhm, which was good I think but gave us a lot of choices and examining
things, like I remember when I told her I was interested in computers you know
this was something that she didn’t know anything about nobody knew anything
about she was like find out some stuff on it and you know and you should really
pursue it if that’s what you want to do you’ve been thinking about this for a
couple of years so maybe you should really pursue it and that’s the kind of advice
she would give.
For Camille, her mother’s support of her extracurricular activities was more than just an
opportunity for choices, it was a chance to bolster her sense of self-esteem and self-worth
in a time when her community was struggling with issues of racism and prejudice. In her
interviews, Camille proudly recalled that her mother was “the first Black woman in our
community to drive a city bus.” Because she grew up in New York when “the race riots
were going on,” her mother wanted to impress upon her children the importance of doing
similar things:
. . . I took violin lessons. It didn’t matter with my mother about what we were
going to do, it was about the education and foreseeing some type of dream.
Because I remember at school, uhm, my mother was always there, like I said we
did violin lessons at the school, we did football practice, basketball practice, and it
wasn’t even the sport that you played or liked to play, it was just for making you

get into it so that you would be able to challenge things, you know, cause it
wasn’t a whole lot of us (Black people) doing all kinds of sorts of things like that.

67

Influences on Parental Involvement
Although not all the parents in this study came from homes that emphasized
traditional parental involvement like volunteering or helping with homework, most
parents explicitly talked of the value they placed on parental involvement, and they
reflected on their childhood experiences in order to formulate their understanding of how
they were involved in their children’s lives in the present and how they wanted to be
involved in the future.
One way in which parents provided “non-traditional” parental support for
their children’s education was through helping with childcare. Several women
interviewed for the study became pregnant during their last years of high school
and their parents were instrumental in helping them to achieve educational goals.
LaTrice was one of these women, and she talked about her resolve to finish
school and her mother’s support of her goals:
.. . three months after I had him (her oldest son) I found out I was pregnant with
my daughter and still I wouldn't quit. After I had her, I took both of them to
school with me, walkers and everything to night school. And, uh, it just made me
fight harder cuz I had to look at their faces and know that I had to take care of
them. ...And my mother was really good by that time. She always, she helped
me. She was like my backbone by then...And even now she's really a good person
and she helps me a lot when I'd come home at night, my mother would take the
kids, I'd do my homework. She always had dinner ready, you know...So that
made it wonderful, too. Wonderful.
Even when the parents interviewed for the study had parents who were not role models
for parent involvement, they recognized that their parents did the best job that they could
do in raising them and their siblings. As LaTonya says:
But, what I have come to realize in my age and time, uhm, I don’t she don’t even

realize it to this day just how strong she is because if you can overcome the things
that she did, you can be nothing but strong. I mean you can beat yourself up and

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feel sorry for yourself because you are still in a situation that you don’t want to be
in but yet look at what you come from.

While keeping their knowledge of their parents’ involvement practices in mind, parents
also strove to go beyond what their parents had done to stress the importance of
education. For example, Ron described his daily life while he and his family lived in Los
Angeles:

. . .I was under lock and key, let’s put it that way. I was surrounded by gangs

where I came from so we didn’t do a whole lot when I was in LA. because my

mother basically kept us isolated in the back yard and I think we were allowed to
go skating on Wednesdays nights and be home before dark and I think we were
allowed to go swimming Saturday mornings.

Because Ron’s mother and father both worked two jobs in order to support their
six children, they were not able to be very involved in the education of their children. As
a result, Ron recalled that his mother

. . .wanted us to go to school, but she pretty much really didn’t force you. But she

questioned you, how come you didn’t go to school. I would miss two or three

days some times. (Laugh, Laugh). She'd say “Didn’t you go to school,” because

she was working all of the time. She left before I went to school, you know.
Ron stressed “being different” than his parents were “as far as being involved” in his
children’s education, but he also expressed hesitancy about what this would look like. He
eventually settled on the perspective that through seeing him go back to school, and
through explicitly talking with his children (particularly his son) they would be able to
understand the importance that he attaches to the educational process. In reflecting on her
husband’s childhood, Jenay said that:

. . .his parents weren’t like that with him and I had my mother kind of pushing me

and there is really nobody pushing him but me and I do, I think, he’s opened up

his eyes to a lot of things because of me harping. . .but he just, he didn’t have the

support and stuff growing up that I had so I kind of know what I am supposed to
do where he kind of set out there, didn’t have anybody really doing it for him, so

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therefore, he doesn’t really know how to do it with ours. But he is learning. He’s
learning.

Carolyn, another Sheldonville parent, also discussed how she attempted to transcend the

messages that her parents gave her about “getting your education” and “doing good in
school” by taking her children “dreamingz”

My parents talked very openly and emphatically about the fact that getting an
education could be the key to how your life turns out, in what you are able to do
in your life. They were real emphatic about it but they weren’t real detailed.
They were just kind of broad statements. So I do the same emphasis with my
kids, but I try to break it down into operational pieces. . .I take them dreaming and
then I relate what they get goo-ga about on the dream trip to real dollars and
cents. . .F or instance, I take them to Whitrnore Lake and I say, these houses exist.
Now, if you like that kind of house and that is the kind of house you might want
one day, this is what it costs and this is what, of all the different professions they
told me they think, they like, this is what they make. So, that job would or would
not put that in reach for you. . .So, I get real concrete with them. They still don’t
understand the dollars, I mean they can’t conceptualize a quarter of a million
dollars, I don’t think. But maybe they can, okay, but I give them the figures and I
think over time, those kinds of dollars will have more like relevant meaning to
them. . .So I just talk to them about the salaries of the professions that they think
they want to do and just try to make it more real because my parents didn’t do
that. . .And then, I tried to talk about another thing as far as education and that’s
the fact that uhm, just how important leaning is and that you never should stop
learning and you should never let your mind close down to one set of ways of
thinking.

A Good Education is One That Connects Family and School in a Supportive Relationship

The third theme that parents discussed relative to the pursuit of a good education
for their children was the importance of family being connected to what happens in their
children’s schools. This theme was related to parent involvement, in that parents
explicitly placed importance on schools that welcomed the presence of parents and
encouraged them to be involved in what went on in their children's school. In discussing
what school characteristics are most successful in increasing the success of minority

students, Ladson-Billings (1994) and Habennan (1995) emphasize that schools and

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teachers should establish connections between themselves and the parents whose children
they serve. In support of this, in their reflections on their school experiences, parents in
the present study discussed ways in which the lines between family and school
environments were often indistinct when they were “coming up:”

.. .I remember school being fun because when we had, uhm, conferences. Our
conferences were like food rallies. The parents all brung food. You know, they
always interact with them and sometimes I might got picked up by my cousin or
sometimes I got picked up by Grandma, you know, but, uhm, school was a place
not only, where we were taught and being educated, but our family came. You
know what I am saying? I can look up and I can see my granddad or maybe my
grandmother being there or my uncle, or one of my cousins and I can see them
going on field trips. That is why I teach my, you know, I do that with my
daughter.--Pamela

The idea that schools should be welcoming to parents and families was an idea shared by
several parents. Rochelle, for example, cited the unwelcoming and distancing
environment of her son’s previous school as a main reason for disenrolling him:

. . .and then my mom stopped in, like I said, you know, for a visit, for one they
didn’t like any surprise visits at all. They wanted you to make an appointment or
something like that, always ahead of time. How do you know what’s really going
if you can’t, you can’t just stop by when you have a moment or if you are
wondering how your child or your grandchild is doing. I didn’t like that to begin
with. Uhm, another thing, when you, when you did come, you weren’t made to
feel welcome. Like, you know, you’re here, it is more of a bother and, uhm, I
never experienced that before. And my mom neither, like I said, she was in
schools all of the time with us, so like now why is, why is there a problem if I just
want to stop in and say hello and bring my child lunch or my grandchild lunch? I
I don’t need an appointment for all of this. I don’t see the reasoning. So, we had
quite a few disagreements and the teacher, the principal made a statement during
this one meeting that uhm, no matter what happened, she would always take the
teacher's word for it. And that just automatically did it, okay?

Heather: Did what?

Rochelle: You know, just took the cake. We were like, okay, I know my son’s
leaving here and he won’t be back.

In addition to showing a preference for schools that were “family-oriented,”

parents also discussed their preference for teachers who took a parent-like approach to

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interacting with children. For example, in her first interview, Sharmaine talked of adults
who demonstrated that they cared about her. One of these was her high school principal:

I don’t know why he took a liking to all of us, but he did. He knew that my
mother was a single mother raising us, he knew. Plus, Mr. Walker, he is the kind
of principal, like, say for instance, if you was in class and you left your homework
at home or you left something at home and you needed a ride home, and you
don’t have a ride home and it is snowing outside and you don’t have no boots,
he’d take you home. He was that kind of a person, he’d take you home if you
needed a ride. He’d come pick you up so you don’t be sick and you don’t miss
school.

As a teacher’s aide in her daughter’s Head Start, Sharmaine did not separate her role as a
parent from the activities she was involved in during her volunteer time. As a result, she

described how children within the program (and one child in particular) came to see her

as a parental figure:

Martin loved me. He did, because he saw me one time, Tamara was acting up, I
couldn’t take it, I whupped her at school. I took her in the bathroom and I
whupped her and Martin, I took Tamara and Martin to the bathroom, Martin went
into the boys bathroom and Tamara went into the girls bathroom, that’s when I
spanked her, you know, and he was like “woo,” “Martin, Ms. Sharmaine is going
to watch you okay,” and he was like “okay.” “Are you going to be good?” “yeah,
I’ll be good.” And it is like, anybody else, nap time, Martin wouldn’t lay down,
his feet would be up in the air, he would be kicking the walls, hitting the wall,
hitting the floor, anything to keep the other kids woke. I walked in the class and I
said Martin “what are you doing,” “nothin , nothing, nothing Ms. Sharmaine.”
He would lay down there and go to sleep.

Arletta, in describing Miss. Campbell, Gena’s teacher, also conveyed the idea that it was

important for teachers to have, and draw on their knowledge of interacting with children

as parents:

Miss Campbell understands about children, you know, raising children. Miss
Stone don't have any kids. So when you, you can't tell me, like they say. . .don’t
tell me til you walk in my shoes. When it come to raising kids, no, you can't read
a book about it. ...You can't watch a movie about it, you got to have that first
hand experience to know what it’s like and what you have to do.

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Although more than half of the parents interviewed considered it to be positive when
teachers were able to relate to, and treat children as if they were “their own,” a few
parents with children enrolled at Umoja Shule were not comfortable with the indefinite
boundaries between teacher behavior and parental behavior. Their comments were often
grounded in references to specific situations that involved discipline of children. Valinda,
for example, mentioned that she “should have been asked” about her opinion before her
son was penalized for misbehaving. Jenay also voiced opposition to “paren ” approach
that teachers at the school took, saying that:
Jenay. . .the way they talk to the kids is like my mother tells me she hears teachers
“you sit your butt down, and blah, blah blah”. That’s how parents talk to kids and
that is not to say what is right, but when you go to school, you need to know how
to deal with, you know, children.
Heather: Do you think they consider themselves to be like parents to the kids?
Jenay: Well, to a certain extent, because of what they call them. I guess in Africa
or wherever they call mother or father’s baba or whatever, they do, but they are
not. They are teachers and there is a difference, you know, in the way students
relate to them and the way they relate to their parents. And to, the way they relate
to the students. I don’t think they teach, they treat their students the way they
would treat their children. I don’t know. I don’t know how they treat their kids,
but, you don’t get paid to take care of your kids. That is something that you have
to do. They are getting paid to do what they do. So.
For the most part, however, parents seemed to appreciate teachers who were responded to
their students as a parent would, and they appreciated being a part of a school
environment in which they felt comfortable “dropping in.”
A Good Education Addresses the Impact of Culture and Race on the Education Process
Race continues to be a defining factor in the lives of many African Americans.
Recent studies polling Afiican Americans on the issue of race have found that most still

believe that America has an unresolved race problem, and that their lives are directly

affected by their membership in a minority group (Tuch, Sigelman, & MacDonald, 1999).

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The parents in my study also agreed that race is still an “issue,” and they held very
specific ideas about the meaning of race in their lives and the lives of their children. In
their interviews, parents talked these meanings, both how they were developed and how
these meanings related to their definitions of a good education for their children. In this
section, I discuss, their reflections on the importance of race in their own past schooling
experiences and their ideas about how a good education should address race in relation to
the specific needs of Black children.
Race and Parents’ Past School Exmriences
For the most part, parents’ reflections on their experiences with issues of race
were discussed as a part of their schooling experiences. These memories related to how
parents developed their understanding of being identified as “different” from their peers
in some way. Jenay for example, discussed the ways in which she felt ostracized by her
Black peers, as the result of growing up in a neighborhood that was predominantly
White:
But in the fourth grade, I guess is ...when I really saw a difference. I was being
treated different. You know I wasn’t included in these groups but I couldn’t be in
this group, you know. We grew up in a, we were the only first Blacks on our
street. So I grew up around Whites, so, even to this day, you know, I get the "you
talk too proper. You talk White," and all that and it started way back then and it
has followed me all along.
Valinda and Tricia, on the other hand, talked of the impact of being one of few Blacks in
their schools. Tricia recalled, with bittersweet humor, her first day of school at her
predominantly White Catholic school:
They had these conversations like I wasn’t even there the first couple of weeks. I
went in there, had a uniform, it was a brown and white. I had my books and I
remember standing there. I had my hair in this pony tail, I looked just like

Mickey Mouse and I happened to have my hair all pressed and everything. I was
all clean and shiny and I just stood there with my arms, you know, full of folders

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and stuff. They all knew each other coming back from vacation and they were all
happy. Having a private conversation and it was just me. I didn’t know anybody
and they were like, “wow, who’s that.” You know, they weren’t talking directly
to me is why I didn’t answer. “Oh, she doesn’t saying anything. I think she’s a
mute.” I remember some kid saying that. “I don’t think she knows how to talk.”
They weren’t talking to me, they were talking about me. I didn’t say anything
back to them...

