From "Cultural Deprivation" to Cultural Capital: The Roots and Continued Relevance of Compensatory Education

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Autor/in	Spencer, John
Titel	From "Cultural Deprivation" to Cultural Capital: The Roots and Continued Relevance of Compensatory Education
Quelle	In: Teachers College Record, 114 (2012) 6, (41 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1467-9620
Schlagwörter	Academic Achievement; Low Achievement; Charter Schools; Pilot Projects; Compensatory Education; Principals; Disadvantaged Environment; Educational Change; Urban Problems; Urban Schools; Elementary Schools; Improvement Programs; Cultural Capital; Policy Analysis; Educational History; Achievement Gap; Educational Principles; Educational Environment; Educational Practices; Educational Strategies; Educational Policy; Minority Group Students; Program Effectiveness; Case Studies; Pennsylvania + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Schulleistung; Unterdurchschnittliche Leistung; Charter school; Charter-Schule; Pilot project; Modellversuch; Pilotprojekt; Kompensatorischer Unterricht; Principal; Schulleiter; Bildungsreform; Urban area; Urban areas; School; Schools; Stadtregion; Stadt; Schule; Elementary school; Grundschule; Volksschule; Effizienzsteigerung; Politikfeldanalyse; History of education; Bildungsgeschichte; Bildungsprinzip; Lernumgebung; Pädagogische Umwelt; Schulumwelt; Bildungspraxis; Lehrstrategie; Politics of education; Bildungspolitik; Case study; Fallstudie; Case Study
Abstract	This article is a case study of compensatory education as it was developed and implemented by an innovative urban school principal in the early 1960s. I argue that while the compensatory education movement was often marred by pejorative-sounding language and inegalitarian ideas, especially as it was shaped and expanded by policy makers and district administrators, it also had roots in the work of school-based educators such as Marcus Foster, who approached it as a mechanism for raising academic achievement in urban schools. Foster won acclaim in the 1960s for his work as a principal and superintendent, only to be assassinated in 1973 by the Symbionese Liberation Army as a protest against an allegedly racist school system. I focus here on his tenure as principal of the Dunbar Elementary School in North Philadelphia from 1958 to 1963. Under Foster's leadership, Dunbar participated in the Ford Foundation's Great Cities School Improvement Program, which helped shape compensatory education approaches taken in the federal War on Poverty and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. Even as it quickly became a centerpiece of federal policy, compensatory education was denounced by some critics for blaming low achievement on the alleged "cultural deprivation" of students and families rather than on the schools themselves. I suggest that the Dunbar School's pilot project bridged this divide between "blaming the victim" and "blaming schools." As practiced in such schools, compensatory education confronted both home and school factors in an effort to raise academic achievement for all urban students. In doing so, this brand of compensatory education anticipated subsequent research on the importance of the "cultural capital" that students bring from home and the quality of the teaching, curriculum, and support they receive once they arrive at school. I conclude by suggesting that, from a historical perspective, the most significant problem with compensatory education was not its emphasis on social and economic disadvantages among some students, but the fact that policy makers promised too much for it as a solution to those and other urban problems. I also suggest that this tendency is evident once again in current enthusiasm for the Knowledge Is Power Program, the Harlem Children's Zone, and other charter school movements that share some common characteristics with the compensatory programs of the 1960s. As some policy makers and pundits point to these movements as solutions for achievement gaps, racial inequality, and poverty, it is instructive to revisit both the strengths and the limitations of the compensatory education movement of the 1960s. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Teachers College, Columbia University. P.O. Box 103, 525 West 120th Street, New York, NY 10027. Tel: 212-678-3774; Fax: 212-678-6619; e-mail: tcr@tc.edu; Web site: http://www.tcrecord.org
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10