University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Black and [mis]educated: the Black American adult’s perspective of the U.S. K–12 public school system

(USC Thesis Other)

Black and [mis]educated: the Black American adult’s perspective of the U.S. K–12 public school system

PDF

Download a page range

Download transcript

Copy asset link

Request this asset

Transcript (if available)

Content

Black and [Mis]Educated: The Black American Adult’s Perspective of the U.S. K–12
Public School System

Theresa Nicole Exum Lucas

Rossier School of Education
University of Southern California
A dissertation submitted to the faculty
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Education

August 2023

© Copyright by Theresa Nicole Exum Lucas 2023
All Rights Reserved

The Committee for Theresa Nicole Exum Lucas certifies the approval of this Dissertation

Alan Green
Frances Martinez Kellar
Briana Hinga, Committee Chair

Rossier School of Education
University of Southern California
2023
iv
Abstract
This study sought to investigate and illustrate Black American adults’ experiences with the U.S.
K–12 public education system. This was done by having Black American adults reflect on their
experiences as children within the public K–12 education system in the United States in addition
to their present understanding of the education system. The study was framed by critical race
theory as outlined by Delgado and Stefancic (2001, 2017) and focused on the tenets of
counterstorytelling (Bell, 1987; Matsuda, 1995), amplifying the voices of Black people (Delgado
& Stefancic, 2001, 2017) and the permanence of racism (Parker & Lynn, 2002). The
methodology was a qualitative design that included eight virtual semistructured interviews as
counterstories. The study found, despite a positive or negative experience as a child within the
K–12 public education system, Black Americans do not think the current U.S. public education
system supports Black children well. Instead, they suggest a communal, uplifting system that
supports children’s basic needs. The study findings also show Black American adults view the
K–12 educational system as something they had to overcome to reach personal, academic, and
professional success. This study provides data that can be used by Black individuals and
families, teachers of Black students, administrators of public schools, and education
policymakers, to inform decisions and make changes for years to come. Based on the findings
and conceptual framework, this dissertation offers nine recommendations for practice.
Limitations of the study and recommendations for future research provide guidance for
forthcoming studies to examine how to eliminate the education debt owed by the United States to
Black children.
Keywords: education debt, antiBlackness, equity, education, learning, critical race theory

v
Dedication
To God, who provided me with the vision to pursue this task, the strength and persistence to
complete it, a village to work with and support me, and the courage to make complex decisions
along the way.

To my Sugs, my Bug, my MiMi, and my precious pups. I love you endlessly and I could not
have finished my dissertation without y’all.

To Jazzygirl and Papa: I am so sad you missed this. I miss you every day.

To my village: Noah; Momma and Daddy; Mama and Papa; Priscilla; Jo, Jamal, Kota, and Kobe;
Joni; Shae; and my Martinez sisters. Thank you for giving me the space to complete this
program, and for the grace and patience you showed me as I missed dinners, skipped adventures,
and declined FaceTime calls.

To Grandma Marge and Mama Jean: You both are the epitome of strength, loyalty, and
commitment. Thank you for shaping who I am today.

To every Black girl who thinks she can who turns into a woman who thinks she can’t; you CAN,
and you SHOULD. Let this be your sign. Start today.

To every person living with mental illness or disability. I see you. I am you. It gets better.
Ask for help. National Suicide Hotline: Call 988 or Text “HOME” to 741741.

vi
Acknowledgements
This dissertation is a team effort. I will never forget the OCL folx I met along this
journey and your tremendous impact on my life. To Angela, thank you for always reminding me
what’s important and being so thoughtful. To Nicole and Josie, thank you for nourishing me
daily and bringing laughter to my heart and home! To Mollie and G, thank you for holding me
accountable and loving on me and my family. To Dr. Darnell Bing, for reminding me it was
possible. To my reading group, the Black@OCL group, the co-conspirators, the allies, and
everyone else who made this program an adventure that always kept us guessing … we did it (in
my Elle voice)!
Most importantly, I must acknowledge my favorite humans. To my Husband, Corion, and
all that you are. I pray everyone gets a chance to be loved by someone like you. Thank you for
giving me time and space to complete this. To my baby girls, MeKenna and Milan, who are not
babies anymore … thank you for cheering me on and letting this program take up so much space
in our lives. I pray you pursue every dream you have.
To my Chair, Dr. Briana Hinga, thank you for being a safe place, challenging me, and
always keeping it 100. To my committee members, Dr. Alan Green and Dr. Frances
Martinez-Kellar, thank you for encouraging me to think outside of the box and for being
supportive from the very beginning. To Dr. Douglas Lynch and Dr. Christopher Riddick, thank
you for pushing me to become the best scholar I can be.
Author Note
Correspondence concerning this dissertation should be addressed to Theresa Lucas,
subject line: Dissertation Inquiry, via email at tnexumlucas@gmail.com.

vii
Table of Contents
Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iv
Dedication ....................................................................................................................................... v
Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ vi
Author Note ....................................................................................................................... vi
List of Tables .................................................................................................................................. x
List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ xi
List of Abbreviations .................................................................................................................... xii
Chapter One: Overview of the Study .............................................................................................. 1
Background of the Problem ................................................................................................ 6
Statement of the Problem .................................................................................................... 7
Purpose of the Study ........................................................................................................... 7
Significance of the Study .................................................................................................... 8
Limitations and Delimitations ............................................................................................. 9
Definition of Terms........................................................................................................... 10
Organization of the Study ................................................................................................. 12
Chapter Two: Review of the Literature ........................................................................................ 14
An Examination of the Education of Black Children in the United States From
1619–Present ..................................................................................................................... 14
Racism and AntiBlackness in Public Education ............................................................... 19
The Relationship Between Blackness and Educational Achievement in the United
States’ ................................................................................................................................ 25
Theory and Framework ..................................................................................................... 33
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 38
Chapter Three: Methodology ........................................................................................................ 40
Research Questions ........................................................................................................... 41
viii
Overview of Design .......................................................................................................... 41
Sample and Population ..................................................................................................... 42
Instrumentation ................................................................................................................. 43
Data Collection ................................................................................................................. 45
Data Analysis .................................................................................................................... 46
Trustworthiness and Credibility ........................................................................................ 48
Ethics................................................................................................................................. 50
Researcher Bias and Positionality ..................................................................................... 51
Summary ........................................................................................................................... 53
Chapter Four: Data Analysis ......................................................................................................... 54
Participant Demographics ................................................................................................. 55
Participant Counterstories ................................................................................................. 58
Results for Research Question 1: Relationship Between Experience in Public
Education and Long-Term Success .................................................................................. 90
Discussion for Research Question 1: Relationship Between Experience in Public
Education and Long-Term Success ................................................................................ 105
Results for Research Question 2: Visions for a Public Education System
Supportive of Black Children ......................................................................................... 106
Discussion for Research Question 2: Visions for a Public Education System
Supportive of Black Children ......................................................................................... 114
Summary ......................................................................................................................... 115
Chapter Five: Discussion ............................................................................................................ 117
Findings........................................................................................................................... 117
Limitations ...................................................................................................................... 120
Implications for Practice ................................................................................................. 120
School-Based Changes.................................................................................................... 121
Structural Changes .......................................................................................................... 123
ix
Future Research .............................................................................................................. 125
Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 127
References ................................................................................................................................... 128
Appendix A: Recruitment Letter ................................................................................................ 149
Appendix B: Interview Protocol ................................................................................................. 151

x
List of Tables
Table 1: Data Sources 42
Table 2: Meanings of Pseudonyms 55
Table 3: Detailed Participant Information 57
Table 4: Participant’s Definition of Success 92
Table 5: Participant’s Thoughts on Community 109
xi
List of Figures
Figure 1: Lucas Visualization of the U.S. Education Debt 3
Figure 2: Conceptual Framework 38
Figure 3: Nevaeh’s Word Cloud 61
Figure 4: Kofi’s Word Cloud 64
Figure 5: Zeke’s Word Cloud 68
Figure 6: Destiny’s Word Cloud 72
Figure 7: Grace’s Word Cloud 76
Figure 8: Malik’s Word Cloud 81
Figure 9: Faith’s Word Cloud 86
Figure 10: Jalen’s Word Cloud 90
xii
List of Abbreviations
ACLU American Civil Liberties Union
CRT Critical race theory
HBCU Historically Black Colleges and Universities
NCES National Center for Education Statistics
NPS National Park Service
UNCF United Negro College Fund
USDE United States Department of Education

1

Chapter One: Overview of the Study
Black people are the experts on Blackness, and the best way to learn the stories of Black
people is to amplify their voices as they tell counterstories of the past and of the present (Bell,
1987; Delgado & Stefancic, 2001; Matsuda, 1995; Solórzano & Yosso, 2002). Critical race
theorists (Bell, 1980, 1987, 1992, 1995; Crenshaw, 1988; Delgado & Stefancic, 2001, 2017;
Matsuda, 1995) are clear on this topic. Consequently, this dissertation is written in the first
person to include and amplify my own Black voice as an educator and researcher.
Historically, education in the Black community has gone beyond the education system
and truly encompassed learning in a variety of ways, both inside and outside a classroom or
school building (Anderson, 1988; Cooper, 1892). For centuries, learning and education has been
a way for Black people to achieve freedom and upward mobility in the United States (U.S.)
(Anderson, 1988; Anderson & Kharem, 2009; Cooper, 1892). This is evidenced by stories
written and amplified by Black people. However, dominant educational structures do not support
or uplift the education of Black people, nor do they tell the full stories of Black learning,
resistance, power, and culture (Baldwin, 1963; Condron et al., 2013). Undeterred by Black
people’s venerable efforts to educate Black children throughout history, there has long been a
substantial discrepancy between the achievement rates of Black children and nonBlack children
within the U.S. public education system (Burchinal et al., 2011; Condron et al., 2013; National
Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2019).
In most academic research, the discrepancy in achievement between Black and nonBlack
children is referred to as the achievement gap, but Ladson-Billings (2006) reframed the problem
and defined it as an education debt instead. At the time Ladson-Billings (2006) coined the term,
“education debt,” the achievement gap was described as, “a matter of race and class … a gap in
2

academic achievement [that] persists between minority and disadvantaged students and their
white counterparts” (Muir, 2003, para. 1). The majoritarian focus of the achievement gap in
Black children is across a multitude of factors, with family background and cultural differences
being the primary factors (Au, 1980; Brice Heath, 1983; Coleman et al., 1966; Lee, 2004; Steele,
1992, 1999). Such research is referred to as deficit-based research and is generally framed with
the cultural deficit theory (Bereiter & Engelmann, 1966; Bolima, n.d.; Hess & Shipman, 1965),
or the idea that the problems of Black children in the school system are simply the inherent
consequences of being Black. Essentially, the deficit theory posits the achievement gap is caused
by the student; inclusive of their familial, cultural, and economic background. In contrast, the
education debt proposes the discrepancy in achievement is caused by the longstanding antiBlack
policies and structures that exist in the United States related to “historical, economic,
sociopolitical, and moral decisions” (Ladson-Billings, 2006, p. 5). Accordingly, the concept of
the education debt incorporates antiBlack (ross, 2020; Washington, 1981), White supremacist
structures within the United States and argues such structures have created and prolonged an
opportunity gap, equity gap, and achievement gap that directly impacts the educational and,
consequently, long-term achievement of Black children. For the purposes of this paper, I will use
the term “education debt” when referring to overall inequities in U.S. public education. See a
simplified visual representation of the education debt in Figure 1.

3

Figure 1
Lucas Visualization of the U.S. Education Debt

Education debt is a comprehensive term which encompasses the gaps in the U.S.
education system (the achievement gap, the opportunity gap, and the equity gap) as well as the
structural failures of the United States. This incorporates the founding ideals of the United States,
including systemic racism, White supremacy, and antiBlackness, or the refusal to recognize
Black people as humans deserving of goodness (ross, 2020; Washington, 1981). The concept of
4

eradicating the education debt (Ladson-Billings, 2006) is a battle cry by Black researchers to
protect our Black children.
As addressed previously, the historical and recent majoritarian arguments related to the
inequity in U.S. public education as it relates to Black children are rooted in cultural deficit
theory. For example, Hung et al. (2020) argued that race and community factors attributed more
to the achievement gap than money spent per student, size of the school, or the ratio of teachers
to students. This is in direct contrast to critical race theory and its proponents, which assert the
education debt is tied to White supremacy, antiBlackness, inequity, and systemic racism
(Ladson-Billings, 2006; Solórzano & Yosso, 2002). Even when factors such as perceived
intelligence of the student and family income are equal, Wyner et al. (2009) found there was still
a gap of more than 40% between Black and nonBlack student achievement in public schools.
Though historical evidence reinforces that Black students are more academically successful
when they are outside of the public school system (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995), private
schools were not created for Black children (LaFleur, 2020). LaFleur (2020) determined that
even though private schools are touted as a benefit to low-income families of color, the policies
are written to benefit White, upper-income families. Thus, there is no place in the U.S. school
system a Black child is meant to belong, not public schools, and not private schools. The
inequities faced by Black children within the K–12 public education system is an important
problem to address because those inequities perpetuate the cumulative education debt, and
negatively impact Black children for the rest of their lives as they pursue success (Hung et al.,
2020; Lee, 2002; Ogbu, 1994; Wyner et al., 2009; Zhao, 2016).
While researchers and activists like Geoffrey Canada (Hugh, 2020), Gloria Ladson-
Billings and William Tate (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995), Ty-Ron Douglas and Christine
5

Nganga (Douglas & Nganga, 2013), V. Lawson Bush and Edward C. Bush (Bush & Bush,
2017), and many others, describe academic success and success as more broadly inclusive of
learning, Blackness, and freedom, it is important to note the conventional perceptions of success
are problematic. Particularly in the Western world, success is defined in relation to the
acquisition of money, fame, and power. Similarly, academic success is commonly defined in
relation to earning “A” grades, earning a 4.0 grade point average (GPA), and/or attending good
(e.g., nonBlack, wealthy) schools (Darling-Hammond, 2001; Wright, 2019). Accordingly,
success in the conventional academic context is focused on memorization and schooling, rather
than learning. As Freire (1970) said, the concept of education is not meant to be one in which a
teacher merely deposits information into a student, consequently removing the humanity from
learning and serving as a system of oppression instead of transformation. A key component of
learning is failure, conversations, and critical thinking (Freire, 1970) and, accordingly, any
definition of academic success should encompass all that success can be.
While there is extensive quantitative data demonstrating the existence and accumulation
of the education debt, there is a gap in the literature on Black adult perspectives of the U.S.
public education system and the education debt. Through qualitative research, this study sought
to further explore the long-term effects of the education debt by amplifying Black American
adults’ stories of their experiences as children within the U.S. K–12 public school system and
discovering how the public school system impacted their lifelong personal, academic, and
professional success. Specifically, this study sought to understand the impact of the U.S. K–12
public school system on Black American adults’ lives today as well as to share their
recommendations to improve the public education system.
6

Background of the Problem
The inequity in education is a direct result of centuries of policymakers, lawyers, and
politicians making decisions without consideration for the wellbeing of Black students. In fact,
the United States public schools were originally developed in the 19th century with ideals such
as deculturalization, assimilation, cultural genocide, and advancement of the upper class (Patel,
2016; Spring, 2016). Such ideals created an equity gap, or a gap between students of different
racial and socioeconomic statuses, which has significantly contributed to the education debt. The
prevailing U.S. public education system is merely fulfilling its purpose of preserving existing
social and economic classes of people (Zhao, 2016).
The education debt perpetuated throughout the U.S. public education system negatively
affects Black children at rates higher than other children, yet scholars do not agree upon a
singular reason for this disparity (Hung et al., 2020; Lee, 2002; Ogbu, 1994; Wyner et al., 2009;
Zhao, 2016). Likewise, the impact of the systemic and structural inequity is exacerbated when
focusing on Black students who attend high-poverty public schools (Burchinal et al., 2011;
Condron et al., 2013; Dumas & ross, 2016; Ladson-Billings, 2006; Ladson-Billings & Tate,
1995; Paschall et al., 2018; Reardon, 2016). It is improbable the existing education system,
which was not built to improve outcomes for Black children, will be efficient in eliminating the
education debt without major modifications. There is minimal literature that explores this
problem from the lens of Black American adults’ perspectives of their experiences as children
within the U.S. K–12 public school system. To effectively make changes and improve conditions
for Black children in the public education system, it is essential to learn from and listen to the
wisdom of Black American adults.
7

Statement of the Problem
The difference between, “Black children are failing in the public education system” and,
“The public education system is failing Black children” is just three words, but the impacts of
each phrase are entirely different. The first is deficit-based language which places the burden on
the Black children. The second is an inverted statement used to reframe and highlight the root of
the problem. The U.S. public education system is failing Black children en masse, and these
children are growing up with an education debt the nation must pay. Regardless of where Black
children attend school, if the school they attend is affluent or impoverished, or if the class sizes
are small or large, Black students are achieving academic success (measured by test scores) at
rates 40% less than their nonBlack peers (Hung et al., 2020; Wyner et al., 2009). Specifically, in
2019, Black children were 6% less likely than the average student to graduate in 4 years and
nearly 16% less likely than Asian students to graduate in 4 years (Data Center, 2022; NCES,
2010). Research shows this educational debt begins in elementary school and persists through
undergraduate and graduate school (Williams et al., 2020). Framing this study through the
perspective of critical race theory (CRT) is one way to create systemic change, as it focuses on
the permanence of racism (Parker & Lynn, 2002), amplifying the voices of Black people
(Delgado & Stefancic, 2001, 2017), and counterstorytelling (Bell, 1987; Matsuda, 1995). Thus,
this study examines the long-term impacts of the K–12 public school experience for Black
children, retrospectively described by Black American adults, using CRT as a theoretical
framework.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of the study was to learn from and amplify Black American adults’ stories of
their experiences as children in the U.S. K–12 public education system using a critical race
8

theory framework. Explicitly, it sought to understand the impact of the U.S. K–12 public school
system on Black American adults’ lives today as well as to discover their recommendations to
improve the public education system. Through data analysis and storytelling, I propose
recommendations to support improvements in school practices to eliminate the education debt
for Black children in public K–12 schools.
As such, the following two research questions guided this study:
1. How do Black American adults describe their relationship to their K–12 education
today in relation to their personal, academic, and professional success?
2. How do Black American adults envision an educational system that would support
young Black children?
Significance of the Study
While much literature exists related to the public education system and its appropriate
support or neglect of Black children, there is extraordinarily little qualitative research available
related to the stories of Black students, told by the students themselves. This study sought to
contribute to the literature by amplifying the stories of Black students in the U.S. K–12 public
education system, told retrospectively by Black American adults. This study provides qualitative,
first-person data that can be used by Black individuals and families, teachers of Black students,
administrators of public schools, and education policymakers, to inform decisions and make
changes for years to come.
This study builds on the work of other scholars who have sought, and continue to seek, to
uplift the full truth of Black people, particularly related to education and the education debt.
Educators, researchers, and activists like James D. Anderson (1988), Anthony L. Brown (2011),
Shaun R. Harper (2008, 2009, 2012, 2015), Gloria Ladson-Billings (1998, 2006), Bettina Love
9

(2012, 2019), H. Richard Milner, IV (2013), and Damien M. Sojoyner (2013), among others,
have done extensive research to amplify stories of Black experiences and success in education.
Some of the works focus on Black students generally, and others focus on Black boys and men
specifically (Brown, 2011; Harper, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2015). More recently, Powell & Coles’
qualitative study (2021) with Black parents, M. B. Anderson’s (2018) qualitative study with
Black students, and C. Bell’s (2020) study with Black students and parents have amplified the
voices of Black people related to excessive discipline of Black children in U.S. public schools.
The voices of the scholars named above have highlighted a need for more diverse discourse
related to Black students in the public education system.
One voice in particular, Bettina Love, a queer Black woman and educator, is recognized
for being a powerful force in furthering discussions related to the success of all Black children in
the U.S. education system. A staunch advocate for antiracism and decolonizing education, Love
has seen success by being transparent in sharing her own counterstories and translating academic
terminology into palatable language for modern news platforms and books. In her book, We
Want to Do More than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom
(2019), Bettina Love said, “Education can’t save us. We have to save education” (p. 88). This
study seeks to further that mission.
Limitations and Delimitations
Creswell and Creswell (2018) defined limitations as the “weaknesses in the study
acknowledged by the researcher to include biases” (p. 273). Potential limitations of this study
were related to data collection and researcher positionality. First, in completing interviews, the
responses were personal, and it cannot be determined if the responses are representative of the
entire population. Second, I acknowledge the biases I brought to this research based on my
10

experience as a Black woman who attended public schools my entire life, and my experience as
the mother of Black children who attend public schools. My personal experiences have led me to
believe all children, and especially Black children, should have access to a high-quality,
equitable education, for free, near their home. I also believe having more Black teachers makes a
difference for all students, likely rooted in my experience of having only two Black teachers in
my formative years. Additionally, my experience with discrimination of myself and of my
children as we navigated public schools with limited numbers of Black children, teachers, and
staff influences how I interpret stories of antiBlackness. I have worked diligently to share the
counterstories of those I interviewed through only their truths, and I hold them separately from
my own truths. In addition to limitations, delimitations are also present in this study. I chose to
interview participants; hence, the questions I asked, how I asked the questions, and the number
of questions I asked limited the data. Further limitations are discussed in Chapter 5.
Definition of Terms
The following definitions provide clarity for their use throughout or related to this study.
• AntiBlackness refers to being unable to “recognize Black humanity” and “it captures
the reality that the kind of violence that saturates Black life is not based on any
specific thing a Black person … did. The violence we experience isn’t tied to any
particular transgression” (ross, 2020). Similarly, “[a]ntiBlackness renders people of
African descent categorically unacceptable as human beings, irrespective of their
intelligence, character, competence, creativity, or achievements. … AntiBlackness is
a spiritual condition, a sickness unto death with no redeeming features” (Washington,
1981, p. 146).
11

• Black American refers to individuals who identify as “Black” but may or may not
identify as African American.
• Education debt refers to the “historical, economic, sociopolitical, and moral decisions
and policies that characterize our society” and impact the quality of education,
specifically for low-income and Black and Brown students (Ladson-Billings, 2006, p.
5).
• Equity gap, in this context, refers to a gap between students of different racial and
socioeconomic statuses, although Ziegler et al. (2021) point out there is not a clear
definition of the term within the field of education.
• High-poverty schools refers to schools in which 51–100% of students enrolled are
eligible for Free or Reduced-Price Lunch (NCES, 2022).
• Low-poverty schools refers to schools in which 0–25% of students enrolled are
eligible for Free or Reduced-Price Lunch (NCES, 2022).
• Mostly Black and Brown schools refers to schools in which 51–100% of the students
enrolled are Black, Native American, Hispanic, or Asian (NCES, 2022).
• Mostly White schools refers to schools in which 75% or more of the students enrolled
are White (NCES, 2022).
• NonBlack refers to any individual who does not identify as Black or African
American (Collins Dictionary, 2023).
• Opportunity gap refers to a gap in the distribution of “educational resources and
opportunities” based on a racial or ethnic identity. The opportunity gap is known to
“contribute to or intensify lower educational aspirations, achievement, and
attainment” for impacted students (Law Insider, 2022).
12

• Racism refers to
a system of structuring opportunity and assigning value based on phenotype
(“race”), that: unfairly disadvantages some individuals and communities,
unfairly advantages other individuals and communities, and undermines
realization of the full potential of the whole society through the waste of
human resources (Jones, 2002, p. 10.)
• Suburban refers to a school in a location that is “outside a principal city and inside an
urbanized area with [a] population” ranging from less than 100,000 to more than
250,000 people (NCES, 2006, Exhibit A).
• Systemic Racism, also known as institutionalized racism, refers to “the structures,
policies, practices, and norms resulting in differential access to the goods, services,
and opportunities of society by ‘race’ … [it is] normative, sometimes legalized, and
often manifests as inherited disadvantage” (Jones, 2002, p. 10).
• Urban refers to a school in a location that is “inside an urbanized area and inside a
principal city with [a] population” ranging from less than 100,000 to more than
250,000 people (NCES, 2006, Exhibit A).
Organization of the Study
This dissertation follows a traditional five-chapter model. Chapter 1 provides background
on the problem of practice, purpose and significance of the study, definition of terms, and
outlines limitations and delimitations. Further, Chapter 1 provides an overview of the education
debt. Chapter 2 highlights relevant literature focused on the topic of Blackness and public
education within the United States. Chapter 2 also provides a literature synthesis of existing data
on the relationship between race, educational achievement, and quality of life as it relates to
13

Blackness and public education. Finally, Chapter 2 provides an overview of the critical race
theory framework and the methodology used. Chapter 3 details the assumed causes and
methodology to assess the impact of K–12 public education on Black American adults’ lives and
their recommendations for changes to the education system. Additionally, Chapter 3 includes the
research framework and approach, review of data collection methods and timeline, selection of
study participants, and ethical considerations to the rights and protections of human subject’s
research. Chapter 4 amplifies the voices of the Black participants with a discussion of their
demographics and counterstories and concludes by highlighting and analyzing the themes from
the data. Chapter 5 details the findings, limitations, implications for practice, and
recommendations for future research.

