An Inside Look at Education and Poverty

Carol M. Swain
The lower economic per
are not holding up their end of
the deal. 7"hesepeople are not parenting. The), are buying
thing~ for their kids--S500 sneakers for what ? A nd zoon 't
a~oend $200 for "l looked on l~tzonics. " . . . People marched
and w~.qehit in the face with rocks to get an education,
and now we've got knuck~heads walking around.

~Bill

Cosby

( ~ o m e d i a n Bill Cosby's remarks p r e s e n t e d on the anniversary o f the 1954

Brown v. Board of Education desegregation case were directed at a sttbgroup
of the black p o p u l a t i o n who were not p r e s e n t to hear his remarks, l I lis remarks, howevm; are just as applicable to the lifestyle choices of m o r e aftluent
blacks, whose children are also often failing to reach their potential for reasons that c a n n o t easily b e dismissed as racism. Ifike the lower-classes, too many
o f the middle-class suffer higher than n o r m a l rates of dysfimction when it
c o m e s to incarceration rates, crime, d r u g abuse, illegitimacy, and o t h e r social
ills. My c o n c e r n here is with educational a c h i e v e m e n t a n d competitiveness.
Unfortunately, n o t e n o u g h blacks at any s o c i o e c o n o m i c level are faring as well
as they should. T h e black middle-class is treading water and missing the mark.
T h e r e is a w e l l - d o c u m e n t e d b l a c k / w h i t e a c h i e v e m e n t gap in educational
p e r f o r m a n c e that affects every e c o n o m i c level. Black children r e a r e d in families e a r n i n g $50,000 a year score no better than whites and Asians reared in
families e a r n i n g from S10,000 to $20,000 p e r year.'-'These stark differences in
achievement levels manifest themselves during the K-12 years. Tests s p o n s o r e d
by the National Assessment of E d u c a t i o n Progress (NAEP) show a familiar
pattern of blacks lagging b e h i n d o t h e r groups. Studies have shown that by
senior year, the average black high school s t u d e n t iimctions at a skill level fimr
years b e h i n d the skill levels of white and Asian students. :~This p a t t e r n occurs
even in top school districts where blacks lag b e h i n d and often complain a b o u t

Carol M. Swain professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University, and
founding director of the Veritas Institute, Nashville, TN. This article and the previous
one bv David Armor are updated and adapted from remarks delivered as part of a
panel titled "Closing the Racial Gap in Education" at the NAS's eleventh national conference. Professor Swain is author of Bit& b~u:es, Black Interests: The Relnesentation ~
4[rica~ American,s in C0,~grevs(Cantbridge: Harvard Universi~ Press, 1993, 1995), antong
other books.

47

48

Academic Questions / Spring 2006

having difficulty u n d e r s t a n d i n g their assignments. 4Something o t h e r than white

racism a n d sub par schools must be c o n l r i b u t i n g to black u n d e r a c h i e v e m e n t .
A part of the p r o b l e m must lie in parental expectations and societal messages that reinforce the negative stereotypes that blacks are less capable and
less likely to benefit m u c h from the application o f h i g h e r standards imposed
by teachers and institutions. It is too often the case that well-intentioned teachers and counselors reinforce black students' affirmations that they are not
able to m a k e it academically, and w h e n difficulties do arise, the parents are
quick to blame teachers and the educational system r a t h e r than properly attributing lapses to what is not being said and d o n e at h o m e )
This essay speaks to issues inw)lving middle-class a n d lower-class African
Americans. I cast my lot with those observers who see cultural n o r m s and lowe r e d expectations as being partially responsible for the fact that blacks lag
b e h i n d o t h e r racial and ethnic groups in academic achievement. In some cases,
I believe that the situation has been worsened by the existence of certain fi)rms
of affirmative action that have n o t m a d e distinctions a m o n g minorities o f dit~
terent socioeconomic classes. Indeed, for decades, society has signaled to blacks
that it is okay for t h e m to be less competitive than o t h e r groups. I believe this
has had a harmful impact on the aspirations and sell:confidence of many blacks
who have internalized these very wrong negative messages.
Relevant to this discussion is my non-traditional b a c k g r o u n d as a high-school
d r o p o u t who, despite the odds, e a r n e d a Ph.D. and t e n u r e from two elite universities. Like the veteran teacher cited above, I have had m o r e than 20 years
of exposure to the p r o b l e m about which I now write. Time in the trenches as
a student and a professor informs this discussion. I focus on the black undera c h i e v e m e n t gap because o f its persistence, because of my kinship with African Americans, and because o f my deeply held beliefs that racial p r e f e r e n c e s
have b e e n a mixed blessing for o u r nation.
Let me support my position with some observations. A~s an o l d e r underg r a d u a t e student in the 1980s, 1 often e n c o u n t e r e d o t h e r black college students struggling with grade point averages at or Below a 2.00 on a 4.00 scale
who voiced aspirations o f wanting to b e c o m e lawyers a n d doctors. If I chall e n g e d t h e m directly by responding, "But I t h o u g h t you n e e d e d a 3.0 to get
into law or medical s c h o o l ' ~ a l m o s t invariably the student would respond,
"Oh, they have to let us in. T h e y have to let us in, because of affirmative action." Now, I d o n ' t believe that m a n y of those students were actually admitted
to professional schools, but the misiniormation led some g e n u i n e l y to believe
thai traditionally white professional schools were obligated to take them, regardless of their less-than-stellar p e r f o r m a n c e . This perception, I believe, affected how hard these students trained. T h e knowledge of affirmative action's
double standards no d o u b t caused some to neglect b u r n i n g of the m i d n i g h t
oil.

