Main Street Journal: Online Exclusive: Opportunity Lost: The Convergence of Race and Poverty in the Memphis City Schools

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Opportunity Lost: The Convergence of Race and Poverty in the Memphis City Schools
By: Marcus D. Pohlmann

The origins of this project actually go back to the late 1980s. At that time, my colleague Dr. Michael Kirby and I were contracted to do the research that culminated in our book, Racial Politics at the Crossroads: Memphis Elects Dr. W.W. Herenton. That book focused on the evolution of white and black politics in Memphis, but it also gave me a chance to begin to carefully review the history of the city, including both its racial and economic histories. Among other things, I was struck by the extent of racial separation as well as both the breadth and intensity of the poverty that existed in large segments of the city.

In the Spring of 2001, Johnnie B. Watson, the Superintendent of the Memphis City Schools, asked me to conduct a review of school consolidation in Knoxville, Nashville, and Chattanooga. With the able assistance of colleagues Dr. Joy Clay and Dr. Kenneth Goings, we completed that task and reported to the Memphis City School Board in the summer of that year.

It was hard to conduct our study of educational reform in the state’s other large cities without beginning to ponder what problems Memphis shared with those cities and how such reforms might benefit the Memphis public schools. Yet, given the conflicting passions surrounding the issue of school consolidation in the Memphis area, we had been explicitly asked not to address that question in our analysis. Meanwhile, bad reports continued to dominate the local news. Related in part to the federal policy of “No Child Left Behind,” a sizable number of Memphis city schools were struggling to make the grade in terms of state-mandated competency exams.

A particular interview I conducted in Knoxville continued to resonate in the back of my mind. An African American administrator candidly speculated that school success has far less to do with what actually occurs in school. Specifically, the administrator speculated that you could take middle-class children from the wealthiest school in the area, transfer them to the most poorly funded school, and they would still do well. Conversely, you could take the lowest-income children from the latter school, transfer them to the best endowed school, and they would still struggle academically.

That “politically incorrect” thinking came from a young and otherwise quite liberal African-American who had taught for several years before assuming a high-level administrative position. This led me back to a book that had been gathering dust on my shelves since I was a graduate student at Columbia University in the 1970s. It was Christopher Jencks, et al., Inequality: A Reassessment of the Effect of Family and Schooling in America. That 1966 book grew out of seminar at Harvard University designed to reassess the findings of James Coleman and his colleagues, findings which suggested that desegregating the schools could boost black students’ educational performance. In their subsequent book, Inequality, Jencks, et al. came to some relatively radical conclusions about the relationship between the socio-economic position of parents, the likelihood of their children succeeding in school, and to what degree the school ever could be a realistic launching pad to larger economic equality in the United States.

I decided I would return to the alleged relationship between socio-economic class and educational success as a starting point in my analysis of the struggling Memphis City Schools. To what degree could the city’s racial divisions and levels of poverty help explain at least some of the specific problems holding back students in Memphis, Tennessee? Answers to these questions would have definite implications for proposals to improve educational performance.

Horatio Alger inspired generations of American youth with tales of penniless heroes gaining wealth and fame through a combination of goodness and courage. Essential to much of that success was an education system that would prepare one to rise almost limitlessly if the person was talented enough, had enough ambition, and worked hard.

What contemporary evidence demonstrates is that education does indeed affect one’s economic position in life, especially in today’s increasingly technological “information age.” Nevertheless, the economic circumstances into which one is born also appear to have a significant impact on the extent and quality of one’s education. As the second half of the title suggests, the socio-economic circumstances into which most inner-city children are born today does not bode well for a 21st century rags-to-riches metamorphosis. A combination of postindustrial economic changes and a history of racial exclusion have combined to make it harder than ever for these children to rise from rags to riches in today’s postindustrial information age.

When the Memphis public school system was compared to the Shelby County system, I found that the resource advantage actually belonged to the Memphis City Schools. They had a slightly better student-to-teacher ratio, spent more per pupil and had teachers with more college training. Such trend lines and differentials suggested a City system that ought to be functioning at least as well as, if not better than, the County system.