14

Chapter Two: Review of the Literature
Chapter 2 is a comprehensive review of existing literature related to the education of
Black children in the United States. The literature review begins with a synopsis of research on
the topics of education during slavery and after emancipation, transitions to literature on racism
within the public education system, and then discusses the Whitewashing of public education in
the United States before finishing with promising practices. The goal of the literature review is to
examine and analyze existing research on the education of Black children in the United States,
the education debt, and best practices. Finally, Chapter 2 also includes an introduction to the
critical race theory framework and how it is related to this study. The chapter concludes with a
synopsis of the conceptual and methodological framework.
An Examination of the Education of Black Children in the United States From 1619–
Present
The miseducation of Black children in the United States is a problem created, prolonged,
and protected by nonBlack people. In contrast, Black people have relentlessly fought to educate
Black children (Anderson, 1988; Anderson & Kharem, 2009; Brown v. Board of Education,
1954; Burroughs, 1952; Cooper, 1892; DuBois, 1998; Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896). From the time
enslaved Africans were learning to read in secret and at risk of harm, to today, as Black children
attend public schools, still at risk of harm, quality education has been hard to reach (Anderson,
1988; Anderson, 2018; Anderson & Kharem, 2009; Graves, 2004; Gregory et al., 2010; West,
1999). As Nannie Helen Burroughs, lifelong activist and educator, wrote in her book, “Education
and justice are democracy’s only life insurance. There is no substitute for learning … it is the
investment of our hopes and dreams for the generations that are to come” (1952, page number
15

unknown). This section examines how Black people have fought to learn for centuries, and how
we continue to fight to learn.
What Is Education? Learning Versus Schooling
To understand how education of Black children has transpired in the United States, it is
important to first differentiate learning versus schooling and ascertain if either or both of them
are a part of the U.S. public education system. As with the definition of success discussed in
Chapter 1, it is essential to determine the meaning of learning and schooling outside of the
constraints of Whiteness and the preponderance of antiBlackness within the United States. While
learning is an active pursuit, schooling can be considered a passive activity or, at the least,
merely a location. Patel (2016) explained that learning is acquiring knowledge, which can
happen anywhere in any way, whereas schooling is learning something at school. Learning is
inherently about knowledge and experience, while schooling is not. Patel (2016) argued that
learning is about failure, being uncomfortable, and taking risks, while schooling is about social
stratification. Freire (1970) posited a similar argument with his banking concept of education,
essentially saying traditional public schools were designed to be merely a place where teachers
deposit information into the students and the education system was not meant to support
knowledge or growth.
The U.S. public education system primarily serves the function of schooling, although it
could include learning, if students were given the necessary opportunity, support, and space to
learn (Freire, 1970; Patel, 2016). When looking at the history of education within the Black
community, the primary purpose has been for learning, and not for schooling. Because of this,
the Black community has remained focused on learning and gaining knowledge even during
periods when we were denied access to schooling (Anderson, 1988; DuBois, 1998).
16

Enslaved Africans, Free Blacks, and Education During Slavery
Long before the United States permitted Black children to enroll in public schools
alongside White children, enslaved Africans and free Black people fought to learn how to read
and write, in defiance of its extreme risks and illegality (Anderson, 1988). As early as 1712,
there is literature describing how enslaved Africans learned how to read and enrolled in a school
started by Elisa Neau, a Christian missionary (Anderson & Kharem, 2009). Shortly after a small
group of the students used their newfound knowledge to try and gain freedom, the colonizers
closed the school and passed laws making it illegal for Black people or enslaved Africans to be
educated, vote, participate in interracial sex or marriage, and purchase land (Anderson &
Kharem, 2009).
In 1800, nearly a century after Neau taught the enslaved Africans how to read, there were
641 free Black people in Brooklyn, New York (Anderson & Kharem, 2009). At that time, some
Black children were able to attend public school with White children in the Northern states. In
Brooklyn, New York, this was the case, and all of the children were taught together by a teacher
who was a Black man, William M. Read (Anderson & Kharem, 2009). However, by the early
1820s, as the number of free Black people continued to quickly increase, White people forced
the Black students out of the school. During the same period, in 1816, Reverend Peter Croger
opened the first “African School” in the Northern states, created specifically for Black teachers
to educate Black children (Anderson & Kharem, 2009).
Prior to the African School opening in 1816, there were the “African Free Schools,” led
by the New York Manumission Society and founded in 1787 (Anderson & Kharem, 2009).
Despite the fact that the Manumission Society established the African Free Schools solely for
Black children, the intentions of the Society were far from admirable (Anderson, 2009; Kharem,
17

2006; McIntyre, 1984). The Society believed African people and Black people were inferior to
White people and used their education system to indoctrinate Black children with their beliefs.
The members of the Society instilled Black children with the Anglo Protestant culture with the
intentions of removing the Black culture they deemed to be savage and deficient (Anderson &
Kharem, 2009). The African Free Schools did not see impactful enrollment numbers until they
hired a former slave, John Teasman, to serve as assistant teacher and, later, principal. At that
point, Black families enrolled their children in the African Free Schools for the purpose of
increasing their knowledge and achieving economic mobility (Anderson & Kharem, 2009).
As the Reconstruction Era of the 1800s continued, there is considerable indication that
Black people in the United States prioritized education, knowledge, and learning as a part of
their cultural norms (Anderson, 1988; Anderson & Kharem, 2009; Duster, 2009; Franklin, 2002).
In fact, Black people led efforts to create public schools and increase access to education for
poor Black people and poor White people in the North (DuBois, 1998). Literature describes how
Black people came together, sometimes with the help of benefactors, to support the
establishment of public schools within their own communities (National Park Service [NPS],
2021; Solender, 2021). Black people did this organization and advocacy work in direct
opposition to the calls by White plantation owners to halt public education and maintain the
status quo (Sojoyner, 2013). In the Southern state of Virginia, where slavery was still legal, a
group of 16 free Black people petitioned the government for permission to open a school for
Black children (Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia 1838, 76; Jackson, 1969; Legislative
Petitions of Virginia). Even though the state denied the petition in fear that educated Black
people would read anti-slavery materials and become empowered, the Black community
continued to educate one another in secret (Anderson & Kharem, 2009).
18

Self-Starters: Education After Emancipation
The practice of community learning served generations of Black children throughout the
United States and continued long after the emancipation of enslaved people (Anderson &
Kharem, 2009). During the 19th century, literacy levels increased, enrollment numbers of Black
children in public schools increased, and the creation of new public schools increased, too
(Anderson & Kharem, 2009). As the nation’s overall level of education increased, so did the
level of education for Black people. For example, in 1860, only 5% of Black children were
literate but, by 1910, nearly 70% of Black children were literate (Anderson, 1988). In addition to
increased K–12 opportunities for Black children, the 19th century also saw the formation of the
first historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU’s) and, with that, a true opportunity for
upward mobility for Black people (Anderson & Kharem, 2009). As Black people became more
educated, the fear held by the majority of White society was that Black people would become
more educated and more powerful than White people. White people wanted Black people to be
educated, but never more educated than themselves.
Even though there was enormous potential for the education of Black people in the 19th
century, White people’s fear proved to be more potent. This fear ultimately led to false rhetoric,
oppression, violence, and policy changes that negatively impacted generations of Black people
through the present day (Anderson et al., 2009). White people converted public education for the
Black community from an upward mobility tool into a system with ideals including
deculturalization, assimilation, cultural genocide, and advancement of the upper class (Patel,
2016; Spring, 2016). Across the globe, White supremacy was a prominent topic argued with
racial theories founded in pseudoscience that contended Black people and other people of color
were naturally inferior and White people were naturally superior (Graves, 2004; West, 1999). Joe
19

Feagin (2000), a sociologist, discussed the majoritarian viewpoints of this period as ones that
justified and defended White supremacy and the oppression of all nonWhite people.
For Black people, the goal of education was not selfish, and it was not simple. Sociologist
Patricia Hill Collins (2000) described the pursuit of education by Black people as the idea of
“social[ly] responsible individualism,” (p. 210) or the idea that being educated would not just
empower and uplift the singular Black person but rather the entire Black community (Anderson
& Kharem, 2009). Many Black educators from the 19th century believed in service and the
advancement of all Black people as a part of education (Anderson & Kharem, 2009). Education
was practically equivalent to freedom, and public education was integral to achieving this goal
(Anderson & Kharem, 2009; Sojoyner, 2013).
Racism and AntiBlackness in Public Education
Racism is a permanent presence in every facet of life in the United States, and the public
education system is no exception (Bell, 1992; Spears, 1978). Whether the racism was ordained
by the law or not, it has always followed Black children in the public education system. By
definition, racism is:
a system of structuring opportunity and assigning value based on phenotype (“race”),
that: unfairly disadvantages some individuals and communities, unfairly advantages other
individuals and communities, and undermines realization of the full potential of the
whole society through the waste of human resources (Jones, 2002, p. 10.)
While racism is an appropriate term to describe the inequities within the U.S. public education
system, it fails to capture the full essence of the prevailing hatred and fear of Black people’s
success that is seen in the policies, legislation, and realities of public education. Systemic racism,
or institutionalized racism (Jones, 2002), is more thorough. As defined by Jones (2002),
20

institutionalized racism is: “the structures, policies, practices, and norms resulting in differential
access to the goods, services, and opportunities of society by “race”” and such racism is
“normative, sometimes legalized, and often manifests as inherited disadvantage” (p. 10). Even
more specific than racism or systemic racism is antiBlackness. Washington (1981) describes
antiBlackness as, “a spiritual condition, a sickness unto death with no redeeming features” and
says it, “renders people of African descent categorically unacceptable as human beings,
irrespective of their intelligence, character, competence, creativity, or achievements” (p. 146).
Similarly, ross (2020) says antiBlackness is, “the inability to recognize Black humanity” and
argues Black people experience violence because we are Black, and not because of any specific
crime or mistake. Simplified, racism is broad, and antiBlackness is targeted.
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
AntiBlackness has been a documented presence in the U.S. public education system since
the 1800s. One of the oldest examples of antiBlackness in education is the legal and purposeful
segregation of students based on race. Legally, antiBlackness dates back to the 1896 Supreme
Court case of Plessy v. Ferguson. In the Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) case, the Supreme Court
ruled “separate but equal accommodations” were constitutional. This was applicable to all
aspects of life in the United States; thus, it was inclusive of the education system. The Supreme
Court Justice who wrote the majority opinion said the fallacy of the argument against segregation
was the assumption of one set of accommodations being inferior to the other. Further to this
point, he said, “If this [the inferiority] be so, it is not by reason of anything found in the act, but
solely because the colored race chooses to put that construction upon it” (Plessy v. Ferguson,
1896). Again, this ruling demonstrates that any antiBlackness experienced in the United States is
blamed on the Black people themselves. Based on this court case, segregation remained legal and
21

common place until the years following the 1954 Supreme Court case of Brown v. the Board of
Education.
Brown v. the Board of Education (1954)
The Brown v. the Board of Education (1954) case marked the first-time the Supreme
Court ruled segregation in public schools between Black children and White children to be
unconstitutional. The change from segregated to desegregated public schools created new
possibilities for improving educational outcomes for Black children. In particular, the
opportunity to attend desegregated schools (Brown v. Board of Education, 1954; Love, 2004;
Stefkovich & Leas, 1994). Unfortunately, notwithstanding the possibilities of desegregation, the
realities of the Brown v. the Board of Education case of 1954 proved to be less impactful
(Weinstein et al., 2004).
Although Brown v. the Board of Education (1954) did legally prevent racial segregation
in schools, it could not prevent it socially. White leaders attempted to delay the process of
integration by initiating lengthy legal delays (Weinstein et al., 2004). As the courts attempted to
integrate Black children into White schools using public school bussing programs in the 1950s
and 1960s, White families began removing their children from those schools (Weinstein et al.,
2004). Records show that when Black children were able to attend school with White children,
they experienced prejudice and violence (Weinstein et al., 2004).
Recent studies validate arguments that much of the U.S. public education system remains
segregated, with Black students attending school alongside students who are mostly Black or
Brown, in districts that are more likely to be impoverished, taught by teachers who are mostly
White, with inadequate facilities and resources (Chatterji, 2019; NCES, 2019). As a result, Black
students have often been misunderstood and targeted in the K–12 public school system. Bell
22

(1987) described Black students, culturally, in the public school system as children who are
permanently perceived as inadequate (Lynn et al., 2013). Historically, a deficit-minded
perspective has resulted in systemic issues for Black children including lower graduation rates,
underachievement in standardized tests and college admissions, and receiving fewer academic
rewards (Guinier, 2004; Harper, 2008; Ladson-Billings, 1998; Yosso et al. 2004).
Examples of AntiBlackness in Education
As Black people migrated from the South to other states within the United States,
antiBlackness followed them. A prominent example of antiBlackness in public education is seen
in Southern California in the 1950s and 1960s (Sojoyner, 2013). The Black population in Los
Angeles, California, increased as Black families relocated from the South, and those families
were relegated to live in race-specific neighborhoods in Los Angeles (Sojoyner, 2013).
Subsequently, the Black children of those families began to attend public schools within their
new neighborhoods, and those schools became mostly Black (Sojoyner, 2013). As the culture of
Southern Black people transformed the schools with their art, Gospel, and jazz, White people
were terrified. White people harassed, verbally and physically assaulted, and oppressed Black
people (Sojoyner, 2013). When Black people organized as a community and fought back against
the violence and oppression seen in Los Angeles, they were met with systemic racism and the
beginning of the criminalization of Black children in schools. Specifically, in 1974, the Los
Angeles Police Department (LAPD) partnered with the Los Angeles public school system and
placed LAPD police officers in mostly Black high schools as teachers as a part of the Police Role
in Government program (Sojoyner, 2013).
Fast forward nearly 50 years since the Los Angeles public school system allowed police
officers to be teachers; there are still rampant examples of racism in public education in the
23

United State. It is commonplace to see news stories of U.S. public school police officers
arresting Black school children as young as 6 years old for infractions ranging from drawing a
picture to having a tantrum (CBS News, 2022; Darby, 2019; Selva et al., 2021). During the first
six months of 2021, more than 55% of all Black high school students surveyed reported they
were, “treated badly or unfairly in school because of their race or ethnicity during their lifetime”
(Mpofu et al., 2022). When looking specifically at Black female high school students who
experienced racism, the number is nearly 60%, and when looking specifically at Black seniors in
high school, that number is more than 60% (Mpofu et al., 2022). Black children across the
United States report experiencing racism in the classroom from teachers and students alike
(Baldrige, 2014; Bell, 2020; Butler-Barnes & Inniss-Thompson, 2020; Carey, 2019; Woodson,
2020), as well as from peers while on the playground (Bryan, 2020). It is clear that a portion of
the racist experiences referenced above are also tied directly to the excessive discipline of Black
students (Mpofu et al., 2022), a consequence of antiBlack racism.
More systemically, racism in education is apparent in the discriminatory funding for
schools classified as “mostly Black and Brown” (NCES, 2022). A 2019 report by EdBuild.org
showed that schools attended by mostly Black and Brown students (NCES, 2022) received $23
billion less than schools attended by mostly White students. Less funding equates to fewer
resources and fewer opportunities. In fact, Chatterji (2020) found Black students are more likely
to attend schools that have too few resources, are outdated, and even hazardous to the health of
students and staff.
The Impact on Black Teachers
Because antiBlackness and racism in public education is systemic, it affects Black
teachers in addition to affecting Black students. Prior to Brown v. the Board of Education (1954),
24

there was an abundance of Black teachers instructing Black students in all-Black schools. When
the Supreme Court ruled in favor of desegregation, school districts began bussing Black students
into previously all-White districts. It is important to include that though the purpose of
desegregation was equality (Brown v. the Board of Education, 1954) and the court required
Black students to integrate White schools, there is no record of the court requiring White
students to integrate Black schools (Farinde, 2014; Madkins, 2011). Thus, as Black students left
their home schools for the promised opportunity of White schools, Black schools closed, and
Black teachers were left without jobs (Fultz, 2004; Tillman, 2004). After this happened, a small
number of Black teachers were hired to teach at the newly integrated schools, albeit in a different
context than their previous jobs. Research shows that school districts often mandated the
reassigned Black teachers teach outside of their specialization area, deducted their pay (Morris,
2004), and placed them in a toxic work environment (Arnez, 1987). For teachers who remained
in mostly Black schools or districts, local governments employed other factors to decrease Black
people’s desire to work as teachers. Evidence is clear that after Brown v. the Board of Education
(1954), teachers at mostly Black schools experienced higher rates of termination, eradication of
opportunities for tenure, and refusal to hire new Black teachers (Futrell, 2004).
Today, most classrooms in the United States are led by nonBlack teachers. The United
States Department of Education (2016) and the United Negro College Fund (2022) found that
Black teachers account for less than 18% of all teachers in the United States, with Black men
accounting for only 2% of the teacher workforce. This is a slight increase from 10 years ago,
when Black women were less than 10% of the teacher workforce in the United States (Toldson &
Lewis, 2012). In contrast, for more than a decade, 60–90% of the United States’ teaching force
has been White women from middle-class backgrounds (Kondor et al., 2019; Landsman &
25

Lewis, 2011; Lewis & Toldson, 2013; Villegas et al., 2012). Regardless of the change in teacher
demographics, there has not been a decrease in Black student enrollment in public education.
Because of this, researchers like Achinstein et al. (2010) and Farinde (2014) have argued the
U.S. public education system needs more Black teachers.
The Relationship Between Blackness and Educational Achievement in the United States’
Educational Debt
When examining the literature related to Blackness and educational achievement in the
United States, the research is clear: Being a Black student at a public school in the United States
means getting less. Even though Black students are not an underrepresented population in the
school system, they are underrepresented by rates of 10% or more in Advanced Placement
courses as well as within honors and gifted programs (Anderson, 2018; UNCF, 2022). Moreover,
Black students are more likely than all other students to attend schools with inexperienced
teachers with minimal qualifications (Anderson, 2018; USDE, 2014). Despite evidence that
Black students have made more academic progress than all other racial groups since 2010, high
school graduation rates for Black students are still lower than White students (Anderson, 2018;
NCES, 2019). These facts are alarming and are due in large part to aforementioned issues
including system racism, antiBlackness in public education, oppression of Black people (Mpofu
et al., 2022; Sojoyner, 2013), and discriminatory resource provisions (Chatterji, 2020; NCES,
2019; NCES, 2022). Every aspect of the literature reviewed in this chapter reflects an
educational debt owed by the United States government to Black children. As stated previously,
education debt is the overarching term that encompasses the achievement gap, opportunity gap,
and equity gap, and is impacted by White supremacy and antiBlackness. See Figure 1 in Chapter
1 for more detail.
26

Poverty and the Education Debt
Expanding on literature reviewed in relation to the education debt and the opportunity
gap, this section explores how those concepts relate to high-poverty schools within the U.S.
public education system. According to the NCES (2022), high-poverty schools are schools in
which 51–100% of the students enrolled at the school are eligible for Free or Reduced-Price
Lunch. Thus, high-poverty schools are those in which the majority of the population lives in an
impoverished family. High-poverty schools are also more likely to be mostly Black and Brown
schools, or schools in which 51–100% of the students enrolled are Black, Native American,
Hispanic, or Asian (NCES, 2022). Because Black children are five times more likely than White
children to attend a high-poverty school (NCES, 2022), it is essential to explore the relationship
between poverty and the education debt owed to Black children.
The relationship between poverty and student achievement has been well-documented
since researchers released the Coleman Report in 1966 (Coleman et al., 1966). Nonetheless, in
the 56 years since the release of that report, researchers have not come to an agreement on the
reason or structures of the relationship between poverty and student achievement (Reardon,
2011). There is a gap in the literature related to the growth of the income-based education debt,
as much of the literature is focused on what causes the debt (Reardon, 2011). Even with this gap,
crucial details are still clear. First, living in poverty has an impact on a child’s academic skills as
early as pre-kindergarten (Sacks, 2016), and second, children in impoverished families
experience a gap in academic test scores that is twice as large as the gap between Black students
and White students (Reardon, 2011). When considering a Black student is more likely to
experience both a racial-based education debt (NCES, 2022) and an income-based education
27

debt (NCES, 2022; Reardon, 2011), it is evident the U.S. public education system has created
potent barriers for Black children to overcome as they pursue academic and life-long success.
Opportunity Gap as a Subsection of the Education Debt
Black children enrolled in public schools in the United States face an extreme
opportunity gap (Mpofu et al., 2022; NCES, 2019; NCES, 2022), or a gap in the distribution of
“educational resources and opportunities” based on a racial or ethnic identity (Law Insider,
2022). The opportunity gap is known to “contribute to or intensify lower educational aspirations,
achievement, and attainment” for impacted students (Law Insider, 2022). Although the definition
is inherently deficit-based, as innumerable Black children face this gap and do not have “lower
educational aspirations,” the opportunity gap is a problem that needs to be addressed. In essence,
when students of different racial and/or ethnic backgrounds do not have access to resources such
as quality teachers, school counselors, school nurses, an arts curriculum, and other specialized or
high-quality programs, it is considered an opportunity gap.
One example of the opportunity gap in the current U.S. public education system is an
extreme disparity in access to high quality schools, inclusive of the resources and people
available at such schools. Data from the National Center for Education Statistic’s (NCES)
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) suggests Black children are five times
more likely than White children to attend racially segregated schools (NCES, 2019).
Additionally, Black children attend high-poverty schools at rates five times higher than White
children (NCES, 2022). Put simply, a Black child in the United States is more likely than any
other child in the United States to attend high-poverty schools with mostly Black and Brown
students (NCES, 2019; NCES, 2022). According to research done through the NAEP, these
factors directly impact academic performance, regardless of the racial demographics of the
28

school (NCES, 2019). Specifically, Black students who attend low-poverty schools with mostly
White students outperform Black students who attend high-poverty schools with mostly Black
and Brown students (NCES, 2019). Future sections of Chapter 2 further explore the topic of an
opportunity gap in K–12 education for Black students in relation to excessive discipline,
curriculum, and resource allocation.
Excessive Discipline of Black Children
Within the education debt sits the problem of excessive discipline of Black students in
United States public schools. Disproportionate punishment is evident across a multitude of
experiences involving discipline and Black children in school, from one-time disciplinary actions
to long-term disciplinary actions including suspensions and expulsions. For example, when
examining evidence of disciplinary consequences for identical offenses, Jackson (2012) found
that Black children consistently received harsher punishments than White children at the same
school. Also, significant research shows Black students are the most suspended population of all
student groups in the United States (Anderson, 2018; Gregory et al., 2010; Monroe, 2005;
Noguera, 2003; Powell & Coles, 2021; Skiba et al., 2002; U.S. Government Accountability
Office, 2018; Wald & Losen, 2003). Anderson (2018) found that school officials are four times
more likely to serve Black children than White children with out of school suspensions, and two
times more likely to expel Black children from school with no access to educational resources.
These suspensions begin as early as preschool and have a significant negative impact on both
Black children and their families (Powell & Coles, 2021; UNCF, 2022). This trend is commonly
referred to as the “school-to-prison pipeline,” equating schools in the United States with being
more effective at preparing Black children for prison than they are at educating them (ACLU,
2014; Wald & Losen, 2003).
29