Swain

49

C o u l d such attitudes affect the level of exertion that a person puts forth
towards the a c h i e v e m e n t of goals a n d aspirations? C o u l d such beliefs be a
factor in the w e l l - d o c u m e n t e d fact that black students in college underperform
their SAT s c o r e s - - t h a t is, black students with the same SAT scores as whites
exhibit a considerably lower p e r f o r m a n c e in college than white students. ~;Racism and the difficulty of adjusting to the social e n v i r o n m e n t are c o m m o n explanations for the discrepancy.
Affirmative action has affected students in o t h e r ways as well. I have often
e n c o u n t e r e d black students w h o s e e m e d immobilized by the belief that "we"
were incapable of c o m p e t i n g effectively with whites. Some h a d internalized
white racist notions o f black inferiority. I came away from many conversations
fully convinced that the p e o p l e with w h o m I was talking did n o t have a clue as
to how hard successful p e o p l e often work to attain their goals. In an effort to
draw the knowledge g l e a n e d from my roots as a high school d r o p o u t and o n e
of 12 children raised in rural s o u t h e r n poverty, I have pulled t o g e t h e r some
ideas of what I think can be d o n e to address aspects of the c u r r e n t b l a c k /
white a c h i e v e m e n t gap at the s e c o n d a r y level, where it all stares. It is my h o p e
that with c o n c e r t e d efforts we can nip some of the p r o b l e m s in the bud. Perhaps, in a few years, the felt n e e d for racial p r e f e r e n c e s in higher e d u c a t i o n
will increasingly fade as m o r e a n d m o r e minorities b e c o m e competitive in all
areas o f life.

Addressing the Problems o f Middle-Class Blacks

Perhaps the easiest p r o b l e m to address is the situation w h e r e middle-class
black students are n o t achieving as m u c h as they should, given their resources.
H e r e the choices may be a matter of values. Parents have the resources to
b e c o m e aggressively involved in the e d u c a t i o n o f their children. O n e of the
easier things that parents can d o is to be aware of the c o n t e n t o f c u r r i c u l u m
and the level of difficulty of the courses chosen by students and g u i d a n c e
counselors. O n e study explaining the b l a c k / w h i t e test gap showed that black
students who took the SAT had n o t followed the same academic track as white
students. T h e white test-takers were far m o r e likely to have c o m p l e t e d courses
in g e o m e t r y and higher-level mathematics such as t r i g o n o m e t r y and calculus5 Black students took fewer literature and h o n o r s writing courses. They
were also less likely to invest in such test-coaching courses as Kaplan a n d the
Princeton Review: known to raise scores by 100 points or more. Clearly, these
are areas w h e r e a m o r e pro-active stance can yield greater positive outcomes.
Middle-class parents can hire private tutors, they can restrict the a m o u n t of
time their children watch television and play sports, they can m o n i t o r peerg r o u p associations, and they can make sure that their offspring take full adv a n t a g e o f all e n r i c h m e n t o p p o r t n n i t i e s o f f e r e d by s c h o o l s a n d o t h e r
institutions. A dramatic increase in the n u m b e r of black parents willing to

