Raina Kelley and the "Harlem Miracle"

Well, it's time for another article by Raina Kelley, the prime illustration of OneSTDV's Law of Black Intellectualism. This week, Ms Kelley details her plan for fostering success amongst impoverished blacks.

If we want to make black history every month, we must do a better job educating the millions of impoverished black children in America. For many of them, school will be the only way out from under the federal poverty line. The 35 percent of African-American youth living in poverty are the most visible victims of what is often called the achievement gap. But black children of all socioeconomic levels perform worse on national tests and graduate in fewer numbers than their white middle-class peers.

First, why is such an inordinate amount of energy spent on reducing black poverty? Why aren't poor whites worthy of such empathy. Second, the final statement indicates she understands that the achievement gap exists despite control of socioeconomic status. Of course, she then completely dismisses this rather important fact, focusing her attention on only poor blacks for the remainder of the article.

Some say, as Harvard psychologist Richard J. Herrnstein and American Enterprise Institute political scientist Charles Murray did in their 1994 book, The Bell Curve, that the cause is genetic. And though The Bell Curve has been discredited in scientific circles, the idea that IQ is somehow linked to race has been slow to retreat. Others, like Cornell University researchers Gary Evans and Michelle Schamberg, believe that "physiological stress is a plausible model for how poverty could get into the brain and eventually interfere with achievement"...

Do liberal creationists actually believe The Bell Curve is the only source of material on race and intelligence. As for the allusion to yet another take on Occam's Butterknife ("physiological stress"), are poor whites and Asians, the latter lacking parents who even speak the language, not privy to the same detrimental effects of poverty. I'm surprised Ms. Kelley didn't regurgitate a spurious interpretation of the infamous "Stereotype threat" studies.

But locally, there are now signs of hope. At the Harlem Children’s Zone’s Promise Academy charter schools, at least 97 percent of third graders scored at or above grade level on a statewide math test in 2008, outperforming the average scores of both black and white children in New York City and New York state.

Ms. Kelley either found comprehensive research too taxing or figured her risible dissimulating would go unnoticed by her credulous audience. As Charles Murray notes amongst a litany of other possible sources of error, the Harlem Children's Zone 8th graders scored at only the 33rd percentile on a nationwide exam, a result that should temper the ample optimism Ms. Kelley and others exhibit.

But ignoring this, Ms. Kelley promotes the HCZ model as evidently tractable on a larger scale. Don't worry, it doesn't seem like much work (it's a long excerpt, but worth it).

What the HCZ does is first recognize that the amelioration of poverty does not begin and end with an excellent education, but also requires a full belly, parental education, safety, advocacy, and the expectation that every student will succeed. "We help parents and kids through the system," HCZ founder Geoffrey Canada says. "We get them past every hindrance put in their way, whether it be at home or with social services. We can advocate on a child's behalf, whether it be at home or in the classroom or with the juvenile justice system." It provides new parents with a Baby College to teach parenting skills during the crucial first three years of a child's life and a preschool Gems program, where kids learn not only French and Spanish but healthy eating habits to combat childhood obesity. The Zone also offers the HCZ Asthma Initiative to provide medical care and education to families, thus drastically cutting down on the number of school days missed by students suffering from asthma. And it has a network of afterschool programs that teach media literacy, karate, and computer skills. It's called the pipeline—once familes enter, it's hoped that they'll stay until their child graduates from college. The idea is to create "a safety net woven so tightly that kids can't slip through," according to Paul Tough.

And yet, the epitome of a Big Brother program does little to actually reduce the achievement gap. I will laud this program for possibly undermining the number of anti-social pressures these kids will face as well as offering them an outlet for productive activity. But Ms. Kelley presents this program as a cure-all for the achievement gap, a contention that lacks a cogent statistical backing. She then blames the "system" (might as well have said "The Man") on the failings of black youth in achieving social ascension:

Local, state, and federal governments have poured billions into educating our kids but have not yet found a way to fix failing schools. Many parents of poor children feel that public education has let them down and have stopped trying to improve the system. Others simply do not have the time or resources.

It is misleading and punitive to blame the achievement gap on parents in poor neighborhoods, especially when the current education department recognizes, as it did in its plan to spread the idea of the HCZ nationwide, that "providing both effective schools and strong systems of support to children and youth in poverty, and thus meeting their health, social services, and education needs, will offer them the best hope for a better life."

What exactly is Ms. Kelley advocating here? Does she envision as government system that imposes in every aspect of life, of course offering services to people who lack the means to reimburse the system. She views government largess (well, she'd consider it magnanimity) as economically viable and a better option than, ya know, having parents, ummm, parent.

I am still amazed that the achievements of the Harlem Children's Zone don't make bigger news. Think about it as a headline—POVERTY DEFEATED—and you'll see where I'm going.

I think she didn't even use Google to research this article. David Brooks dubbed this the "Harlem Miracle" and discussion of it pervaded the education blogosphere for quite some time. But by downplaying this, she can more easily concoct a narrative suggesting black underachievement is the result of externally pernicious forces.

Finally, Ms. Kelley keeps alluding to "the defeat of poverty" and children of color rising, en masse, from the dredges of poverty. Does she not understand that in a capitalistic, free society there will always be winners and losers. There are only enough high paying jobs available, which ensures that only a select few will prosper. In parallel, some members of society, perhaps due to them lacking genetic gifts or simply their own slothfulness, will have to subsist on the wages of menial labor. But in Ms. Kelley's world, every individual, especially NAM ones, are capable of an Ivy League degree. And, on top of that, everyone can find a law, medicine, or diversity columnist position if they so desire one.