The preponderance of policies and research on the school-to-prison pipeline and the
excessive discipline of Black students in the U.S. public school system frame the issue as an
inherent problem within Black children (Anderson, 2018; Powell & Coles, 2021; Sojoyner,
2013). Thus, majoritarian thinking fails to admit the problem is the criminalization of Black
children, rather than the behavior of Black children. Such research and policies are framed by
cultural deficit theory, or the idea that Black people are inherently inferior (Bereiter &
Engelmann, 1966; Bolima, n.d.; Hess & Shipman, 1965). According to Sojoyner (2013), the
excessive discipline of Black children is rooted in the antiBlackness of school discipline itself.
Until White people, policymakers, and government leaders address the oppression, racism, and
antiBlackness of public education at its core, racist disciplinary practices against Black children
will continue. More than ending the oppression and antiBlackness, schools must actively begin
to embrace Blackness, inclusive of Black bodies, Black culture, Black thought, Black
independence, and Black voices.
In contempt of dominant viewpoints, there are researchers working to push Black people
and Black thought to the center of the conversations surrounding excessive discipline of Black
children. Powell and Coles (2021) elected for a person-first approach and studied the problem
through the lens of Black parents in a descriptive qualitative study. Their research demonstrates
the antiBlackness in the public school system, including oppressive suspension policies and the
regular reproduction of historical trauma (Powell & Coles, 2021). Powell and Coles (2021)
highlight the impact of prioritizing the experiences and telling the stories of Black people in the
public school system. Anderson (2018) went further with her study and interviewed Black
children to learn about their perceptions on discipline and other topics related to the K–12
system. It was unclear the number of students who participated in the study but, of those who
30

participated, Anderson (2018) indicated that 50% of them had been in detention at least once
during their educational experience. Additionally, 37% of Black student respondents experienced
an in-school suspension, 36% experienced an out-of-school suspension, and 8% experienced
expulsion. Such instances are more common for Black children than children of any other race,
and the forced time away from educational resources results in profound consequences including
grade repetition, failure to graduate, and/or entering the juvenile justice system (ACLU, 2014;
Anderson, 2018; Wald & Losen, 2003).
White Women in the Classroom
In 2019, nearly 90% of the United States public school teaching force was White women
(Kondor et al., 2019) while one-third of the students in public school classrooms in the United
States have been and continue to be non-White (Cross, 2003; Griner & Stewart, 2013; NCES,
2020; Sleeter, 2001; Villegas & Lucas, 2002). The rate of non-White students in public schools
is increasing, and the majority of those students live in impoverished homes and neighborhoods
(Kondor et al., 2019; NCES, 2020). Research shows these student enrollment demographics are
in stark contrast to the teaching force demographics (Kondor et al., 2019; NCES, 2020). Assaf et
al. (2010) found that most of the people in school to become teachers or who are currently
teachers are White women from middle-income families in non-urban neighborhoods. In a
United States Department of Education (2016) report highlighted by the United Negro College
Fund, in 2011–2012 Black people accounted for 10% of all public school principals and 18% of
teachers. Black men, specifically, only accounted for 2% of all teachers (U.S. Department of
Education [USDE], 2016; United Negro College Fund [UNCF], 2022). To paint a clearer picture,
there are 7.4 million Black students in the U.S. K–12 public education system (NCES, 2020)
being taught by nearly 3 million White teachers (Kondor et al., 2019) and 630,000 Black
31

teachers (USDE, 2016; UNCF, 2022). Inherently, the difference in these demographics presents
an immediate disparity between the experiences and perspectives of the teachers and the
students.
Cultural Deficit Theory
Another aspect to consider when looking at the demographic characteristics of the
teaching force at public schools in the United States is the cultural deficit theory. In a study of 25
prospective teachers, Kondor et al. (2019) determined the majority of the folx studied were
operating within a cultural deficit framework. The study by Kondor et al. (2019) affirmed
previous studies done by Castro (2010), Sleeter (2001), and Lockhart (2009), among others, thus
demonstrating Black students have been dealing with ill-prepared, biased, and potentially
ignorant teachers for decades. The results demonstrated that prospective teachers were fearful of
having conversations with students and their families about diversity (Kondor et al., 2019). The
pre-service teachers believed parents did not care about the student’s experiences and viewed the
families of Black and Brown students as resistant (Kondor et al., 2019). Additional research has
reaffirmed these results, demonstrating that nonBlack teachers have lower expectations of Black
students than Black teachers do (Gershenson et al., 2015).
A prominent example of what cultural deficit theory can look like between a Black
student and their teacher is the story of Malcolm X’s educational experience (Haley & Malcolm
X, 1964). Malcolm X (1964) divulged that while attending an all-White middle school and being
at the top of his class academically, he communicated his goals of becoming a lawyer with one
of his teachers. The teacher’s response, that Malcolm X should be a carpenter because being a
lawyer was unrealistic for a Black child, made him hate himself and believe he was inferior to
White people (Haley & Malcolm X, 1964). This is not an atypical occurrence. bell hooks (2001)
32

and James Baldwin (1963) are two of myriad renowned authors and activists who have also
conveyed their personal stories related to their experiences with deficit-minded educators. In her
2001 book, Salvation, bell hooks wrote about how much her education changed before and after
desegregation, when she went from learning from people who valued Black children to learning
from people who feared Black children. Baldwin argued in his book, Talk to Teachers (1963),
that teachers were responsible for challenging stereotypes promoted by cultural deficit theory,
and they must stop propagating the myth of Black inferiority. The response to cultural deficit
theory is culturally responsible pedagogy.
Culturally Responsible Pedagogy
Kondor et al. (2019) argue to eliminate the barriers faced by students as a consequence of
the cultural divide between students and teachers, teachers must be better prepared to work with
students who are different than themselves. It must be said, this concept can be traced back to the
work of Black scholars like Nannie Burroughs (1952), James Baldwin (1963), and Gloria
Ladson-Billings (1995). Although the language was different, there are clear parallels between
culturally responsible pedagogy and, particularly, Baldwin’s (1963) arguments to have teachers
take more responsibility in stopping internal oppression of Black children by challenging
stereotypes.
One way to increase teacher responsibility and eradicate the division between teachers
and students is to move towards a model of culturally responsive teaching (Gay, 2002).
Culturally responsive teaching is, “using the cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of
reference, and performance styles of ethnically diverse students to make learning encounters
more relevant to and effective for them” (Gay, 2002, p. 29). For White teachers of Black
students, this would mean teachers need to spend time learning foundations and values of Black
33

culture, getting to know the neighborhoods surrounding their classroom, and asking their
students and/or the student’s family what they can do to be more effective.
Black Folx Leading Change
Much of the existing literature surrounding the education debt also includes
recommendations by Black researchers on how the United States can begin repaying the
education debt it owes to Black students. Sojoyner (2013) is a staunch advocate for Black
children in the U.S. public education system. In his 2013 work about the school to prison
pipeline, Sojoyner (2013) advocates the government “remove all forms of policing from Black
schools, neighborhoods, and communities” (p. 261), in addition to ending standardized testing
and giving communities back their control over resources for Black education. Less policing is a
common theme among recommendations to eliminate and repay the education debt, as is the
concept of redistributing control of resources (Chatterji, 2020). It is important to note that Black
people have been fighting to end the education debt since before public education even began,
and before the education debt had a name (Anderson, 1988; Anderson, 2018; Anderson &
Kharem, 2009), and that the voices of Black people must remain centered in these conversations.
Theory and Framework
Critical Race Theory
This study is framed by critical race theory. Critical race theory (CRT) is a theoretical
and conceptual framework created to address race and racism within the field of law by Derrick
Bell (1980) during a period when civil rights legislation was declining. Fifteen years later, Gloria
Ladson-Billings and William Tate (1995) introduced CRT to the field of education. Since then,
researchers have fervently agreed CRT is a compelling theoretical and analytical framework for
educational research (Duncan, 2002; Lynn et al., 2002; Solórzano & Yosso, 2002).
34

Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, a renowned law professor, coined the term ‘critical race
theory,’ (2002) and the theory includes works from hundreds of scholars, including Bell (1980),
a scholar considered to be the Godfather of CRT, Ladson-Billings, and Tate (DeCuir & Dixson,
2004; Fortin, 2021). Because critical race theory spans multiple fields of study and extensive
research exists on the topic, the literature varies in the number of tenets guiding CRT, the order
in which they are listed, and which ones are included. When identifying the tenets of CRT for
this study, I followed the work of Delgado and Stefancic (2001) and their outline of the five
tenets of CRT. Historically, five tenets have guided critical race theory: (a) counterstorytelling
(Bell, 1987; Matsuda, 1995); (b) the permanence of racism (Bell, 1992, 1995; Lawrence, 1995);
(c) Whiteness as property (Harris, 1993); (d) interest convergence (Bell, 1980); and (e) the
critique of liberalism (Crenshaw, 1988). In the early 2000s, Delgado and Stefancic (2001, 2017)
also introduced the idea of another tenet, the importance of amplifying the voices of people of
color, which is a product of counterstorytelling (Bell, 1987). The dominant tenet throughout CRT
in education research is counterstorytelling, followed by the idea of the permanence of racism
(Parker & Lynn, 2002).
The concepts of each CRT tenet connect in the overarching theme of the framework; the
recognition that society and the systems within it, including education systems, were developed
in order to maintain the marginalization, discrimination, and exploitation of Black people and
our communities as well as to uphold White supremacy, both actively and passively (Delgado &
Stefancic, 2001). Proponents of using CRT in education argue the U.S. public education system
was never meant to lead to freedom and success for Black people, rather that the education
system’s purpose is and has always been to separate people of color from positions of power
(Lynn, 2006). Because of the themes presented in CRT as well as it’s applicability to studying
35

race and racism in a variety of fields in both the historical and present-day context (Solórzano &
Yosso, 2002), CRT is a particularly appropriate framework to understand and disrupt
antiBlackness and the resulting inequity in education. Lynn (2007) argues studying racism in this
context allows for a full examination of how the public education system has failed to educate
Black students and other students of color and to make an impact on social justice. More specific
to this study, CRT is a framework that supports the use of a narrative approach and a focus on
Blackness and the Black perspective in investigating systemic, procedural, and structural
inequities that impact Black people (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995).
In this study, I followed the research of Delgado and Stefancic (2001, 2017) and focused
on the tenets of counterstorytelling (Bell, 1987; Matsuda, 1995), amplifying the voices of Black
people (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001, 2017) and the permanence of racism (Parker & Lynn, 2002).
Most prominent, amplifying Black voices and experiences is seen throughout the study. I lifted
up the history of education of Black folx in the United States, research originally done by other
Black scholars, educators, and activists, and also lifted up the voices and experiences of the
Black participants in my study. Additionally, in preparation for this study I actively sought to
read and include more literature from Black folx than nonBlack folx, and thoroughly examined
the intent of each of my sources. Next, I focused heavily on counterstorytelling at all stages of
my study. I purposefully sought to include stories that disrupt the societal viewpoint of the
education of Black folx, the history of Black education in the United States, and the future of
education for Black children. Finally, I included the permanence of racism in various aspects of
the study. Very notably, it is seen in the literature review of this chapter as I discuss the history
of education and how racism has been present all along the journey for equitable education for
Black Americans.
36

Although CRT is now a well-known theory and framework within education and a
multitude of other fields, the foundational ideas of CRT existed long before CRT became what it
is today. Carter G. Woodson, fondly known as the father of Black history for founding the
Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915 and Negro History Week in 1926
(Britannica, 2022), spoke passionately about ideas related to what we now know as CRT.
Woodson earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1912 (Britannica, 2022), becoming only the
second Black person to earn a Ph.D. (Armstrong & Tyson, 2022). In his book, The Miseducation
of the Negro (Woodson, 1933), Woodson argued that White society, especially within the
education system, was teaching Black people to think of themselves as inferior. Woodson’s book
(1933) and other teachings were profoundly impactful in contributing to the existing CRT
framework. Other Black scholars whose impacts cannot be understated but are largely ignored in
majoritarian academic work include Anna Julia Cooper, who was the first scholar on record to
argue that border crossing was intersectionality (Cooper, 1892) and spent her life promoting
equity in education for Black women (Britannica, 2023); Septima Poinsette Clark, an educator
and activist who studied how systemic racism was connected to academic disenfranchisement
(Charron, 2012); W.E.B. DuBois, a civil rights activist, sociologist, and historian who co-created
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909 (Gooding-
Williams, 2017); and Mary McLeod Bethune, who co-founded Bethune-Cookman College in
1929, was appointed the Director of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration for
President Roosevelt in 1936, and is often thought of as one of the most influential Black
educators and leaders of her time (Michals, 2015). There are numerous additional Black scholars,
educators, and activists who paved the way for critical race theory to exist, and for me to use it in
this study today. I am here because of their work and, respectfully, seek to advance it.
37

Components of the Conceptual Framework
This study examined Black American adults’ experience in the U.S. K–12 public
education system through the theoretical lens of critical race theory (CRT) and critical race
methodology. I chose CRT specifically for its applicability to the problem of practice, and for its
prioritization of topics like the permanence of racism (Parker & Lynn, 2002), amplifying Black
voices (Delgado and Stefancic, 2001, 2017), and counterstorytelling (Bell, 1987; Matsuda,
1995). Critical race methodology uses multiple methods, often unconventional and creative, to
draw out the knowledge and experiences of people of Color who have been traditionally
excluded in mainstream academia. The method most prominent in this study is
counterstorytelling (Bell, 1987; Matsuda, 1995), followed by the amplification of Black
experiences (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001, 2017), and the permanence of racism (Parker & Lynn,
2002). As such, each of these tenants is specifically included in the conceptual framework.
According to Solórzano & Yosso (2002), the purpose of counterstorytelling is to disrupt
the prevailing narrative and to eliminate complacency by telling the stories of people
marginalized by society. Counterstorytelling can consist of personal stories, narratives, or
autobiographies, and the researcher must utilize theoretical sensitivity and cultural intuition to
tell counterstories (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002). Essentially, the researcher must be aware of the
subtleties of meaning within the data and understand the process will be “experiential, intuitive,
historical, personal, collective, and dynamic” (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002, p. 34). Ultimately,
Solórzano and Yosso (2002) spoke for me, too, when they said,
As we work from our own positions in the margins of society, we hold on to the belief
that the margin can be more than a site of deprivation, it is also the site of radical
possibility, a place of resistance (p. 37.)
38

Figure 2
Conceptual Framework

Conclusion
The literature presented here reveals how deeply the problem of inequity is embedded
within public education in the United States, and how forcefully Black people have always
fought to disrupt the status quo of education for Black children. The majoritarian literature
argues the United States education debt is tied directly to Blackness and fails to explore the
problem through a lens of Blackness as an asset. Majoritarian literature argues that Black
families are not as invested in education (Hung et al., 2020; Kondor et al., 2019), Black children
are inferior to nonBlack children (Woodson, 1933), Black children are violent (Basc, 2011;
39

Kitzmiller, 2013), and Black children are underachievers (Lewis et al., 2010; Noguera, 2003;
Sáenz & Ponjuan, 2011). This study seeks to meet the calls of certain education scholars to go
beyond deficit-based arguments (Brown, 2011; Carillo, 2013; Harper, 2009, 2012, 2015; Milner,
2013) by first admitting to the education debt and its consequences, and then prioritizing the
amplification of Black voices and thought through their inclusion in the conversation on
changing the U.S. K–12 public education system. Black families are invested in education. Black
children are not inferior to nonBlack children. Black children are empathetic and gentle. Black
children can achieve greatness. Blackness is a strength, not a shortcoming.
40

Chapter Three: Methodology
The purpose of this study is to investigate and illustrate Black American adults’
experiences with the U.S. public K–12 education system. Primarily, I am interested in how Black
American adults describe the long-term impact of their K–12 education and what they envision
for an educational system that supports Black students. Qualitative methods fulfill the needs of
this study more appropriately than any quantitative methods could because they provide the
opportunity to delve into more intimate details and deeper perspectives of participants.
Specifically, regarding CRT, Cook and Dixson (2013) argue that counterstories can be used to
demonstrate the patterns in the collective stories of individuals who have experienced racism and
discrimination. As such, this study uses interviews to share counterstories that reveal the
long-term impacts of the U.S. K–12 public education system on Black Americans.
Utilizing a qualitative methodology with a CRT framework for this study allows personal
stories, details, feelings, and experiences to reinforce existing quantitative data (Creswell &
Creswell, 2018; Creswell & Poth, 2018; Solórzano & Yosso, 2002). There is a significant
amount of literature available from quantitative studies focused on the achievement gap, short-
and long-term district studies, and academic success of Black students (NCES, 2019; NCES,
2022; UNCF, 2022; U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2018; Williams et al., 2020).
However, there is a gap in the literature related to sharing and learning from Black American
adults’ counterstories associated with the U.S. public education system (Anderson, 2018; Powell
& Coles, 2021; Williams et al., 2020) and their success in particular (Harper, 2015). In that
sense, this study can be considered exploratory (Creswell & Creswell, 2018).
41

Chapter 3 outlines the study, including research questions, overview of the design,
sample and population, instrumentation, data collection, data analysis, and validity and
reliability. Additionally, I examine my own ethics, bias, and positionality as related to this study.
Research Questions
The following two research questions guided this study:
1. How do Black American adults describe their relationship to their K–12 education
today in relation to their personal, academic, and professional success?
2. How do Black American adults envision an educational system that would support
young Black children?
Overview of Design
This qualitative study is focused on the impact of the public education system on Black
children, from the perspective of Black American adults. I utilized a critical narrative analysis
format to collect robust data from eight Black American adults enrolled in doctoral programs
across the United States. I chose to interview only doctoral students because a doctorate degree is
the highest level of education one can achieve, and amplifying stories of academic success in the
Black community is critical to future success. I created an interview protocol of 21 questions and
conducted 44–84-minute interviews via Zoom with each participant. The interviews became
counterstories, which is a recognized and respected research method for studies framed by
critical race theory (Bell, 1987; Harper, 2015; Matsuda, 2002; Solórzano & Yosso, 2002). Data
sources are outlined in Table 1.

42

Table 1
Data Sources
Research questions Method
RQ 1: How do Black American adults describe
their relationship to their K–12 education
today in relation to their personal, academic,
and professional success?
Interview protocol
RQ 2: How do Black American adults envision
an educational system that would support
young Black children?
Interview protocol

Sample and Population
Based on Merriam and Tisdell’s work (2016) and Creswell’s work with Creswell (2018)
and with Poth (2018), respectively, I utilized multiple sampling strategies. The most prominent
sampling strategy is purposeful sampling, or the act of deliberately selecting participants with
experience in and an understanding of the fundamental phenomenon (Creswell & Creswell,
2018; Creswell & Poth, 2018; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). In this case, the phenomenon is being
Black in America while navigating the U.S. K–12 public education system. Specifically, the type
of purposeful sampling I implemented is unique sampling (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016), meaning
the participants I selected are unique compared to the majority of people with that experience. In
this case, the unique or atypical attribute that all participants in this study share is their status as a
doctoral student. Because only 1.38% of the United States population holds a doctoral degree
(America Counts Staff, 2019), this attribute can be considered unique. The second strategy I used
is criterion sampling. Because all phenomenological studies require participants to have one or
more of the same experiences, criterion sampling is essential (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). The
criterion for this study is the following: all participants are (a) Black American adults, (b)
43

currently enrolled in a doctoral program, and (c) attended K–12 public schools in the United
States for at least 5 years.
Literature suggests studying between five to 10 participants in a phenomenological study,
with recommended guidelines of no more than 25 participants and no fewer than three
participants (Creswell & Creswell, 2018; Englander, 2012; Morse, 2000). I elected to study eight
participants, with a focus on ensuring the sampling reached a point of saturation (Creswell &
Creswell, 2018; Creswell & Poth, 2018; Englander, 2012; Morse, 2000; Saldana, 2009). To
select the eight participants, I used online platforms to reach out to my network of Black
American doctoral students to ask if they attended public schools in the United States. From
there, I compiled a list of possible participants based on the pre-established criterion and
followed up with them to confirm participation. I continued this selection process until I had
eight Black American adults who fit the criteria and were willing and able to complete the
interviews. Ultimately, the eight participants included folx from multiple doctoral programs who
completed their K–12 studies at public schools in various states across the United States.
Because saturation was reached with the original eight participants, I did not select any
additional participants after completing the initial interviews.
Instrumentation
Determining which instrumentation to implement to effectively explore the research
questions in this study was vital to the overall success of the study. I needed to be sure the
research questions could be answered completely and thoroughly, in a way that allowed for the
voices of Black Americans to be the focal point of my work. Solórzano and Yosso (2002)
describe counterstorytelling, a prominent tenet of critical race theory, as a way to highlight Black
voices while exposing, analyzing, and challenging the normative viewpoint of race in society.
44

Thus, I selected semi-structured interviewing as the best instrument to collect data for this study.
Because I conducted the interviews with little-to-no interruptions and allowed the participants to
lead, the interviews are considered counterstories (Matsuda, 1995).
Interviews
The most important part of a qualitative study is ensuring there is enough detail from the
participants to deliver clear findings (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). There is consensus in the
literature that a qualitative researcher must focus on being analytical and ensuring all insights,
thoughts, and feelings expressed by the participants are captured fully (Creswell & Creswell,
2018; Creswell & Poth, 2018; Englander, 2012; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). With these
parameters in mind, I created an interview protocol of 21 questions and conducted 44–84-minute
semi-structured interviews via Zoom with each participant. After completing four background
questions related to the details of their schooling, each interview moved to questions related to
the individual’s personal experience as a child within the K–12 education system and as an adult
since then. Each interview ended with the question: If you could go back and create a public
school system that supported you well as a Black child, what would it look like? Between those
two questions, the participants led the interview. I approached the remaining questions in a
flexible manner, creating space for pauses, seeking clarification, and fostering understanding, in
accordance with the participant’s natural flow of conversation. My primary role as the researcher
(Merriam & Tisdell, 2016) was to gain an understanding of each participant’s individual
experiences, beliefs, and expectations. By conducting interviews, I aimed to collect individual
counterstories until I recognized redundancy among experiences. Conducting interviews of
Black people is a primary way to centralize the knowledge and experiences of Black people,
which is a key tenant of CRT (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002). Additionally, I use the consequential
45

data in Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 to challenge the normative viewpoint society holds of Black
Americans overall and within the U.S. K–12 public education system specifically (Solórzano &
Yosso, 2002).
Interview Sampling Criteria and Rationale
Criterion 1: Black person. Every participant in the study identified as a Black American. I
chose the term “Black” specifically as an acknowledgment not all Black people identify as
African Americans and not all Africans in America identify as Black.
Criterion 2: Attended public schools in the U.S. for at least 5 years of their K–12
education. To ensure the experiences being discussed are relevant to the overall problem of
practice, the inequity in the U.S. K–12 public education system related to Black children, every
participant needed to have been enrolled in a public school in the United States for at least 5
years during one or all of the following: elementary school (Grades K–5), middle school (Grades
6–8), high school (Grades 9–12).
Criterion 3: Currently enrolled in a doctoral program. I chose to center the stories of
Black doctoral students in the study to provide a specific starting point of success for the
participants. Each participant has achieved the status of working towards completing a doctorate,
a title held by only 1.38% of the United States population (America Counts Staff, 2019).
Presumably, each participant knows and can demonstrate what it takes to be successful in the
U.S. education system. Stories of Black academic success are rarely told in educational research
(Harper, 2015).
Data Collection
The research presented in Chapter 4 includes data from in-depth, semi-structured
qualitative interviews (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016) with eight Black doctoral students who
46

attended public schools in the United States for the majority of their K–12 education experience.
Merriam and Tisdell (2016) argue interviews are the best qualitative research method when
observations are not possible. deMarrais (2004) describes qualitative interviews as “a process in
which a researcher and participant engage in a conversation focused on questions related to a
research study” (p. 55). Dexter (1970) offers a simplification, describing qualitive interviews as a
“conversation with a purpose” (p. 136). Engaging in qualitative interviews with each participant
provided me with a direct understanding of their perspectives, feelings, and recollections from
their K–12 experience. Moreover, I believe my identity as a Black woman created a sense of
security for the participants, consequently enabling them to openly share their experiences as
Black individuals with me.
The data presented in Chapter 4 is derived from a single 44–84-minute interview with
each participant. After completing four background questions related to the details of their
schooling, each interview moved to questions related to the individual’s personal experience as a
child within the K–12 education system and as an adult since then. Each interview ended with
the question: If you could go back and create a public school system that supported you well as a
Black child, what would it look like? Between those two questions, the participants led the
interview. After the data collection, I transcribed each interview and removed all identifiable
information from the transcripts of each interviewee. The data presented in Chapter 4 includes
pseudonyms for each participant and some details have been changed to protect participant
anonymity.
Data Analysis
Once each interview was complete, I began the process of data analysis. This was done
simultaneously throughout the interviewing process, and not only once all interviews had been
47

completed (Gibbs, 2018; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Initially, I reviewed the transcription from
each interview, editing it for accuracy and taking notes as I reviewed it. Then, I used the
transcription of the interview in correlation with the analytic memo I drafted during each
interview to write more detailed notes in a narrative style (Gibbs, 2018). Once the transcription
was edited for accuracy and identifiable information had been removed or renamed, I uploaded
each transcript into ATLAS.ti (ATLAS.ti Scientific Software Development GmbH, Version
4.15.2-2023-4-26 [ATLAS.ti, v4.15.2]) and began the coding process. After the completion of
the eight interviews, there was 483 minutes, or just over 8 hours, of audio data and 571 pages of
transcriptions.
Employing ATLAS.ti (ATLAS.ti, v4.15.2) allowed me to have a secure, organized online
space for my transcripts and codes. I was easily able to identify emerging themes and to connect
them to the research questions, conceptual framework, and established themes developed from
the literature. I initially utilized a grounded theory approach and began with data driven coding
(Gibbs, 2018), meaning I began my review of the data without a list of codes and without
integrating my preconceived ideas about which themes would occur. Further, my first round of
coding was primarily descriptive (Gibbs, 2018), and could be considered open coding (Strauss &
Corbin, 1990, 1997). I intentionally looked at the transcripts and described each piece of
information instead of analyzing it. I described the data with critical race theory and my
conceptual framework in mind. This resulted in more than 4000 codes. Initially, my codes were
grouped into buckets from my framework including White supremacy (Harris, 1993) and the
permanence of racism (Bell, 1992, 1995; Lawrence, 1995; Parker & Lynn, 2002), the scope and
prevalence of antiBlackness (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001), and the negative impacts of education
48

inequity on Black children (Ladson-Billings, 2006; Lynn, 2006). From there, I read through each
code multiple times using an analytical approach (Gibbs, 2018).
During this stage of axial coding (Strauss & Corbin, 1990, 1997), I refined my list of
codes and developed new codes many times. My final list of selective codes (Strauss & Corbin,
1990, 1997) included 26 analytic codes across five themes for my first research question and
across six themes for the second research question. In addition to identifying the themes and
connecting them to the study, I also color coded each theme for clear visual representation of the
data. The transcription and thematic coding process were identical for both research questions
and are a commonly used method for qualitative research (Gibbs, 2018; Merriam & Tisdell,
2016).
Although there was some overlap between the themes for the first research question and
the second, that was to be expected for this study. The first research question asks participants
how the public K–12 school system impacted their success, and the second asks what the
participant recommends for a school system that supports Black children. Thus, it is expected
that a portion of the responses as to what made the participants successful would be carried over
to their recommendations for a better educational system. That being said, the themes were
mutually exclusive within each research question. According to Merriam and Tisdell (2016), this
is apropos for qualitative research as the themes should be mutually exclusive, conceptually
compatible, and directly related to the purpose of the research.
Trustworthiness and Credibility
To ensure this study is trustworthy and credible, I utilized member checking, bracketing,
and peer auditing (Creswell & Creswell, 2018; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). I explored each of
these concepts in more detail in the following sections. The qualitative inquiry applied in this
49

study results in a prominent level of internal validity, or credibility, with no intended or possible
external validity (Creswell & Creswell, 2018; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Through my
positionality as a Black American adult who went through the public K–12 education system, I
was able to co-create the data with my interview participants. The process of co-creation creates
credibility. Alternatively, external validity is not possible because, statistically, generalizing the
participants’ experiences to all Black people is impossible. Although generalization of the
experiences is statistically impossible in this study and all qualitative studies (Creswell &
Creswell, 2018; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016), I hope future readers of the study will see
commonalities and collective experiences between themselves and the participants of the study.
As readers connect their own experiences to the participants’ experiences, it may generate
interest in the development of future studies or personal exploration.
Member Checking
After I completed the transcription of each interview, I offered to send the transcription to
the participant involved. I also solicited the participant’s feedback of their interview summary to
ensure they felt I captured their counterstory fully and accurately. If either the participant or I
thought another interview would be beneficial, I offered to conduct another interview. No
participants felt another interview was needed. This process is also known as member checking,
and it allows the participants to clarify or expand upon their counterstories (Merriam & Tisdell,
2016).
Bracketing
To ensure I entered and exited each interview with a clear mind, I journaled about my
personal reflections, thoughts, and feelings before and after each interview. The literature
describes this process, also known as bracketing (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016), as one that allows
50

the investigator, me, to set my personal thoughts and feelings about the topic aside and to clarify
or remove my pre-conceptions. I engaged in the bracketing process using one journal for all of
the interviews and was therefore able to review my pre-and-post-interview thoughts with ease.
Peer Auditing
During the analysis of data and identification of themes, I utilized peer auditing (Merriam
& Tisdell, 2016). I worked closely with my dissertation chair and institution faculty to discuss
my findings, examine the themes, and ensure I labeled each theme appropriately. Additionally, I
engaged two of my colleagues, also in the dissertation phase of their doctorate, to review my
research and discuss the findings and themes with me. The additional support of both my peers
and esteemed faculty increased the trustworthiness and credibility of my research.
Ethics
The ethical approach of a study is largely determined by the experience, intellectual rigor,
values, and ethics of the researcher (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). While collecting and analyzing
the data, I followed the institutional guidelines of the institutional review board (IRB) at the
University of Southern California (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). I submitted the study framework
to the IRB at the University of Southern California (USC) immediately after my defense
proposal in February 2023. Following IRB approval in March 2023, I followed the necessary
guidelines to safeguard study participants, including obtaining informed consent. As part of the
study information sheet, I provided my name, the name of the institution, the purpose of the
study, participation benefits, level of involvement, confidentiality statements, participant risks,
and the option to withdraw from the study at any time (Creswell & Creswell, 2018).
51