That was most definitely not the case. City School students lagged well behind County School students in key performance measures at all grade levels. Thus, it appeared that these output gaps had more to do with the academic disadvantages low-income students brought to school with them than with the quality of the educational resources available once they arrive. In addition, when comparing poor and less poor black schools, the fact that court-ordered school busing altered the racial composition of the Memphis City Schools appeared to be far less important than the fact that a momentum developed which drove away middle-income blacks and whites.

What, if anything, can and should be done to improve the prospects of the city’s current Ragged Janes and Tattered Toms who appear to be locked in what Ernest Boyer has described as an “educational Third World”?

Based on a discussion of both the educational problems faced by the Memphis City Schools and the range of reform alternatives available, it appeared to be time to seriously consider a “5 R’s” approach. These five R’s are: Reasonable Income, Reforms, Resolve, Responsibility, and Respect. Together, they hold out the promise of a society that conforms much more closely to its own ideals, not to mention creating a more productive, peaceful, and secure single nation. Should all of these be pursued, however, the end result will be quite costly. Each step, however, can be beneficial in and of itself, thus the comprehensive price tag should not deter us from beginning the effort.

In his 1944 inaugural address, Franklin Roosevelt stated that his goal was “to make a country in which no one is left out.” That same general principle would appear to lie beneath the notion of “No Child Left Behind.” It is society’s duty to educate every child, not just provide education. It is hard to argue that this is not an amiable egalitarian goal. A sad truth, however, is that some children come to school in such a state of academic disrepair that there may be little the public schools can do for them by that point.

It is also important to remember our comparison of the Memphis City Schools and the Shelby County Schools. The more attractive schools have better attendance, achievement scores, discipline, and graduation rates. The key difference between those and their less attractive counterparts does not seem to be spending per student, students-per-teacher ratios, average teacher education, average teacher experience or average teacher salaries. Instead, it would seem to have more to do with the children the attractive schools do not have to take or keep. Poor parents who want school choice, for instance, are unlikely to accept simply transferring their entire school to a new building with new teachers. Why? Most want their children out of the atmosphere created by those other poor students, including crime, gangs, violence, chaotic classrooms, underachievement and lack of positive role models.

We can, however, begin to address those conditions which contribute to severe educational disadvantage, many of which appear to be poverty-related. For Horatio Alger’s Ragged Janes and Tattered Toms to have equal opportunity in 21st century Memphis, there will need to be a multi-faceted approach that focuses on the earliest possible intervention in poor children’s lives, while at the same time both directly and indirectly reducing inter-generational poverty. Such conclusions are not new. The Memphis branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) recommended many of these reforms in a 1988 report to Judge Robert McCrae. Their recommendations included early childhood programs, smaller classes, year-round schooling, enhanced teacher preparation, school consolidation, and using school buildings for child care, social services, and adult education. Such an approach will come with a considerable national, state, and local price tag. Nonetheless, each element we adopt, however small, will move us in the direction supported by the best available research.

(You can buy the book from Amazon.com or Goodreads.)

(Professor Marcus D. Pohlmann did his undergraduate work at Cornell College, his graduate work at Columbia University. He has taught at Bates College, The College of Wooster, Arkansas State University and Rhodes College. He has been at Rhodes since 1986. His writing has appeared in numerous Political Science journals, and he is author of several books including OPPORTUNITY LOST: RACE AND POVERTY IN THE MEMPHIS CITY SCHOOLS; BLACK POLITICS IN CONSERVATIVE AMERICA; AFRICAN AMERICAN POLITICAL THOUGHT, 6 volumes; LANDMARK CONGRESSIONAL LAWS ON CIVIL RIGHTS; RACIAL POLITICS AT THE CROSSROADS; GOVERNING THE POSTINDUSTRIAL CITY; and POLITICAL POWER IN THE POSTINDUSTRIAL CITY.)

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