As far as testing is concerned, this is a state wide phenomenon, not just urban. If anything, suburban schools have more of it than, say, Baltimore (or DC) schools. It is directed more at the teachers than students - its purpose is to curtail teacher job autonomy, taylorize the teaching profession and break teacher unions.
Furthermore, in places like Baltimore city, Montgomery county or Prince Georges county (the most populous and prediminantly non-white jurisdictions in MD) calling a black principal or superintendent "token" is laughable - they are the majority. You need to remember that education in the US is run at the county level and real power resides at the county level, not state or federal. Therefore, a "minority" superintendent or principal has real, not token power in the school system.
Another thing - suburban schools are often more fucked up than urban schools because suburban parents are more litigious than urban parents and more likely to file lawsuits if they feel that their child do not get preferential treatment.
Two recent cases in point. A teacher in a wealthy suburban public school in MD was forced to quit, because she refused to alter grades of certain students. Parents threatened a lawsuit and the administration caved in forcing the teacher to resign. In the second case, wealthy parents of an adopted child alleged that their child had "special needs" even though there was no evidence of that (in fact evidence suggested emotional abuse of the kid by parents) and demanded that the kid attends a private school at the taxpayers' expense. The school system refused and the parents threatened a lawsuit - afaik, the case is still pending.
In sum, if the US schools are fucked up - it is not because of multiculturalism but because of the local control and the fucked up political system and social relations.
Wojtek
On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 12:49 AM, Joanna <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:
> James writes:
>
> "Throughout the twentieth century many have taken up the fight against
> racial discrimination and oppression, and demanded equality.
> Multiculturalism is different. Its central thesis is not the overcoming of
> inequality, but the accomodation of inequality. Multiculturalism takes
> difference, not equality as its starting point (and its conclusion)."
>
> Nicely put. And it reflects well how it plays out at the class level.
> Applied to the professional middle class, multicult. refers to the token
> black prof, administrator, principal, mayor, etc. Applied to the poor, it
> means that it's OK to destroy existing inner city schools and then rebuild
> them around test-drilling-giving privatized "education" because "those
> people" need discipline and the heavy hand of the authoritative (and
> otherwise missing) father.
>
> Suburban and private schools don't need to be built around tests because
> "those kids" already have basic skills and would not respond well to
> anything except developing their inner selves in a nurturing environment.
>
> joanna
>
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>