Researcher Bias and Positionality
My name is Theresa Nicole Exum Lucas. I hold various titles: wife, (step)mother,
educator, doctoral student, sister, daughter, friend, author, and neighbor. I am the mix of my
White, German agnostic father who was raised Catholic, and my Black Jewish mother who was
raised Baptist. Entering young adulthood alongside my genderqueer sibling gave me the
opportunity to see the world through their eyes. Growing up as a military brat taught me to value
family, communication, respect, loyalty, and organization more than anything else. I am a
woman who has survived rape, suicide, and divorce. I also live with autism and generalized
anxiety disorder. I have never met an animal I did not want to rescue. I am a good listener and a
fierce optimist, and I believe in speaking to every person like it will be the last time I get the
opportunity.
While I can easily list the attributes that create my identity, I cannot fully understand who
I am and how that plays a role within my research without first analyzing my positionality.
Villaverde defines positionality as “how one is situated through the intersection of power and the
politics of gender, race, class, sexuality, ethnicity, culture, language, and other social factors”
(Villaverde, 2008, as cited in Douglas & Nganga, 2013, pp. 60–61). To analyze my positionality,
I examined each of my identities and how they intersect with one another. I am a young, Black,
cisgender, mixed-race, mixed-culture, highly educated woman, living in the lower-middle-class
with invisible disabilities. I have a great deal of privilege, including being light skin with light
eyes, being educated, being cisgender, and being young. I am also marginalized in other ways,
like living with disabilities, being lower-middle-class, being Black, and being a woman.
I often view the world through my position of a mother to two Black little girls who
attend public K–12 schools in low socioeconomic (SES) neighborhoods. Day after day, year
52

after year, I watch them walk through entryways full of Black and Brown students, lined by
White (mostly women) teachers, and into schoolgrounds that have tattered books, teacher and
parent-funded supplies, chipping paint, and unusable playground equipment. My kids attend the
public school closest to their home, and it is affecting their achievement, much like it is for
millions of other Black kids in the United States. Black children who go to public schools in the
United States are impacted by the education debt, a deeply rooted problem tied directly to the
systemic and structural inequities in the United States that have impacted Black folx since White
colonizers first enslaved Africans, and for which no justice has been served.
Even though the structure of the education debt owed to Black students has been in place
for centuries and there is literature spanning several decades, my understanding of the problem is
relatively new. As a child, I did not understand I attended a less-than-ideal elementary and high
school. As an adult without children, I was ignorant of how deeply this problem impacted the
world. Now, I can trace seemingly endless amounts of problems at work and in society back to
one issue: the inequities in the U.S. public school system. I will continue to explore my own
positionality as it relates to the education debt, and the positionality of other researchers
publishing work in the field as well.
With this study, I conducted research and am sharing empirical data that helps to
diminish the widespread effects of the education debt owed to Black children by the U.S. public
education system. During my research, data collection, and data analysis processes, I prioritized
self-reflection on my positionality and biases. Prior to beginning the work, I realized each step of
this study may bring out a feeling or bias that was previously under the surface. To ensure I was
prepared for those feelings, I implemented a double-check process through my use of tools such
as peer auditing and bracketing. As I looked back at my notes taken through the bracketing
53

process and I had my chair, faculty, and peers audit my work, I was able to double-check that my
positionality did not contaminate the validity of my data.
Summary
This chapter provided an overview of the methods that were used in this study. It is
framed by a reminder of the purpose of this study, to investigate and illustrate Black American
adults’ experiences with the U.S. public K–12 education system through their descriptions of the
long-term impact of their K–12 education and their visions for an educational system that
supports Black students. The chapter also includes descriptions of the qualitative methods that
were used, interviews, and how the sample, eight Black Americans, was selected. Additional
topics covered include data collection and analysis, validity and reliability, ethics, and researcher
bias and positionality. Each topic’s connection to critical race theory (CRT), the theoretical
framework for the study, is highlighted within the chapter.

54

Chapter Four: Data Analysis
The purpose of this study was to investigate and illustrate Black American adults’
experiences with the U.S. public K–12 education system. The study was framed by critical race
theory as outlined by Delgado and Stefancic (2001, 2017) and focused on the tenets of
counterstorytelling (Bell, 1987; Matsuda, 1995), amplifying the voices of Black people (Delgado
& Stefancic, 2001, 2017), and the permanence of racism (Parker & Lynn, 2002). The initial three
chapters of this dissertation introduced an overview of the research problem, a review of
pertinent literature, and a review of the methodological design and framing for the study. In this
chapter, I amplify Black American adults’ stories of their experiences as children in public
schools in the United States and, through storytelling, I divulge the results of the research
questions.
The following two research questions guided this study:
1. How do Black American adults describe their relationship to their K–12 education
today in relation to their personal, academic, and professional success?
2. How do Black American adults envision an educational system that would support
young Black children?
This study involved eight Black adult Americans who engaged in qualitative interviews
to share their stories and experiences related to the U.S. K–12 public education system.
Participants were given pseudonyms and all potentially identifiable information was changed to
protect participant confidentiality. This chapter begins by outlining demographic information for
each individual participant and for the overall study. Then, summaries of each participant’s
interview are included. Next, the themes are explored in relation to the research questions.
Finally, a summary of key themes and findings is included at the end of this chapter.
55

Participant Demographics
The eight Black adult Americans who participated in this study were all currently
enrolled in doctoral programs as of April 2023 and attended public schools in the United States
for a mean of 11.5 years each (SD = 1.9). Each participant received a pseudonym prior to our
interview and was informed of their pseudonym at that time. Names and words have power, and
that is true even for pseudonyms. In selecting pseudonyms, I wanted to choose names with
meanings that represented the strength and power of Black people and our culture. I also gave
thought to which names are historically or currently popular in the Black community in hopes
that the people who read this study can see their cousin, auntie, friend, teacher, or neighbor
reflected in the stories told by the participants. Table 2 outlines the meaning of each pseudonym.

Table 2
Meanings of Pseudonyms
Pseudonym Meaning of name
Nevaeh
“Heaven” spelled backwards. Top 100 most popular names for Black girls born
in North America since 2007.
Kofi
A name of Ghanian origin meaning “born on Friday.” Top 500 most popular
names for Black boys.
Zeke
Short for Ezekial, a Hebrew name meaning “Strength of God” or “God will
strengthen.”
Destiny A name of Latin origin meaning “the power of fate” or “fate.”
Grace
A name of Latin origin meaning “blessing,” “favor,” or “goodness.” Top 1000
most popular names for Black girls.
Malik
A name of Arabic origin meaning “master” or “king.” Top 100 most popular
names for Black boys.
Faith A name of English origin meaning “trust” or “devotion.”
Jalen A take on the Hebrew name meaning “thankful.”

56

The participants’ experiences represent 30 different public schools in the United States,
from the West Coast to the East Coast, from poor to affluent, from small to large, and from
homogenous to diverse. In the study, there were equal numbers of men and women, and the
mean participant age was 45 years old (SD = 8.3). Of the eight participants, three were from the
East Coast, three from the Midwest, and two from the West Coast. When I asked each participant
if they believed the U.S. K–12 education system supports Black children well, the decisive
answer was no. See Table 3 for detailed participant information.

Table 3
Detailed Participant Information

1
Nevaeh
2
Kofi
3
Zeke
4
Destiny
5
Grace
6
Malik
7
Faith
8
Jalen
Age 32 55 48 35 48 53 34 55
Gender
identity
Woman Man Man Woman Woman Man Woman Man
Career field Ed tech Info. tech
(IT)
K–12
education
Finance Human
resources
Life
sciences
Higher
education
Human
resources
Number of
years in
public
school
11 years 8 years 13 years 13 years 11 years 13 years 13 years 10 years
High school
graduation
2008 1985 1992 2005 1993 1988 2007 1986
Number of
schools
attended
6 2 3 3 3 4 9 5
Type of
schools
attended
Poor Poor Poor Wealthy to
average
Average to
poor to
wealthy
Poor to
wealthy
Poor to
wealthy
Poor to
wealthy
Location of
schools
attended
Urban;
Midwest
Urban; East
Coast
Urban; East
Coast
Suburban to
Urban; West
Coast
Urban; East
Coast
Urban to
Suburban;
Midwest
Urban to
Suburban to
Urban;
West Coast
Urban;
Midwest
57
58

Participant Counterstories
Nevaeh: Interview 1
Nevaeh and I met via Zoom bright and early on a Saturday morning. She had on big bold
glasses, gold hoops, and a black scarf. She explained to me that she wasn’t done up because she
prioritized caffeine over appearances in order to be alert for our interview. The light in the room
was warm, and I could see artwork centering Black women on the wall behind her. Even across
the virtual screen, I could immediately feel her investment in this project and in Black children.
As we navigated through the interview protocol and I learned about Nevaeh’s experiences, it was
clear she was optimistic for the future of the public education system, and was thriving despite
the lacking system she grew up in.
Nevaeh is a 32-year-old woman who grew up in poor, urban schools in a predominantly
Black city in Michigan and currently works in learning design. Growing up as an only child with
a single mom who was always in search of the best education for her daughter, Nevaeh attended
six public schools. She described her experience in the K–12 educational system as “chaotic,”
thinks the current iteration of the K–12 system is “unjust,” and dreams it will one day be
“restructured.”
There was no person, space, or system who had more of a profound impact on Nevaeh’s
success than her mother’s love and investment. Nevaeh said even now, as a doctoral student at a
prestigious private university, her mom is highly involved in and devoted to her educational
success. As a child, Nevaeh’s mom drove her to and from school and, on the rare occasions she
would catch the bus, her mom drove her to and from the bus stop. Nevaeh said she felt privileged
to be a child with a parent who cared, who had a job and a car, as she recognized, “there’s
privilege even within oppressed systems.”
59

A particular story I want to highlight from Nevaeh is the system’s failure to provide
quality school spaces. While she was still a K–12 student, she attended schools where ceilings
were caving in, and hazardous stairwells had to be closed. It was not until high school when she
was playing in a volleyball game in the suburbs that she realized the utter inequity she
experienced. Describing that memory, she said,
And when I walked in the school I was like, this can’t be serious. Like, this is their high
school? I mean, like, they have chandeliers and these huge staircases and a bookstore. It
was like a college campus. And I realized oh my God, other people go to schools like
this? I thought this was like something from, you know, TV, like Gossip Girl. So, it was
really that moment was, like, the first moment where I realized there’s differences. Like
everybody’s not going to a school where there’s not enough books for kids.
During our time together, Nevaeh revealed to me that every single public school she ever
attended from kindergarten through high school graduation (that is six schools, if you are
keeping count), was closed by the time she turned 30. Let that sink in for a moment. Within
12–25 years, every school Nevaeh ever attended was deemed hazardous, unsafe, or unfit.
Despite being academically, professionally, and personally successful by her own
definitions, Nevaeh said that her experiences in public school have made her fearful to enroll
children in a system where, she feels, even if a teacher does all they can, it still will not be
enough. Additionally, her educational experiences have left her with significant imposter
syndrome in academic and professional spaces. She reflected,
There are some things that I just don’t have the foundation of that I’m constantly catching
up on. Um, and I don’t have a problem catching up. Like, you know, I’ll do whatever it
takes, but in that way, that might be a gift because you just have kinda that scrappy
60

mentality of like, okay well if I don’t have it, I’m gonna get it … but it definitely has
some letdowns and there are some gaps that I have because of [my public education]
experience.
Nevaeh does not blame teachers for her educational experience. In fact, she spent time as a
teacher with the Teach for America program in a school similar to the ones she grew up in. That
experience reminded her the issues are systemic, and not the fault of individual teachers. In her
first year as a teacher, Nevaeh was responsible for 30 children in fifth grade who read anywhere
from a kindergarten to a 10th grade reading level. She realized it was impossible for a single
person to provide appropriate resources to 30 children at different academic levels, and it helped
her to see the public education system from an unfamiliar perspective. Today, Nevaeh thinks the
school system could be improved with a community investment model that prioritizes loving the
children, continuity of support year-over-year, increases in funding and resources, and making
school a joyful place.
See a Word Cloud created from the interview with Nevaeh in Figure 3.

61

Figure 3
Nevaeh’s Word Cloud

Kofi: Interview 2
Kofi began our time together by apologizing for having to reschedule our initial meeting;
his son had to have a dental procedure and he wanted to devote his full attention to this project
instead of multitasking. Wearing a gray turtleneck sweater, Kofi was Zooming in from a
conference room with a three-dimensional gray wall, a glass door, and bright lights. When in
deep thought, his brow furrowed, and he clasped his hands under his chin.
Kofi is a 55-year-old man who grew up in a densely populated city in New Jersey and
currently works at a senior executive level in information technology (IT). He attended a
62

parochial preschool and high school, with a poor, overcrowded urban public elementary school
and junior high school in between. Kofi conveyed astonishment as he compared the age of the
public schools he attended, which were over a century old during his time as a student, to the
relatively younger police stations and fire houses in the city. The fact that the schools, crucial to
the safety and education of children, were so much older than the city buildings struck him as
inequitable and unjust. Kofi described his experience in the K–12 educational system as
“antiquated” and thinks the future of the educational system is full of “possibilities” and
“opportunities.”
A clear theme throughout the interview with Kofi was how impactful his family and
parents were in his education. Although he said he did not feel overtly supported at school, he
came from a family that valued education and always knew that going to college and getting an
education were important. This was not because his parents knew the value firsthand; Kofi’s
father did not graduate from high school and his mother attended college as an adult. Despite
their own levels of educational attainment, his parents provided him with a solid academic
foundation and fostered a deep commitment to education during his formative years.
When considering how public school impacted his personal success, Kofi expressed, “it
gave me work ethic. … Um, it’s given me perseverance. … I think coming from my humble
beginning and my environment has made me work harder. It’s made me work twice as hard as
my counterparts.” Similarly, when considering his public education experience and its impact on
his academic success as someone who is 4 months shy of earning his doctorate, he said by
unknowingly underachieving in K–12, he has learned to always work twice as hard as other
students. The experience has pushed him “to show students that come from my same beginning,
you know, poor background, that [they can] achieve whatever [they] want.” In contrast, Kofi is
63

adamant his experience in public school did not shape his success professionally. Instead, the
public school system almost stifled it. Kofi’s predominantly Black, poor, overcrowded public
schools did not have computers. If he had not attended a parochial school with more resources,
he says he may not have found his love for computers and IT and may not have been as
professionally successful.
Kofi does not want a lack of resources or exposure to negatively impact future Black
children. In his dreams for a better public education system, he frequently highlighted the need
for Black children to receive more exposure to people, places, and subjects. Alongside more
exposure, Kofi thinks increased funding, smaller class sizes, and more targeted academic support
is essential to improving the educational experience for Black students in K–12.
See a Word Cloud created from the interview with Kofi in Figure 4.

64

Figure 4
Kofi’s Word Cloud

Zeke: Interview 3
Zeke chose a weekday for our interview, and it was early evening in his time zone on the
East Coast. Dressed in a gray suit, white button-up shirt, and black tie, he mentioned that it had
been an exhausting day and he was still in the office. His passion for the school where he is
pursuing his doctorate was immediately noticeable, as his Zoom background depicted the
school’s logo and brand colors. Zeke is about 1 year from graduating with his doctorate, and
currently works as a high school principal at an alternative public school in his hometown. He is
48 years old and grew up in New Jersey, in the same city as Kofi (Participant 2).
65

Despite building his career as a resolute educator in public schools, Zeke thinks the K–12
educational system was “broken” when he was a student and is still broken today. When asked
what he thinks the system could be, Zeke said he envisions a public school system that is
“liberating” and “enlightening” for Black children. Although he begrudges how far we have yet
to go to realize that vision, Zeke said he is fulfilling his purpose in life by working to build a
better educational system than the one he experienced.
Zeke attended impoverished public schools in his hometown for the entirety of his K–12
education. He began as a kindergartner in the Follow Through Program, which ended in third
grade. That program was a product of the local, predominantly Black, community working to
improve the foundational education for inner city youth by increasing opportunity and role
modeling. Zeke said as a kindergartner he was in a joint classroom with first graders and then
stayed in the same classroom in first grade. Then, as a second grader, he was in a joint classroom
with third graders, and stayed in the same classroom in third grade. When that program ended,
Zeke transferred to a different public school where he remained until eighth grade, before going
to one of the public high schools.
During our interview, Zeke shared his story of growing up in an impoverished, urban
community where the abundance of parental involvement and community support could not be
overstated. He went to a high school that was included in Jonathan Kozol’s 1991 book, Savage
Inequalities, as well as in a popular movie about a disadvantaged, dangerous inner city high
school. And yet, Zeke said he felt the support and expectation of his parents, football coaches,
and some teachers to excel. He grew up with a mother who was a phlebotomist and a father who
was extremely active in the community as a public servant and educational board member.
Because of this, Zeke and his brothers were well known at the schools they attended. His father
66

and mother also spent weekends teaching the boys about Black history, going to museums, and
attending Afrocentric plays. This instilled in him a sense of pride and pursuit for greatness. Zeke
said that when he and his brothers came home from school, there was an expectation learning
would be continued for 1 hour, whether that meant doing school-assigned homework or parent-
assigned homework. This level of parental involvement likely shielded Zeke from what children
without that support experienced. For example, Zeke said,
I always felt supported at home, uh, first and foremost, with my, with my mother and
father and, my parents, the way they raised us they, they taught us to have care and
concern for ourselves, our neighborhood, our community, at a really young age. So, um,
with that, my parents were definitely a part of every parent council, parent/home/school
teacher council, the board, like, city positions. So, they were always connected. So, um,
you know, the teachers kind of looked to them for guidance and support and leadership
early on. So, teachers had expectations for at least me, you know. For some of the other
kids … I don’t know how high of an expectation they had for them. But they knew my
parents expected [me] to be the best [I] can be. They knew if [my dad] came to the
school, it’s a problem for somebody.
Zeke highlighted his awareness of inequities as far back as elementary school, in the way
his schools looked, some teachers behaved, and the fact that most students lived in public
housing or apartments. However, he relayed that he truly felt the full scope of those inequities in
the context of sports. As a high school football and basketball athlete, Zeke said he became fully
aware of the discrepancy between his education and those of the wealthy students who lived
across town. He said when traveling with the team he noticed other schools were nicer, the
gymnasiums had better equipment, and the referees and fans treated them differently. Zeke
67

revealed that during some games, fights would break out and the athletes from his school would
be “kicked out of the game” but the athletes from the mostly White school would be permitted to
stay and compete. At one point, Zeke and other players were required to go to the more affluent
schools before the games to show camaraderie. One moment seared in his mind is a basketball
game against an affluent, White team. Zeke’s team was winning the game and a White player
said to him, “It doesn’t matter about this game. You’ll be working for me someday.” Zeke
expressed gratitude that his coaches, whom he described as strong Black men with a penchant for
brotherhood, mentorship, and leadership, helped him and his teammates to overcome such racist
experiences. Zeke valued what they had to say because they were from his neighborhood, lived
through similar experiences, and he was able to have “not necessarily a friendship, but a
relationship where you can talk about things you wouldn’t normally talk to a regular teacher
about.”
In his vision for the future of public education, Zeke wants to see more of the positives of
his own upbringing imbedded in the typical school experience. He thinks parents should be
highly involved, and teachers should look to them for support with their students. He thinks
having role models and mentors as teachers, especially those that reflect their students is
essential. Additionally, he thinks discipline in schools needs to be changed from punitive to
educational. Instead of being taken out of school when they make a mistake, those students need
more time in school. Overall, he says that students in the public education system need to feel
more “support, encouragement, positive reinforcement, care, concern, love, and guidance” and
that students need to feel like they belong, not just at school but in this world.

See a Word Cloud created from the interview with Zeke in Figure 5.

68

Figure 5
Zeke’s Word Cloud

Destiny: Interview 4
With a Zoom background featuring her favorite sport, Destiny smiled through the
computer screen as we began our interview. There was a mix-up on the starting time, and we
laughed about that for a minute prior to digging in to such a serious topic. Destiny had on a gray
t-shirt with diamond stud earrings and faux locs, and I saw her red nails each time she
accentuated points with her hands. Destiny is a 35-year-old woman who grew up in an affluent
area of California and currently works in the financial sector. She grew up with a racially diverse
family; her father is Nigerian but grew up in Germany and came to the United States when he
69

was about 16, and her mom, Irish and one-fourth Black, is from the South. Her familial
background and values have profoundly shaped who she is today and how she experienced her
childhood.
Although she grew up in a small, wealthy, mostly White, suburban public elementary and
public middle school, she advocated for herself in middle school and requested her parents allow
her to attend an average, extremely diverse, urban public high school for the end of her K–12
academic journey. Destiny attributes much of her success to the decision to change educational
environments. She describes her experience and years in high school as “excitement,” which is in
stark contrast to her description of her experience at the wealthy schools as “apocalyptic.”
Overall, she describes her experience in the K–12 public educational system as a “roller coaster.”
She dreams one day the system will be “different,” “progressive,” and “innovative.”
When considering what her experiences in public school taught her in relation to her
success today, Destiny said the most important lesson she learned is,
Nothing is coming for you. Like if there’s something that you want, you better get up and
go get it. And when you get up and go get it, be ready to fail a lot. Like a whole lot. Just
fail every day. As long as you’re failing forward, like, you’ll eventually get there, right?
Just don’t give up.
In summary, she reflected, “you have to open up your mouth, you gotta ask for help, and then
you have to be relentless about pursuing what you want.” It is a lesson she says she learned in
high school as she navigated being social in an unfamiliar environment, and she has carried it
with her throughout life. Although, after listening to her story, I would argue Destiny learned
how to be relentless long before high school. Specifically, when Destiny was in elementary
school, she was the only Black child in her class, and she did not have a Black teacher or
70

principal until she went to high school. In elementary school, she had a teacher send home an
assignment where students learned that Black was bad, and White was good. In another grade,
she had a teacher rip up her study guide and throw it in the trash because she assumed Destiny
was doing something she was not supposed to be doing. Her elementary and middle schools
never celebrated Black History Month or discussed slavery or the Holocaust. After each incident,
Destiny’s parents met with the teacher and the school administration and stood up for their
daughter. They were relentless in their protection of Destiny’s identity.
When considering how the lesson of being relentless has been applicable in her
professional life, Destiny shared a story from a time she was consulting with a Fortune 100
company led by older White men. During a video conferencing call, while she was forecasting
company changes, a White man in his late 70s forgot he was unmuted and said, “This Black
bitch thinks she can tell me what to do.” Destiny said everyone on the call looked shocked or
embarrassed, and the man who spoke was beet red, but she was accustomed to being relentless in
the face of racism, antiBlackness, and inequity. She said, “I think you forgot to mute yourself.
Moving forward.” and finished her presentation. Reflecting on that situation, Destiny explained
it is so important not to “lose yourself in these small battles when you know you’re gonna win
the war.”
Destiny is the only person in this study whose experience as a Black child is interwoven
with coming from a wealthy family, a wealthy environment. As she explored that experience
with me, she said she does not think equity exists, or can exist. Clarifying that she did not intend
to be negative, but that she believes even if there is racial equity, there cannot be equity in all
areas – in financial status or power or influence. While she does not think equity exists, she is
adamant we should, “take small steps to attempt to give certain individuals a better chance at
71

success” and said, “giving everyone a fair shot is not the same as giving someone a better
chance, because we don’t have … everyone doesn’t have a fair shot.”
As our interview closed, I asked Destiny what she would change in the public education
system to support someone like her as a child. She said it begins at home, with better partnership
and communication between the school and the parents. She said parents should always be
involved with what is happening with their child at school, and that it is the parent’s job to
educate their child and the school’s job to supplement that education. Destiny also acknowledged
that an equal partnership is not available with every parent (e.g., single parents or parents without
advanced degrees) and that schools should be equitable, not equal, in the support they provide.
She also included the “basics” as something that should be included in the public education
system: mental health, free meals, support, small class sizes, and a sense of belonging. Finally,
she highlighted the importance of exposing Black children to science, technology, engineering,
and math (STEM) as well as Black role models in those fields to provide foundations for careers
that lead to long-term success.
See a Word Cloud created from the interview with Destiny in Figure 6.

