Revisiting Paradigms in Black Education: Community Control and African-Centered Schools

In: Education and urban society, Band 34, Heft 1, S. 84-100

Abstract

This article is drawn from a larger case study analysis of Black mobilization around community control of schools in New York City and Black support of African American immersion schools in Milwaukee. The study examines how sociopolitical context influenced the two Black urban school districts to pursue school reform models that used persistent segregation as the center-piece for reform. The study reveals that using an all-Black setting as a foundation for school reform presents challenges that can threaten the intended reform. It is concluded that despite potential challenges, if residential patterns and demographic changes continue to undermine integration efforts, then racially relevant alternatives that build on tenets of Black nationalism and Afrocentricity will find a broader audience in urban school districts eager to find remedies to address the problems associated with persistent segregation.