For Valinda, the insensitivity of her classmates and experience of being in a
predominantly White school environment left her with feelings of low self-esteem and
questions about her identity:

. . .And I was always the only Black. If there was another Black, I was the only
Black girl and there was a Black boy. . .I enjoyed the school but I was always
made to feel very bad about who I was. Because I was Black I was called burnt
toast and actually had a real bad complex—wanted to be a White girl. . .so that’s
what I remember most about elementary school. . .Just going to school with no one
who was like me was sufficient enough. I mean, they were friendly enough when
they wanted to be but when they chose to be very mean they could be very mean.
And there were plenty of times that I was made to feel very bad about the fact that
I was Black. . .I do recall feeling that having long hair was better. And that being
light was better. I do remember those feelings.

Other parents, like Koretta and Patricia, talked about the difficulty of being perceived as
not a member of either their Black peer group or their White one. As a light-skinned
Black woman, Koretta relates how this was an aspect of her life in school:
And the White girls didn’t like me because uhm, I guess I looked mixed and the
Black girls didn’t like me because I guess they thought I was mixed. And or vice
versa. I was too Black for the Whites or too White for the Blacks, so, I just said
forget it.
For other parents, who were members of more integrated school communities, the
knowledge that others perceived them as different developed through situations that,
although subtle, left lasting impressions. In reflecting on his elementary school

experiences, Jeremy relayed a playground experience that he remembered “vividly” and

thinks about “about once a week:”

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when I started kindergarten uh, and this was like a racial thing, not that all my
memories are racial but this White girl came up to me at the slide and said you are
the cutest little colored boy I’ve ever seen (laughter) and uh I remember just
thinking I was like wow why did she say that, that colored, that little colored
thing, it sounds like a great way to open a movie or something. (laughter) Uhm,
so that was you know again I think it’s related again to my introduction of these
kind of different worlds you know like Black kids like kids in situations like kinda
where we grew in very subtly introduced to prejudice you know you know it’s
like no one telling you anything but you really get (Tonika: you can figure it out)
you get indoctrinated in it pretty quickly.

In a similar fashion, Tonika recalls one of the first times she had the realization that an
elementary school friend thought of her as “different”
.. .her name was Tonya my name was Tonika. . .and we were best friends I mean
we were just like this (crosses fingers) all the time at school and I remember one
time her coming up to me and I don’t know patting me on the head, something
very patronizing and we were probably only in the second or third grade but I
recognized it as patronizing you know I didn’t know-I couldn’t put a word on it or
anything but it made me feel, she said some she made some off handed comment
to me like uh a compliment like uh you know you know even though you’re
Black I really like you. . .and I remember thinking oh that’s really nice and then I
thought no that’s not so nice (laughter) you know. . .and then it dawned on me that
there was something weird about this. . .and I was ambivalent towards her after
Jeremy and Tonika’s experiences resonated with other parents as well. For example,
Carolyn talked of the subtle ways in which some members of her gifted classes were
noninclusive and distant towards her, the only Black person in the class. Across parents,
however, feelings of being different, or the identification of people who thought of one as
different were most often discussed by parents who interacted with people from both
predominantly Black and predominantly White social environments. In addition to racial
situations affecting parents’ perceptions of themselves as individuals, these situations
also effected their evaluations of the overall quality of their educational experiences.
Specifically, many parents held the perception that schools for Whites and schools for

Blacks were not of equal quality. In fact, for the parents who attended Catholic schools,

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this was given as a main reason for their parents’ decision to enroll them in a Catholic
school. In talking about the differences between her predominantly White Catholic

school, and her predominantly Black public school experiences, Tracy also discussed the
idea that schools for Whites and schools for Blacks were not of equal quality:

My other elementary school where it was more, ah, what can I say? If you go to,
which is bad, but that is just the way it is. If you go to an elementary school where
there is all White people or an elementary school where there is all Black people,
you know what I mean, they didn’t push you as much here in the Black school. I
think my parents might have seen that so, therefore, when it was time to graduate
from the school, I graduated from the school in the sixth grade, but they are like it

is time for seventh grade, I went to a private school.
LaTonya referenced the idea that it wasn’t necessarily just the fact that Catholic schools
were private, but that Catholic schools had a majority of White students enrolled in them:
But, I had a girlfriend who was putting her son in a private school, but since she

moved to the suburbs she went ahead and put him their public school because
their public schools are better, you know. They have more things available to

them. It’s like their birth given right to have and it’s like, our, I want to say right,
by birth we have to struggle.
Like other parents, LaTonya expressed her conviction about doing whatever it took in
order to provide her children with a quality education, despite the negative sanctions of
other Blacks who perceived her decision to enroll her child in predominantly White
schools as a negative thing:
A lot of people would say things like, you know, being Black is always like, if
you mix with a lot of Whites, something is wrong with you. I only want what is
offered and available to me. And what ever the best is. And in certain situations,
Whites have it the best. That’s just the way it is. So, that’s what I want. I want
the best. You know, I want the best education for my kids. I want my kids
reading early. I want my kids on computers early, all those types of things.
Rochelle expressed similar sentiments in her discussion about why she chose Orange City

Academy for her son, Charles:

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I feel that a lot of our children, especially Black children, aren't exposed to that at
such an early age especially, you know, you go to some of the other schools and
they might be predominantly White and there are so many things that they offer.
You are kind of in awe, at the same time, you are kind of disappointed because
why don't our children have that same opportunity?
Race and Parent’s Definitions of a Good Education
Through their own experiences and their observations of their children’s school
experiences, Camille, Jenay, Ron, Jeremy, Tonika, Rochelle, Arletta, Patricia, Pamela,
Tracy, Daphne, Koretta , Valinda and Carolyn defined a good education as one that
would take their child’s culture and ethnicity into consideration, socially and/or
academically. Socially, parents were concerned about the effect that being a part of
predominantly White classrooms with White teachers would have on their children’s
development. Further, parents were concerned with the extent to which White teachers
could effectively teach and understand Black children. As Camille eloquently stated,
“Black children have to have a special kind of love.” She went on to say that:
they gotta be, they gotta be with the kind that their momma and daddy’s know
how to talk and know how to deal with them and that was my main focus. I never
really knew what Umoja, really what their foundation was going to be like, but I
knew that if it had a majority of Black teachers, Black parents, and Black children
that were going there, that that was one thing that was in my favor, because he
was going to be where he was not going to be disciplined, but knew how to act. . .
Rochelle also conveyed the idea that having her son, Charles, exposed to having Black
teachers was important, because, as she said, “I wanted my child to be exposed, to hey,
maybe one day that could be me teaching the class and he never saw that at that school.”
Rochelle perceived Orange City Academy to be “Black-operated” and “focused on

children of color,” whereas her son’s previous school had “no Black teachers, no Black

subs, no Black principals, nothing.”

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Although Camille and Rochelle addressed issues of race by talking specifically of
their desire for their children to be taught by Black teachers, other parents talked of more
subtle cultural differences in the way that their children interacted with teachers who
were White and teachers who were Black. Through their description of two teachers at
Orange City Academy, Arletta and her granddaughter, Gena, discussed the almost
imperceptible ways that cultural background can influence the interactions between
students and a teacher. Miss Stone, who was White, was a “sometimes nice” teacher,
while Miss Campbell, who was Black, was perceived as being nice “all the time”, but
also a disciplinarian. The following exchange took place in an interview with Arletta in
which Gena joined the conversation through describing her “best” and “worst teachers.
When I asked Arletta and Gena to elaborate on what made Miss Campbell one of Gena’s
“best teachers,” Arletta said:

I don't know. She just, I mean, there's some people you just click with and there's
some you don't. You know, and Miss Campbell was just one. She has
complained about every teacher she had but Miss Campbell. ...And I don't know,
and all of them was White but Miss Campbell. I don't know. . .

At this point, Gena interjected with further explanation:

Gena: It’s because I want all my teachers to be like Miss Campbell, it’s because
Miss Campbell, she was nice...Miss Campbell, she would, like if we was, uhm,
singing like in the recess, Miss Campbell, she wouldn't say notlrin'. She'd say,
"You girls singin or whatever." But Miss Stone, Miss Howard, she would just
say, "Ya'll need to stop singing right now because ya'll not outside." And we not
even be singin real loud. ...And then everybody start laughing and me and my
friends--cuz it's like just a group of us. ...It's like me, Nicole, Najah, Kris, Rashad
and Lester and Rahmal. And we all close friends and stuff. And we'd be over
there singing "You’re my Little Secret" or something like that and then she'll just
say, Miss Campbell if we was in her class and we was singing with her, she
wouldn't say notlrin', she'd say, "Ya'll good singers." But if we wan in Miss
Campbell’s class, my teacher she would say, "Well, you, ya'll need to stop singing
cuz you're not outside." And then we'd just stop singing and then we'd just be
mad at her for the rest of the day.

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Contained in Arletta’s observation that Gena had a connection with Miss Campbell that
was not present in her relationships with her other White teachers, and in Gena’s
description of the differences in interactions between she, her friends, Miss Campbell and
Miss Stone, is evidence of the ways in which cultural differences can erect barriers to
understanding. It was these barriers to which Camille and other parents referred when
they spoke of the importance of having their children taught by Black teachers.

In addition to the social and relational aspects of a good education for Black
children, parents were also concerned about the impact of race on their children’s
academic development. Ron, in particular, wanted his son to have Black teachers. When
asked why this was important to him, he stated that “We knew for sure that Black
teachers are helping the kids learn and I think in the back of our minds we don’t think our
children in public schools get a fair shake.” Himself a past high school athlete and a
victim of social promotion, Ron voiced his concern that “they (White teachers) tend to
help, I don’t know the foundation on this, but they tend to help them (White children)
before they help us. . .They might, you know, they kind of push us through grades and
once you get out of the twelfth grade, you don’t know nothing.”

In relation to academics, other parents talked about the importance of providing
their children with access to a curriculum that included knowledge of their cultural
heritage. As Jenay, Ron’s wife, said it was important to have access to “Black heritage”
because “they will at least know that they are somebody too and they come from great
people and have a lot of good things to offer just like the next person.” Camille, one of

the older parents in the study, talked of how it was important to her that her son’s school

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recapture some of the educational experiences that she had as a young child that related
to Black culture:

. . .We weren't talking about Jack and Jill going up the hill. You know, we were
taught Black stories. and you know, that is something why I like Umoja, because,
uhm, they were Black teachers who were there and they taught us back when they
were growing up and, you know, Ms. Mary Mack, you know, all dressed in Black.
When Ms. Mary Mack was really Black and all dressed in Black, you know, they
emphasized and they taught us stories like that. But it was no jack be nimble, jack
be quick. You know, when we went to school, and we jumped jump rope, it was
about Black, Black learning.

While Camille reminisced about the kinds of schooling experiences that she was exposed
to as a child, Koretta’s desire to have her son’s curriculum include Black heritage came
from her realization that although Catholic schools did not teach her anything about

Black people, public schools were no different:

One example stands out more than any, I had a, uhm advanced comp teacher that
read Huckleberry F inn and also made us watch a movie of the The Natural with
Robert Redford. And, being an individual that had just come from Catholic
school, had dealt with White folks all her life, it burned me to pieces to have to
deal with two, you know, authors and actors in, in, in times where there were
great Black baseball players and, and, and excellent crop growers, or whatever.
You know, back in those times. They were Black. And you know, this man he
just kept on the, the, the, you know, the White author. Shakespeare and
everything, and I am like where is all the Black people at? I came to high school,
the public school to learn about my folks. Because they didn’t teach us nothing
(in Catholic school). The only thing we learned about our Black people is what
our parents taught us. And my parents are entrepreneurs. And, you know, they
don’t, on the Black level, deal with Black folks every day. Well, here I go from
this Catholic White school to this public Black school and here goes the same
Catholic teachers, you know, teachers teaching the “White thing.”

In sum, parents wanted their children to have an education that was socially
affirming and inclusive of Black heritage and history (and, if possible, inclusive of other
cultures as well.) These ideas were important both because of parents’ own experiences

and their current observations of their children’s learning. In other words, as Koretta said,

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. . .my son will not live through what I have lived through. He will not be exposed

to what I have been exposed to as far as education. His education is going to be,

and that is why I chose Umoja, warm and enjoyable. And he is going to know

about his people. Unlike mine, which was cold, unenjoyable, and I didn’t know

nothing about Black people.

Conclusion

Even though each of these parents has a unique experience and a different story,
the commonalities emerging from this group of Black parents' definitions of a good
education are important, not only in their own right but also in the way these definitions
connect to what researchers have learned about the effective education of Black children.
Overwhelrningly, none of the parents in this study were content with the notion that their
children would just "do all right" in school; they wanted their children to excel. In pursuit
of this goal, each parent had specific ideas about what a " good education" involved.
Parents’ overarching definitions included (a) challenging academic programs with caring
and committed teachers, (b) parent involvement in their children's education (though
involvement was itself defined in a variety of ways), (c) a connected relationship between
families and schools, and (d) a sensitivity to the ways that race and culture impacted the
schooling experiences of their children. These definitions were created through the sense
they made of their own school experiences, intertwined with their perceptions of their
children's school experiences and the academic and social goals they had for their
children.