72

Figure 6
Destiny’s Word Cloud

Grace: Interview 5
Grace and I met via Zoom on a Sunday morning. Her Zoom background was set to a
gorgeous view of a city near the ocean. She wore a plain black tank top, with a bare face and no
jewelry and apologized in advance if she was fidgety, explaining she was struggling with back
pain that morning. Grace is a 48-year-old woman who came to New York at an early age as an
immigrant and currently works as a senior executive human resources/people leader in the
private sector.
73

After completing kindergarten and first grade in her home country, Grace immigrated to
the United States with her grandmother and lived with her aunt and cousin. Although her cousin
was in private schools in New York, Grace attended public schools from her start in the United
States in second grade until she graduated from high school. She described the public, urban
elementary and middle schools she attended as average to poor and thinks of her experience
there as “inept” and “tragic.” For high school, she independently sought the opportunity to apply
to a school of choice and was accepted to a suburban, public, wealthy, high school on a college
campus. It took her two busses and 45 minutes to get to school, but she said she was grateful to
attend. She describes her experience during her high school years as “progressive.” Grace
believes today’s educational system is “underfunded” and could be “better.”
Grace’s experience in public education in the United States began with racism,
oppression, and bias. As a Black second grader with an accent, her new public school
immediately tried to place her in remedial courses without ever evaluating her intelligence or
looking at school records from her home country. About the experience she says,
I was smarter than all those kids. Like I knew my multiplication and all the things … but
… I was this Black girl. I had this accent. I was from a, you know, what they consider as
a poor country. A foreign country. A Black country. And they automatically wanted to
like alienate me. It was like the first time I really understood what belonging was,
although, obviously I didn’t have the language for it right?
Grace’s family fought for her, and she remembers “feeling that there was a bit of annoyance
from the school officials that my family would fight so hard to get me into the top classes.”
Quickly, Grace was moved beyond remedial and even grade-level placement and enrolled in
courses for gifted children. Her experience in elementary and middle school did not change
74

much past that initial experience. Grace says she never felt overtly supported by the school
system or school administrators, outside of one teacher. She said one teacher in particular, a
Black woman who taught her fourth grade math class, was “just really kind; she made herself
available and she really encouraged me.”
As Grace transitioned to high school, everything changed. She found herself in an
environment built to support all students. There was an abundance of college counselors,
students took college classes, class sizes were small, and Grace felt seen. The high school was
connected to the college, and the first 2 years students took courses at the high school but by
junior and senior year students were taking courses at the college. Grace said that she heard the
school is now completely on the college campus, although that transition happened after she was
an adult. Of that experience, Grace says she gained independence, exposure to different and
older students, an understanding of the discipline it takes to be in college, and a robust education.
In reflecting on how Grace ended up at such a prestigious high school, and consequently
how she achieved her professional success, she smiled warmly and said it all traced back to her
grandmother. Grace and her cousin were the same age, and her cousin attended private school, so
Grace’s aunt was primarily focused on advocating for her daughter and not for Grace’s
education. There was an expectation of academic success, but not a lot of involvement in Grace’s
schooling. So, Grace took most of it into her own hands. She did the research to learn about the
high school application process, apply to schools, and enroll in her high school. But the will to
get an education came from her grandmother. On that subject, Grace said,
She wasn’t an educated woman, but she always said, “you have to do well. America is
not your home. You’re not living with your parents. You have to excel.” So, you know,
she just always pushed that in me, and it wasn’t from her personal experiences, right? She
75

just kind of knew that that would be a lever that I would have throughout my life. And at
that point, education was the biggest thing happening in my life.
In her grandmother, Grace found a role model; someone who loved her, supported her, believed
in her, and recognized her greatness.
When thinking about what the public education system needs today, Grace thinks role
models are a part of that. Also on Grace’s list for changes are an improved student sense of
belonging, more diversity in teachers and administration, teachers who are interested in the
success of their students, increased access to resources and technology, partnership between the
school and community, more support for parents, and better pay for teachers. Acknowledging
that she does not know how funding works at public schools, she thinks more funding is
imperative and questions, “how do we get those kids who have been marginalized … how do we
kind of get them into the fray to be able to compete?” Overall, Grace thinks the largest barrier
standing between the public education system and successfully educating Black children is
money, and being able to prepare them to be productive, competitive adults.
See a Word Cloud created from the interview with Grace in Figure 7.

76

Figure 7
Grace’s Word Cloud

Malik: Interview 6
Zooming in from a sunlit room with a garden door, Malik greeted me with a joyful smile
abutting a mustache and goatee. He wore a bright orange polo shirt, and his black hair was short
and curly. Behind him, I could see images of Black art and books adorning the room. Malik is a
53-year-old man who spent the first few years of his childhood living in an urban area of Ohio
but spent the bulk of his youth in the suburbs. After someone stole his mom’s Volkswagen from
their driveway, another person broke into their home, and Malik was repeatedly targeted walking
to and from school, his parents moved to the suburbs in search for both a safer area to live and a
77

better quality of education. That one decision had a profound impact on his life. For nearly 30
years, Malik has led an exceptional career in the life sciences industry, and he says he has been
so successful, in part, because he spent so much of his youth observing and learning from the
majority.
Prior to leaving the city, Malik attended urban, poor public schools for kindergarten
through third grade. He describes the experience as “traumatizing.” After he moved with his
family to the suburbs, he attended wealthy, mostly White public schools and remembers the
experience as “enlightening.” At the time, Malik and his family were one of five Black families
in the entire school district. There were two boys that were older than Malik, and then Malik and
two other Black boys were all in the same grade. Overall, Malik attended four schools: two
elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school. When describing today’s
educational system, Malik says it is “troubled,” but it could be “promising” and even
“exceptional.”
Although Malik describes his experience in the wealthy, mostly White public schools as
“enlightening,” do not misinterpret that to mean always positive. Without prompting, Malik said,
“it was the right move to make. I wouldn’t do it for my children now, but it was, it has, it’s never
stopped yielding dividends.” He paused, thinking of himself and the other two boys he went
through nearly a decade of schooling with; all three are extremely successful in their careers.
“You cannot argue with the outcomes,” Malik said. I questioned him further, asking if it was the
education that made the difference, or if it was the people he met. Without hesitation, Malik
responded with,
It was the education. The quality of the education was superior. Um, what we learned
first and foremost, more than anything else, was how the majority moves, thinks, why
78

they move the way … the superiority that they move with. You understand when you’re
in the room how they move, why they’re thinking that. You cannot put a price on that
experience.
When Malik says education, he is saying exposure, he is saying learning, he is saying experience;
not schooling. The most impactful portion of Malik’s education came from his experience in
learning, but he also is clear his experience of schooling was impactful, too.
Despite the problems Malik and his family faced in the urban area, he remembers
supportive, high-quality educators and guidance counselors at all of his schools. Specifically,
Malik told me the story of being a little boy with a severe speech impediment. He stuttered
significantly but one teacher, Mrs. Zaribe (pseudonym), dedicated time and resources to help him
overcome his stuttering. During our interview, there was no trace of the childhood stutter.
Malik also spoke of the support he received from his parents. Each time he mentioned his
mother or father, he smiled with his eyes. His voice grew soft, and I could sense the pride and
gratitude he felt for them. Neither of Malik’s parents have a college education, but Malik always
knew that education was non-negotiable. He described his mom, a woman from the Deep South
who was adopted and never acquired a high school degree, as “the bedrock” of his home support
system. Although school came easier for Malik and his brother than what he considers to be
typical, his mom still sat at the table in the evenings while they did their schoolwork. As he
reflected on where his academic success came from, Malik said that even though it was not
something his parents showed him specifically, he saw their work ethic and his grandparent’s
work ethic and realized, as a child, school was how he could “demonstrate my hard work.”
Malik did not just work hard in the classroom; he was a powerful athlete as well. In fact,
playing sports in the public school system is how he realized how deep the inequities were
79

between his wealthy school and the schools they played. When he traveled for sports, similar to
Nevaeh (Participant 1) and Zeke (Participant 3), he immediately noticed the difference in the
surroundings. Malik said,
The surroundings look drastically different than the surroundings at my school. The
quality of the school, the gym, the, you start to very soon, I’d say sixth grade on, you’re
like, ‘something’s different about this experience.’ And so, to me, that’s how I translated.
Um, we have better than average resources here. Not just in the classroom. You know
something’s different.
Unlike Nevaeh and Zeke’s experiences, Malik was on the positive end of this equation. He was
able to benefit from the privilege, power, and resources provided by attending a more affluent
school.
The benefits of being at such an affluent school did not come without cost though. First,
the financial cost of moving to the suburbs meant Malik’s father had to work long hours.
Describing those memories, Malik says, “I only saw him after 5 o’clock, and never saw him in
the morning ‘cause he was already gone for work. He was always stressed out. Money always
seemed to be tight.” Second, Malik lived in an area with people who had a homogenous cultural
(White) and financial (wealthy) background, both different than his own. He recalls being upset
that he did not get a car when he turned 16 because all of his friends got cars, not realizing how
much his family was sacrificing to even live in that neighborhood. Up until that moment, he had
never considered his family could be anything but wealthy, because he spent so much time with
wealthy kids. Third, he struggled to form his identity as a Black man. Once, at wrestling practice
early in high school, teammates held Malik down and put chalk on his face. Afterward, they said,
“Now, you’re like us.” Malik never told anyone it happened, and said, “it beat a cross burning in
80

your yard.” In the later years of high school and into college, Malik had an identity crisis. During
his first year at college, less than 5 hours from where he graduated high school, Malik “didn’t
know how to talk to Black people and … felt very uncomfortable around a lot of Black people
because … I thought I was just like all these other people that I was raised around.” After
meeting a Black man from a historically Black fraternity in the student union, Malik immersed
himself in Black history and Black culture. It was the first time Malik had studied such topics
and he says, “it changed my life. Changed my whole life.” He joined the same fraternity that
year.
About his experiences in public education in the wealthy, White suburbs, Malik says,
“Even though the outcome may have been desirable, there’s a lot of ways to get to the promised
land … I don’t want my children experiencing what I experienced.” So, I asked, what would a
better system look like? Malik says diversity and inclusion is key; he thinks each school should
be partially Black, and then a mix of other races, including White. He says all children should
have the same opportunity and access that wealthy White children do. Malik also believes school
boundaries could use an examination, because folx should not have to sacrifice everything they
have to get their children into “good” schools, especially for those boundaries to be redrawn
later. Malik also says we need a public school system full of teachers who love teaching, which
means we need to give them the space and resources to let them love teaching. Finally, Malik
says, none of that matters if we do not encourage our Black children and teach them the stories
of those who came before them.
See a Word Cloud created from the interview with Malik in Figure 8.

81

Figure 8
Malik’s Word Cloud

Faith: Interview 7
Faith and I met via Zoom only a couple of weeks before she graduated with her doctorate
from a respected university. She was running errands in preparation for graduation, related
celebrations, and job interviews, and so she remained off camera during the entirety of the
interview. In lieu of seeing her live, she selected a picture for me to see on Zoom that she said
was representative of her: her red hair styled in an afro, a big smile, and gold jewelry.
Faith is a 34-year-old woman who grew up in a multitude of cities across Southern
California and works as an educator. Faith attended public schools all 13 years from kindergarten
82

to high school graduation. She spent Grades K–3 in urban schools she described as “culturally
rich” but otherwise poor, and Grades 4–12 in suburban schools she described as “monetarily
rich.” In her mom’s search for a higher quality education, Faith attended four elementary
schools, two middle schools, and two high schools. She describes her experience in urban
schools as “foundational,” her experience in suburban schools as “traumatic,” and her viewpoint
of the public school system today as “imbalanced.” She believes the system can be transformed
into one that is “dynamic” and “liberating.”
Because Faith went to so many schools and several types of schools, she was incredibly
aware of inequities even as a child. She remembered that even when she went to poor, diverse
schools where she was surrounded by “a lot of Black people. … Brown people, and Latinos, and
Asians,” she only had White teachers and White school leadership. The first time she had a
Black teacher was in middle school “in a White school district.” Financially, she noticed that at
more diverse, lower funded schools she only took art and music on set days each week, but at the
more affluent schools they were standard classes she took each day. Additionally, the more
affluent schools had science labs and lab desks while the schools with lower funding did not. She
recalled her schools with lower funding having bars on the windows and being “surrounded by
gates … and it look[ing] just like a prison” while the more affluent schools had “like one security
guard.”
Faith opened up to me about the first time she enrolled in an affluent school. It was
during the early 2000s in Inglewood, California and she had been having some behavioral issues
in elementary school as a result of not being challenged academically. Despite being extremely
intelligent, Faith was placed in special education classes to avoid disruption to her peers. The
school district gave her mother two options: put Faith in an alternative school or allow Faith to
83

be bussed to a school in Sherman Oaks, California. For context, Sherman Oaks is nearly 20 miles
and 90 minutes by bus from Inglewood. Faith’s mother decided to send her to the wealthy school
in Sherman Oaks, and, for third and fourth grade, that is where Faith went to school.
The granddaughter of a bus driver in Los Angeles, Faith always thought her family was
“hood rich.” But, in Sherman Oaks, she realized she was not actually wealthy at all. She
remembers being surrounded by wealthy White people and feeling like she did not belong. In the
Black urban community, wearing gold jewelry is common. One aspect of this is the nameplate
necklace (a gold necklace with your name on it). Instead of the familiar gold jewelry Faith grew
up seeing, she described seeing Tiffany’s jewelry and not knowing what it was. When one of the
girls in her class saw her nameplate necklace, she told Faith “You’re like my dog ‘cause you
have your name on you. My dog has one of those.” Faith said she felt like she went from “the
personification of wealth in an urban community in Los Angeles to this White area where I was
like, essentially like these people’s pet.”
The environmental change did not change Faith, though. In fact, she conveyed she still
wears her name plate every day and is “unapologetically ghetto fabulous.” Faith learned how to
navigate a rich, White world where she was constantly asked about why her hair was the way it
was, where her parents shopped or did not shop, and why she wore the jewelry she did. That is a
skill she carried with her as she navigated academic and professional spaces that sometimes
looked how her school in Sherman Oaks looked. Faith learned that a lot of times folx get
“wealth” wrong, and she has learned that folx who look like her are culturally wealthy, no matter
what amount is in the bank, and she has learned not to discount that.
84

When Faith thinks about success, despite having many features of success in her life, she
says her public school experiences likely limited how successful she could be. At the same time,
they gave her a purpose and a passion to support children like her:
You know, those things stick with you, and it reminds you of why maybe you weren’t as
successful as you could have been, um because you weren’t necessarily edified in who
you were in those places. I learned very early in education that if I didn’t mold to what
was culturally acceptable as an institution, right? The school, the teachers, the
community, that it would be hard for me. And the one thing that always saved me, was
that I was, and still am, very intelligent. Um, really, really, smart. And even that, like
wanting to put me in a special ed class because I was disruptive or that I would go to the
bathroom and sit in the bathroom for 3 hours and still get As on my tests. You know, it
shows the importance of understanding that children will show you they are more than
capable. But they may not tell you, because they don’t have the lexicon to do so. Which
is actually why I went into education. Because there are a lot of little Faiths in the world
… you just have to do the work to make them feel like their intelligence is welcomed.
Faith did not have any support from teachers or the school system when she was in
school, but she had a mom who was always willing to fight for her. Faith says she had to be sure
she really needed her mom’s help before asking for it because her mom had a limited skillset and
sometimes resorted to violence to solve problems. As a child, Faith quickly learned violence was
not the best way to navigate educational systems, and often had to discern if a problem at school
was worth getting her mom involved. Describing that process, Faith said, “I always knew that
she would support me by any means necessary, I just didn’t, I wouldn’t really disclose a lot to
her, because I was fearful that I couldn’t manage her emotions.” As a junior in high school, Faith
85

was finally able to lean on others for support. That year, she met three educators —two teachers
and a guidance counselor —who are the reason she went to college. She describes them as, “really
great folx, who really like saw the brilliance of who I was and recognized I was always gonna
get in my own way if I didn’t have a supportive team.” The guidance counselor specifically said
something that Faith uses to this day: “You’re smart as hell but you have no wisdom,” and she
helped Faith to better navigate school and relationships with teachers.
Looking back, Faith wishes she had a different public school system to experience. If she
could redesign it, she would have better food that is nutritious and appeals to children, a diverse
teaching staff, sustainable art and music programs, and “buildings that felt like institutions of
intellectual advancement and not prisons.” Finally, she thinks schools need “adults that really
give a damn” and believe in whatever version of success kids are aiming for.
See a Word Cloud created from the interview with Faith in Figure 9.

86

Figure 9
Faith’s Word Cloud

Jalen: Interview 8
Jalen and I met on a Saturday morning at the end of April. He joined the Zoom meeting
from a portable device and at times the background or angle changed slightly. Black-rimmed
glasses adorned his face, and his short hair was peppered with gray, as was his mustache and
beard. He wore a burnt orange shirt with a black quarter-zip pullover sweater embroidered with
fraternity insignia on the front. When he moved his hands while speaking, I could see he was
holding a stress ball in one hand.
87

Jalen is a 55-year-old man who grew up in an urban area of Missouri and works as a
senior leader and recruiter in the private sector. Raised by a single mom who prioritized
education, he and his family moved often due to insecure housing, but always at the end of the
school year. By the time Jalen entered fifth grade, his mom had received a Dollar House through
a government program. A Dollar House is a foreclosed home acquired by the Federal Housing
Administration and then sold for $1.00 to “low to moderate income families” (U.S. Department
of Housing and Urban Development [HUD], 2023, para. 2). Jalen and his family lived in that
home until he graduated from high school. In total, he attended three elementary schools, one
junior high, and one high school. He attended public schools in the United States from third
grade until high school graduation. Prior to third grade, Jalen attended a local Catholic school.
Overall, he enjoyed his K–12 academic experience, which he describes as, “fun.” Jalen describes
the K–12 education system as it exists today as “disappointing” and says he thinks it could be
“inspiring.”
Jalen attended public schools in urban Missouri during a time when Black children were
being bussed into mostly White schools. During elementary school, Jalen remembers his
classmates as being 90–100% Black. That changed when his mom secured the Dollar House and
he moved with his family to a more affluent, White neighborhood. His junior high and high
school were both mostly White schools. Although Jalen does not recall any overt racism as a
student, he says, “I see it more now than I, I think I did, uh, back then.” He describes being in
alumni groups on social media and often seeing or hearing their feelings on when the schools
“went downhill” or saying they remember when the school “was a good school.” When he hears
comments like that, Jalen said some of his experiences during his junior high and high school
years make more sense.
88

Despite the racially divided era in which he grew up, Jalen says the diversity of the folx
he met at public schools helped him to achieve success and shape what that means for him.
Moving from a nearly all-Black neighborhood and schools to a nearly all-White neighborhood
and schools provided him with exposure to a variety of people. Jalen says, those “experiences
have exposed me to a lot of people and a lot of diverse backgrounds and … I’ve grown to
appreciate people from all walks of life.”
As a student, Jalen’s relationship with his teachers was very impactful. When asked about
teachers who made an impact on his life, Jalen was able to name several folx and the subjects
they taught, nearly 30 years after he had been in any public school classroom. Explaining why,
he said:
You know, um, they were, they were strong Black men. And I grew up in a single parent
home, with a single Black mother. And, you know, those, those were my fathers during
the day, kind of thing. It was easy to respect them as strong, Black men because I didn’t
have that, um, at home. You know, I had uncles who stepped in. … I don’t think they
really knew about my home life. But I think um, you know, I would argue that for many
of my classmates they would probably feel the same about those teachers because they
were like that for everybody. I mean, they were tough on us, but they were kind and
respectful. In that era, you know, they were just what many of us needed, in that time.
Jalen also named a few White women who taught him between third grade and sixth grade. He
remembers them as people who “really poured into me and invested in me,” and shared that he
always felt loved by the teachers that made a difference in his life. In fact, he still stays
connected with some of his teachers.
89

I’ve had very longstanding relationships with many of my teachers who are still
alive, and over the years, as I was … an adult, I had their phone numbers on my
phone so that I could call them up. I still have teachers like that now on social media
that I follow and who follow me, you know.
Jalen thinks that creating a public school system that truly invests in its children, like
Jalen’s teachers invested in him, is important. He thinks all children have the same basic needs
and deserve a better school system. First, Jalen thinks students should feel supported to learn and
grow by the people at home, at their school, and in their community. Second, Jalen feels students
need more exposure to careers and opportunities so they can learn what they have a passion for
and what it takes to be successful with that passion. Finally, Jalen said it is important to
remember that when politicians, principals, or school districts inhibit children from learning
about things like critical race theory or Black history, students must learn about it outside of
school.
See a Word Cloud created from the interview with Jalen in Figure 10.

90

Figure 10
Jalen’s Word Cloud

Results for Research Question 1: Relationship Between Experience in Public Education
and Long-Term Success
The first research question in this study addressed the impact of a K–12 public school
education on the participant’s perception of their success by asking, “How do Black American
adults describe their relationship to their K–12 education today in relation to their personal,
academic, and professional success?” Five key themes emerged: being successful despite their
public education, the importance of feeling a sense of belonging, the impact of their parents and
caregivers, experiencing the impact of different socioeconomic levels and inequities, and the
importance of being in community. In addition, some key themes also had subthemes.
91

To fully explore the five key themes, the participants’ definitions of success must first be
explained. Within the interview protocol, participants identified both what they believed to be
the common definition of success as well as how they describe their personal definition of
success. Most participants personally defined success as distinct from materialism; participants
highlighted things like passion, joy, fulfillment, service to others, and freedom. Nearly all
participants contrasted their personal definition with the materialistic definition rampant in
American society which ties success to wealth, college education, home ownership, career/title,
and, for women, being a wife and a mother. The most predominant theme in the data was these
participants reached success, according to both their personal definition and often according to
the “American Dream,” too, despite their experience as students in the K–12 public school
system. Table 4 highlights how each participant defined success.

92

Table 4
Participant’s Definition of Success
Participant Definition of success
Nevaeh “For me it was graduating and being able to go to the college that I choose to go
to. For some people it’s graduating high school. For some people it’s,
especially when you live in a place like where I grew up, it’s living to see 18
years old. … But it also includes joy and love.”
Kofi “Living to your peak potential. Like, my father’s was to provide a house for his
family. Mine was to be a manager at a Fortune 500 company.”
Zeke “Hopefully, you made life better for at least the people around you. But if you
haven’t done that, then you didn’t reach your goal in life, your fullest potential.
If you’re not adding positive value and reaching your fullest potential, you
can’t view that as success. And, really, it’s if your kids do that. That’s real
success.”
Destiny “Success is being able to have a ‘we’ mentality and put yourself in a position
where financially, spiritually, emotionally you can feed into the community.
Success is also creating an identity, finding my voice, figuring out my stance
on things, having joy, having love, having peace. Where I grew up, there is
really not an excuse for not being successful, because of the network, the
schooling … there’s not really a reason that you shouldn’t make it. You have
to try really hard to not make it.”
Grace “Being able to look at yourself in the mirror and being content with the decisions
that you’ve made. It has nothing to do with money, but it’s do you feel that you
are the best version of yourself every day, whatever those parameters might be
for you personally. Being able to find joy in the small things and the large
things and just feeling good, it’s just really critical.”
Malik “Success. If I left the world today, I don’t have anything to complain about. Not
one thing, nothing. It’s exceeded my expectations. 2% of people in the country
have a lifestyle that is similar to [mine]. Are you able to show up passionate
about what you do? And money happens to be an output of your passion.
That’s how I would define success.”
Faith “Freedom of time, freedom of resources. Freedom of monetary, um,
advancement. It’s the ability to be free from the confines of somebody telling
you how, when, where, and what to do. Because there’s a difference when
somebody tells you and somebody suggests … a freedom for me to be able to
be, and to exist, in the way that I am meant to.”
Jalen “Success is being able to accomplish your goals. Being able to help others
accomplish theirs. … Taking care of the things that I’m responsible for and the
people that I’m responsible for.”

