Up Where We Belong: Helping African American and Latino Students Rise in School and in Life

Acknowledgments x

About the Author xi

Introduction 1

Part One: In the Classroom

1. “You Can Tell If They Care”: Why Students Need Caring and Highly Qualified Teachers 13

2. “It Would Be Nice to Learn Something About My Culture”: A Plea for a Culturally Relevant and More Interesting Education 38

3. “It Don’t Make No Sense to Give Us All These Tests”: Student Effort, Achievement, and Attitudes About Standardized Tests 65

4. “They Just Think We’re Loud”: How Discipline Policies and Practices Can Affect Students’ Attitudes About School 97

Part Two: On the Schoolyard

5. “We Just Can’t Seem to Get Along”: Race Relations on Campus 131

6. “You Don’t Know If They’re Gonna . . . Bust a Columbine on Everybody”: Why Schools Won’t Ever Be Entirely Safe 154

7. “Everybody’s Intimidated by Us”: A Candid Conversation with African American Males 179

8. “This Place Is Nasty”: How the School’s Physical Environment Can Contribute to Student Apathy 206

Part Three: Out in the World: Beyond the Classroom and the Schoolyard

9. “Yes! They Do Care About My Education”: Parent Involvement in Schools 223

10. “They Should Worry More About Our Future”: Why America’s Stepchildren Need a College Preparatory Curriculum 245

11. The Truth Can Set Us Free! Seven Lessons I’ve Learned About School Reform in America 266

Notes 291

Appendix A: Teacher Demographics 309

Appendix B: Student Demographics 310

Appendix C: Additional Information About the Student Questionnaire Respondents 311

Appendix D: Teacher Questionnaire Results 312

Appendix E: Student Questionnaire Results 319

Appendix F: Classroom Management Exercise 1 327

Appendix G: Classroom Management Exercise 2 328

Index 329