The parents of this study not only shared common definitions of a good education
with each other, but with the many Black parents before them who sought alternatives to

the public schools their children had been given. As long as there has been formal

education for Black children, Black parents have wanted their children to be

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academically successful, and they have selected a variety of schooling options in order to
provide their children with better opportunities for academic success. Whether through
funding segregated Black schools out of their own pockets (Walker, 1996); through
sacrifices (monetary or time) incurred to send their children to Catholic schools
(Slaughter & Johnson, 1988) or through becoming involved in independent, Afrocentric
schools (Shujaa, 1994), Black parents have consistently sought to establish relationships
between themselves and their children's schools, they have searched for caring and
committed teachers, and they have spoken out for curricula that includes explicit teaching
and learning about race and culture. With this history in mind, the analysis detailed in this
chapter explicitly acknowledges the connection of the parents interviewed to their
predecessors through shared ideas about what a good education should involve.
Additionally, the parents' definitions of a good education resonate with what
educational researchers have said about the elements of an educational experience that
meets the needs of Black children—calls for challenging curricula (Mehan, 1997), caring
teachers (Noddings, 1992), more sensitive efforts at including parents in their children's
education (Lareau & Horvat, 1999), and more culturally relevant teaching practices
(Ladson-Billings, 1994) echo the ideas expressed by the parents interviewed for this
study. In an age in which desegregation and integration efforts have often been deemed
less successful than originally hoped (F ailer, Harvey, & Hochschild, 1996), the high
degree of congruence between parents' definitions of a good education and researchers'
recommendations draws attention both to the continuing struggle of traditional public
schools to provide a good education for Black children and to the potential of charter

schools to do a better job of helping parents in this struggle. Though test scores have not

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yet shown charter schools to be better at educating Black children, the parents
interviewed for the present study indicated that they were pleased, for the most part, with
their children's current academic progress after having been enrolled in Umoja Shule and
Orange City Academy.

However, while parents were satisfied with their charter school's ability to firlfill
their definitions of a good education, the analysis presented in this chapter also poses
some challenges for educators and researchers working in charter schools and traditional
public schools. The first challenge arises from how the parents of this study have
characterized a good education. Many parents verbalized fairly traditional ideas about
what a good education should look like. From their opposition to children “just playing”
in Head Start and preschool classrooms, to preferences for teachers who are
disciplinarians and the sole authority in the classroom, parents expressed their desire for
their children’s schools to be similar to what they themselves experienced as students.
Though many charter schools fit the “back-to-basics” curricular format that many parents
identified in their definitions of a good education, these same ideas run counter to many
of the “progressive” reforms being attempted in public schools. The challenge then, is to
initiate dialogue with Black parents about the similarities and differences between their
ideas of a good education and the ideas of the teachers and administrators who are
directly involved in their children’s education.

Another challenge to educators that surfaces in the analysis of these parents'
definitions of a good education relates to how parents described favorable relationships
between teachers, parents, and students. Specifically, both Theme Two (A Good

Education Involves One’s Parents) and Theme Three (A Good Education Connects

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Families and Schools Together in Support of Children) supports close collaboration
between parents and teachers and the idea that teachers should function as parental
figures for students. Obvious tensions exist as a result of these ideas; though parents may
want these types of relationships exist between themselves, their children and their
children’s teachers, teachers may either be unwilling or unable to take this approach with
parents and children. These tensions were first outlined by Lightfoot (1978), in her
writing about the relationships between parents and their children; and teachers and their
students. Specifically, Lightfoot discussed the idea that parents, in seeking a good
education for their children, prefer that their children be seen as individuals and treated as
such. This particularistic orientation is a product of parents' own relationships with their
children. However, because of the nature of their jobs, Lightfoot illustrates the ways in
which teachers must think about the welfare of the group of children that they teach,
rather than the unique needs of individual children. Especially in calling for more
teachers who interact with students in ways that a parental figure might, the parents of
this study place a tall order.

The last challenge to educators presented by parents’ definitions of a good
education is apparent when one moves away from the commonalities in their definitions
to recognize that each parent brings different set understandings to their
conceptualization of a “good education.” Though the commonalities in definitions of a
good education originated from the combined influence of personal experiences and
practical considerations, these personal experiences and practical considerations also
produced variation in the foci of parents. For example, though parents agreed that they

wanted their children to be academically successful, some parents were able to articulate

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more specifically what was involved in their definitions of academic success; while
Korretta explicitly described the ways that she wanted teachers to present curricular
content to her niece, LaTrice was unable to go beyond saying that it was the “learning”
that her child received that was important to her. Other parents, like Ron, did not come
from families in which parents were integral to the educational experiences of their
children, and he voiced uncertainty about how he would be involved in his children's
education. VaLinda also did not have parents that were especially involved in her life,
though they made the decision to enroll her in a private school, consequently, she talked
only vaguely about how she was involved in her children’s education.

Perhaps the most explicit “deviation” in individual parents’ ideas about a good
education related to Theme Four - A Good Education Addresses the Impact of Culture
and Race on the Schooling of Black Children. Parents at Umoja Shule and Orange City
Academy stated that they had concerns about whether the treatment their children
received from White teachers was fair, and they discussed their desire to have their
children taught about the history and heritage of Black people. However, in discussing
the reactions of friends and family to their decision to enroll their children in Umoja
Shule, Koretta, Daphne, and J enay commented on the fact that they did not send their
children to the school so that they could become “militant,” “power to the people type
kids.” These comments placed them in direct opposition to the beliefs of the founder and
principal of the school. Given the differences in opinion between these parents and
Wanda Howard, it is clear that communication between administrators, teachers and
parents is as needed in charter schools as in traditional public schools. In summary, the

analysis provided in this chapter points to increasing need for proactive dialogue between

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Black families and the schools which serve their children, charter or otherwise. In the
next chapter, the narratives of several parents are more closely analyzed in order to
highlight the ways that the themes discussed in this chapter are present in their decisions

to enroll their children in charter schools.

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CHAPTER FIVE: A NARRATIVE ANALYSIS OF FIVE PARENTS' SEARCH
FOR A GOOD EDUCATION

Introduction

In exploring how parents described the process of selecting a charter school, it
quickly became clear that most parents did not conceptualize their decision in terms of a
linear, "start-to-finish" process. Although there were similarities in the ways parents
gained information about potential schools-—flyers; newspaper, radio, television, and
billboard advertisements; word of mouth; school visits—parents' discussions of their
choices were characterized by rememberances of situation-specific events and their
particular ideas about a good education. Within the open-ended interviews about their
decisions, parents gave stories about themselves and their children, talked about ideals
and goals, and referenced information sources relevant to their selection of a charter
school. The variation in the information parents chose to share was also reinforced by the
fact that parents and their children "came from" different places before arriving at Umoja
Shule and Orange City Academy. Some parents decided to enroll their children in a
charter school after preschool, others transferred their children from public schools to
charter schools, and some parents transferred their children from private or magnet
schools to charter schools.

Thus, due to the nature of the responses parents gave, what was gained was not a
picture of the broad process that all parents went through in selecting a charter school for
their children. Rather, a finely nuanced understanding of the ways in which the themes
discussed in the last chapter come into play was developed. Additionally, through closely
examining parents' narratives about their choice, I came to better understand what types

of environments, people, and schools parents saw as most able to provide their children

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with a good education. In order to highlight how themes of a good education were
represented in parents' choices, and how parents constructed their ideas about a good
education, five parents were selected as the focus of the present chapter—Jeremy and
Tonika”, LaTonya, Patricia and Pamela.

The five parents were selected in order to represent diversity both in the content
of their narratives and in the representation of the themes discussed in the last chapter.
Secondarily, parents were chosen to represent the demographic variation present in the
group of parents that was interviewed. Of the five parents, LaTonya and Pamela were
born, raised and currently live in Orange City; Patricia was born in Sheldonville but spent
time in other states because of her father's military career; and Jeremy and Tonika
currently live in Sheldonville, although they grew up in states outside of Michigan.
Though all of the parents were educated in public schools, One parent (LaTonya) has had
experience with private schools through the enrollment of her son in a private Christian
school. LaTonya has a high school diploma, Pamela and Patricia have undergraduate
degrees, and Jeremy and Tonika have graduate degrees. Pamela and Patricia have one
child, while LaTonya, and Jeremy and Tonika have three children.

For each of the parents discussed in this chapter, I begin with a description of the
parent and the setting within which their interviews took place, and I discuss the defining
elements (Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach, & Zibler, 1998) of each parents' story as derived

fi'om the analysis of the narratives”. I then present an analysis of their narratives,

 

'2 Jeremy and Tonika’s narratives are analyzed as one since they were married and
interviewed as a couple.

'3 This is consistent with the "holistic-content" approach to analyzing narratives
presented by Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach, & Zibler

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focusing specifically on how these parents' ideas about a good education were
represented in these narratives.
Jeremy and Tonika

Jeremy, 39, and Tonika, 38, were an academic couple who had recently relocated
to the Sheldonville area after receiving jobs at a local university. Their oldest child, Jada,
was in junior high at the time of their interviews, while their sons Kofi (five years old)
and Malik (four years old) were both enrolled at Umoja Shule. Both Jeremy and Tonika
had grown up in the Midwest, although not in Michigan. After meeting in college and
marrying, they had lived in Illinois while pursuing graduate degrees. Additionally, before
coming to Sheldonville, Jeremy and Tonika spent two years teaching in Mozambique.
This experience seemed to have had a profound impact on both of them, particularly
Jeremy, who translated this experience into a focus on providing his children with
exposure to diverse experiences. Jeremy and Tonika had been married for fourteen years
at the time of our interviews and they were both strongly invested in the idea of Black
people in America as members of the African Diaspora and an international community
of people of color. Consistent with this, they talked about their interest in starting a
business which had as its focus the creative dissemination of various art forms related to
the experiences of Black people throughout the Diaspora.

Over the phone, we agreed to do our first interview at Tonika’s office on campus.
I arrived at her office the next day; it was in various states of disarray due to her ongoing
work of organizing an extensive library of resources relating to her field, computer
science. While we waited for Jeremy, Tonika cleared a space for me and we talked about

the university and her own doctoral work, which she was hoping to “wrap up” within the

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semester. Jeremy arrived shortly, having grabbed lunch between teaching and our
scheduled appointment.
Defining Elements of Jeremy and Tonika's Stopy

Central to Jeremy and Tonika's story was the balance between Tonika's role as a
detail-oriented pragmatist and Jeremy's role, as he jokingly described it, as "the emotional
idealist, damn it! " Through these roles they affirmed and finished each others sentences
while taking turns providing both the details and the emotional context surrounding their
decision to enroll their sons at Umoja Shule. Jeremy often fiarned his comments in terms
of feelings--"we were really happy with that day care, "I just felt very comfortable," "I
felt very good about having them in there;" while Tonika gave the details—numbers,
considerations, chain of events «around what they experienced during their search.

Jeremy and Tonika's narrative reflection on their daughter and sons' previous day
care grounded their ideas about a good education. As a university-run "lab school,"
Pullman had "lots of adults" and "professional teachers," and it was described by Tonika
as a school that "people signed up to get into while they were pregnant," while Jeremy
termed it "exceptional." In their story, both parents saw the school as a foundation for
what they wanted to find for their sons in Sheldonville.
Jeremy and Tonika's Stogy: Multicultural Half-Stepping

Jeremy and Tonika began their story by talking about their desire to have both of
their sons in the same environment, both for “convenience” and because “they had
always been in school together:”

...we figured us moving to a new place, it would make them both feel more secure

if they knew that they were, you know, one could see the other periodically

throughout the day. We knew we couldn't get them in the, we didn't think we
could have them in the, a school together all day but we thought Kofi would be in

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kindergarten and that he would come over to, we had actually signed him up for

Sheldonville Recreation, uhm, Day Care Center. And so, you know, he could be

there after school and Malik would be there for the whole day.—Tonika
Jeremy and Tonika found out about the Day Care Center “just by asking people,”
“investigation,” talking with “...people we worked with. People that we ran into. Real
estate agents.” Jeremy also talked about looking in the phone book and getting
information flour a “referral service.” In considering different options, Jeremy and
Tonika made it clear that it was important to them that they go “look at the place.” As
with several other parents, money was an important consideration for Jeremy and Tonika,
in addition to convenience, the potential for their sons to be "together" for part of the day;
and the extent to which the educational environment was going to be an integrated
setting:

Made our down payment. We couldn't get it back. Our registration fee or

whatever. And so we signed them up over there and, uh, Kofi would be going

there half a day and Malik would be going whole day. And we went around the

center, we talked to the people and we would have been happy there. It was

majority White. I mean like, you know, there, it seemed to be only two or three

Black kids at the center and I didn't see any others—Tonika
In recounting their initial impressions of Sheldonville Day Care, a question posed by
Jeremy provoked a detailed description of Pullman, their children's previous day care in
Oak Park, Illinois. This narrative was the focal point in their interview and was
significant in determining what kinds of schools they thought could provide their children
with a good education:

Jeremy: What did one of the kids say about the first time when we went to visit?

Tonika: Kofi or Malik?

Jeremy: Yeah, it seemed like somebody, like one of them didn't like it.

Tonika: Maybe Malik. Yeah, I don't remember why, maybe cuz the playground

didn't look like his playground at Pullman.
Jeremy: Yeah.

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Tonika: They got really nice playgrounds, they got really a nice school in Oak
Park.

Jeremy: Yeah, in Oak Park.

Tonika: Even though there were only a couple of Black kids in the class. They
had a lot of lab teachers. They have Black lab teachers. They had, they had, uhm,
Asian kids in the class. Maybe one or two, wasn't a lot.

Jeremy: Mm hm.

Tonika: I can't think of their having Indian kids this past year.