93

Theme 1: Success Despite
Throughout each interview, I often heard participants directly or indirectly share the
belief that they reached success despite their experiences in public school. This was not true
across all participants, but it was true for seven of them. All eight participants overcame
something in public school to reach academic, personal, and professional success. This section
highlights six subthemes related to collective values and experiences held by the participants
regarding their time in the K–12 public education system.
Perseverance
Perseverance is a value held by all eight participants in this study. Each one of them
persevered through a number of trials to reach their current level of success. Some of them were
taught perseverance by parents, and some of them were forced to learn it by experience. While
perseverance can be a positive trait, it should be acknowledged that many Black people are
required to persevere through situations that nonBlack people do not ever have to experience, or
at least do not have to experience in the same way. These ideas are explored in critical race
theory through the concepts of White supremacy and the permanence of racism (Parker & Lynn,
2002), as well as the scope and prevalence of antiBlackness (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001, 2017).
In this case, for Kofi, being in an educational system that did not challenge or invest in him as a
Black child forced him to become someone who perseveres despite all odds. He says his
experience in the public education system and being underestimated academically makes him
work harder as a professional and as a doctoral student. Zeke had a similar experience and said,
after leaving the K–12 system, he often had to figure things out on his own and just never give
up. Destiny describes it as having to “get up and go get it” and “be relentless.” Similarly, Nevaeh
says, “I’ll do whatever it takes … if I don’t have it, I’m gonna get it.” Other participants
94

highlighted examples of learning to navigate new spaces alone, staying in spaces they did not
always feel accommodated them, and restlessly pursuing success.
Lack of Support
Several participants recalled the lack of support they experienced in the classroom and
within the school system as if it had happened just recently. Nevaeh stated, “I did not feel
supported. I felt like, you know, just like a number, just like a checkbox.” Kofi relayed a similar
sentiment saying, “I don’t remember a time where I felt, um, overly, or overtly … support from
teachers or administration when I was in elementary school.” One reason participants named for
the lack of support was being in oversized classes. Participants described being in classrooms
with 25–30 other children and not feeling like teachers had the bandwidth to provide dedicated
support to students as individuals. Zeke revealed that although he did not always feel supported
by his teachers, as long as he “got an A,” he did not care. Then, when he went to college, he
realized he had been missing foundational pieces of education. Malik divulged how the impact of
not having someone tell his father he was good enough to go to college impacted two generations
of his family. Faith told me about a pivotal moment in her life at the age of 16, when she faced
profound hardships at home and mustered the courage to seek an extension from her chemistry
teacher. At the time, her mother was being institutionalized for mental illness, her biological
father was not present, and her stepfather was getting a divorce from her mother. The teacher
responded with, “life is not gonna stop just because Faith is not having a good day.” Faith said
the lesson she learned, that “these people don’t give a fuck about me … don’t even bother telling
them what’s going on” led her to eventually drop out from college instead of asking for help.
95

Lack of Resources
Similar to a lack of support, all participants resonated with this theme. In this context, the
term resources refers to people, money, or items. For example, a lack of resources could be a
lack of quality teachers, a lack of textbooks or technology, or a lack of funding. Each participant
in this study experienced a lack of resources at one or more of their schools during their K–12
experience. Faith began in schools she described as “culturally rich” but otherwise poor, and
ended at schools who were monetarily rich but otherwise poor. Because she lived that difference,
Faith was able to clearly differentiate a lack of resources. She said,
There was a difference when I went to White schools in like the programs that they
offered. … Like there was music, there was art … they were standard classes like that I
took every day, instead of art classes that I only had once a week.
Another participant, Grace, remembers having just the basics to be educated, but nothing
additional. Kofi recounted that his public schools did not have computers but when he
transferred to a parochial school, there were computers. He fell in love with computers and
technology and later became an IT manager. Nevaeh explained the teachers she experienced did
not have the resources they needed to teach each student what they needed to learn, especially if
it was different than the student next to them. At some of her schools, there were not enough
textbooks for each child to use their own.
Lack of Career Development/Exposure
Seven of the participants in this study also described a lack of career development and
exposure to opportunities in public education as a barrier they overcame on their journey to reach
success. Destiny grew up in a wealthy area and attended wealthy public schools in elementary
and middle school and attributes her exposure to success as one of the reasons she is successful.
96

However, for the other seven participants, they wish they had been exposed to more careers and
more variety of careers as young students. Kofi described “a lack of exposure to, um, the
possibilities out there” and said a guidance counselor once told him to “go be a factory worker or
a janitor like your dad.” While Grace was appreciative of the exposure to corporate America in
high school, she wished it had come sooner. Of note, the career field Grace was exposed to in
high school was the same career field she has now worked in for more than 2 decades.
Limited Curriculum
In addition to a lack of career development, resources, and support, the participants in
this study also achieved success despite a limited curriculum. For Destiny and Malik, who
attended many years of public school in wealthy, mostly White areas, they did not learn about
Black history, or any history in which White people were unsuccessful. Destiny remembers,
dressing up as pilgrims and learning that Americans liberated Native Americans for the story of
Thanksgiving, never learning about the Holocaust, and never celebrating or discussing Black
History Month. In contrast, she said, “anything dealing with, like, White-centered holidays, was
over the top.” Similarly, Malik recollected learning about Black history and culture for the first
time as a first-year college student. For Nevaeh, who attended mostly Black schools, her problem
was different; the schools she attended did not offer advanced or gifted curriculum until the end
of high school. She remembers being in “mainstream classes” and feeling like she was not able
to learn more, even though it was clear she rapidly absorbed all of the grade-level material. In
both cases, the participants felt they were denied access to a curriculum the average student at a
public school in the United States. should be able to learn from; one that engages students at
multiple levels and includes the history of all Americans.
97

Racism/AntiBlackness
The final prominent barrier participants overcame as Black students is racism and
antiBlackness, an intrinsic quality of the structurally inequitable public education system. The
participants of this study described their encounters with antiBlackness as a regular part of their
experience as students, rather than an unexpected event. Grace was impacted by antiBlackness
and racism almost immediately when she entered the U.S. public education system. As an
immigrant from a poor, Black country in the second grade, the school administration tried to
place Grace immediately in remedial classes rather than evaluating her intelligence. When
evaluated, she was quickly placed in classes for gifted students. Faith, a brilliant but bored child,
was placed in special education classes by her primarily White school administration when she
acted out during class. They assumed she was less intelligent than her peers rather than
discerning her reason (boredom) for misbehaving. When she was transferred to a high-achieving,
mostly White school in a wealthy area, Faith was told by another student that she was “like a
dog” for wearing a name plate necklace her classmate found akin to a collar. As an elementary
student, Destiny was tasked by her teacher to complete an assignment in which, repeatedly, she
was taught that Black was bad and White was good. In middle school, her teacher tore up her
study guide and threw it in the trash because she assumed Destiny was off task in the back of the
room. More overt than the other participants’ experiences, Malik described his experience with
antiBlackness and racism in high school: “a few of the other wrestlers held me down and they
painted gymnastics chalk on my face. And they said, ‘now you’re like us.’” Despite these
traumatizing experiences, and the encounters experienced by other participants, every participant
went on to achieve academic, personal, and professional success.

98

Theme 2: Sense of Belonging
In all eight interviews, participants shared stories related to how they felt when they
perceived they did or did not belong within their school community. This concept is explained in
the literature as a sense of belonging. Booker (2016) suggests that Black students’ interactions
with others in the school environment and their self-perception are greatly influenced by their
sense of belonging or its absence. Sense of belonging refers to a student’s motivation to continue
in a certain situation, or a wish to belong or not belong to a certain group; thus, belonging or not
belonging to the group is equivalent to having a position inside or outside the group (Lewin,
1948, 1951). Similarly, Kuwabara et al. (2002) assert individuals attain connectedness when they
feel integrated into a space and experience social relationships. Participants in this study
highlighted they felt a sense of belonging when they had role models or mentors to learn from,
when they had one or more close relationships with a school staff member, and when they saw
themselves reflected in other students and staff. Participants without those points of connection
imparted a sentiment of feeling like they did not belong.
Role Models and Mentorship
Having a consistent role model or mentor during their K–12 educational experience was a
rarity for the Black adults in this study. In fact, a few participants became role models and
mentors to K–12 students because they wished they had more of that when they were students.
For Kofi, he says, “I wanted to show students that come from my same beginning, you know,
poor background, that you could achieve whatever you want. I wanted to be a role model.” Grace
says she “did not have a lot of Black people that were sort of aspirational for me” and now she is
committed to mentor younger women who look like her. Faith said she pursued a career in
education and earned her doctorate so more narratives like hers could be popularized and
99

students could see themselves differently. For participants who did have a role model or mentor,
they highlighted the difference it made in their lives. Zeke and Jalen were influenced by strong
Black men who they said taught them respect and leadership. Particularly, Zeke remembers
learning “how to temper our aggression” and “having real conversations” about race and racism.
Relationship With Teacher/Counselor/Coach (Investment in Student)
Several participants proclaimed how profoundly their life was impacted when a single
teacher invested in them. Having a close relationship with a teacher, counselor, or coach as a
K–12 student helped the participants of this study feel like they belonged at their school. Nevaeh
narrated her story of being a second grader and having her gift of reading be acknowledged by a
teacher who was a Black woman. “She used to like gift me books from the class library and give
me books from other grade levels. She really just kind of fostered that and continued to push
me.” Nevaeh smiled as she recounted seeing that same teacher years later in the library as an
adult. After that teacher, Nevaeh said she felt like just a number in her school until two White
women, Advanced Placement (AP) literature teachers in 10th, 11th, and 12th grade took interest
in her writing and began encouraging her to write more. Today, Nevaeh is a published author.
Zeke said most of the teachers he had close relationships with were Black men, but he also had a
deep relationship with a teacher who was a White woman and worked with students on
professional development. For years, she would visit him in college and send him money.
Destiny felt particularly supported by her high school principal, who she describes as a White
man who, “doesn’t fit the stereotype though. Like, he was so fly … he had swag.” She
remembers him being from the local area and often spending time walking around with students,
eating lunch with them, and asking what support the students needed. With him at the helm of
her school, Destiny felt seen. She felt like she belonged. For Malik and Jalen, both men recall
100

being the type of students teachers loved having in class. They were often helping teachers and
were privy to conversations and spaces other students were not. In that way, they felt like they
belonged.
Cultural Identity and Reflection of Self in Others
In addition to personal relationships and having a role model or mentor, the participant’s
sense of belonging was also impacted by the presence or absence of reflections of their cultural
identity, including whether or not they saw themselves reflected in teachers and other students.
Students like Faith, Malik, and Destiny, who spent many years at schools surrounded by
nonBlack students and teachers, were impacted significantly. Both Faith and Destiny had
cultivated a robust cultural identity at home, and thus were acutely aware they were different
than their classmates and teachers. As children, both women grew frustrated with incidents of
unconscious bias and microaggressions and engaged in behavior that resulted in disciplinary
action at school. In contrast, Malik had a limited cultural background and was wholly unaware of
his identity as a Black man. He said, “I wouldn’t think about race. I’m the same as [them].” It
was not until the end of high school when he realized he was culturally and racially different
than his peers, and it led to an “identity crisis.” Those experiences are contrasted with those of
Kofi, Zeke, and Nevaeh, who lived in communities and went to schools full of Black children.
None of them describe struggling with their cultural identity. In the middle are Grace and Jalen.
Both Grace and Jalen describe understanding their cultural identity from an early age and also
attending many years of schooling with diverse groups of students. They highlight that because
they did not see themselves reflected at school, they learned to be more of a social chameleon,
able to navigate diverse environments without losing their own identity.

101

Theme 3: Because They Did, I Could (Impact of Parents and Caregivers)
An overwhelmingly common theme from the study was the impact of the involvement of
parents and caregivers in the participants’ lives. Each of the eight participants chronicled a story
or an example of a time when their parents or caregivers supported their educational journey,
advocated for their success, or challenged them to improve. Nevaeh’s single mom transported
her to and from school every day, even if that meant driving her to the bus stop and waiting with
her for the bus. She also moved Nevaeh to different schools more often than typical because she
“wasn’t satisfied with the education I was getting,” but always waited until the end of the
academic year. Kofi’s parents stressed the importance of academic excellence, despite not having
a formal education themselves. Zeke’s parents required additional homework time after school,
were well-known to his teachers, and supplemented his learning at home. Destiny’s parents sent
her to high-performing schools, regularly visited her school, paid for private tutoring multiple
times each week, and were familiar with her teachers. Grace’s aunt contested her school district,
and won, so she could be placed in advanced courses instead of remedial courses. Malik’s
parents instilled a steadfast work ethic in their children and his mom was always present if he
needed help with homework, despite not having a formal education herself. Although Faith
describes her mom as “a casualty in education” who was not taught how to effectively navigate
the educational system for herself or her children, Faith said her mom was, “very present in all of
our educational lives.” Jalen’s single mom was not heavily involved at school, but he recalls her
always holding him to high academic standards and prioritizing his education.
Participants displayed more emotion while sharing stories of their parents than at any
other point in the interviews. Not tangibly through the words that were spoken, but in the
inflection of their voices, the light in their eyes, and the width of their smiles. For many of the
102

participants, it was clear they were proud of the contributions and sacrifices their parents made
for them to succeed. It was also clear they were immensely grateful to have a support system at
home.
Theme 4: The Impact of Socioeconomic Status on Education
While all of the participants in this study are Black Americans, it does not mean their
experiences are monolithic. The impact of socioeconomic status played a significant role in how
they experienced the educational system, both in positive and negative ways. This impact was
present for the participants who grew up in poor neighborhoods, and for those who grew up in
wealthy neighborhoods. It was present for participants who attended poor schools their entire
educational career, and it was present for participants who transitioned from poor to wealthy
schools and from wealthy to poor schools.
Searching for Quality Education
The mean number of schools attended by students from low socioeconomic backgrounds
was higher (m = 4.83, SD = 2.4) than the total number of schools attended by each student from
higher socioeconomic backgrounds (3). The participants attributed attending a high number of
schools to housing insecurity (frequent moves), safety, and/or to low quality education. Nevaeh
stated, “I did transfer schools for various reasons. Moved neighborhoods or, you know, mom
wasn’t satisfied with the education I was getting at one school, so I moved to another,” and Jalen
said, “we moved around a lot … we lived in two sets of apartments.” Faith’s mom took her out
of schools, “whenever there were instances of antiBlackness or non-supportive learning
communities” and would “attempt to find another education system that would actually better
support me.” For Malik, his parents moved from the inner city to a suburban neighborhood so he
103

could attend better quality schools and they could live in a safer neighborhood. In this study,
socioeconomic status demonstrably impacted continuity of education.
Improving Access to Resources
Moving from a school in a low socioeconomic area to a school in a higher socioeconomic
area improved the participant’s access to resources. In this way, it can be considered positive.
However, Destiny, who chose to move from a wealthy school system to an average school
system for high school, clarified that although her wealthier schools had “additional resources,”
they weren’t always “the correct resources.” For example, her elementary and middle schools
had extremely small class sizes, but there was no one who looked like her in the class, including
the teacher. In Malik’s case, when he moved to a wealthier school system, he was afforded the
opportunity to work with a highly qualified speech therapist, effective guidance counselors, and
had greater access to technology. Faith also recalled that moving from her neighborhood school
in a low socioeconomic area to a wealthy school provided her with the opportunity to take music
and arts every day and to be in smaller classes. Similarly, Grace, who was accepted to a wealthy
magnet high school, recalled appreciating a higher quality of education including smaller class
sizes, teachers who cared about her, and a safe environment.
A key resource participants described having access to when they attended schools in
higher socioeconomic areas is, “how the majority moves, thinks, why they move that way, the
superiority that they move with. You understand when you’re in the room how they move, why
they’re thinking that” (Malik). Referring to White people, and wealthy White people in
particular, Malik said learning how to be in community with them and work with them was
invaluable. Jalen agreed, saying, “I’ve had experiences that have exposed me to, um, a lot of
people and a lot of, um, diverse backgrounds. And that’s kind of how … I’ve grown to
104

appreciate, um, people from all walks of life. I would imagine that that’s kind of where that
comes from.”
Theme 5: It Takes a Village
A common refrain in the Black community is ‘it takes a village to raise a child.’ This
phrase is typically thought of as an African proverb, but its origination has never been confirmed
(Goldberg, 2016). The importance of having a “village” was referred to verbatim by two
participants, Zeke and Nevaeh, and alluded to by the remaining six participants. The concluding
theme related to RQ 1 is that being a part of a village during their time as students in K–12 was
instrumental to the participant’s personal, academic, and professional success. In this study, it
was rare that individual households were solely responsible for the success of the participant.
More common was that participants felt like a part of a village; found in extended family, in their
neighborhood or at church, or within their surrounding community. From community members
checking in on participants as children, to aunts and grandparents helping to raise them, to
coaches stepping in to give rides home, the majority of participants felt deeply supported outside
of the public educational system. This village, or outside support system, contributed to their
success in navigating a public education system they often felt did not support them.
Moreover, many participants gained an understanding of the significance of actively
engaging in their village. Zeke’s father taught him to, “give back at a really early age … like
shoveling for anybody who couldn’t get their snow done or distributing flyers for mayoral
candidates.” Malik’s father led by example and cared for two widows financially and socially for
more than 25 years. Malik described what it was like to witness that type of commitment to
service, explaining “so when you watch someone serve others to that magnitude for decades,
105

how do you not develop a sense of accountability and responsibility to others? How do you not
grow up understanding that this world is so much bigger than you?”
Discussion for Research Question 1: Relationship Between Experience in Public Education
and Long-Term Success
Collectively, the five themes in this section provide insights into the participants’
experiences, barriers, and support systems within the K–12 public education system and the
relationship to their personal, academic, and professional success. Theme 1 (success despite)
focuses on the success of participants despite challenges in the K–12 public education system;
Theme 2 (sense of belonging) explores participants’ sense of belonging within their school
community; Theme 3 (because they did, I could) highlights the impact of parents on their
educational journeys; and Theme 4 (the impact of socioeconomic status on education) and
Theme 5 (it takes a village) explore the external factors that directly influenced the participants’
educational experiences. The concepts within this section are directly connected to the literature
surrounding the education debt owed to Black children by the U.S. public education system.
Particularly, the impact of poverty on educational achievement is well documented (NCES,
2022; Reardon, 2011; Sacks, 2016), as is the lack of culturally responsible pedagogy (Baldwin,
1963; Castro, 2010; Ladson-Billings, 1995; Lockhart, 2009; Kondor et al., 2019; Sleeter, 2001)
and the limited access to resources and opportunities (Mpofu et al., 2022; NCES, 2019; NCES,
2022). Participants navigated their cultural identity and self-perception while countering
antiBlackness and racism, displaying resilience and perseverance in the face of challenges.
Socioeconomic status significantly impacted their access to resources and, arguably, educational
continuity, while community support played a crucial role in their overall success.
106

Results for Research Question 2: Visions for a Public Education System Supportive of
Black Children
The second research question in this study serves to set the stage for a revitalization of
the U.S. educational system by asking, “How do Black American adults envision an educational
system that would support young Black children?” Six key themes emerged: meeting the basic
needs of students, reliance on and support from community, refocusing on learning, amplifying
Blackness as a strength, providing students with exposure and opportunities, and revising
educational policies. Some key themes also include pertinent subthemes.
Theme 1: It Starts With the Basics
The fundamental theme of how participants recommended changing the U.S. K–12
educational system is supporting students’ basic needs. In this case, participants specifically
mentioned: providing before-school and after-school care, providing free meals to all students,
making sure each child feels loved and cared for, and reimagining schools as positive, joyful
environments. Nevaeh described how all of those factors correlate with one another quite
eloquently, saying:
Everything we experience is either love or lack of [love], and so, if we are not loving
children in any spaces, then they are receiving that as a lack of [love]. There’s no middle
ground. There’s no, like, neutrality. Either you’re treating them with love —and it’s not
that you have to, like, tell your students, “I love you,” every day, but you treat them with
love by making sure that their basic needs are met. ‘Have you eaten breakfast this
morning?’ ‘Did you get enough rest last night?’ ‘Do you have what you need to, you
know, come here, like, focus on school today?’ —That’s how you love a student. If you’re
not doing those things, then you’re showing them that ‘I do not care or love you’ you
107

know? … If we want them to have any kind of joyful or productive experience, then love
is necessary.
Other participants also highlighted the need for Black students to feel loved as a foundation for
all other pieces. When Zeke described the foundation of what Black children need from the
school system, he said, “care, concern, love, and guidance.” Making sure children feel loved, and
teachers love their jobs are two essential steps in the participants’ recommendations to create a
“positive environment” (Malik) that reinforces and “edifies the children” (Faith).
As Nevaeh mentioned in her description of being loved, part of loving Black children,
and all children, at school is making sure they have eaten and are taken care of. Consequently,
this impacts their capability of focusing during class and becoming successful students. All
participants agreed that meals should be provided for students. Kofi highlighted how many
students deal with food insecurities and said, “they need to be safe, and they need to be fed.”
Destiny shared, “to support Black children, we need to go back to the basics of, like Maslow’s
Hierarchy of needs, and start there … give them their resources, like free lunch, food.” Faith
expressed the need for food that is nutritious and also looks appealing to students. As a part of
providing food, participants felt that care should also be provided. Permitting schools to open 60
minutes prior to the start of the school day and to stay open at the end of the school day, even if
just for “early drop off and late pick up” (Kofi). This would allow for “tutoring after school, after
school programs, athletic programs, and just having role models around” (Kofi) and could
provide “extra care” for families who need it (Nevaeh) in addition to keeping students where
they can learn and be safe (Zeke).
108

Theme 2: When One Succeeds, We All Succeed
Overwhelmingly, participants in this study emphasized the need for the education of
Black children to have a focus on or element of community. Seven of the eight participants
expressed this sentiment directly, and their thoughts are shared in Table 5. Key aspects of this
theme are that an effective school system will be one that puts more effort into connecting with
the community and getting community members involved. Also, teachers and school staff should
be considered a part of the surrounding community, including living within the community and
being racially and ethnically representative of the community. One particular element the
community could have a positive impact on is supporting parents and caregivers. For example,
getting children to and from school when parents are unable, providing resources to the
classrooms, and being utilized as role models and mentors.

109

Table 5
Participant’s Thoughts on Community
Participant Thoughts on community
Grace “I just feel like maybe there needs to be more partnership, perhaps outside
of the actual school system to really kind of enhance or improve the
experience of, of some of these kids.”
Grace “How do we create this environment where we are supporting, and it goes
back to your question about equity, supporting the kids, the families, for
them to, for them to be able to thrive and to be able to, to be successful.
Because it’s, I just feel like it’s this idea of community, right?”
Faith “They need to be celebrated in the community.”
Jalen “Certainly, having a strong support system, both at home, and in school.
Um, and I would throw in a third. A community support system that
supports their learning and their growth … I think when students have
the right support systems all around, they realize that there’s so much
that they can make happen for themselves.”
Nevaeh “I think it looks like a community coming together. So, you know, the
attitude it takes a village to raise children. It looks like not just the
household being responsible for makin’ sure the kid gets to school but
if, you know, if, if it’s safe, if a teacher can pick up the kid if nobody
else can.”
Kofi “Making sure the teachers are more a representation of the community.”
Zeke “Individual public school[s] would be a collective community effort in
which the, um … What’s beneficial for the whole is the way we
operate. The individual is not more powerful than the whole.”
Malik “They need encouragement, and they need it from the community. They
can’t just have it from [parents], you know. They have to, everybody that
touches, them, they just need encouragement, so they grow up believing
that they’re capable. Encouragement in our community, it’s literally like
the lifeblood of who we could become, right?”

110

Theme 3: Refocusing Learning
A brief but notable theme from this study is the need to improve the K–12 education
system by refocusing learning as the objective of Black students being at school. This theme is
particularly relatable to the need to reframe the response to disciplinary infractions. Participants
recollected feelings of attending schools that felt more like prisons than places to learn (Nevaeh,
Faith), and stressed the importance of students learning how to behave in and navigate “the real
world” versus “in an institution” (Nevaeh). Only one participant had substantial experience with
the disciplinary system. Although most participants agreed changes to the disciplinary system
were needed, Zeke expressed the key aspects of this theme.
Zeke shared a story of a classmate who repeatedly got in trouble and was required to sit
in the closet with his back to the class as punishment, instead of learning. He said this happened
repeatedly, and he couldn’t help but draw a connection when the same classmate was later sent
to prison for 20 years for committing a robbery. Zeke said, “I thought back like, wow. Like, what
was his education? He just couldn’t focus, and the teacher would send him back there, give him
chips.” Instead of punitive punishments, Zeke advocates for “view[ing] problems as an
opportunity to teach … every moment is a teachable moment.” Instead of suspensions, and
removing children’s opportunity to learn, Zeke recommends giving students responsibility and
leadership opportunities, having them spend Saturday detention cleaning up the school, and
encouraging them to set a positive example for other students.
Theme 4: Blackness as a Strength
Throughout the interviews with participants, it became evident there is a pressing need to
reframe Blackness as a strength and ensure its continued presence within the K–12 education
system. Zeke consistently discussed how his parents played a vital role in teaching him about his
111

Blackness, including his cultural heritage and African American history, and how this knowledge
had a profound impact on his overall life outlook. Faith revealed the sense of peace she
experienced in “culturally rich” environments when she did not have to explain her identity or
appearance as a Black girl. Alternatively, Nevaeh expressed she could not fathom being in a
nonBlack school environment, given that the majority of her K–12 teachers were Black. In
contrast, Destiny shared that it was not until high school that she began to develop her own
identity, as her formative years were spent in nonBlack environments, and she did not learn
Black history in school. Similarly, Malik disclosed that he experienced an identity crisis towards
the end of high school and spent the initial six months of college delving into the study of his
Blackness.
It is worth noting that Destiny, Malik, Jalen, and Grace, each of whom had positive
experiences in diverse educational environments, emphasized the importance of understanding
their Blackness as a strength and appreciating the diversity of others. They conveyed how
attending schools with wealthy and White students provided them with insights and perspectives
that later contributed to their professional success. Taking these distinctions into account, the
participants collectively suggested that, to improve the U.S. K–12 public educational system,
Black students must have the opportunity to learn about their history and culture within the
school system, with a focus on recognizing and celebrating the strength of Black people and
culture. Several participants also emphasized the need for the inclusion of diverse administration,
teachers, and students in public schools. While they acknowledged the significance of
supplementary knowledge gained at home and in the community, participants strongly believed
that if Black students see themselves in the curriculum and in the classroom, it would have a
profound impact on their development. Importantly, the participants did not advocate for
112

exclusively Black school environments; instead, they advocated for Blackness to be
acknowledged and taught as a strength within all environments.
Theme 5: Exposure and Opportunity
All participants were aligned in the need to increase exposure and opportunities for Black
children as a way to improve the U.S. K–12 educational system. Specifically, Grace detailed that
Black children need access to the resources, exposure, and opportunities afforded to children
from affluent, mostly White neighborhoods. Similarly, Malik said, “do they have everything and
access to everything that the majority does in the suburbs? That’s what it’s gonna take.”
Participants highlighted the need for improved career development and increased exposure to
ideas and technology. The visions shared by participants include providing specialized support to
help Black students develop their skills and knowledge. Destiny emphasized the importance of,
“exposing them really early to careers that will set them up for long-term success. Like
engineering, mathematics, science” as well as “mentorship [and] science fairs.” In participating
in more of these opportunities, especially if they are led by a Black person, students could
become more confident and be able to view their professional opportunities as limitless.
Additionally, participants also highlighted the importance of teachers and school staff to
creatively respond to Black students about their passions and dreams for the future. Teachers
need to spend more time asking students what they want to achieve and less time dictating what
they think they should achieve. For example, Faith shared,
If a child tells you that they wanna be a rapper, not laugh at them. But they actually may
be a dynamic poet. And finding a way to get them to utilize their worth, because if
they’re telling you something, they like to write.
113

