Unfinished Business

In this groundbreaking book, co-editors Pedro Noguera and Jean Yonemura Wing, and their collaborators investigated the dynamics of race and achievement at Berkeley High School–a large public high school that the New York Times called "the most integrated high school in America." Berkeley's diverse student population clearly illustrates the "achievement gap" phenomenon in our schools. Unfinished Business brings to light the hidden inequities of schools–where cultural attitudes, academic tracking, curricular access, and after-school activities serve as sorting mechanisms that set students on paths of success or failure.

Acknowledgments v

Preface ix

Preface to the Paperback Edition xvii

The Editors xxvii

Part One: The Structure and Culture of Inequality in Schools 1

Introduction: Unfinished Business: Closing the Achievement Gap at Berkeley High School 3
Pedro A. Noguera, Jean Yonemura Wing

1 Structuring Inequality at Berkeley High 29
Beth C. Rubin, Jean Yonemura Wing, Pedro A. Noguera, Emma Haydée Fuentes, Daniel D. Liou, Alicia P. Rodriguez, Lance T. McCready

2 Integration Across Campus, Segregation Across Classrooms: A Close-up Look at Privilege 87
Jean Yonemura Wing

3 The Discipline Gap and the Normalization of Failure 121
Anne Gregory, Kysa Nygreen, Dana Michiko Moran

Part Two: Agency in the Fight for Equity 151

4 Changing Teacher Practice and Student Outcomes 153
Pharmicia M. Mosely
Teacher Voices: Dana Michiko Moran, LaShawn Routé Chatmon, Miriam Klein Stahl, Tamara Friedman, Leslie Anne Plettner, Susannah Bell, Magi Discoe, James Dopman

5 Creating Demand for Equity: Transforming the Role of Parents in Schools 201
LaShawn Routé Chatmon, Katrina Scott-George, Anne K. Okahara, Emma Haydée Fuentes, Jean Yonemura Wing, Pedro A. Noguera
Parent Voices: Isabel M. Parra, Julina Bastidas-Bonilla, Michael D. Miller, Juana Villegas, Vikki C. Davis, Liz Fuentes, Valerie B. Yerger

6 Songs of Experience: Student Reflections on Four Years at Berkeley High 247
Elena Silva
Student Voices: Nabila Lee Lester, Joseph Christiano, Jimmy Thong Tran, Pranoumphone (Pam) Pradachith, Jamie E. McMaryion, Shabnam Piryaei, Niles Xi’an Lichtenstein

Conclusion: Lessons Learned: The Limits and Possibilities of Using Research to Counter Racial Inequality 281
Pedro A. Noguera

Epilogue: Finishing School 297
Jabari Mahiri

References 305

Index 311

THE EDITORS

PEDRO A. NOGUERA is a professor in the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University, the executive director of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education, and the co-director of the Institute for the Study of Globalization and Education in Metropolitan Settings (IGEMS).

JEAN YONEMURA WING is affiliated with UC ACCORD (University of California All Campus Consortium on Research for Diversity) and is a researcher in the Oakland Unified School District.

FRESH INSIGHT ON RACIAL DYNAMICS AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN SCHOOLS

"Unfinished Business illuminates the challenges in overcoming the current inequities in public education. Fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, this book exposes a 'tale of two schools' where students walk through the same high school doors but remain racially and academically segregated within—a condition mirrored in urban schools and districts across the nation. The authors offer a hopeful, yet urgent, call to invest in youth on the front side of life and to hold fast to the vision of a future where all children can truly learn, achieve, and dream to their highest potential."
—REVEREND JESSE L. JACKSON, SR., president and founder, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition

"It should concern us deeply as scholars, policymakers, and practitioners that at one of our nation's best schools—one that is deemed as 'working' and highly successful according to official accounts—children's destinies are no less circumscribed by race and class. This book contains a clear wake-up call in its masterful account of deep and abiding commitments to educational equity."
—ANGELA VALENZUELA, Haskew Centennial Professor, Department of Curriculum & Instruction and Center for Mexican American Studies, University of Texas at Austin

"It's a powerful experience to immerse oneself in this book. The many voices of teachers—and even of kids and families—reveal that many inequities remain hidden in our schools. Unfinished Business shows that there's work to be done, and provokes us into thinking more deeply about answers."
—DEBORAH MEIER, senior scholar, New York University, and founding principal of Central Park East schools in Harlem and Mission Hill in Roxbury