Jeremy: But we were really happy with that day care. I mean it was exceptional.
Tonika: Yeah.

Jeremy: I thought it was exceptional. . .it was a teaching, it was a lab, it was
actually a lab teaching school...

Tonika: Mh hm.

Jeremy: For the university.

Tonika: So there were a ton of adults.

Jeremy: Lots of

Tonika: They had the two professional teachers.

Jeremy: Master teachers.

Tonika: Master teachers and then students were in there all the time...so the
students, the kids, the preschoolers had a lot of one-on-one attention.

Jeremy: A lot of attention...a lot of attention.

Tonika: And, you know, they did lesson plans.

Jeremy: Mh hm.

Tonika: I mean it was really, they were doing bugs for a month. They would have
bugs laid out. And take field trips where they'd go out and get stuff. They read
books about bugs, I mean they really, uhm, more about the whole development of
the kid...

Jeremy: Right. ...So on that side it was very much structured. Uhm, and, you
know, that's what I really liked about it...The structure that they had, you know,
in place, their goals and everything. So you know it wasn't about a kid just like
kind of getting lost in the shuffle.

Tonika: Or watching TV.

Jeremy: Or watching, yeah, none of that stuff. It was a learning environment.
Tonika: Uhm, huhm.

Jeremy: And the kids, and the kids, I mean that's the main thing. The kids
enjoyed it, you know.

The experience that Kofi and Malik (and Jada, who also attended Pulhnan as a young

child) had at Pullman served as a foundation for Jeremy and Tonika’s thinking about

what was possible to obtain in a number of ways. Pullman was “a lab school,” in which

the teachers were “master teachers.” And, although it was “expensive as hell,” the price

was worth it because of the time and attention given to their sons, and the quality of the

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experience they received while there. Jeremy used the words “comfortable and safe” to
describe his son’s experience at Pullman. When asked to elaborate, he said:

Comfortable and safe about leaving them there. Comfortable and safe about the
attention they were getting. Comfortable and safe about just about everything...
You know, I just, just really I felt very good about having them in there. And so,
you know, whenever I start grumbling about the money, it always would come
down to that.

However, Pullman also served to ground Jeremy and Tonika’s thinking in another way. It
was clear through their descriptions that Pullman was not as “diverse” as they would have
liked it to be, and when they arrived in Sheldonville, they had hoped that their son’s next
school would be more diverse and not as “majority White” as Pullman had been:

I was actually a little disappointed to be truthful when I looked at Sheldonville
Elementary and when I looked at Sheldonville Day Care. We would've ok,
coming out of Oak Park I felt like we were going back into Oak Park again in
some respect. And like he said, we came here to a city that had higher Black
population, so I just thought it was going to be, you know, at least a quarter of the
kids or half the kids Black or I don't know, it was going to be more than what they
had—Tonika

When asked why it was important to them that their children's school have more Black
students than in Oak Park, Jeremy and Tonika answered final two different perspectives.
While Jeremy emphasized the importance of kids being able "to see other people like
themselves," Tonika emphasized how she thought it was critical that children be in an
environment in which they wouldn't be "singled out:"

For you to feel like like you're a just part of the scenery. You know, you don't
stand out and other kids aren't going to point you out and teachers aren't going to
point you out, you know. And I guess it can happen even in the schools that are
maybe the majority Black or half Black if you have White teachers, they still
could stigmatize the Black kids. I guess it could happen anywhere. Actually a
friend told me about an incident with her kid, a Nigerian friend of mine whose kid
had gone to Sheldonville Elementary and how her son and a couple other little
Black boys in the class, maybe two or three of them were kind of, uhm, targeted
by the teacher, you know. This was when he was in third or fourth grade, or
maybe fourth or fifth, but still I thought about that kind of stuff and I didn't want

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my kids to get into, uhm, ever, I hope they, ah, they will have to face it one day
unfortunately. But that didn't make me feel comfortable...to know that they could
be singled out.
In addition to feeling disappointed that there was not more student diversity at
Sheldonville Elementary, Tonika and Jeremy also voiced concerns that, like their
daughter's previous school, the school seemed limited in their conceptions of
multicultural education:
Tonika: You know, like you’d have the history and then you’d have these gray
boxes with Native American history or with Afro-American history or with
Chinese-American in the little gray boxes. Which means you may or may not
read that, it’s your choice. ...It’s not part of the real text. ...It’s the sub-text, you
know. ...So it’s very implicit in what in how that’s interpreted by kids.
Jeremy: Truly marginalized.

As a result of their disillusionment about the lack of diversity of the Sheldonville school
and day care, Tonika and Jeremy investigated two other charter schools, both of which
did not to fit their conceptions of what a good education should "look like." Jeremy
described the first as "kind of lock-step and rigid," and Tonika described the other as
focusing on "filling out worksheets" and she "just wasn't impressed." Umoja Shule was
their last option—but it also presented some concerns for Jeremy and Tonika. In
particular, although it had an African-centered curriculmn, Jeremy was very conscious of
the ways in which it failed to be as "multicultural" as its brochure stated. Additionally,
Jeremy had fears about the students who were being enrolled at Umoja Shule:

I was also concerned about the school being, not a dumping ground, but it being a,

it being a place where kids who had been, uh, who had troubles in other schools,

you know, kicked out or other troubles getting into, coming into Umoja. So, in fact, I
wanted to know the, you know, I wanted, I know this seems kind of very classist, but

I wanted to know the mix of kind of families there. And how many kids kind of came
from that kind of situation into the school.

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When asked why this was important to him Jeremy responded by saying "...You
know, if the kids hang out with the high achievers they are going to do all right,
you know?" After Jeremy had a chance to speak with the principal and teachers at Umoja
his concerns were addressed and he said that "I guess I was satisfied." Based on their
assessment of Sheldonville Elementary, and on the available charter schools, Tonika and
Jeff made their final decision about Umoja Shule after visiting the school, close to the
time that the school year was about to start:

...it was empty, you know, and she (a teacher) was just kind of telling us. And she
told about the program and she walked us around and we were still kind of like
uhm, you know, we took the forms and filled them out and we knew right away.
One of the things that excited me when we went in, I think I was maybe a little
more excited about it than Jeremy at first. Cuz his concern was that it was going
to be Afro-centered to the, you know, exclusion of other cultures... And he still
has those concerns, you know. And so, uhm, one of the things that excited me
about it was the, uhm, I saw some of the things the kids had done like building
bridges and stuff. And Kofi loves that kind of stuff and I thought, boy, he could
really, you know, grow in a place like this. ...Uhm, the preschool didn't seem as, I
wasn't so excited about the preschool. Just because the program, the space
seemed really small and I didn't know, the program, I didn't get a good sense of
what the program was for preschoolers. ...But I did like the idea that it was for
him, for Kofi, I mean the space was open enough that I was thinking they
probably would see each other a lot throughout the day. ...So that part I liked.
And the cost was a not quite half, but almost half the cost.

J: Right.

T: So...those were deciding factors. And Malik could be there all day and

Kofi could, and that was the other thing, all day

J: Yeah.

Based on how they discussed the issues involved in their decision to enroll Kofi
and Malik at Umoja Shule, it seems that a school which embodied Tonika and Jeremy's
ideas of a "good education" may have existed only in rare instances, and perhaps only in
the ideal. Indeed, Jeremy talked of feeling like they were always having to "settle" when
it came to their children's education, by making choices between nice schools with a lack

of student (and curriculum) diversity, and "average" schools with greater student

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diversity. In finally "settling" on Umoja Shule, it was clear that Jeremy and Tonika saw
Umoja Shule was the best option of those available. However, even after making their
decision, Umoja Shule still presented questions for Tonika and Jeremy. They continued
to be wary of the "kind of kids that Umoja let in" and critical of the lack of a "truly
multicultural focus" in the school's cuniculum.
LaTonya

LaTonya Richardson was a twenty-five year old mother of three children. Darnell,
the oldest, was enrolled in Orange City Academy, while Tera, her daughter, was enrolled
in a neighborhood daycare along with her youngest son, David. LaTonya worked full
time in a nearby manufacturing plant, and often made “extra money” through covering
other workers’ shifts. LaTonya lived about twenty minutes away from Orange City
Academy, in a neighborhood more closely connected to the large urban city of Monroe.

We had our first interview late on a Sunday morning. LaTonya had worked a
double shift the day before, and came to the door in a t-shirt, shorts and bathrobe. After
putting her dog in a back room, she let me in the front door and downstairs to a partially
finished basement. At the base of the stairs, in the right corner, were two short, rickety
bookshelves stacked haphazardly with well-wom children's games and magazines. In the
far left comer of the basement was small television and VCR, both of which sat on a
wheeled entertainment stand in front of a black leather sofa. During our interview, we sat
at an old Formica table at the bottom of the stairs, near the bookshelves. Before we
began, LaTonya excused herself for a moment, disappeared and came back a minute later

with a pack of cigarettes and an ashtray.

97

Sitting there with her during our first and second interviews, LaTonya exuded a
strength and maturity that was compelling. In talking with her and learning of her life
experiences, I knew that authors describing the “power” of the Black woman must have
had women like LaTonya in mind. Members of my family would have called her an “old
soul.” Much of her talk about her childhood and relationship with her mother reflected a
tumultuous upbringing in which she witnessed her mother’s drug use and relationships
with abusive men. As LaTonya got older she began distancing herself from her mother:

. . .you know how you watch a horror flick film and the scary parts comes a long

so you close your eyes, you know it is about to happen, but you don’t want to see

it. So, uhm, I just didn’t want to see it, I didn’t want to be involved. If I was at a

distance and I heard about it but I didn’t see it, then I was kind of all right with

that.
Even while addressing her mother’s difficulties, she acknowledged that in other ways her
mother was a strong and perseverant woman. Reflective and purposeful, as we began our
first conversation, she talked candidly about her current separation from her husband, her
desire to be “different than” her mother, and her philosophy about raising her children:

I seen and I know what my mom did wasn’t good in a whole lot of ways, so, why

put myself through that so my kids can end up like that. Because it’s like I’m in a

situation now where things aren’t working out between me and my kids’ father,

but, I mean, how do I change that, do I continue to feel sorry for myself and say

that, uhm, “he did this to me and if it wasn’t for him it’d be like this,” instead of, I

can say “since he is not here, I should do this. . .”

Although LaTonya herself had dropped out of high school, she later returned to get her
G.E.D., and had aspirations of obtaining a degree in labor relations. In reference to her
goals and herself she said that "I know what I want and I've always believed in if you
know what you want then you will be able to get it...I never think that I am better than

anyone else but also I don't think that anyone else is better than me."

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Defining Elements of LaTonya's Stog
LaTonya described herself as "a talker," saying "I believe you can get so far
talking." Her emphasis on the importance of talking and freedom of expression was
evident throughout her description of the search process she took en route to enrolling her
son at Orange City Academy. Her penchant for verbal expression had its origin in her
childhood experiences, as illustrated by the following narrative:
I try to talk to them (her children) like me, talking to you, if they are having a pain
about something, they don't like a particular something, I tell them, express it.
Yeah, so, uhm, people, like when I was growing up, I remember about this
boyfriend my mom had. I didn't care for this man whatsoever, and I always had
problems with staring at people and I stared at him. And he told me to get out of
his way and I despised him from that day forward...l didn't appreciate the way he
treated me. He treated me like I was the one beneath him and just because you're a
child, doesn't mean you are beneath an adult. You are just younger, that's all. And

ah, he tried to belittle me, as far as I was concerned, and I didn't appreciate that.
So uhm, you know how Archie Bunker would tell Edith to stifle herself, I would

never tell my kids to stifle themselves. I would never use the expression shut up.
If I say something like that, I want to say be quiet, but, uhm, I don't want them to
think that they don't have an opinion, they don't matter, because it's just not true to
me...
In descriptions of scenarios illustrative of her philosophies about life and education, and
in her descriptions of her son's private school experiences, she placed high value on
conversation and dialogue as ways to learn from others and solve problems. LaTonay
often referred to "talking" and conversations at key points throughout her interviews, and
this was a central characteristic involved in her search for a good education for her son.
LaTonya's story was also distinguished by her conception of the difference
between the education that White children and Black children receive. As stated in the
first chapter, LaTonya saw struggle as Blacks' birthright, while Whites, for the most part,

were born "to have." LaTonya, and many of the other parents who were interviewed,

characterized the Orange City Schools as disorganized, overcrowded and undisciplined.

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In LaTonya's estimation, it would not be possible for her son to receive a good education
through the predominantly Black public schools in her community. As further
confirmation of her beliefs about the inequities in the schooling of White and Black
children, LaTonya referred to her own experiences and the experiences of a girlfriend,
who, after moving to the predominantly White suburbs, enrolled her child in the
neighborhood public school because "their public schools are better...They have more
things available to them." For LaTonya, a good education would only be available to her
son through private school (particularly since many private schools in her area were still
majority White), and Orange City Academy was the next best thing.
LaTonya's Stogy: I Want the Best

In talking about finding a school for Darnell, LaTonya began by talking about his
first school, a private Christian school called Siena Christian Academy (SCA). She
described SCA as embodying "strength" and commitment in its approach to the education
of children:

Everyone is not born smart, so that means you have to struggle and in order to

struggle you have to have the strength to do. So, uhm, so private school means

personable strength, ah, ah, commitment. Commitment because to me the school

that my son went to, these teachers were really committed. It was almost as if

their jobs were on the line if they didn’t do the best that they could. That’s the

way they took it.
After investigating "so many schools" she settled on SCA because of the "personable
way" they treated their students, and because it was affordable, at $130.00 a month. In
her characterization of the school, LaTonya noted that children at the school resolved
conflicts with each other through talking instead of fighting:

...But, uhm, mostly like when there was a disagreement, the kids wouldn’t fight.