As students experience more opportunities and get exposure to a variety of ways to make
their dreams come true, teachers and school staff should be prepared to respond in a way
that edifies the student and their dreams.
Theme 6: Structural Changes
In addition to the changes participants recommended on a school or individual basis, this
theme covers their recommendations for structural changes. Particularly, participants highlighted
the need for smaller class sizes, better quality teachers, better paid teachers, and more equitable
funding. Many participants had experience as students in the K–12 system being enrolled in
classes with 25–30 other students. This was highlighted as an issue because it creates barriers for
children at different academic levels to learn equitably and makes classroom management more
difficult for teachers. Nevaeh recalled being a 1st-year teacher with 30 students at reading levels
that spanned 11 years and feeling helpless to teach material that benefited all of them. Kofi felt
that he would have been better supported academically as a child if there were fewer students in
his classes. In contrast, Destiny reflected on the individual attention she received as a student in
small classes for elementary and middle school.
Furthermore, participants called for better quality and better paid teachers, with an
emphasis on attracting and retaining educators who prioritize student interests and ensuring their
success. Providing equitable funding was highlighted as being essential to hiring better quality
teachers and paying them what they deserve, in addition to providing sufficient resources for all
students. Nevaeh reiterated that schools should provide the tools children need, like paper,
pencils, and Kleenex, instead of asking parents to purchase those items. Related to the need for
better-quality teachers, Nevaeh outlined her experience as a teacher with Teach for America, a
114

program which seeks to “make educational equity a reality” (Teach for America, 2023, para. 1).
She shared:
I also was a school teacher for a short time in [the city], and I went through a program
called Teach For America, which is a popular program where people who are not
classically educated in education, um, go into classrooms in underprivileged schools, and
as much as I loved those kids, I was not prepared. I would not wish that on anybody’s
children. I felt it was very unfair. You know, I—of course going into the program, I’m
like, “Oh, this is great. You know, I’m gonna be able to help,” but then you realize like,
“No, no, no. This is actually doing a disservice to these kids,” and so just to think that
that’s happening all over the country, that we’re sending people who are not prepared, no
matter how much, how good their intentions are, into these classrooms with the kids who
need the most help is, is really disheartening.
Discussion for Research Question 2: Visions for a Public Education System Supportive of
Black Children
The six themes identified as a response to participants’ visions for creating a public
education system that supports Black children well (RQ 2) provided clear, valuable insights into
improving the K–12 system. Theme 1 (it starts with the basics) and Theme 2 (when one
succeeds, we all succeed) share a common emphasis on meeting the fundamental needs of
students and fostering a supportive community. Both themes recognize the importance of
providing before and after school care, free meals, and creating a positive environment. This is
aligned with the literature as well, which states that Black children are five times more likely to
attend a high-poverty school (NCES, 2022) and face an opportunity gap (Mpofu et al., 2022;
NCES, 2022) and would thus benefit from the indicated resources. The themes differ in that
115

Theme 1 (it starts with the basics) focuses more on the individual student needs and ensuring
they feel loved and cared for, while Theme 2 (when one succeeds, we all succeed) expands the
scope to include community involvement and support for parents and caregivers. In contrast,
Theme 3 (refocusing learning) emphasizes the need to shift disciplinary practices and recommit
school to be a learning environment, while Theme 4 (Blackness as a strength) highlights the
importance of cultural identity and representation in the curriculum. Both Theme 3 and Theme 4
are discussed thoroughly in the literature (Anderson, 2018; Baldwin, 1963; Burroughs, 1952;
Kondor et al., 2019; Ladson-Billings, 1995; Powell & Coles, 2021). Lastly, Theme 5 (exposure
and opportunity) underscores the need to provide equal exposure and access to resources,
opportunities, and mentorship for Black students, while Theme 6 (structural changes) advocates
for systemic improvements such as smaller class sizes, better quality teachers, and equitable
funding. Both Theme 5 (exposure and opportunity) and Theme 6 (structural changes) are also
represented extensively in existing literature.
Summary
This chapter provided detailed counterstories of each of the eight research participants.
The counterstories provided rich information on their academic, professional, and personal
backgrounds and their experiences in the U.S. K–12 public education system. Key themes related
to the relationship between their public education and their success (RQ 1) included reaching
success despite their experiences in public education, the importance of feeling a sense of
belonging, the impact of their parents and caregivers on their educational experience, the
vastness of the socioeconomic spectrum and its impact on education, and the value of a
community. Key themes related to their vision for a better public education system (RQ 2)
included improving the fundamental care system, the importance of a community, recentering
116

learning in education, offering more exposure and opportunities, and implementing structural
changes.
117

Chapter Five: Discussion
In Chapter 4, I told the counterstories of the eight phenomenal participants of this study. I
detailed their experiences, beliefs, and recommendations. In this chapter, I will discuss the
findings of the study, particularly as they relate to the existing literature on the topic. The
purpose of this study was to investigate and illustrate Black American adults’ experiences with
the U.S. public K–12 education system. The study purpose was framed by a qualitative
methodology using semistructured interviews and a critical race theory framework to share
participant counterstories.
Additionally, the following two research questions guided this study:
1. How do Black American adults describe their relationship to their K–12 education
today in relation to their personal, academic, and professional success?
2. How do Black American adults envision an educational system that would support
young Black children?
Findings
This study resulted in two notable findings. Pertinent to RQ 1, the study found that Black
American adults overcame their experiences in the K–12 public education system to be
successful. Applicable to RQ 2, the study found that despite a positive or negative experience as
a child within the K–12 public education system in the United States, Black American adults do
not think the current U.S. public education system is effective for Black children. All eight
participants recommended significant changes to the current public education system when
describing an educational system that would support Black children well.
The first research question asked, “How do Black American adults describe their
relationship to their K–12 education today in relation to their personal, academic, and
118

professional success?” In response, the Black American adults in this study overwhelmingly
described their relationship with their K–12 educational experience as something they overcame
to become personally, academically, and professionally successful. Parental involvement was
especially instrumental in overcoming adversity in the K–12 educational system, and students
most often faced barriers related to a lack of resources, exposure, support, and/or sense of
belonging. The participants in this study were aligned in this finding. Of the eight participants,
all eight highlighted parental involvement as having an impact on their success within the K–12
educational system, and all eight highlighted similar barriers.
It is worthy to note, the interview protocol did not specifically ask about parental
involvement. Instead, six of the participants organically contrasted the support from their parents
with the support they received or did not receive within the school system. The two participants
who did not mention parental involvement in that way were Grace and Jalen. Grace only
mentioned the importance of parental involvement, in her case caregiver involvement, when she
shared a story about how her aunt advocated for her to be placed in advanced courses instead of
remedial courses. Jalen mentioned parental involvement when discussing the impact of being
raised by a single mom and supplementing the support she provided with support from Uncles,
teachers, and coaches who were Black men.
Although this is a small sample and cannot be considered generalizable for all Black
students, this finding is an important contribution to the literature. An abundance of prominent
literature surrounding the gap between nonBlack and Black and/or poor Black student’s
educational achievement attributes that gap to family background and cultural differences (Au,
1980; Brice Heath, 1983; Coleman et al., 1966; Hung et al., 2020; Lee, 2004; Steele, 1992,
1999). Notably, a study by Kondor et al. in 2019 displayed the impact of this stereotype, when
119

25 prospective teachers stated they believed parents did not care about Black student’s
experiences and were resistant. Instead, this study found parents of Black students to be deeply
invested in their child’s education, regardless of socioeconomic status, education level, number
of children, and school environment (size, type, grade, location).
The second part of this finding, that barriers related to a lack of resources, exposure,
support, and/or sense of belonging impacted the participants ease with which they reached
success, is consistent with the literature. The opportunity gap (Mpofu et al., 2022; NCES, 2019;
NCES, 2022), or a gap in the distribution of “educational resources and opportunities” based on
racial or ethnic identity (Law Insider, 2022), is well-documented in the literature. This gap
created barriers for the participants but did not lower their educational aspirations, as some
scholars have argued. In fact, in this study, the barriers made participants relentless in the pursuit
of their goals.
The second research question asked, “How do Black American adults envision an
educational system that would support young Black children?” In response, the Black American
adults in this study unanimously agreed:
1. The current system does not support Black children well.
2. Black children need an educational system that is communal, uplifting, and supports
the basic needs of children.
This finding is consistent with the literature. It is well-documented qualitatively and
quantitatively that the U.S. public education system does not effectively support Black children.
Additionally, many Black scholars have advocated for decades to increase the cultural
responsiveness of the educational system (Gay, 2002), create a more positive environment
(Sojoyner, 2013), and acknowledge its community impact (Collins, 2000). In this study,
120

participants argued for more love and joy in the school system alongside the purposeful
involvement of the parents and community and providing basic needs for all students.
Limitations
While I aimed to provide in-depth insights into the experiences and perceptions of the
Black American adult participants of this qualitative study, it is important to acknowledge
several limitations (Creswell & Creswell, 2018) that impacted the generalizability and
dependability of the findings. First, the small sample size and the specific criterion of the
participants limits the transferability of the results to other populations and contexts.
Additionally, all data were self-reported by the participants which introduces the potential for
recall bias or social desirability bias (Althubaiti, 2016). Furthermore, my personal biases could
have impacted how I interpreted, analyzed, and presented the data. At the beginning of this
study, I acknowledged my biases, and, throughout this study, I worked to limit their impact on
my work by engaging in member checking, bracketing, and peer auditing (Creswell & Creswell,
2018; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
Implications for Practice
In the pursuit of improving the educational experiences and outcomes for Black students,
school-based changes and structural reforms play a fundamental role. This section highlights
nine key recommendations for practice. In the realm of school-based changes, the first
recommendation is the prioritization of equity by school administration, emphasizing the role of
the principal as the lead learner (Pascarella & Silva, 2023). Creating a positive and uplifting
school environment that celebrates diversity and affirms students’ identities is essential. Second,
schools must engage support systems, including teachers, the community, and parents and
caregivers to foster a sense of collaboration and trust. Third, to broaden student horizons and
121

increase equity in opportunity, students must be exposed to new and diverse ideas through career
exploration and access to updated technology. In the realm of structural changes, the first
recommendation is to meet the basic needs of students by offering free meals and before- and
after-school care. Recommendations 2–5 include reducing class sizes, diversifying the K–12
workforce, ensuring equitable funding, and removing police from schools. These are crucial
steps toward creating a more equitable, inclusive, and empowering public educational system
that supports Black children. Finally, the concluding recommendation is to fundamentally
change the curriculum to include career development, culturally responsive pedagogy, and more
advanced coursework. These changes can enhance the learning experiences of Black students at
every grade level. By addressing these recommendations, we can begin to create a more
equitable and transformative public educational system for Black students in the United States. A
complete outline of recommendations is included in this section.
School-Based Changes
Recommendation 1: Prioritization of Equity by School Administration
The first school-based recommendation is to create a more uplifting, positive school
environment that celebrates student successes and affirms their identities through a prioritization
of equity by school administration. Examples of how this can be implemented in a K–12 school
include assessing images displayed within the school and making updates to include
contemporary images of the Black community. Particularly, Black women, Black disabled
people, Black people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or nonbinary, queer (LGBTQ),
and Black people in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Examples of
how to celebrate student successes include student coupon programs, student of the month
programs, reward lunches, and monthly assemblies. Further, student success outcomes should be
122

examined through the lens of race and ethnicity, a concept referred to in the literature as
“promote[ing] race-conscious data literacy” by scholars Pascarella and Silva (2023, p. 7). To
complete this process, school leaders first gather pertinent data, then separate the data by student
race and ethnicity, and finally examine the resulting data to reveal racial inequities in their
school. School leaders without a background in data analysis should consult local scholars for
assistance.
Recommendation 2: Engage Student Support Systems
The second school-based recommendation is to engage student support systems. Two key
support systems for students are the community and the school. These two systems should work
together to best support students. One way to engage teachers as a support system is to have
them proactively communicate about students with the students’ new teacher each year. Teachers
should also be engaged in the local community to foster more trust and increased relationship
building with students and families. Finally, schools and communities should work together to
build partnership opportunities such as volunteer reading programs and donations from local
businesses making donations.
The most important support system to engage is the student’s parents and caregivers.
Schools should be cognizant and respectful of parent academic levels, work schedules, and
language needs. Key areas to focus on are offering various times for events (before 8 a.m. and
after 5 p.m., or across multiple shifts); providing regular, informal opportunities for parents and
caregivers to meet with teachers and staff; and communicating clearly, frequently, and easily to
the student’s home.
123

Recommendation 3: Expose Students to New and Diverse Ideas
The third school-based recommendation is to expose students to new and diverse ideas. It
is essential to begin exposure to opportunities, technology, and ideas early in the school
curriculum. Career days should be implemented beginning in kindergarten. If parents are not
able to volunteer, school leaders can engage local graduate students or faculty. All schools
should provide students with access to regularly updated technology products and systems.
Finally, teachers should be trained in how to respond to nontraditional career ideas in a way that
edifies and affirms the student.
Structural Changes
In addition to school-based recommendations, to impact great change, some
recommendations must be implemented on a structural level. This section outlines six
recommendations for the U.S. public K–12 education system. In contrast to the school-based
recommendations, which can be implemented more quickly with less bureaucracy, these
structural changes would require changes to state and federal law.
Recommendation 4: Meet Basic Needs
The fourth recommendation, and first structural recommendation, is to meet the basic
needs of all children. All K–12 public schools should provide free meals to all children at school
without requiring any type of documentation. This should include free breakfast, free lunch, and
an afterschool snack.
Recommendation 5: Smaller Class Sizes
The fifth recommendation, and second structural recommendation, is to implement
smaller class sizes throughout the U.S. public education system. All K–12 public schools should
limit class sizes to a maximum of 25 students, with 20 students as a preferred number. If class
124

sizes larger than 25 students are necessary, a teacher’s assistant should be required to be in the
classroom.
Recommendation 6: Rebuild and Diversify the K–12 Workforce
The sixth recommendation, and third structural recommendation, is to rebuild and
diversify the K–12 workforce. Local school districts should partner with teacher-education and
administrator-education degree programs to provide a fully or partially funded program to
individuals who commit to live and teach in the district for 3–5 years. School leaders can seek
out community partners to fund scholarships as needed. The program should focus on recruiting
and retaining diverse teacher candidates, especially Black teacher candidates.
Recommendation 7: Equitable Funding
The seventh recommendation, and fourth structural recommendation, is to provide
equitable funding to all public schools in the United States. The federal government should
provide 25% of funding for schools in low-income areas, and an equitable amount as the median
local income increases. The state government should provide 60% of funding for schools in low-
income areas, and an equitable amount as the median local income increases. The local
government should provide the remaining amount of funding for all schools. This increase will
help to provide an increase in pay for teachers, update technology, renovate schools and
classrooms, and provide equitable resources for students.
Recommendation 8: Remove Police from Schools
The eighth recommendation, and fifth structural recommendation, is to remove all police
officers from U.S. public schools. This includes school safety officers, school resource officers,
school security officers, and any other school official who carries a weapon and/or whose sole
125

purpose is to criminalize students. To recreate public schools as a safe place of love, joy, and
positivity, all school police officers must be removed from all K–12 schools nationwide.
Recommendation 9: Fundamental Changes to the Curriculum
The final recommendation is to implement fundamental changes to the U.S. K–12 public
school curriculum. While changes to the curriculum can begin at the school-level, they must be
written into law at the federal level. Age-appropriate exposure to a variety of careers and career
development should be mandated beginning in Grades K–5 and continuing through Grades 6–8
and Grades 9–12. At the national level, curriculum framed in culturally responsive pedagogy
should be mandated. This includes teaching all students comprehensive Black history and
historically accurate American history. Additionally, all public schools serving Grades 6–8 and
Grades 9–12 must offer advanced courses. Offering advanced courses at all U.S. K–12 public
schools will improve educational equity for all students, including Black students.
Future Research
This study provided incredible data and succeeded in amplifying Black voices. Also, it is
my expectation that scholars will build on this work by continuing to study the experience of
Black students within the K–12 public education system in the United States using a critical race
theory framework. In future retrospective examinations of the experiences of Black American
adults with public education, researchers could benefit by updating the interview protocol,
altering participant criteria, and considering a mixed methods approach.
First, future researchers should consider including questions in the interview protocol
related to sports, children, parents, and professional careers. Half of the participants in this study
discussed the impact of playing sports in high school related to their experience in public
education and their overall success. In addition, some participants disclosed that their experience
126

in public education impacted where they sent their children to school and even how they raised
their children in general. There seems to be a clear relationship between the participant’s school
environment (urban or suburban; poor, average, or wealthy; nonBlack or Black) and what types
of schools they enrolled their children in, but the relationship needs to be validated through
future research. Additionally, while parental involvement was not included in the initial protocol,
it organically occurred in the data and should be included in future interview protocols. Lastly,
adding questions in the interview protocol asking about the participant’s career could help to
better inform career development programming in schools. Specifically, I recommend focusing
on how they chose their career and if that choice had a direct connection to their experience in
K–12 education.
Second, future research involving Black American adults and the education debt can
include non-doctoral students. While limiting the study to doctoral students did provide a
baseline of academic persistence and success, future studies can be as or more impactful with
fewer criteria. Being a Black American adult and attending public schools in the United States
during the K–12 academic years are sufficient criteria for future studies. If a third criterion is
needed or desired, future researchers could select participants with a set date range of high
school graduation. For example, a study could utilize the following criterion (a) Black American
adult, (b) attended at least 5 years of K–12 education at public schools in the United States, and
(c) graduated from high school between 2000–2020.
Finally, future research on this topic could benefit from utilizing mixed methods, if
desired. With a larger sample, this type of work could have a broader impact on how we educate
Black children in the United States. Many questions could be reframed to have multiple choice
127

or yes/no answers and be included in a survey. Then, qualitative interviews could be used to
deeply explore survey responses as well as any questions that were kept qualitative in nature.
Conclusion
In Chapter 2, I argued, “Black families are invested in education. Black children are not
inferior to nonBlack children. Black children are empathetic and gentle. Black children can
achieve greatness. Blackness is a strength, not a shortcoming” (p. 39). Now, at the conclusion of
this work, I have defended that statement. In listening to the stories told by these brilliant, bold,
successful, and talented Black American adults, I saw resiliency, I saw fortitude, and I saw
kindness. In amplifying their stories, I hope you see the same traits. I hope teachers, principals,
and school administrators take the recommendations from this study and implement changes in
the areas they hold responsibility. I hope Black people are reminded of the greatness within us. I
hope the stories from this study are told instead of the deficit-based stories so prevalent in the
literature surrounding Black achievement. I hope each change makes a ripple in the ocean and,
eventually, we see the tide change.
128

References
Achinstein, B., Ogawa, R. T., & Sexton, D. (2010). Retaining teachers of color: A
pressing problem and a potential strategy for “hard-to-staff” schools. Review of
Educational Research, 80(1), 71–107.
Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia, 1807-1865.
Althubaiti, A. (2016). Information bias in health research: Definition, pitfalls, and adjustment
methods. Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare, 9, 211–217.
https://doi.org/10.2147/JMDH.S104807
America Counts Staff. (2019). Number of people with master’s and doctoral degrees doubles
since 2000. U.S. Census Bureau.
https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2019/02/number-of-people-with-masters-and-phd-
degrees-double-since-2000.html
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). (2014). School to prison pipeline. American Civil
Liberties Union. https://www.aclu.org/issues/juvenile-justice/juvenile-justice-school-
prison-pipeline?redirect=fact-sheet%2Fwhat-school-prison-pipeline
Anderson, J. D. (1988). The education of Blacks in the south. University of North Carolina Press.
Anderson, N. S., & Kharem, H. (2009). Education as freedom: African American Educational
Thought and Activism. Lexington Books.
Anderson, M. B. (2018). A seat at the table: African American youth’s perceptions of K–12
education. The Education Digest, 84, 14–22.
http://libproxy.usc.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/magazines/seat-at-table-
african-american-youths-perceptions/docview/2133791757/se-2
Arnez, N. L. (1987). Implementation of desegregation as a discriminatory process. The
129

Journal of Negro Education, 47(1), 28–45.
Armstrong, R. & Tyson, C. (2022, January 31). Say their name: Early critical race theory
scholars and their place in the debate. Diverse Issues in Higher Education.
https://www.diverseeducation.com/opinion/article/15287996/say-their-name-early-
critical-race-theory-scholars-and-their-place-in-the-debate
Assaf, L. C., Garza, R., & Battle, J. (2010). Multicultural teacher education: Examining the
perceptions, practices, and coherence in one teacher preparation program. Teacher
Education Quarterly, 37, 115–135.
ATLAS.ti Scientific Software Development GmbH [ATLAS.ti, v4.15.2]. (2023).
https://atlasti.com
Au, K. (1980). Participation structures in a reading lesson with Hawaiian children. Anthropology
and Education Quarterly, 11(2), 91–115.
Baldridge, B. J. (2014). Relocating the deficit: Reimagining Black youth in neoliberal times.
American Educational Research Journal, 51, 440–472.
Baldwin, J. (1963). “A talk to teachers.” In The Price of the Ticket: Collected Nonfiction, 1948-
1985. St. Martin’s Press.
Basc, C. E. (2011). Aggression and violence and the achievement gap among urban minority
youth. Journal of School Health, 81, 619–625.
Bell, C. (2020). “Maybe if they let us tell the story I wouldn’t have gotten suspended”:
Understanding Black students’ and parents’ perceptions of school discipline. Children
and Youth Services Review, 110, 1–11.
Bell, D. A. (1980). Brown v. Board of Education and the interest convergence dilemma. Harvard
Law Review, 93, 518.
130

Bell, D.A. (1987). And we are not saved: The elusive quest for racial justice. Basic Books, Inc.
Bell, D. A. (1992). Faces at the bottom of the well: The persistence of racism. Basic Books, Inc.
Bell, D. A. (1995). Who’s afraid of critical race theory? University of Illinois Law Review, 4,
893–910.
bell hooks. (2001). Salvation: Black people and love. HarperCollins.
Bereiter, C., & Engelmann, S. (1966). Teaching disadvantaged children in the preschool.
Prentice-Hall.
Bolima, D. (n.d.). Contexts for understanding: Educational learning theories. Retrieved from
http://staff.washington.edu/saki/strategies/101/new_page_5.htm
Booker, K. C. (2016). Connection and commitment: How sense of belonging and classroom
community influence degree persistence for African American undergraduate women.
International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 28(2), 218–229.
Brice Heath, S. (1983). Ways with words: Language, life and work in communities and
classrooms. Cambridge University Press.
Britannica. (2023). Anna Julia Cooper. Encyclopedia Britannica.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Anna-Julia-Cooper
Britannica. (2022). Carter G. Woodson. Encyclopedia Britannica.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carter-G-Woodson
Brown, A. L. (2011). “Same old stories”: The Black male in social science and educational
literature, 1930s to the present. Teachers College Record, 113, 2047–2079.
Brown v. Board of Education. 347 U.S. 483 (1954).
131

Bryan, N. (2020). Remembering Tamir Rice and other Black boy victims: Imagining Black
playcrit literacies inside and outside urban literacy education. Urban Education, 1–28.
Advance online publication.
Burchinal, M., McCartney, K., Steinberg, L., Crosnoe, R., Friedman, S. L., McLoyd, V., &
Pianta, R. (2011). Examining the Black-White achievement gap among low-income
children using the NICHD study of early childcare and youth development. Child
Development, 82(5), 1404–1420. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01620.x
Burroughs, N. H. (1952). Think on these things. African American Baptists.
Bush, L. & Bush, E. C. (2017). A paradigm shift? Just because the lion is talking doesn’t mean
that he isn’t still telling the hunter’s story: African American male theory and the
problematics of both deficit and nondeficit models. Journal of African American Males in
Education, 9(1), 1–18.
Butler-Barnes, S. T., & Inniss-Thompson, M. N. (2020). “My teacher doesn’t like me”:
Perceptions of teacher discrimination and school disciplinary infractions among African-
American and Caribbean Black adolescent girls. Education Sciences, 10, 1–14.
Carey, R. L. (2019). Imagining the comprehensive mattering of Black boys and young men in
society and schools: Toward a new approach. Harvard Educational Review, 89, 370–396.
Carillo, J. F. (2013). I always knew I was gifted: Latino males and the Mestiz@ Theory of
Intelligences (MTI). Berkeley Review of Education, 4(1), 69–95.
Castro, A. J. (2010). Themes in the research on preservice teachers’ views of cultural diversity:
Implications for researching millennial preservice teachers. Educational Researcher, 39,
198–210. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X10363819
132

CBS News. (2022, December 9). Outrage over elementary students handcuffed in class.
Yahoo.com. https://www.cbsnews.com/video/outrage-over-elementary-students-
handcuffed-in-class/
Charron, K. M. (2012). Freedom’s teacher: The life of Septime Clark. University of North
Carolina Press.
Chatterji, R. (2020, July 8). Fighting systemic racism in K–12 education: Helping allies move
from the keyboard to the schoolboard. Center for American Progress.
Coleman, J., Campbell, E., Hobson, C., McParland, J., Mood, A., Weinfeld, F. D., et al. (1966).
Equality of educational opportunity. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
Collins Dictionary. (2023). NonBlack. In Collins online dictionary.
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/non-black
Collins, P. H. (2000). Black feminist thought. Routledge.
Condron, D. J., Tope, D., Steidl, C. R., & Freeman, K. J. (2013). Racial segregation and the
Black/White achievement gap, 1992 to 2009. Sociological Quarterly, 54(1), 130–157.
Cook, D. A., & Dixson, A. D. (2013). Writing critical race theory and method: A composite
counterstory on the experiences of Black teachers in New Orleans post-Katrina.
International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 26, 1238–1258.
Cooper, A. J. (1892). A voice from the south by a Black woman from the South. The Aldine
Printing House.
Crenshaw, K. W. (1988). Race, reform, and retrenchment: Transformation and legitimation in
anti-discrimination law. Harvard Law Review, 101, 1331–1387.
Crenshaw, K. W. (1995). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence
against women of color. In K. Crenshaw, N. Gotanda, G. Peller, & K. Thomas (Eds.),
133

