The BBA ("broader and bolder approach") may be the dream plan for the well-intentioned holders of cultural, financial, and social capital who are its main backers, for it fits their own ideals and uses the money this class holds to employ the expensive services this class offers, but it is unlikely to succeed as a national model, even if it succeeds locally, because it is a maximally expensive approach with little street credibility that may yet achieve little or nothing in terms of academic outcomes for its students. Of course, I would be happy to be wrong about this pessimistic forecast, but given the track record of previous attempts along these lines, I remain doubtful.
By contrast, Confucian polities like South Korea (statistically poorer than Africa 50 years ago), Shanghai (emerging from the dark persecution of the Cultural Revolution in the late 1970s), and Japan (recovering from utter devastation after World War II), being unable to access the generosities of BBA, were forced to look inward to develop their own resources, starting in the family home, and attack collectively the problems of urban regeneration. It is impossible to do this successfully with a closed attitude towards the outside world--the examples of North Korean juche ("self-determination"), Marcus Garvey in Haiti, and Locke High School in Watts prove the disadvantages of depending solely upon locally developed resources in building successful cultures ready to compete in the 21st century, and this realization affected my decision to reach outward, towards Green Dot Public Schools, to turn around Locke High School (although we intended a partnership, not a takeover). But charismatic efforts like that going on in Newark, even if successful, are unlikely to be sufficiently replicable to make much difference in helping the United States to better prepare its youth for the global competition they are increasingly exposed to; instead, we need better informed, and in particular internationally informed, models to adhere to.
(from Professor Pedro Noguera--I'm still struggling with readers' inability to post their own quotes)
ReplyDeleteHi Bruce, Thanks for sending your blog. I wonder what you based this quote on:
The BBA ("broader and bolder approach") may be the dream plan for the well-intentioned holders of cultural, financial, and social capital who are its main backers, for it fits their own ideals and uses the money this class holds to employ the expensive services this class offers, but it is unlikely to succeed as a national model, even if it succeeds locally, because it is a maximally expensive approach with little street credibility that may yet achieve little or nothing in terms of academic outcomes for its students.
First, how do you know how much has been spent on this work? Unlike the Harlem Children's Zone, our work relies largely on local resources. We have received funds from the Ford Foundation and the State of New Jersey to fund extended learning opportunities at three of our schools, but the 1.4 million we've received is hardly excessive especially when you consider how much has been spent on failed reforms. '
I also challenge your claim that we have no street cred. Where did this come from? Who do you know in Newark? One of our major investments is in community organizing and just this weekend we had over 200 parents come out in support of our work. Get your facts straight before you attack our work. At at time when community groups are attacking Mayor Booker over the lack of transparency in the use of Facebook funds we've had overwhelming support from the community behind what we've been doing because we've taken the time to work with the community.
If you're serious about what you're doing and not just a cynic you'll print my response on your blog. If not, I'll just dismiss you as yet another hater who thinks Black kids can't learn and don't deserve the investment of time or effort.
We intend to take this work to a national level and have already started working in Pittsburgh, Denver and Houston. We're not waiting for superman or you to give us your blessing.
- Pedro Noguera
The key sentence in Professor Noguera's response is this: "At at time when community groups are attacking Mayor Booker over the lack of transparency in the use of Facebook funds we've had overwhelming support from the community behind what we've been doing because we've taken the time to work with the community." This immediately points to my error: I had read a recent article on the very slow and expensive start to the spending of Marc Zuckerberg's $100 million gift to Newark and assumed that the BBA was part of that effort. It appears I was wrong, and I am embarrassed and apologize.
ReplyDeleteI remain skeptical of what I've read about the Newark employment of Facebook money, and to a lesser extent I am also skeptical of "Fourth Way" approaches, including to some extent those of the Harlem Children's Zone, which depend upon using schools as community centers to provide all sorts of desperately needed social services, largely because such approaches promote drift from schools' core competencies and use school personnel on social projects for which the personnel are not well trained and may well also be badly supervised; but I would be perfectly happy to be proved wrong, as I have been proved wrong in my blog post, for which I once again apologize.