Do We Need to Desegregate all of Our Black Schools?

Abstract

The basic purpose of this article is to examine several fundamental assumptions about the saliency of desegregation and to briefly discuss Milwaukee's African-American Immersion Schools as a viable strategy for providing a quality educational opportunity for Black students. The article focuses first on the court-ordered desegregation plan implemented in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Available data is summarized that demonstrate that Black students continue to earn lower grades and test scores and higher suspension rates than their White counterparts, in spite of 15 years of desegregation. In contrast, in predominantly Black schools, African-American students' achievement levels seem to surpass their peers in desegregated settings. Therefore, the article asks the question, "Do we need to desegregate all of our Black schools?" A culture-based education model, the African-American Immersion School, is described and proposed as an alternative educational setting in which instructional strategies complement the culture and learning styles of Black children; one that has at its foundation a realistic historical and political analysis of African-Americans in our society. Given the limitations of desegregation as evidenced by the Milwaukee plan, this article promotes culture-based education as an alternative strategy to improve urban schools.