They wouldn’t fight. That’s like amazing to me where I come from...Because,
children that I grew up with. If we had a problem, we were throwing up our fists

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at something. You know, we didn’t have the uhm, the understanding or the
knowledge of knowing how to talk things out. But for some reason, none of these
children did. I don’t know if was because of their religion or, or just what the
parents was teaching. Because your kids do as you do, not as you say. So, these
children were seeing these things at home, they were gonna do it where ever else
they were at.

Another aspect of SCA that she admired was their approach to discipline, which again
involved "talking," and was different than she remembered about her own elementary
school experience:
As a matter of a fact, at his predominantly White school, he was always
threatened with a paddle, but never paddled, okay? But their views were different
and I respected their views because they were Christians and I respected the way
they did everything because before they hit you they were talking to you. They
were sitting you down. We were having conferences, what ever it took before we
got to that point. Now, you go to a school like Morton (the neighborhood
elementary school) and you're going to get your ass hit because someone said you
did something. No questions were asked, it was that you were in trouble and I
don't believe in that.
SCA's approach to discipline appealed to LaTonya not only because of its emphasis on
talking through problems, but also because of the fairness, consistency, and disciplined
environment of the school. Unfortunately, she was unable to continue paying for her son's
tuition, and placed her son in her neighborhood public school until she "figured out waht
to do." LaTonya contrasted SCA with the public school her son was enrolled briefly
before coming to Orange City Academy and described the classroom environment of
Darnell's public school as having "no discipline, no order:"
If two or three people are speaking at one time, who is hearing what? You are not
hearing anything. Whether or not you want to hear what one particular person
wants to say, you still hear and uhm that is the type of things that is going on
there. She's (the teacher) holding a reading class and, but other kids are talking
and playing. I'm like, I don't even believe it.

Because of the chaotic classroom and school environment, LaTonya worried about

Darnell's ability to maintain focus on his school work, saying that she "didn’t want him to

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think school was a bad place to be." Consequently, LaTonya focused her energy on
finding another place for Darnell, saying that:

Darnell had come from a different place. It is like coming from another country
to another one, that’s how it was for Darnell. Darnell was coming to something
completely different. Where Darnell had come from, there wasn’t any violence.
There might have been some teasing, but it was all fun and games. You know, no
one got their feelings hurt and cried because of it, and in the public schools, these
are the types of things that are going on.

LaTonya saw the "best" was private school, with its "small class sizes" and the
importance attached to parent involvement and communication. In contrast, the worst
was her son's public school, which she described as having a "whatever" attitude,
particularly toward conflicts between students:

What ever they see, they handle it, what ever way. You know, that's, that's what
they say, whatever. That's the way they handle it. You know, I don't like that. I
don't like that. You know, certain things and issues and stuff like that should be
confronted, uhm a certain type of way. You don't let it get to the point where
there is a big fight before you have that sit down talk and then call the parents in
or something, you don’t do that. You take the time and for something, I mean,
the, the teachers at Darnell's private school, we had each other's phone number.
That was a rule there. You had the teacher's phone number and you were, it was
made available for you to call them when ever you needed them and you also had
to do the same for them, for them to be able to call you when ever they needed
you. You had to be involved. That was just the way the school was ran. You had
to be involved. You couldn't, couldn't not be.

Due to her financial situation, Orange City Academy was the closest thing that LaTonya
could find to a private school environment, and she enrolled Darnell there during the year
of our interview. However, she remained suspicious about how the school was different
from neighborhood public schools:

That's another thing I don't understand too, these schools are free so they are
public. Okay, how are they, how do they have access to some of the things that
the public schools are not getting?...Like a situation like computers. How are they

not, you know, how do public schools not get the same thing?...Foreign
languages. You know, why don't public schools, regular public schools have

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foreign languages in their classes? You know, I am just saying, I don't understand
that.

LaTonya's ideas about a good education had much to do with the interactions her
son had with other students, and with teachers. While Darnell was in public school,
LaTonya noted that he was teased and involved in physical altercations with classmates,
which "never happened" while he was attending SCA. She attributed this partially to the
fact that parents "from my generation don't care as much" and she thought of herself as
different, "more mature" than most mothers her age. However, she also attributed her
son's experience in public school to the generally lack of caring that pervaded the school,
on the part of teachers as well as administrators. Her perceptions of the city public
schools led her to support the idea that predominantly Black public schools were the
lowest on the educational totem pole, and private schools (or schools that Whites in the
suburbs attend) were at the top, with charter schools somewhere in between. However,
the bottom line for LaTonya was that "...in certain situations, Whites have it the best.
That's just the way it is...." and she wanted that best for her children.

Patricia

Patricia Kirkland was a thirty-four year old, recently divorced parent of one son,
who was enrolled at Umoja Shule. A resident of Sheldonville since her adolescence,
Patricia worked as a database manager for a bank based out of the city. After talking by
phone, we agreed to meet for our first and second interviews at her sister Annette’s
business, a small bookstore specializing in multicultural books, cards, jewelry and
artwork. On the morning of our first interview, I arrived at the store before Patricia;
Annette let me in and asked if I would like some soda or juice to drink while I waited.

Annette's store had a decidedly Afrocentric focus, although there was a section of

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greeting cards that featured themes from Latin culture, and two displays shelves in the
front of the store that held different multiculturally-oriented children's books. After about
ten minutes, Patricia arrived. She had a motherly presence, piercing light brown eyes and
because of "good genes" she looked about five years younger than her age. After talking
with her sister for a moment, Patricia came to the back of the store near the restrooms and
pulled out two folding chairs for us to sit on during the interview.

Patricia had been educated in a variety of different schools. As a very young
child, she had attended preschool on the military base where her father was stationed. In
early elementary, she attended all-Black schools in Monroe, and after her parents
divorced, she, her mother and her sister had moved to Sheldonville, where she was
bussed to a predominantly White school. She talked often of her mother's involvement in
her education, and this impacted her own understanding of her role in her son, Douglas'
education.

Defining Elements of Patricia's Stor_'y

The defining elements of Patricia's story were her high academic goals for her
son, and her desire that her son be taught to have pride in being Black. Patricia had very
specific academic goals for Douglas, and was pleased with Umoja's accelerated academic
program. As her only child, Patricia wanted to support Douglas in gaining an education
that would put him "where I think he needs to be." Patricia believed that "It is not enough
now just to have a Bachelor's degree. You know, you have got to have a Master's to do
something, and if you really want to do something you better get your doctorate." At
several times during her interviews, Patricia talked of wanting to prepare Douglas to be

the "head of the household," and she spoke admiringly of her ex-husband and his father

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and the way that they "stepped up" to be the heads of their families. Doing well in school
and continuing on to college and graduate school dominated Patricia's ideas about how
Douglas could be successful professionally and personally.

Connected to Patricia's ideas about Douglas assuming a leadership role in his
family were her concerns about his racial identity. Patricia talked with pride about being
able to trace both sides of her family back to their origin as slaves on two different
plantations, saying that "...for my son it is very important that he know his
heritage...heritage is part of who you are. It is a part of what you do, your culture..." Just
as she wanted to instill in Douglas a sense of the responsibility he would have as a father
and husband, Patricia also wanted to ensure that he grew up with a strong sense of self-
esteem related to his identity as a Black man. These ideas drove her decision to enroll
Douglas in Umoja Shule, and guided her perceptions of his other schooling experiences.
Patricia's Stogy: Ethnic Pride and Self-Esteem

Patricia began talking about her decision to enroll Douglas at Umoja Shule by
discussing her choice of Douglas' preschool/day care. Central to her decision about a day
care was obtaining childcare from “someone who would treat my baby like they were
their own.” However, as Douglas got older, his day care environment did not meet
Patricia’s academic standards. As she said:

. . .he was at an environment where all’s he did was play all day and he needed to

learn. . .but every day all they did was like play. They read him some books and

stuff, but it wasn’t enough for him to grasp. He was working more on his motor
skills and stuff. He learned to walk and that kind of thing. But as far as I just felt

like he was missing out on his ABC’s. I was talking about the Sesame Street stuff
to help him along. But it just wasn’t enough.

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During our conversation, Patricia made it clear that she had- specific goals in mind
for her son, at one point saying that she was particularly happy with Umoja because of
the principal’s accelerated academic program:

....by the time he is 15 he will graduate with an associates degree so I am not

going to complain too bad. (Laughter) You know, and everything, I just want

him to be able to be at like, to be there I guess, at a first grade level in

kindergarten and everything and I just want to follow through with that at home.
Patricia's academic goals for Douglas involved wanting him "to go as far as he can, and
she had fairly traditional ideas about the roles he would take in the future as "head of his
householdz"

I don’t want him, I want him to have his education already. I want him to have

his house already. I want him to have his bank accounts all set. His job

established, so that you never know on these two family working households and

the wife gets pregnant, she may be able to work and she might not. Then you are
dependent on her income. Well, you know what I am saying (laugh).

Patricia talked at length about how her decision to enroll her son Douglas at Umoja Shule

had much to do with issues of race. The center point of her story was linked to changes in

Douglas’ attitude toward White and Black people after going from a Black day care to an

integrated preschool:
. . .Yeah. My story is a little deep here. (Laugh). Basically, Douglas was, he was
when I first came home after my divorce and things, he attended an all Black like
little day care kind of deal. And he never saw any difference in color or anything
like that. And later I was concerned because of the fact that was the only
environment that he was around. And so, I put him in a mixed environment,
almost to Dalton, or Maplewood, I would say. And that, that was good at first.
He learned a lot more and they would teach him things like that and then the color
issue started to come about.

In mentioning the “color issue,” Patricia paused, and then qualified her next statements

by saying:

And, I am not prejudice to that point, you know what I am saying, where, where,
but I do want, I just, I do want, you know what I am saying (laugh) I am not

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prejudice to the point that I am saying I don’t like other races. I respect others in
their own race and all that kind of stuff. ...So, I just, too, there is a lot of heritage.
A lot of firings I want him to carry on, and know about his family, and, and Black

people too.

Though her son was learning in the “mixed” preschool, the root of the issue for Patricia
was the fact that “it got to the point that he was coming home and saying ‘my mother is
darker than I am and my sister is darker than I am,‘ and that he only liked women my
color (Patricia’s skin tone was cafe au lait) or White.” As her son's dislike of dark people
became more pronounced, Patricia became increasingly concerned. In her interview, the
following narrative was central in defining her reasons for enrolling Douglas at Umoja

Shule:

He was like three. . ..And, so you know. A lady came into the store, she was a
dark African American woman and she came in and he said “you are Black. Black
is nasty.” Well, that was the end of that. (Laughter). You understand me? Oh,
no, you know what I am saying? (Laughter). . . .I am like we aren’t teaching him
that at home. His father’s people don’t teach him that, you know, so somebody
was influencing him and so they felt like it was maybe one of the White teachers
there and that kind of thing and stuff because there was a particular teacher there
that he just loved and she was White. And they, he got to the point where every
time he got to see White women in stores or White women where ever, he was
always running up and he would, would hug the White woman but would not
want to be bothered with the Black ones and I was like he is too young to be that
prejudice that early. That has to be taught. You know what I am saying? So, so,
that is when he got yanked out of there.

In attempts to change her son’s developing perceptions, Patricia talked with him about
other people in his family and tried to emphasize that “you have got to learn to look at the
inside of the person.” Additionally, she talked with her son several times about brown
skin being a part of who he and his family was, and about brown skin being beautiful:

I was like there is nothing wrong with the color. Look at grandma, look at

you. . .You are the same color as grandma, and daddy is the same color as you and

grandma too. And Tiny is the same color and everything and brown is beautiful.

Mommy likes brown and that stuff. . .And that stuff and so he still, you know, he
couldn’t relate that he was brown.

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For Patricia, her son’s attitudes about race were particularly hard to bear. In our previous
interview, Patricia had talked with pride about her family’s history, and the significant
things that people in her family had done. Patricia projected into the future and worried
that her son would want to marry a White woman out of hatred for his own skin color,
and to Patricia, this potentiality threatened her ability to convey the heritage of her family
(and Black people in general) to her future grandchildren:

I like teaching the heritage. The tribes of Africa. There is so much to know that
we have been denied the privilege of knowing. About this here how to protect
you from the sun like over there and the strength of the women in the tribes.
There is a lot of heritage there and stuff and so I just don’t want to lose that
heritage. I have other friends at work who their families are mixed and they don’t
teach them. You know, I am not just that way about Black. I am that way about
this Spanish girl at work. She tries to teach her children Spanish, her husband is
Polish. He won’t teach the children anything about Poland and the things that
they went through. You know what I am saying? Yeah. And I got another
friend, she is mixed. Her dad is Mexican, her mom is Black, and they were
supposed to know two languages. He wouldn’t teach them the Mexican language.
My friend, she is Russian, even though they are White, she is Russian. I mean the
dad was Russian and the mom was English or whatever it was and the deal was
that they were supposed to be bilingual, the kids were. . .And, so the kids were but
the father refused to teach them Russian and now they can’t even really
communicate with their grandparents. They can understand a little bit about what
they are saying, but they are talking Russian and stuff and so, I just think the
heritage is there.

Because of her fears about her son's sense of racial identity and her fears about the
possible consequences of her son's overidentification with White people-White women
in particular--Patricia searched for alternative schools for Douglas, schools in which he
could "lean to be proud to be Black."Patricia to elaborated further on the reasons for her
decision, by referencing Jawanza Kunjufu’s book, “Countering the Conspiracy to Destroy
Black Boys,” saying,

Patricia: Uhm, I don’t know how much you know about the theory that when the
little Black boy gets to be about 4th grade, they lose them in the school system

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and so that was apparent. I didn’t want that to happen to him so Umoja basically
was a school that was supposed to be geared toward Black males.

