Family Life and School Achievement: Why Poor Black Children Succeed or Fail

By Reginald M. Clark

Book Overview

Working mothers, broken homes, poverty, racial or ethnic background, poorly educated parents these are the usual reasons given for the academic problems of poor urban children. Reginald M. Clark contends, however, that such structural characteristics of families neither predict nor explain the wide variation in academic achievement among children. He emphasizes instead the total family life, stating that the most important indicators of academic potential are embedded in family culture. To support his contentions, Clark offers ten intimate portraits of Black families in Chicago. Visiting the homes of poor one- and two-parent families of high and low achievers, Clark made detailed observations on the quality of home life, noting how family habits and interactions affect school success and what characteristics of family life provide children with "school survival skills," a complex of behaviors, attitudes, and knowledge that are the essential elements in academic success. Clark's conclusions lead to exciting implications for educational policy. If school achievement is not dependent on family structure or income, parents can learn to inculcate school survival skills in their children. Clark offers specific suggestions and strategies for use by teachers, parents, school administrators, and social service policy makers, but his work will also find an audience in urban anthropology, family studies, and Black studies."

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226107698
• ISBN13: 9780226107691
• Release Date: October 1984
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 1.16 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Caring Educators are Crucial in the Teachings of Children.

Regardless what your environmental surroundings are "in the hood," you can succeed. Right Reggie?

For those who need to know "the why" of parent involvement!

Clark, writing about why many poor black kids succeed in school, gives us the clue to what works for all kids, with every parent, regardless of the race or socioeconomic status of the family. In fact, what Clark gives us is the knowing that it is not the structure of the family that determines school sucess but rather the kinds of experiences the family provides the child that nurture within that child a love for learning. Clark identifies a number of powerful and effective environmental factors that distinguish across all social strata low achieving from high achieving students. This book is for every person, but especially for teachers and school administrators who ever needed to know the "why", the "what for", and the "how" of strong, contagious, and empowering parental involvement in the "business" of the school. Read this book and learn from it. It truly speaks to the differnce that committed schools -- being peopled by caring educators -- can really make with ALL students. Jim Moore