Back in 1899, in Washington, D. C., there were four academic public high schools – one black and three white. In standardized tests given that year, students in the black high school averaged higher test scores than students in two of the three white high schools.This was not a fluke. It so happens that I have followed 85 years of the history of this black high school – from 1870 to 1955 – and found it repeatedly equalling or exceeding national norms on standardized tests. In the 1890s, it was called The M Street School, and after 1916 it was renamed Dunbar High School, but its academic performances on standardized tests remained good on into the mid-1950s.
Then the test scores collapsed. This was not unique to Dunbar. SAT scores nationally collapsed after 1963. This has been known for four decades.
Sowell was criticized for using this example. "This was a school for the middle class," critics said. They of course had not actually examined the records. It was a typical knee-jerk response from professional jerks. Sowell researched the issue.
During the later period, for which I collected data, there were far more children whose mothers were maids than there were whose fathers were doctors. For many years, there was only one academic high school for blacks in the District of Columbia and, as late as 1948, one-third of all black youngsters attending high school in Washington attended Dunbar High School. So this was not a "selective" school in the sense in which we normally use that term – there were no tests to take to get in, for example – even though there was undoubtedly self-selection in the sense that students who were serious went to Dunbar and those who were not had other places where they could while away their time, without having to meet high academic standards.Was "integration" a social engineering scam designed by liberals to slow the progress of black people, by robbing them of the responsibility to educate their own children?
7 comments:
You don't have to reach back that far DV...,
Science Awards Confirm Forgotten History
Around the time of the Topeka decision, students of Sumner High School, a segregated Negro high school in Kansas City Kansas, accomplished something not only unexpected, but also improbable, considering the prevailing conditions of discrimination, the sub-standard school funding, and the educational and socioeconomic background of the Negro population that Sumner served. The accomplishment was this: Sumner dominated all Metropolitan Kansas City high schools (then more than 75 percent white) in awards for science presentations in the newly initiated National Science Fairs program.
It was not a fluke. Sumner would dominate top science prizes for much of the 1950s. Later, Lincoln High School, a Negro high school until 1954 on the Missouri side, dominated science awards in the Kansas City, Missouri school district well into the 1960s.
Science fair awards were not bestowed lightly. Kansas City Missouri and Kansas City Kansas were proud of their school systems. They joined the new “International Science Fair” movement in 1952, and were backed by the mayors, academic and business leaders, and the public. Greater Kansas City would receive national and international recognition for the quality of its “Science Pioneer” program.
Is this true? Can someone link me to the studies. I'm working on a theory to try to explain the achievement gap.
Wesley,
Thomas Sowell has written quite a bit on the subject -
http://www.tsowell.com/
Not specifically dealing with black schools pre-integration, but plenty of stuff to fuel some of the arguments made here about education:
The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto. You can read it online. The school system was designed to dumb down the population by industrialists and their think tanks. Did you know that there were riots at the turn of the last century against forcing mandatory "public" schooling upon children? Wanna know who were the ones up in arms about it? The parents.
What a difference a hundred years makes...
Interesting Cadeveo.
But it's so hard to get cats to appreciate that.
"School" was held up so long as a path to salvation ... some people just can't get their minds around the fact that the school system is used to cripple them intellectually.
You got a link?
Actually, theres a valid reason those test scores at the M Street School were so high. Due to segregation, the few Blacks who pursued higher education and obtained advanced degrees couldnt get teaching and/or research positions anywhere but HBCUs. And, because theres a finite number of those, many Black PhDs wound up teaching at the M Street School. Those who had achieved academic excellence demanded it from their pupils resulting in those higher test scores you cited.
Several members of my family attended that school. Im going to be scanning their memorabilia soon...Im thinking of posting some of them on my blog, so come by and check it out!
Brother DV:
You have to tie it all together to today.
Al Shaprton's August 28th rally was held at the "Preparatory High School For Colored Children" founded in 1870. It is today known as "Dunbar High School" and is a failing inner city school today.
More than 65 years ago Anna Julia Cooper lead the school to the high standards that you speak of.
Ironically Al Sharpton stood on stage at this school and told AMERICA that he was SEARCHING for Academic Quality for Black kids. No one pulled his chain and told him that he needs to LOOK FOR WHAT WAS LOST on the grounds where he stood.
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