Heather: How did you learn about it?

Patricia: I heard about it from, who did I hear about it from? My sister.

Heather: What did she tell you?

Patricia: Lots of customers came into her store telling them about Umoja and the
children’s and stuff and how the children were learning a lot. It is a Black
cultural environment and they really taught them self esteem. That is what the
whole thing was. It was teaching him that the Black male to self esteem.
Unlike Jeremy, Tonika and LaTonya, Patricia was deeply concerned with
obtaining an education for her son that stressed the development of self-esteem in
Black children, particularly Black males. Especially since her son had little
opportunities to be around "positive Black men" Patricia was drawn to Umoja
Shule. And though her son's academic achievement was her number one priority,
she was not willing to sacrifice his perceptions of himself as a Black person in
order to obtain it. In fact, of the parents interviewed for the study, she was one of
the most adamant about choosing Umoja Shule because of its African-centered
curricular focus, which distinguished it from other charter schools in Sheldonville.
Pamela
Pamela Sutton was a 42 year-old jazz singer and part-time "art consultant." I first
met Pamela through volunteering at Orange City Academy. From the beginning of the
school day until lunchtime, she worked as a volunteer teacher's aide in her daughter
Amara's classroom. At five foot ten, Pamela was difficult to miss among the first and
second graders, and this was particularly so given her fuchsia lipstick and beautifully kept
dredlocks which streamed from a ponytail she often wrapped with a multicolored silk
scarf.

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Pamela grew up in Monroe and graduated from the University of Michigan with a
degree in education. After graduating, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue a singing
career. While she was there, Pamela met her husband, also fiom Monroe, who was also
pursuing a career in music. As she says, "we hung out, and then we became friends, and
then we became lovers, and then we became married, and then we had a child, and here
we are now today!" Shortly after getting married, Pamela and her husband moved back to
a suburb of Monroe, where they have been living for the past six years.

Pamela lived about ten minutes from Orange City Academy, but because we both
volunteered during the same time of day, we agreed to meet at the school for our
interviews.

Defining Elements of Pamela's Story

Pamela, a self-described "school mommy," saw herself as being the "gardener" of
her daughter's character. In her interviews she talked of her belief that "...everybody does
not love your child... you love your child!" With this in mind, Pamela made it her
business to play an active role in shaping the outcomes of her daughter's education,
including lobbying for Amara to have certain teachers as she progressed through
elementary school.

Within her story, Pamela talked about the "vibes" she felt from Amara's teachers.
In doing so, she emphasized the interpersonal relationship that teachers had both with her
daughter, and with herself. An example of this was her description of one of the other
second grade teachers at Orange City Academy that she had not selected for her daughter:

My business is the teacher and I think that and my daughter’s teacher is very

good, I like her a lot. But Mrs. Hawthorne, she's the blonde one? I get a very

indifferent kind of vibe from her... that I don’t really care for. And I did get that
same vibe when I came to investigate. I knew that if my child had been put in her

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class that I would have changed her... I knew that. Not that I don’t think that
she’s a good teacher but the vibe was not cool with me...And it may be personal,
like you know if you have a stand off with someone woman, you may not like the
way I look... you may not like my dredlocks, you may not like something about
me that has made you treat me with this little kind of attitude, but I was not going
to, I was going to have him (the principal) to take her (Amara) out if she had
gotten Mrs. Hawthorne, without a doubt.
Consistent with this, much of Pamela's story revolved around making schooling decisions
that were dependent on the types of relationships she and her daughter had with her
daughter's teachers. In this way, Pamela was not unlike the middle class White parents
Lareau (1989) described in her book Home Advantage, parents who were much more
adept than lower class parents at using their social capital in order to ensure that their
children were academically successful.
Pamela's Stogy: Being a School Mommy and Getting Ga Vibes
Of the parents interviewed for this study, Pamela was the most knowledgeable
about different schooling options available to parents. She credited her understanding as
being a product of the time she spent in California, when she had a roommate with
school-age children:
...there are certain school situations when I lived in California there’s lot of
alternative school situations in California because California is, California is
unique in and of itself . . . so I was aware of alternative schooling, home
schooling, schools of choice, charter schools, from being, from having a
roommate who had kids, not because I had children then but peripherally I’ve
caught all this... and so then it helped me of course in my life experience when I
have a child I can look at the whole picture, where are my choices, what are my
choices. I don’t have to just send my daughter to the school down the street...
Although Pamela made sure that all possible options for Amara's schooling were open to
her, she approached the selection of a school as involving two key components: herself

and her daughter's teacher. With this in mind, she looked the process of choosing a school

from a pragmatic perspective:

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Nothing is perfect, no situation is going to be perfect. What you have to do is
utilize what you have with the situation that you either choose to be into or are in,
and you work with it. You let the teacher know you are available to her or him...
You try to be there as much as you can so your child is comfortable knowing that
if there’s a problem mommy is there, you know?

In regard to her role in her daughter's education and general development, Pamela saw
herself as nurturing her daughter in the way that a gardener would nurture flowers:

we do a lot of things, she’s, I, treat my daughter in the manner that I

want her to believe and grow up and drink she can she owns the world...

not to be an asshole with it but to think confidence...l have to gently plant

those seeds and they have to be nurtured gently cause...the parents, their

environment, all of those things shape and mold these children. And some

of my friends just like I was having a conversation with Renita, we have to

understand that what we put in their minds they will reap...

Since Pamela and Amara were new to OCA during the year of the data collection
for the study, I asked her to begin her story by talking about her daughter's previous
schools. The first school Pamela described was an inner-city magnet school, Perkins
Preparatory School, which she described as "an open school" that was "a little too open
for my child...my child needs structure." Similarly to LaTonya, Pamela chose Perkins
Preparatory over the neighborhood Orange City school because of her perceptions of
overcrowding in the school and a general atmosphere of discord among the children:

...if you observe the school down the street from me and I live in a very nice

neighborhood but on the other side of Joy Road it’s a whole another kind' a vibe

and the school is just it’s over crowded. Whenever you have too many people in

a situation you are goin’ have problems.

The second school that Pamela selected for Amara was an Afrocentric charter school
located in downtown Monroe. Again, in making her decision, Pamela's evaluations of her
daughter's potential teachers were of paramount importance:

The first grade teacher was new but I liked her my instant vibe was okay we’ll see

how that works out. I did not like the other first grade teacher who was a hoochie
mama who was like attitude big time you know that whole thing...It ended up that

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Amara's teacher was wonderful so you kind' a, like you know, you take your
chances, period, and that’s just how it is.

Unfortunately, midway through Amara's first grade year, the teacher who Pamela had
selected left in order to pursue a career in school administration. With this teacher gone,
the exposure her daughter would have to the teacher's aide for the classroom (now the
acting teacher) was a variable that Pamela did not feel comfortable with. In particular,
Pamela talked of the differences between herself and the teacher's aide, who she
described as a "hoochie mamaz"

...I’m not a person who behaves as if I’m better than anyone else, but I’m a very
well-educated woman and if I see that who the person that my daughter is going
to be exposed to is not real well educated and that their mentality is at a certain
level and that they’re going to be dealing with my child in a certain mentality. . . I
either like or I don’t and remove her from that. The teacher aide that was with her
first grade teacher her her mentality was different than mine. Her language usage
was different than urine, her physical appearance was different than mine, there
was some things about her that I did not like . . .

Heather: Like what?

Pamela: She was a hoochie mama! Heather come on, I can't believe you're gonna
make me say ituher appearance was different than mine, I mean she had orange
hairll (laughs) she wore a lot of makeup and she talked like this (mimics her
voice) you know what I’m saying? . . . that was different than mommy! And so,
we just couldn't have that, mm mm, no. There was no way.

For Pamela, a good education was in large part defined by the adults with whom her
daughter would have contact. In particular (and as the quote above illustrates), she was
very concerned with the background and level of education she perceived Amara's
teacher to have. In elaboration of the people and environmental characteristics that she
tried to avoid when it came to her daughter, Pamela described her husband's sister's
family:

...the very bottom line and I don’t, it’s just that I have a certain criteria of how I

like things around me. . . and they—they're not it... Always I mean I go around

them, I hang out with them I love my mother-in-law dearly but they’re not like
me. Not better not worse just different that’s what I try to teach my child. Auntie

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Darlene, you know it’s, it’s you know, what I don’t like about I go over to her
house and her kids are WILD! They're just on the nut! If my daughter’s around
them you know when she was younger if she’s around that she acts on the nut . . .
that’s how kids are. It goes back to the old adage they act, I mean if they’re
around the same behavior if they're like in schools if they're around a behavior
that’s going on at the time they’ll start behaving like that. You have to have
controls.

Pamela strongly believed in her responsibility to monitor and control what and to whom

her daughter was exposed. As a result, much of her talk about her decision to enroll

Amara at Orange City Academy involved people and places that she did not think were

appropriate for Amara. In talking about what the positive things that she was looking for

in a school environment, Pamela said:

A safe environment. A good uhm program. . . art, music mathematics, computers,
which we need at this school. And children need to be in an environment where
they are stimulated hands-on learning stimulation actual movement, and
teachers who really are engaged in helping kids learn. You know, my child has to
know that this is business, and you are here to learn, and your learning is your
business. My business is to ensure that happens expeditiously and in in a safe
environment, so that’s it.

When asked if Orange City Academy's "entrepreneurial focus" was important in her

decision, Pamela returned to the idea that no matter what type of school her daughter was

in, the most important consideration was her child's teacher:

...I can read your book of what your mission is and I can know that your mission
is going to turn out to be very different then your every day application of how
you deal with things. We all have a mission, we all have a very important goal
every morning when we wake up this is my goal today, this is my mission today,
but the general application, the consistency may change. I feel like they’re
focused, I feel like all the teachers are focused I do feel that.

Heather: What are they focused on?

Pamela: On the children, what they’re doing here is the business of teaching and I
do get that from what I have observed.

Of the narratives that Pamela relayed, her description of her teaching role and the role of

Amara's teacher was most aptly conveyed in the following excerpt. In it, she discusses

114

her daughter's gravitation toward her teacher, Mrs. Femdale, as an authority, and she
provides an explanation of the meaning she attached to the situation:

...tlris morning when I’m combing her (Amara) hair she, she looks in her book
case every morning when I’m combing her hair she’ll read a book while I’m
doing her hair so she grabbed, she got the book about rocks and minerals and
she opened it up POW there’s a volcano oh mommy that’s the magma chamber
and there, sure enough there’s the magma chamber and the side vent, the central
vent, the ash, the dust, the lava, blah blah blah blah but of course she was not
interested everything that I try to interest her in because I’m mommy and she’s
always with me she’s going, she's gonna rebel!...We can try to teach them
everything in the world on God’s green earth and if someone else doesn’t say, you
know the teacher is like their hero what they say goes... no matter how much I
talk to her if Miss Femdale, well Miss Femdale, cause that’s the psychology of
the young child... the teacher is the hero no matter what the parent does the
teacher is the last word. Why some people who get offended if their child says oh
no Miss Femdale told me it was this way. Well what Miss FerndaIe said was the
law. And that’s their relationship with the teacher which is a good sign to me.
That means her teacher is giving her the stimulation, that she is reinforcing what
I’ve already told her or what I’ve already given her that may not have peaked her
interest mommy’s always care giving, care giving, care giving, care giving but
we’re always doing things with them they take us for granted... it’s just how it is.
And I’m mature enough to understand all these things but I want to just know
that you’re doing what I need, you’re learning what I need you to learn... at your
level

When asked what it would mean for her to have success in providing an education for her
daughter, Pamela replied that:

To me success-and my role has just began... you know she’s only in second grade
this school goes up to fifth...Success to me would mean that I did my part at
home, and that I did my part at school, meaning, I’m okay with third grade but I
know who I want her teacher to be. I’m okay with third grade. Fourth grade next
year I’ll start investigating fourth grade teachers ...tlris may not be the end of our
road for elementary school I may only stay I don’t know, I really don’t know how
long. But I consider success for her to remain on the honor role...I expect that
from her, and I work with her...

Of the parents highlighted in the chapter, Pamela is perhaps the most "traditional"
in her orientation toward being involved in her child's education. She volunteered daily at

the school, which would have probably been the case at any school her daughter was

115

enrolled in, charter, magnet, traditional public or otherwise. Pamela is perhaps the most
likely to feel that her daughter can receive a "good education," since she is a parent who
is very involved, who has had their choices increased through charter schools, and who
has a pragmatic sense of what charter schools can realistically offer.

Conclusion

Through the voices of the five parents detailed here, it is possible to see how the
themes represented in the last chapter gain or lose prominence in parents' accounts of the
process of seeking a good education for their children. For Jeremy and Tonika, and
Patricia the most relevant theme was the last discussed in Chapter Four: a good education
is one that addresses the impact of race and culture on the educational process. In
LaTonya's case, the theme related to parents and families being connected to each other
was most important. And for Pamela, the theme related to parent involvement was most
critical. The one theme that united all of these parents was their common concern for
their children’s acaderrric success. To this end, the analysis presented in this chapter
raises two interesting issues.