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Academic Questions / Spring 2006

push their children as t h o u g h affirmative action programs never existed and

no l o n g e r do would result in positive a c h i e v e m e n t outcomes.
The Very Different Situation o f Lower-class and Underclass Blacks
"They're standing on the c o r n e r a n d they can't speak English. I can't even
talk the way these people talk: 'Why you ain't.' ' W h e r e you is.' A n d I b l a m e d
t h e kid u n t i l I h e a r d t h e m o t h e r talk. A n d t h e n I h e a r d t h e f a t h e r
talk . . . . E v e r y b o d y knows it is i m p o r t a n t to speak English e x c e p t these
knuckleheads. You can't be a d o c t o r with that kind of crap c o m i n g out o f your
mouth," spouted Bill Cosby) Indeed, sympathies are with the lower-class blacks
that were not in the r o o m with Cosby. Until I was a s t u d e n t at the c o m m u n i t y
college w h e r e I e a r n e d my first degree, I used the vernacular black English o f
my parents. "He don't," and "she don't" rolled eftortlessly off my u m g u e , because that was how we talked at h o m e . Fortunately, I was eventually c o r r e c t e d
by o n e of my black classmates in a most gentle manner. "Oh," she said, "I think
you m e a n t to say that she d o e s n ' t have a car." T h a t was e n o u g h to c o r r e c t that
particular grammatical p r o b l e m for me, but others persisted, such as subject/
verb disagreements that still occasionally crop up.
My parents were u n e d u c a t e d . My father had a third-grade education, my
mother, an intelligent woman, d r o p p e d out in the tenth grade, and my stepfather had no a p p a r e n t e d u c a t i o n at all. N o n e of my siblings--seven brothers
and four sistersmever g r a d u a t e d from high school. Although I too d r o p p e d
out of school after c o m p l e t i n g the eighth grade, by the grace of God I managed to e a r n five college and university degrees from an array of institutions, u
I was by no means the smartest o f the 12--I was just the o n e who escaped.
I g n o r a n c e is r a m p a n t a m o n g the poor. Before I d r o p p e d out o f school, I
believed that my situation was hopeless a n d that only rich people could go to
college. For a n u m b e r o f reasons, I d r o p p e d out of school a n d m a r r i e d at 16
years of age. Affirmative action and scholarships were totally outside o f my
sphere of knowledge. For families like mine, affirmative action might as well
not have existed. W h e n I did e n t e r college, such need-based programs as Pell
Grants, tederal h)ans, a n d work study e n a b l e d me to move to the n e x t stage
where race and merit worked t o g e t h e r to create opportunities for p o o r minorities who detied the stereotypes.
Talented students from disadvantaged families like m i n e are d e p e n d e n t on
the goodwill of adults outside the family who can give t h e m h o p e a n d steer
t h e m toward programs a n d courses that can be o f assistance to t h e m and their
families. Students whose parents will not take full advantage of available options a n d resources should not be penalized by rules a n d r e q u i r e m e n t s that
often limit opportunities in the best programs to students whose parents are
actively involved in the school. Few o f the children o f the truly p o o r will have
parents able and willing to work in the schools a n d participate in p a r e n t /
t e a c h e r conferences. Why not let willing adult m e n t o r s fill the gap by serving

Swain

51

informally as surrogate parents when it c o m e s to certain types o f involvement?