First, it is clear through Pamela, LaTonya, and Jeremy and Tonika's stories that
they had concerns about the ability of their children to receive an education in which they
were not treated differentially because of their race. Most striking is Pamela's story; if she
had allowed her son to continue at his preschool, it is possible that his racial identity
could have been impacted in ways which were hard to reverse. Although an examination
of how well Umoja Shule is supporting the growth of a positive sense of racial identity is
beyond the scope of this analysis, it seemed at least that Umoja Shule offered an

educational setting that was consistent with Patricia's own views on "being Black." Given

116

the focus of the school on "Black males and self-esteem," it seems that the possibility of
Patricia's son developing ideas about himself that negatively impact his academic
achievement is less likely than had he stayed in his preschool. It is interesting to consider
what Patricia might have done had Umoja Shule not existed. Perhaps even more serious
than the potential for public schools to be insensitive to the racial and cultural
background of their students is LaTonya's indictment of predominately Black city schools
as being inferior to those of Whites. Her reality-—the belief that private schools offer the
best hope to her son for obtaining a good education—stands a much needed mirror
against all the efforts of reforms done in order to provide an "equal" education to White
and Black students. If LaTonya's experience was the barometer for these reform efforts, it
is obvious that they would have been deemed failures. In summary, the fact that four out
of five parents had explicit concerns about the ability of public schools to function in
ways that are not prejudicial is a serious wake up call to traditional public schools.

The second issue raised through the analysis of this chapter is the existence of
these Black parents' wish to place a barrier between their children and those they believe
to be negative influences on their children's ability to receive a good education. In
Jeremy's words, these are students who "have had troubles" in other schools. These
people are the parents LaTonya sees herself as "different" from, parents who she
perceives to be less committed to being involved in their children's education. These
people are those who, in Pamela's words, are "hoochie mamas" or simply just "different
than mommy." Although the consideration of issues of class was not a central focus in
this study, these issues were apparent in parents' interviews, and they pose an interesting

dilemma for those interested in providing a good education for all children. Specifically,

117

it will be diffith to provide a good education for all children if the definition of a good
education is defined as being something that is not equally accessible to all children. This
issue, and the continuing dilemma of creating public schools that treat Black children

equally is perhaps the most important outcome of the analysis of this chapter.

118

CHAPTER SIX: DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS
Introduction
I think parents realize that school will be the hugest thing in their kid's life for a
long time. I think parents realize that, and I think they realize that it just doesn’t
educate their mind. It molds their social life, it molds their values, and I think if,
it probably depends upon what their experiences are in light of themselves, what
they think they want to adjust about that whole thing for their kid, okay? Um, like
if they experienced a lot of racism in their life and it was hurtful and damaging
and held them back, or they just experienced no quality education because the
teacher wasn't educated to pull the best out of them, you know, maybe it was
because they were Black and maybe because they just had poor teachers, okay,
but I think parents realize that education is pivotal, not just for the material that
they get out of the book. And so I think that’s why the decision is more than just
what building is my kid going to be going to. It’s huge in my mind, when you
think about the fact that that entity is going to count more with your kid—Jeremy
This study is an exploration how a group of Black parents who enrolled their children in
charter schools defined and sought a good education for their children. In the history of
public education for Blacks and in scholme conversations about the education of Black
children, the voices of Black parents have often been lost while researchers and policy
makers clamor to present their theories about what the "problem" is and what can be done
about it. After the Brown verdict was reached in 1954, an important opportunity to
understand Oliver Brown's (and other parent's) ideas about a good education and the
route by which a good education could be obtained was disregarded. Although
researchers have begun to explore the experiences of Black parents and children who
have been involved in the struggle to obtain a good education (Shujaa, 1994; Irvine &
Foster, 1996), in the current debate about what forms a public education that meets the
needs of Black children should take, the voices of Black parents have not been placed in

the foreground. This dissertation offers a detailed understanding of the meanings that a

group of Black parents attached to their choice, and it presents an in-depth look at the

119

processes that individual parents went through in their search to find their children a good
education. In doing so, this body adds the voices, knowledge and experiences of Black
parents to the ongoing conversation about improving the education of Black children.
Definitions of a Good Education: Findings

A central question of this dissertation was: Among a group of Black parents who
choose charter schools for their children, what issues and themes are represented in their
talk about their choice? Through talking about their own experiences in school, their
observations of their children's experiences, their philosophies about what their children
needed, and their hopes about what their children would be able to obtain through
receiving a good education, this group of parents thematically defined a good education
in four ways. Above all else, their children's schools had to be ones in which their
children learned In support of their children's learning and academic success, parents
defined a good education as one in which they were involved as parents, and one in
which they were involved in a supportive relationship with their children's school and
teachers. Lastly, parents defined a good education as one that took into consideration the
influence of race and culture on their children's schooling. Often, issues of race and class
filtered into parents' ideas about academic success, parental involvement, and

relationships between home and school, as illustrated by Figure 1 below:

120

 

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'fl"-- ----Ԥ
’p
I
’
I

’
”

   

    
 

Race and Culture as
Influences on the Schooling
Process

 

Figure 1: Graphic Representation of Parents' Definitions of a Good Education
The Search for a Good Education: Findings

A second question of this dissertation addressed the process by which parents
sought a good education for their children. In looking closely at the interviews of five
parents, I was never able to answer this question, at least with the level of depth and
detail to which I had aspired when I began the investigation. I did learn some things
about process. I found that there were both commonalities and differences within their

search processes. As mentioned above, their children's academic success was a non-

121

negotiable. Each parent placed this as the most important aspect of obtaining a good
education, and each parent thought of public schools as not being able to provide their
children with a good education. Another similarity was that within parents' description of
their search, information obtained through "word of mou " and actual visits to the
potential school were cited the most significant sources of information. That said, it is
interesting and significant that parents seldom accepted even the most explicit of
invitations, during our many hours of interviews, to unpack the search and selection
process.

Implications

One of the most important implications of these findings about the definition and
search for a good education is that across the board, Black parents regarded their
children's academic success as paramount, and they did not see the public schools as a
viable option for their children. At best, public schools were environments that were
passable if mediated by heavy parental involvement. At worst, public schools were
described as places in which little, if any, learning took place.

Another implication of the present study resides in the way parents' ideas about a
good education resonate with the literature on what constitutes "effective" (Sizemore,
1990) or "quality" (Weinberg, 1983) schools, and with the narratives of others about what
constituted a good education in their experiences (Shujaa, 1994). This study's support of
research and personal narratives seems to indicate that researchers, educators, and policy
makers know what works; but that there is a disconnect in making these things happen in
the context of public schools, particularly in schools in which the most improvement is

needed.

122

One of the most intriguing implications of this study was the predisposition of
parents toward a supportive relationship between family and school. At both schools,
there existed an almost imperceptible ease in the way that students, parents, and teachers
related to each other. Parents' support of these kinds of connections was as much a
product of what they had experienced as children as it was an outcome of their
understanding of the ways that relationships between families, communities and schools
were becoming increasingly disparate. Parents talked fondly of the way it was when they
were growing up, and the interconnectedness of their neighborhoods, families and
schools. And, while they rerrrinisced, it was also clear that they saw their present
experiences as very different. As Jeremy said,

I don’t know whether it’s nostalgia or not but I just hope that we’re not

losing that, and to me, in, in a lot of ways it's inevitable because the more

we become a part of the main stream you know. . .we’re moving to

different places, you know, where as my grandparents lived in their town

for after they came up south for their whole lives, I’ve already lived in

three four different places, you know, five different places, so you kind of

lose that sense of community in a lot of different ways... I think I kind of

romanticize the past a little bit, you know, in terms of finding, you know,

a situation for Jada like I had as a kid. . .it’s a different world. . .

For parents, like Jeremy, who were living a middle class lifestyle, it seemed that
through having their children in a charter school, they could regain, or at the very least,
maintain, a sense of "connection" between their family and their children's school. In this
way, some parents' decisions to enroll their children in a charter school were viewed as
an opportunity to connect with the sense of community they had as children.

Conversely, other parents seemed to want to circumvent the communities that

surrounded them by isolating themselves and their children within their homes, and this

was particularly true for those parents living in Orange City. For these parents, it was

123

extremely important that they keep their children away from the negativity that they
perceived to exist within their community. Perhaps the most dismal and disturbing
conversation with a parent about their community took place when I interviewed LaTrice
Morgan for the first time. There was one way in and one way out of LaTrice's
neighborhood, which had been blocked off several years ago to prevent a flow-through of
traffic, much of which was drug-related. When I asked LaTrice to describe the
neighborhood, she said it was "active, sometimes violent, and quiet, sometimes
quiet...And by us not being like, directly on the comer, you don’t know a lot of stuff goes
on down here unless you hear like gunshots or something... " Although LaTrice made a
distinction between the houses on her street and the projects that were a couple of blocks
down, she plainly recognize that the “trouble” of living in close proximity to the projects
(nicknamed "The Gardens") was still very much a threat to her children:

They (LaTrice's children) tell me "We can't go in The Gardens, we can't

go near The Gardens." ...And I'm like, "You sure can’t." And they think

all bad kids come from The Gardens and I have to tell them, "No,

everybody that comes from down there is not bad," you know. A lot of

them are, not everybody in there. And they're like, "Oh yes, they are." But

the kids come from down the street and they talk, I mean, you know, they

talk real bad now like they are grown, some of the kids. And they (her

children) are like, "Ma, they live in The Gardens, don't they?" ...I'll say,

"Just cuz they acting bad don't mean they live in The Gardens." But most

of them do, most of them do...
All of the parents living in Orange City expressed a concern that their children be isolated
from the increasingly prominent negative elements in their communities. For these
parents, Orange City Academy was a safe haven, and it presented for them the possibility
that their children would not have to deal with the problems that children in the
neighborhood public schools had to face—violence, overcrowding and apathy. Within

Jeremy and LaTrice's contrasting examples, there exists a further implication of this

124

study. What constitutes a good education in parents' minds is at least in some part
influenced by the communities in which parents live.
Future Research

Building on the point above, future research on Black parents' choice of charter
schools should closely examine the dynamics of communities in which parents can
choose charter schools. By examining the issues from this more sociological perspective,
it may be possible to gain a more systemic understanding of how the educational success
and quality of school serving Black children can be increased.

This study focused on Black parents who had selected charter schools for their
children. In future research, we need to tell the stories of Black parents who have access
to charter schools but decline the opportunity. We need to understand how and why they
decided to keep their children in public schools. In particular, research which utilizes a
narrative life history approach may allow researchers to understand how race, family,
education, community come together to shape parents' ideas about what they should do in
order to provide their children with a good education.

Lastly, future research should focus on understanding the experiences of Black
children as they progress through charter schools or are a part of different kinds of school
environments, so as to better understand, from a student's perspective, what a good
education "looks like."

Conclusion

Most of the parents interviewed were happy with the charter school that they had

selected; they had the sense that their child was succeeding academically, that they were

able to be involved in their child’s education, that there was a strong sense of connection

125

to the schools they had selected, and that the schools attempted, each in their own way, to
address the cultural and ethnic backgrounds of their student population. However, two
things remain troubling about the choices these parents have made. First, as many
opponents to charter and choice have reiterated, when parents choose to “disinvest” in
public schools, the result for those students that stay in the public schools is usually
negative.

Secondly, in talking with several parents about their level of satisfaction with the
school they had selected, they indicated that they were willing to take their child out if
they began to perceive that their child was not doing well academically, or if they
perceived other problems with their child’s education related to the themes discussed in
this study. With this in mind, we could ask ourselves if charter schools promote or hinder
the responsibility and commitment of parents to make the schools that they do have in
their communities better. Undeniably, charter schools and school choice policies
encourage and support an individualistic orientation toward education—as Pamela stated
“I have to do what’s best for my child.” Although charter schools may buttress
communities that are already cohesive, there is little research to suggest that charter
schools and choice programs do anything to empower communities of people rather than
individuals, especially when individual's communities are in the process of unraveling.
Proponents of charter schools argued that the existence of charter schools will promote a
competitive environment in which public schools would have to “put up or shut up.”
Instead, in some districts in Michigan, public schools have either “put up or shut down.”
And, when a school closes, an important piece of what makes a community vibrant and

positive goes with it, as other researchers have shown (Dempsey & Noblit, 1994). I think

126

though, that asking about the responsibility and commitment of parents is only addressing
a small piece of the problem.

As researchers and educators, we need to ask how empowered the parents actually
are in making these choices. After all, they are still choosing from a limited number of
schools. More important, if parents don’t like the schools that they choose, often their
only recourse is to go back to the public schools they have openly rejected. When parents
have to struggle in order to ensure the basic personal and educational needs of their
children—that their children are able to obtain books that are “just sitting in the gym
waiting for someone to pass them out,” or that their children are able to have toilet paper
and soap when they go into the restroom, or that their classrooms are free from excessive
dust and dirt, or that their children go to school without fear of being physically injured
by bullies—empowering parents to make change in their children’s schooling takes on a
whole different light than what is in the minds of those who support choice and charter
schools.

We have to ask ourselves, in these circumstances, what would I do? If I
considered my neighborhood public school substandard, and the teachers and
administrators within it unresponsive, what would I want for my child? What principles
would I uphold? One fact is made clear by my research. Many urban public schools are
sick and dying, and many Black parents recognize this and take steps to remove their
children from these environments. As individuals, these Black parents are hoping to
ensure the academic and social success of their children. However, when it comes to the
academic and social success of all children, charter schools allows us to live the fantasy

that if public schools are forced to get better, they will. The reality is that many don’t.

127

In answering the main research questions of my dissertation, many other
important questions are raised. For example, if many "traditional" public schools close
their doors for good, and the problems they experienced begin to manifest themselves in
charter schools, will someone propose a new kind of school that will eventually put
charter schools out of business? And, if this cycle repeats itself, what will happen to the
children and parents who are pawns in this game? Most significantly, my research leaves
two important and serious questions unanswered and open for further research—

Under what circumstances will Black parents and communities be truly

empowered through education?

Will Black children, as a group, ever receive a “good education?”

128

APPENDICES

129

APPENDIX A

List of Charter Schools with Legislation and Number of Operating Charter Schools

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

State # Operating
Charter Schools

Minnesota 38
California 145
Colorado 60
Georgia 27
Massachusetts 34
Michigan 132
New Mexico 5
Wisconsin 30
Arizona 180
Hawaii 2
Kansas 15
Alaska 17
Delaware 4
Louisiana 10
Rhode Island 2
Connecticut 16
DC 18
Florida 70
Illinois 14
New Jergy 30
North Carolina 59
South Carolina 5
Texas 87
Mississippi, Nevada 1
Ohio 15
Pennsylvania
Idaho 2
Missouri, Virginia, Utah, Arkansas, New 0
Hampshire, Wyoming

 

Data for table obtained from the State of Charter Schools Third Year Report (May 1999)
The number of schools in operation is based on data obtained by September 1998.

130

APPENDIX B

Dissertations Related to Parents' Educational Decision-Making

 

 

 

 

 

Name, Data Participant Questions Results

Date Type Characteristics Asked
Moran, Telephone All El. School Parents' Parent choices somewhat
P.W. Interview parents in a demographic segregated by SES.

1994 midwest characteristics, Students historically most
district School selection successful are those that
requesting a factors which are transferring.
school transfer influenced Convenience and
in a 7 month decisions, how long instructional program were
period parents considered most important reasons

transfer before given for transfer
making decision
Gibson, Surveys Private school What motivates Parents who chose
M.W. and parents in 3 parents to choose a religious schools gave
1994 telephone districts private school? following reasons:
interview religion, moral values,
warmth of school climate,
small class size,
committed teachers.
Parents who chose
independent schools gave
following reasons: small
class size, committed
teachers, quality
curriculum, quality
instruction, responsiveness
to parent expectations
Roden, Survey Suburban What decision- Most parents said student
M.D. parents making factors are safety was most important
1992 in an open related to open factor. Academic factors
enrollment enrollment? What were also important. Race
district factors lead parents and decision-making
to choose factors were statistically
differently? related

 

 

 

 

 

131

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joyce, Survey Parents in 2 Reasons for Eight most important
C. F. Semi-focused school choice choosing a reasons: teacher quality,
1992 interview districts public school order, discipline,
elementary specialized curriculum,
school of teacher morale teacher
choice? accessibility, school
responsiveness, multi-
approaches to teaching.
Least important were
similar family income and
similar ethnic backggunds
Griffeth, Survey Parents of Reasons for Academic emphasis,
R.H. Sec. choosing an including college
1991 school independent preparation, strong
children secondary curriculum, capable and
who enroll school? caring teachers were most
them important reasons.
in Personal attention and
independent good discipline were next
schools most important categories
of reasons. High self-
esteem, cleanliness and
safety of the scth were
also cited.
Omann, Survey, 6 low income Influences & Family values, discipline
E.M. Focus groups, parents who factors which to promote safety, caring
1997 observation, were given a influenced atmosphere. Teachers
and in-depth tuition parents of low seen as caregivers and
interviews scholarship by income students basic skills curriculum
a private to make a advocated by the school.
foundation school choice?
Lobdell, 10 in-depth Parents who Perceptions of Themes affecting transfer
D.R. interviews23 applied for a El. School decision or school choice
1995 random school site parents decisions included
sample transfer regarding interpersonal relationships
surveys, or were children's with staff, safety and
review of moved to schooling student interpersonal
literature a site other experiences? relationships, educational
than quality, family perceptions
the assigned of a caring school
school environment

 

132

 

APPENDIX C

Contact Letters and Consent Form

Letter to Umoja Shule Parents
(Date)

Heather M. Pleasants
900 Long Blvd. 291
Lansing, MI 48911

Name of parent
Street address of parent
City, State, Zip code

Dear (Name of parent):

My name is Heather Pleasants and I am a volunteer at Umoja Shule. I am also a graduate
student at Michigan State University. I am writing to your because your name was chosen
from a list of parents at Umoja Shule, and I am interested in including you in a research
project I am completing. I would like to talk with you about how and why you chose
Umoja Shule for your child. I am also interested in talking with you about how you have
been involved in Umoja Shule.

If you agree to participate, an African American children’s book will be donated to
Umoja Shule in your name, and you would be entered in a “parent lottery.” If your name
is selected from this lottery, you will receive $25.00.

I hope that you will consider participating in my project. I have talked with Dr.

and we think that your perspective will help to increase the awareness and understanding
of the involvement of African Americans in charter schools. I will contact you in a couple
of days to answer my questions you might have and to talk with you further about the
possibility of including you in my project. If you have any questions about this letter or
my project, please do not hesitate to call me at 694-0717. Thank you very much for your
time and consideration!

Sincerely,

Heather Pleasants

133

Letter to Orange City Academy Parents

 

Hello!

My name is Heather Pleasants,

and I’m a student at Michigan State
University. (That’s me on the right). I’m
working on a research project that

will help people understand

why and how African American

parents are choosing charter schools

for their children.

I would like to call you to tell you more about my research project. If you wouldn’t mind
talking with me, please print your name and phone number below and return this letter to
your child’s teacher. This will not obligate you to participate in any way and your name
and phone number will remain confidential—I will not share this information with
anyone.

By returning this letter with your name and phone number, your name will be entered in a
special “parent lottery.” One parent will be randomly chosen and will receive $50.00.

If you do not wish to be contacted, simply return this letter to your child’s teacher
without signing it or including your phone number. If you have questions about this
letter, my research project, or would like to help me by being interviewed (but do not
want to be contacted), you can call me at (517) 694-0717. I would be more than happy to
talk with you!

As a parent, I know your time is valuable—thank you for reading this letter! I hope that
you will consider being a part of my project.

Sincerely,

Heather M. Pleasants

 

Your Name:

 

Telephone:
L )

134

Teacher And Parent Consent Form
Hello—

My name is Heather Pleasants, and I am doing research on alternative schools. I would
like to learn as much as I can about the experiences, educational values, and beliefs of
people involved in alternative school settings. As part of this research, I would like to
interview you (each interview would last approximately 1 and V2 hours or less) during the
year in order to find out about your own experiences.

Additionally, I would like to observe in some of the classrooms of the school
(approximately 10-20 times, for about 3-4 hours each time) and observe school events.
To insure your confidentiality, I will not use your name or the names of teachers,
students, or the school in anything that I write from this research. Tapes of your
interviews will be listened to only by the investigators in the research project. Every
effort will be made to protect your identity (through the use of pseudonyms) and the
confidentiality of any information that will be gained through your interviews. Should
you agree to be interviewed, our conversations would be scheduled at a time and place
convenient for you, including at your home if that is what you prefer.

Please read the following paragraph and indicate whether you consent to be interviewed
for this project.

I understand that my interviews can be shared with me upon my request, and that this
information will remain confidential. I understand that fieldnotes and tape recordings
will be used in observations of classrooms and school events, but that my name, students’
names, names of other teachers and parents, and the name of the school will not be
identified in any research reports. I understand that the interviews will last approximately
1 and '/2 hours each or less. I also understand that these interviews will be conducted to
gather information on the experiences, educational values, and beliefs of people involved
in an alternative school, and I understand that I am flee to discontinue my participation in
these interviews at any time, without penalty.

I give my consent to participate in these interviews

Signature

 

Date

 

If you would like more information about this research or have other specific questions,
please feel free to contact Heather Pleasants at (517) 694-0717. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Heather M. Pleasants

135

APPENDIX D

Interview Protocols

First Interview Protocol

Can you tell me a little bit about yourself, your background, what you do for fun, things
like that?

What do you remember about your elementary school experiences?

What do you think was most important about your elementary school experiences?
What do you remember about your junior high experiences?

What do you think was most important about your junior high experiences?

What do you remember about your high school experiences?

What do you think was most important about your high school experiences?

What do you remember about your college experiences?

What do you think was most important about your college experiences?

If you are in college now, can you tell me a little bit about what you’re doing, what you
majoring in, what you hope to do with your degree.

What aspects of your grade school and college experiences have had the least value?
What were your parents’ definitions of education and ideas about its purpose?

Did your parents influence your ideas about education and its purpose?

Were there other people who influenced your ideas about education and its purpose?
How are your own ideas similar or different?

Now that you have a child, what do you think about education and its purpose?

How did your ideas about school develop?

136

First Interview Protocol (Einal Revision)
PAST-FAMILY

Visualize a mental picture of three important events that happened to you when you were
between the ages of one and ten—describe these events and their significance.

Visualize a mental picture of three important events that happened to you when you were
between the ages eleven and twenty—describe these events and their significance.

Visualize a mental picture of three important events that happened to you when you were
between the ages of twenty-one and now—describe these events and their significance.

How would you say your parents raised you?
PRESENT-FAMILY
Do you take the same approach with your children?
Tell me about your children—their personalties, things they like to do.
Tell me about your immediate family (ages, occupations, etc.)

How would you describe your relationship with your immediate family?

 

PRESENT-WORK
How long have you been working at ?
What do you enjoy/dislike about your job ?

 

Where did you work/what did you do before that?
In terms of work, where do you see yourself in one year, five years, and ten years?
RELIGION/SPIRITUALITY
Do you consider yourself to be a spiritual person?
Where do your beliefs come from?
ETHNICITY
What are your feelings about being a Black man/woman?

Where do these feelings come from?

137

What are the most important struggles/obstacles that Black people have to face?
What are particular strengths to Black people have as a people?

COMMUNITY
How would you describe the neighborhood you live in?
What do you like/dislike about the neighborhood?
How would you describe the neighborhood where you grew up?
Where do you think you’ll be living in five years, ten years?
What do you remember about your elementary school experiences?
What do you think was most important about your elementary school experiences?
What do you remember about your junior high school experiences?
What do you think was most important about your junior high school experiences?
What do you remember about your high school experiences?
What do you think was most important about your high school experiences?
What do you remember about your college experiences?
What do you think was most important about your college experiences?
If you are in college now, can you tell me a little bit about what you’re doing—what
you’re majoring in, what you hope to do with your degree?
What aspects of your grade scth and college experiences have had the most/least
value?
How did you develop your ideas about school? Where did these ideas come from?
What were your parents’ definitions and ideas about education and its purpose?
Did your parents influence your ideas about education and its purpose?

Were there other people who influenced your ideas about education and its purpose?

138

How are your own ideas similar or different?

Now that you have a child, what are your ideas about education?

139

Second Interview Protocol
How have things been going for this year at (Name of School)?

If you were to list the five most important reasons for enrolling your child in (Name of
School), what would those be?

DECISION-MAKING PROCESS
What is the story of how you decided to enroll your child in (Name of School)?
What were your perceptions of your child’s first school?
Tell me about why you disenrolled your children from that school.

When did you first think about enrolling your child in a different school? What were your
thoughts? Did you act on those thoughts?

What made you choose (Name of School) over other schools?
Looking back, how would you describe your decision-making process?

Are you happy with the decision that you’ve made? Is (Name of School) everything you
thought it would be?

What does your family think about the decision you made to enroll your children here?

What do your friends/family think about the decision you made to enroll your children
here?

140

Second Interview Protocol (Revision)

The first thing that I want you to do today is to tell me the story of all that went into your
decision to put into (Name of School). I’d like you to take a moment, and
think of the first time you had thoughts about going into kindergarten or
preschool, and begin your story at that point.

 

OTHER QUESTIONS ASKED TO ELICIT FURTHER INFORMATION

If you were to list the five most important reasons for enrolling your child in (Name of
School), what would those be?

What is the story of how you decided to enroll your child in (Name of School)?
What were your perceptions of your child’s first school?
Tell me about why you disenrolled your children from that school.

When did you first think about enrolling your child in a different school? What were your
thoughts? Did you act on those thoughts?

What made you choose (Name of School) over other schools?

Looking back, how would you describe your decision-making process?

Are you happy with the decision that you’ve made? Is (Name of School) everything you
thought it would be?

What does your family think about the decision you made to enroll your children here?

What do your fiiends/family think about the decision you made to enroll your children
here?

141

hfirview Protocol Used with Principals and Teachers
Did you begin your working life in education?

 

How did you become familiar with the (Name of School)?

How is the (Name of School) different from other public schools?

(For Principal Only) Who is the school chartered through? How is it organized?
In your own words, what are the guiding ideas behind the (Name of School)?
Who is your staff composed of?

How are parents involved in the school?

Tell me about the curriculum.

How do you manage student behavior?

Who do you feel accountable to?

Why do you think parents have come to this school?

What changes have occurred from when the school was first founded?

Have there been any changes this year at the school? Are there any major events, changes
planned for next year?

What are the strengths/challenges of the school?

What is your vision for the future of the school?

142

Demoggphic Qpestionnaire

 

 

1. Name (Please Print)

2. Date

3. Please describe your marital status and your family unit (who lives in your current
household)

4. In the space below, please give your child’s narne/children’s name and age(s).

5. If your child attended a school before being enrolled in Sankofa, please list the
school(s) below:

 

 

6. Education (Please Circle Highest Level Attained)

Junior High School Undergraduate Degree
High School College-Graduate
High School Diploma Graduate Degree

Community College
Degree from Community College

College-Undergraduate

7. If you have taken college courses, please give your major and degree attained (if
applicable)

 

8. What is your occupation? Please respond below:

 

 

9. Please circle the category below which best describes your immediate family’s

143

yearly income level:

under 4,999 5,0009,999
20,000-24,999 25,000-29,999
40,000-49,999 50,000—59,999
100,000 and above

FINAL NOTE:

10,000-1 5,999
30,000-34,999

60,000-69,999

144

1 6,000-1 9,999
35,000-39,999

70,000-99,999

REFERENCES

145

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