Even the most disinterested parents would p r o b a b l y w e l c o m e the i n p u t from a
c o n c e r n e d volunteer.
It is also i m p o r t a n t to steer s o m e students into alternative educational programs. We must accept the fact that n o t all smart students are college b o u n d .
T h e r e are students who have no interest in college. Many struggle to master
basic reading, writing, and math skills. Some students should be steered toward a p p r o p r i a t e vocational programs or c o m m u n i t y colleges that offer remedial education, vocational training, and o p p o r t u n i t i e s to transfer credits to
four-year colleges a n d universities. What is n e e d e d are new focused a n d conc e r t e d efforts linking teachers, g u i d a n c e counselors, a n d c o n c e r n e d adults to
identity a n d e n c o u r a g e students to stay in school, work hard, a n d avail themselves of resources to improve their life chances. H o w many potential leaders,
scientists, and university professors are t r a p p e d in p o o r schools a n d d e s p e r a t e
family situations?
Many factors affect the p e r f o r i n a n c e o f students from p o o r families. In nay
family we missed school because we lacked p r o p e r clothes for the w e a t h e r and
b e c a u s e we did n o t have alternative transportation to school if we missed the
bus. I can r e m e m b e r times in which I a t t e n d e d school without d e o d o r a n t or
sanitary napkins. What most p e o p l e take for g r a n t e d is often n o t available to
the poor. Abusive alcoholic parents, d i s c o n n e c t e d utilities, and o v e r c r o w d e d
h o m e s can all affect w h e t h e r a s t u d e n t stays in school a n d is able to learn the
material. Often, there is a n e e d for children to find work outside the h o m e as
soon as they reach a certain age. In o t h e r cases, such as my own, the n e e d to
escape a bad situation at h o m e leads to teenage marriage, childbirth, and
eventually the responsibilities of being a single parent. Students will make better
choices if given Inentorship and e n c o u r a g e m e n t by caring adults of any race.
Growing up in impoverished circmnstances can be devastating to the sell:esteem of the brightest students who suffer the taunts of their peers.
O n e adult who genuinely cares a b o u t a child can make a dramatic difference in life chances. Some o f us can r e m e m b e r the first person who ever told
us that we were smart and that we were valuable and capable of attaining success. Words of e n c o u r a g e m e n t cost us nothing, yet w h e n they are sincerely
offered, they are priceless. Words can c h a n g e despair into h o p e and defeat
into victory. Proverbs 18:21 states, "death and life are in the power of the tongue."
An aptly spoken word from an authority figure can c h a n g e lives forever.
Patsy Partin, a veteran school t e a c h e r f r o m Nashville, Tennessee, has f o u n d
that "low-achieving students often c o m e from a culture of unstable families
with poverty, drugs, u n w e d mothers, and the absence of the father in the home.
These non-virtuous characteristics are u n a c c e p t a b l e in arty culture. Such internal, cultural factors work against s t u d e n t achieveinent." She has I n e n t o r e d
many children from such backgrounds, who have g o n e on to achieve unexp e c t e d success because she held t h e m to high standards and failed to stereo-

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Academic Questions / Spring 2006

type t h e m o r r e i n t o r c e t h e m e s s a g e s t h e y r e c e i v e d f r o m h o m e a b o u t t h e i r lack
of worth.
Untortunately, the needs and concerns of disadvantaged minorities often
s e e m i n s u r m o t m t a b l e , B u t as a p e r s o n w h o has e s c a p e d the worst o f lowerclass life a n d e m e r g e d o n the o t h e r side, I a m o p t i m i s t i c t h a t collectively we
can t u r n things a r o u n d . It m a y take many, m a n y Patsy Partins o f all races. But
it can b e d o n e a n d it m u s t be d o n e . S o m e o f the p r o b l e m s p l a g u i n g lower-class
Americans include:
9
9
9
9
9
9

Dysfunctional, abusive homes where education is not valued;

A lack of parental involvement because of disinterest or work obligations;
A failure of students to develop effective study skills;
Negative peer pressure abont the value of learning;
Environmenlal conditions such as living in a high crime, high noise area, or
not having a quiet place and time to study;
Poor nutrilional thclors that affect ability to concentrate as well as IQ and motivafio~at levcts.

S o m e o f the a b o v e factors are difficult to a d d r e s s w i t h o u t involving a h o s t o f

social a n d g o v e r n m e n t a l o r g a n i z a t i o n s t h a t m i g h t b e able to i n t e r v e n e with
v a r y i n g d e g r e e s o f success. We m i g h t be able to b r i n g a b o u t m o r e success
t h r o u g h i n n o v a t i o n a n d g r e a t e r e x p e r i m e n t a t i o n . A f t e r c o n s u l t a t i o n with a
few e d u c a t o r s , l h u m b l y s u b m i t t h e f o l l o w i n g policy r e c o m m e n d a t i o n s [0r
improving the K-12 educational experience for low-income students.
9

9
9

Smaller Clas.~es a n d Devoted Teachers. It would be helptill to have smaller classes

taught bv teachers who believe in the students and their ability to learn the
material expected of students at their grade levels. A belief in the student's
ability to learn is essential for educating and motivating them to exert the efforts likely to yield results.
Gender-Based Classrooms. Placing some students in a gender-based classroom during the aclolescent years would reduce distractions associated with having the
opposite sex in the same room. Public school principals and teachers should
have greater discretion to make such decisions with or without school board
approval.
Vocational Education. Steering some students towards vocational educational
programs is essential. Not all students are college material. But all students
need job training to survive in today's world. Community colleges and broader
high school curriculums could be utilized to meet these goals.
School Uniforms. Reduces the stigmatization o f p o o r children, who cannot afford the latest styles.
School Choice. Voucher programs, charter schools, and magnet schools offer a
viable solution for a small percentage of students. These should he utilized and
expanded ifoversight is in place to ensure that they maintain high standards of
quality. Although greater school choice will not solve the larger problem o f
black underachievement, it will give parents more flexibility and might encourage public schools to become more accountable.

Swain

53

In conclusion, we all have much work to do to solve these problems. No

single group is responsible for current conditions and no single group has the
correct solution. A varied approach is needed. Changing demographics and
the fact that blacks are no longer America's largest minority group complicates the educational situation by increasing the pool of people who compete
at the margins for a narrowed set of opportunities. The magnitude of the task
ahead includes how to integrate growing numbers of non-English-speaking
students entering schools across the nation, where even greater challenges
are posed to teachers and school boards struggling to meet the requirements
set by federal and state governments. It behooves us to unite and collectively
work toward a solution that will aggressively address the problem of all underachieving youth.
Notes
1. Bill Coshy as quoted by Joel Dauben, "Bill Cosby was 1(10% Right," The l",llis County Press,
3 J u n e 2004.
2. Andrew t lacker, Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile, and Uneven (New York:
Random Hotlse, 1992), 146; Nicholas I,emann, "Taking Aftirmative Action Apart," New
York Times Magazine, 1 I June 1995, 66.
3. Abigail Thernstrom and Stephan Thernstrom, No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gaps in
Learning (New York: Simon & Shuster, 20(t31, 12-15.
4. Ronald E Ferguson, "Responses from Middle School, J u n i o r I ligh, and High School
Students in 1)istricts of the Minority Students Achievement Network," as cited in
Thernstrom and Thernstom, No Excuses, 22.
5. This latter observation came from conversations with t~atsy Parfin, a veteran public school
teacher in Nashville, Tennessee.
6. In a study of over ten-thousalld undergraduate students who entered eleven highly select
colleges and universities in 1989, Fredrick Vars and William Bowen found that con trolling
for SAT scores and other acadelnic attributes, black students with similar academic
r
as whites wound up in the class rankings of their schools an average of
17.4 percentile points behind their white counterparts. This is a huge dit'terence. See
"Scholastic Aptitude Test Scores, Race, and College Performance in Selective Colleges
and Universities," in TheBlack/White Test Score Gap, ed. ChristopherJencks and Meredith
Phillips (Washington, I).C.: Brookings Institution Press, 1998), 475. In the even larger
study involving 28 highly selective colleges and mfiversities that participated in the College
and Bey'ond survey, Bowen and Bok found huge black "underperformance" of their SAT
scores and other academic indicators. Slightly less than halt of the 30-point difference
between blacks and whites in their average rank in class (twenu,-third percentile ti)r
blacks, fifty-third percentile for whites), could be accounted for, according to Bowen
and Bok's analysis, by lower black SAT scores, lower high school grades, and other variables
associated wilh academic outcomes. The rest of the difference resulted from the
n n d e r p e r t o r m a n c e tactor. Blacks were, in other words, clearly not living up to their
d e m o n s t r a t e d p o t e n t i a l s to t h e s a m e d e g r e e as whites, a n d t h e d e g r e e o f
underperformance, once again, was huge.
7. "Tlais Was Not Sul~posed to Happen: The Black-White Test Gap is Growing," Journal of
Blacks in Higher Education, 25 (1999): 96, 98, 99.
8. ('osby as cited in Dauhen, "Bill Cosby was 100% Right."
9. My degrees are from the fbllowing colleges and universities: Virginia Western Community
College (A.A.S, 1978), Roanoke College (B.A., 1983), Virginia Polytechnic and State
University (M.A., 1984), University of North Carolina at Chapel ltill (Ph.1)., 1989), and
Yale University Law School (M.S.L., 2000).