Critical race theory: The key writings that formed the movement (pp. 357–383). The New
Press.
Crenshaw, K. W. (2002). The first decade: Critical reflections, or “A foot in the closing door.” In
Valdes, F., Culp, J.M., & Harris, A. P. (2002). Crossroads, Directions, and a New
Critical Race Theory. Temple University Press.
Creswell, J., & Creswell, J. D. (2018). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed
method approaches (5th ed.). Sage.
Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2018). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among
five approaches (4th ed.). Sage Publications Inc.
Cross, B. (2003). Learning or unlearning racism: Transferring teacher education curriculum to
classroom practices. Theory Into Practice, 42, 203–209.
Darby, L. (2019, September 23). Florida police officer arrested and handcuffed a 6-year-old
Black girl for a tantrum in class: The elementary school student still has to appear in
court. GQ.com. https://www.gq.com/story/six-year-old-black-girl-arrested-for-a-tantrum
Darling-Hammond, L. (2001). Inequality in teaching and schooling: How opportunity is rationed
to students of color in America. In Smedley, B. D., Stith, A. Y., Colburn, L., et al., The
right thing to do, the smart thing to do: Enhancing diversity in the health professions:
Summary of the symposium on diversity in health professions in honor of Herbert W.
Nickens, M.D. Institute of Medicine. National Academics Press.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK223640/
Data Center. (2022). High school graduation rates by race and ethnicity. The Annie E. Casey
Foundation. https://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/tables/10120-high-school-graduation-
rates-by-race-and-
134

ethnicity#detailed/2/any/false/2048,574,1729,37,871,870,573,869,36,868/4900,6240,482
8,6243,4887,4903,6239/19545
DeCuir, J., & Dixson, A. (2004). “So when it comes out, they aren’t that surprised that is there.”:
Using critical race theory as a tool of analysis of race and racism in education. Education
Researcher, 33, 26–31.
Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J. (2001). Critical race theory: An introduction. (2nd ed.). New York
University Press.
Delgado, R., Stefancic, J. (2017). Critical race theory: An introduction. (3rd ed.). New York
University Press.
deMarrais, K. (2004). Qualitative interview studies: Learning through experience. In K.
deMarrais & S. D. Lapan (Eds.), Foundations for research (pp. 51–68). Erlbaum.
Dexter, L. A. (1970). Elite and specialized interviewing. Northwestern University Press.
Douglas, T. & Nganga, C. (2013). What’s radical love got to do with it: Navigating identity,
pedagogy, and positionality in pre-service education. International Journal of Critical
Pedagogy, 5(1), 58–82.
DuBois, W. E. B. (1998). Black reconstruction in America, 1860-1880. Free Press.
Dumas, M. J., & ross, kihana miraya. (2016). Be real Black for me: Imagining BlackCrit in
education. Urban Education (Beverly Hills, Calif.), 51(4), 415–442.
Duncan, G. (2002). Beyond love: A critical race ethnography of the schooling of adolescent
Black males. Equity & Excellence in Education, 35(2), 131–143.
Duster, T. (2009). The long path to higher education for African Americans. The NEA Higher
Education Journal: Thought and Action, 25, 99–110.
135

EdBuild.org. (2019, February). Nonwhite school districts get $23 Billion less than white districts
despite serving the same number of students. EdBuild.org. https://edbuild.org/content/23-
billion/full-report.pdf
Englander, M. (2012). The interview: Data collection in descriptive phenomenological human
scientific research. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 43, 13–35.
Farinde, A. A. (2014). Factors influencing Black female teachers' job satisfaction and intention
to remain in the K–12 classroom: A mixed methods analysis.
http://libproxy.usc.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/factors-
influencing-black-female-teachers-job/docview/1554719036/se-2
Feagin, J. (2000). Racist America. Routledge.
Fortin, J. (2021). Critical race theory: A brief history. New York Times.
Franklin, V. P. (2002) Introduction: cultural capital and African-American education. The
Journal of African-American History, 87, 175–181.
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Seabury Press.
Fultz, M. (2004). The displacement of Black educators post-Brown: An overview and
analysis. History of Education Quarterly, 44(1), 1–27.
Futrell, M. H. (2004). The impact of the Brown decision on African American educators.
In J. Anderson and D. Byrne (Eds.), The unfinished agenda of Brown v. Board of
Education (pp. 79–96).
Gay, G. (2002). Preparing for culturally responsive teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53,
106–116. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487102053002003
Gershenson, S., Holt, S. B., & Papageorge, N. W. (2015). Who believes in me? The effect of
student-teacher demographic match on teacher expectations. Upjohn Institute Working
136

Paper, 15–231. W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
https://doi.org/10.17848/wp15-231
Gibbs, G. R. (2018). Analyzing qualitative data (Vol. 6). Sage.
Goldberg, J. (2016, July 30). It takes a village to determine the origins of an African proverb.
Goats and Soda: Stories of Life in a Changing World on NPR.
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/07/30/487925796/it-takes-a-village-to-
determine-the-origins-of-an-african-proverb
Gooding-Williams, R. (2017). W.E.B. Du Bois. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/dubois/
Grant, & Osanloo, A. (2014). Understanding, Selecting, and Integrating a Theoretical
Framework in Dissertation Research: Creating the Blueprint for Your “House.”
Administrative Issues Journal: Education, Practice, and Research, 4(2).
Graves, J. (2004). The race myth: Why we pretend race exists in America. Dutton Press.
Gregory, A., Skiba, R. J., and Noguera, P.A. (2010). The achievement gap and the discipline
gap: Two sides of the same coin?. Educational Researcher, 39(1), 59–68.
Griner, A. C., & Stewart, M. L. (2013). Addressing the achievement gap and disproportionality
through the use of culturally responsive teaching practices. Urban Education, 48, 585–
621. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085912456847
Guinier, L. (2004). From racial liberalism to racial literacy: Brown v. Board of Education and the
interest-divergence dilemma. The Journal of American History, 91(1), 92–118.
https://doi.org/10.23 07/3659616
Haley, A. & Malcolm X (1964). The autobiography of Malcolm X. Ballantine Books.
137

Harper, S. R. (2008). Realizing the intended outcomes of Brown: High-achieving African
American Male undergraduates and social capital. American Behavioral Scientist, 51(7),
1030–1053. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764107312004
Harper, S. R. (2009). Niggers no more: A critical race counter narrative on Black male student
achievement at predominantly White colleges and universities. International Journal of
Qualitative Studies in Education, 22, 697–712.
Harper, S. R. (2012). Black male student success in higher education: A report from the National
Black Male College Achievement Study. University of Pennsylvania, Center for the Study
of Race and Equity in Education.
Harper, S. R. (2015). Success in these schools? Visual counternarratives of young men of Color
and urban high schools they attend. Urban Education, 50(2), 139–169. Sage Publication.
Harris, C. I. (1993). Whiteness as property. In K. Crenshaw, N. Gotanda, G. Peller, & K. Thomas
(Eds.), Critical race theory: The key writings that formed the movement (pp. 357–383).
The New Press.
Hess, R., & Shipman, V. (1965). Early development and the socialization of cognitive modes in
children. Child Development, 34, 369–886.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.14678624.1965.tb05345.x
Hung, M., Smith, W.A., Voss, M.W., Franklin, J.D., Gu, Yushan, & Bounsanga, J. (2020).
Exploring student achievement gaps in school districts across the United States.
Education and Urban Society, 52(2), 175–193.
Jackson, I. (2012, December 13). Prison pipeline hits Black students harder, criminalizes school
discipline. Politics365.
138

Jackson, L. P. [1942] 1969. Free Negro labor and property holding in Virginia, 1830–1860.
Atheneum.
Jones, C. P. (2002). Confronting institutionalized racism. Phylon, 50, 7–22.
https://doi.org/10.2307/4149999
Kharem, H. (2000). The African free schools: A Black community’s struggle against cultural
hegemony in New York City, 1820–1850. Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education,
4, 27–36.
Kharem, H. (2006). A curriculum of repression: A pedagogy of racial history in the United
States. Peter Lang.
Kitzmiller, E. M. (2013). “You can’t control me!” Cultivating authority in a struggling urban
high school. Teachers College Record, 115(12), 1–43.
Kondor, C., Owusu-Ansah, A., & Keyne-Michael, L. (2019). Intercultural fortuitous learning:
Preparing prospective teachers to teach culturally diverse populations. Multicultural
Education, 17–26.
Kuwabara, K., Watanabe, T., Ohguro, T., Itoh, Y., & Maeda, Y. (2002). Connectedness oriented
communication: Fostering a sense of connectedness to augment social
relationships. Proceedings 2022 Symposium on Applications and the Internet (SAINT
2002), 186–193. https://doi.org/10.1109/SAINT.2002.994476
Ladson-Billings, G. (1998). Just what is critical race theory and what’s it doing in a nice field
like education? International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Higher Education, 11(1),
7–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/095183998236863
Ladson-Billings, G. (2006). From the achievement gap to the education debt: Understanding
achievement in U.S. schools. Educational Researcher, 35(7), 3–12.
139

Ladson-Billings, G. & Tate, W. F. (1995). Toward a critical race theory of education. Teachers
College Record, 97(1), 47–68.
LaFleur, J. (2020). Centering race in contemporary educational privatization policies: the
genealogy of U.S. “private school choice” and its implications for research. Race,
Ethnicity and Education, 1–21.
Landsman, J. & Lewis, C. (Eds.) (2011). White teachers/diverse classrooms: Creating
inclusive schools, building on students’ diversity and providing true educational equity
(2nd ed.). Stylus.
Law Insider. (2022). Opportunity gap definition. Law Insider.
https://www.lawinsider.com/dictionary/opportunity-gap
Lawrence, C. R. (1995). The id, the ego, and equal protection: Reckoning with unconscious
racism. In K. Crenshaw, N. Gotanda, G. Peller, & K. Thomas (Eds.), Critical race
theory: The key writings that formed the movement (pp. 235–257). The New Press.
Lee, C. D. (2004). African American students and literacy. In D. Alvermann & D. Strickland
(Eds.), Bridging the gap: Improving literacy for pre-adolescent and adolescent learners,
Grades 4–12. Teachers College Press.
Lee, J. (2002). Racial and ethnic achievement gap trends: Reversing the progress toward equity?
Educational Researchers, 31(1), 3–12.
Legislative Petitions of Virginia, 1776–1860.
Levine, M., & Levine, A. G. (2014). Coming from behind: A historical perspective on Black
education and attainment. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 84(5), 447–454.
Lewin, K. (1948). Resolving social conflicts. Harper Brothers.
Lewin, K. (1951). Field theory in social science: Selected theoretical papers. Harper Brothers.
140

Lewis, C, & Toldson, I. A. (Eds.) (2013). Black male teachers: Diversifying the United States’
teacher workforce. Emerald Publishers.
Lewis, S., Simon, C., Uzzell, R., Horwitz, A., & Casserly, M. (2010). A call for change: The
social and educational factors contributing to the outcomes of Black males in urban
schools. The Council of the Great City Schools.
Lockhart, J. (2009). Critical investigations into interns’ urban teaching apprenticeship
experiences (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses
database. (UMI No. 3381285)
Love, B. J. (2004). Brown plus 50 counter-storytelling: A critical race analysis of the
“majoritarian achievement gap” story. Equity & Excellence in Education, 37, 227–246.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10665680490491597
Love, B. L. (2012). Hip hop’s li’l sistsas speak: Negotiating hip hop identities and politics in the
new south. Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers.
Love, B. L. (2019). We want to do more than survive: Abolitionist teaching and the pursuit of
educational freedom. Beacon Press.
Lynn, M. (2006). Race, culture, and the education of African Americans. Education Theory,
56(1). 107–119.
Lynn, M. (2007). Critical race theory, Afrocentricity, and their relationship to critical pedagogy.
In Z. Leonardo (Ed.), Critical pedagogy and race. Blackwell Publishing.
Lynn, M., Jennings, M. E., & Hughes, S. (2013). Critical race pedagogy 2.0: Lessons from
Derrick Bell. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 16(4), 603–628.
Lynn, M., Yosso, T. J., Solórzano, D. G., & Parker, L. (2002). Critical race theory and education:
Qualitative research in the new millennium. Qualitative Inquiry, 8(1), 3–6.
141

Madkins, T. C. (2011). The Black teacher shortage: A literature review of historical and
contemporary trends. Journal of Negro Education, 80(3), 417–427.
Matsuda, M. (1995). Looking to the bottom: Critical legal studies and reparations. In K.
Crenshaw, N. Gotanda, G. Peller, & K. Thomas (Eds.), Critical race theory: The key
writings that formed the movement (pp. 63–79). The New Press.
McIntyre, C. C. (1984). Criminalizing a race: Free Blacks during slavery. Kayoed Publications,
Ltd.
Merriam, S., & Tisdell, E. (2016). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation
(5th ed.). Jossey-Bass.
Michals, D. (2015). Mary McLeod Bethune. National Women’s History Museum.
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mary-mcleod-bethune
Milner, H. R. (2013). Rethinking achievement gap talk in urban education. Urban Education,
48(1), 3–8.
Monroe, C. R. (2005). Why are “Bad Boys” always Black?: Causes of disproportionality in
school discipline and recommendations for change. The Clearing House: A Journal of
Educational Strategies, Issues, and Ideas, 79(1), 45–50.
Morris, J. E. (2004). Can anything good come from Nazareth? Race, class, and African
American schooling and community in the urban South and Midwest. American
Educational Research Journal, 41, 69–112.
Morse, J. M. (2000). Determining sample size. Qualitative Health Research, 10, 3–5.
Mpofu, J. J., Cooper, A. C., Ashley, C., Geda, S., Lee Harding, R., Johns, M. M., Spinks-
Franklin, A., Njai, R., Moyse, D., Underwood, J. M. (2022, April 1). Perceived racism
and demographic, mental health, and behavioral characteristics among high school
142

students during the COVID-19 pandemic – Adolescent behaviors and experiences survey,
United States, January-June 2021. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 71, 22–27.
http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.su7103a4
Muir, M. (2003). Closing the achievement gap. Education Partnerships, Inc.
Murnane, R. & Levy, R. J. (1996). Teaching the new basic skills. The Free Press.
National Center for Education Statistics [NCES]. (2006). Urban Education in America: School
Locale Definitions. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences.
https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/urbaned/definitions.asp
National Center for Education Statistics [NCES]. (2019). Common Core of Data: America’s
Public Schools. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences.
https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/tables/ACGR_RE_and_characteristics_2018-19.asp
National Center for Education Statistics [NCES]. (2020). Racial/ethnic enrollment in public
schools. Condition of Education. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education
Sciences. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cge/racial-ethnic-enrollment
National Center for Education Statistics [NCES]. (2022). Concentration of public school students
eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. Condition of Education. U.S. Department of
Education, Institute of Education Sciences.
https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/clb/free-or-reduced-price-lunch
National Park Service [NPS]. (2021). African Americans and education during reconstruction:
The Tolson’s Chapel Schools. https://www.nps.gov/articles/african-americans-and-
education-during-reconstruction-the-tolson-s-chapel-schools.htm
Noguera, P. A. (2003). Schools, prisons and social implications of punishment. Theory Into
Practice, 42(4), 341–350.
143

Ogbu, J. U. (1994). Racial stratification and education in the United States: Why inequality
persists. Teachers College Record, 96, 264–298.
Parker, L. & Lynn, M. (2002). What’s race got to do with it? Critical race theory’s conflicts with
and connections to qualitative research methodology and epistemology. Qualitative
Inquiry, 8(1), 7–22.
Pascarella, J. & Silva, E. (2023). How can K–12 leaders advance racial equity in the face of book
bans and censorship measure? K–12 Practice Brief, Spring 2023. USC Race & Equity
Center. https://race.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Pascarella-Silva-2023-K-12-
Equity-Leadership-Brief.pdf
Paschall, K. W., Gershoff, E. T., & Kuhfeld, M. (2018). A two decade examination of historical
race/ethnicity disparities in academic achievement by poverty status. Journal of Youth
and Adolescence, 47(6), 1164–1177. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-017-0800-7
Patel, L. (2016). Pedagogies of resistance and survivance: Learning as marronage. Equity &
Excellence in Education, 49(4), 397–401.
Plessy v. Ferguson. 163 U.S. 537, 16 S. Ct. 1138, 41 L. Ed. 256 (1896).
Powell, & Coles, J. A. (2021). “We still here”: Black mothers’ personal narratives of sense
making and resisting antiBlackness and the suspensions of their Black children. Race,
Ethnicity and Education, 24(1), 76–95. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2020.1718076
Reardon, S. F. (2011). The widening academic achievement gap between the rich and the poor:
new evidence and possible explanations. In R. Murnane & G. Duncan (Eds.), Whither
opportunity? Rising inequality and the uncertain life chances of low-income children (pp.
91–116). Sage Foundation.
144

Reardon, S. F. (2016). School segregation and racial academic achievement gaps. RSF: Russell
Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 2(5), 34–57.
https://doi.org/10.7758/rsf.2016.2.5.03
Reardon, S. F., & Portilla, X. A. (2016). Recent trends in income, racial, and ethnic school
readiness gaps at kindergarten entry. AERA Open, 2(3), 1–18.
https://doi.org.libproxy2.usc.edu/2332858416657343
ross, k. m. (2020, June 4). Call it what it is: Anti-Blackness. When Black people are killed by the
police, “racism” isn’t the right word. The New York Times.
Rowley, R. L., & Wright, D. W. (2011). No “White” child left behind: The academic
achievement gap between Black and White students. The Journal of Negro Education,
80(2), 93–107.
Sacks, V. (2016, August 22). The other achievement gap: Poverty and academic success.
ChildTrends.org. https://www.childtrends.org/blog/the-other-achievement-gap-poverty-
and-academic-success
Sáenz, V. B., & Ponjuan, L. (2011). Ensuring the academic success of Latino males in higher
education. Institute for Higher Education Policy.
Saldana, J. (2009). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. Sage.
Selva, J., Sutton, J., & Chavez, N. (2021). A Black girl was arrested at school in Hawaii over a
drawing that upset a parent. CNN.com. https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/20/us/hawaii-
black-girl-arrested-drawing-aclu/index.html
Skiba, R. J., Michael, R. S., Nardo, A. C., & Peterson, R. L. (2002). The color of discipline:
Sources of racial and gender disproportionality in school punishment. The Urban Review,
34(4), 317–342.
145

Sleeter, C. E. (2001). Preparing teachers for culturally diverse schools research and the
overwhelming presence of Whiteness. Journal of Teacher Education, 52(2), 94–106.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487101052002002
Sojoyner, D. M. (2013). Black radical make for bad citizens: Undoing the myth of the school to
prison pipeline. Berkeley Review of Education, 4(2), 241–263.
Solender, M. J. (2021, March 30). Inside the Rosenwald schools: Photographer Andrew Feiler
documented how the educational institutions shaped a generation of Black leaders.
Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-rosenwald-
schools-shaped-legacy-generation-black-leaders-180977340/
Solórzano, D. G., & Yosso, T. J. (2002). Critical race methodology: Counter-storytelling as an
analytical framework for education research. Qualitative Inquiry, 8(1), 23–44.
Spears, A. K. (1978). Institutionalized racism and the education of Blacks. Anthropology &
Education Quarterly, 9, 127–136.
Spring, J. (2016). Deculturalization and the struggle for equality: A brief history of the education
of dominated cultures in the United States. The McGraw-Hill Companies.
Steele, C. M. (1992, April). Race and schooling of Black Americans. The Atlantic Monthly,
269(4), 67–78.
Steele, C. M. (1999, August). Thin ice: “Stereotype threat” and Black college students. Atlantic
Monthly, 284, 44–47, 50–54.
Stefkovich, J.A., & Leas, T. (1994). A legal history of desegregation in higher education. The
Journal of Negro Education, 63(3), 406–420.
Strauss, A. L., & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research, grounded theory procedures
and techniques. Sage.
146

Strauss, A. L., & Corbin, J. (1997). Grounded theory in practice. Sage.
Teach for America. (2023). Our Work. Teach for America.
https://www.teachforamerica.org/what-we-do/our-work
Tillman, L. C. (2004). (Un)intended consequences? The impact of Brown v. Board of Education
decision on the employment status of Black educators. Education and Urban Society,
36(3), 280–303.
Toldson, I., & Lewis, C. D. (2012). Challenge the status quo: Academic success among school-
age African-American males. Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc.
United Negro College Fund. (2022). K–12 disparity facts and statistics.
https://uncf.org/pages/K–12-disparity-facts-and-stats
U.S. Department of Education. (2014, July). Civil rights data collection: Data snapshot: Teacher
equity. Office for Civil Rights. https://cdn.uncf.org/wp-content/uploads/PDFs/CRDC-
Teacher-Equity-Snapshot.pdf?_ga=2.199128175.1154023712.1670816862-
1028646779.1670816862
U.S. Department of Education. (2016, July). The state of racial diversity in the educator
workforce. Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, Policy and Program
Studies Service. https://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/highered/racial-diversity/state-racial-
diversity-workforce.pdf
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. (2023). About Dollar Homes.
https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/housing/sfh/reo/goodn/dhmabout#:~:text=Dollar%
20Homes%20are%20single%2Dfamily,the%20homes%20for%20six%20months.
147

U.S. Government Accountability Office. (2018). K–12 education: Discipline disparities for
Black students, boys, and students with disabilities. U.S. Government Accountability
Office. https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-18-258
Villaverde, L. (2008). Feminist theories and education primer. Peter Lang.
Villegas, A. M., & Lucas, T. (2002). Preparing culturally responsive teachers: Rethinking the
curriculum. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(1), 20–32.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487102053001003
Villegas, A. M., Strom, K., & Lucas, T. (2012). Closing the racial/ethnic gap between students of
color and their teachers: An exclusive goal. Equity & Excellence in Education, 45(2),
283–301.
Wald, J., & Losen, D. J. (2003). Defining and redefining the school-to-prison pipeline. New
Directions for Youth Development, 99, 9–15. https://doi.org/10.1002/yd.51
Washington, J. R. (1981). The religion of antiBlackness. Theology Today (Ephrata, Pa.), 38(2),
146–151. https://doi.org/10.1177/004057368103800203
Weinstein, R. S., Gregory, A., & Strambler, M. J. (2004). Intractable self-fulfilling prophecies
fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education. American Psychologist, 59(6), 511–520.
https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.59.6.511
West, C. (1999). “Race and modernity.” In The Cornel West Reader, 70-71.
Williams, K. L., Coles, J. A., & Reynolds, P. (2020). (Re)Creating the script: A framework of
agency, accountability, and resisting deficit depictions of Black students in P-20
education. The Journal of Negro Education, 89(3), 249–266, 381–382.
http://libproxy.usc.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/re-
creating-script-framework-agency/docview/2477284787/se-2
148

Woodson, A. N. (2020). Don’t let me be misunderstood: Psychological safety, Black girls’
speech, and Black feminist perspectives on directness. Journal of Educational
Psychology, 112, 567–578.
Woodson, C. G. (1933). The mis-education of the Negro. The Associate Publishers, Inc.
Wright, Z. (2019, June 19). There’s a difference between a ‘good’ school and choosing
Whiteness and wealth. Ed Post.
Wyner, J. S., Bridgeland, J. M., & Diiulio, J. J. (2009). Achievement trap: How America is
failing millions of high-achieving students from lower-income families. Jack Kent Cooke
Foundation, 1–66.
Yosso, T. J., Parker, L., Solórzano, D. G., & Lynn, M. (2004). From Jim Crow to affirmative
action and back again: A critical race discussion of racialized rationales and access to
higher education. Review of Research in Education, 28, 1–25.
Zhao, Y. (2016). From deficiency to strength: Shifting the mindset about education inequality.
Journal of Social issues, 72(4), 720–739. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12191
Ziegler, A., Kuo, C.-C., Eu, S.-P., Gläser-Zikuda, M., Nuñez, M., Yu, H.-P., & Harder, B.
(2021). Equity gaps in education: Nine points toward more transparency. Education
Sciences, 11, 711. https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/11/11/711

149

Appendix A: Recruitment Letter
Dear [Participant Name],
You are invited to participate in a study for my dissertation. I am conducting research on
equity for Black children in the U.S. K–12 public education system. I am inviting you to
participate in this interview because I understand that you meet the criteria (doctoral student;
identify as “Black American;” attended a public school in the United States for at least 3 years
during your K–12 educational experience).
Participation is strictly voluntary, and you may refuse to participate at any time. There is
no compensation for participating nor is there any known risk. Additionally, there is no cost to
you for participating in this study. To ensure all information will remain confidential, your name
will be replaced with a pseudonym. I will notify you of your pseudonym at the beginning of the
interview process. In this process, I am approaching our interview as a researcher, and consider
you a co-creator of the data alongside me. I am here to learn from you and will not judge any
experiences you share with me. I may use quotes from your interview to help amplify your
experience, but they will not be attributed to your name or identity in any way.
My expectation is the interview will take approximately 60–90 minutes to complete. I
will conduct all interviews via video conferencing technology, specifically, Zoom. I will use a
third-party transcription service, Otter.ai, to transcribe the recordings from our interviews. The
information you share with me during the interview will provide useful information regarding
Black adults’ perceptions of their experiences in the K–12 system, and ideas for change. If you
would like a summary copy of this study, please let me know at any point during the interview
process and I will ensure you receive a copy at the completion of my study. The data obtained
from our interviews will be destroyed after the study is complete.
150

If you are ready to move forward as a participant in this study, please reply to me at
texlucas@usc.edu. If at any point you are unsatisfied with how I am conducting this study, I
encourage you to please contact Dr. Briana Hinga, University of Southern California Professor
and Dissertation Committee Chair, at hinga@usc.edu.

My Best,
Theresa Lucas - Doctoral Candidate
151

Appendix B: Interview Protocol
Name: _____________________
Gender: ____________________
Age: _______________________
Interviewer: ________________
Date: ______________________
Time: ______________________
Introduction to Interview
Hi there!
Thank you so much for joining me today and helping to further the research on
improving the educational system for Black children. I’m glad you’re here. Before we get
started, I want to take a brief moment and remind you of some of the details related to this
interview. First, as you know, my name is Theresa Lucas, and I am a doctoral student at the
University of Southern California within the Rossier School of Education. This research is being
conducted as a part of my preparation for dissertation research. The purpose of my study is to
learn from Black adult Americans regarding your perceptions of your experience as a child
within the U.S. K–12 public education system, and to learn how we can change the system to
eliminate the education debt. Do you have any questions?
Great! Do you understand participation is voluntary, you will not be compensated, and
that you can refuse to participate at any time? Wonderful. Are you okay with me recording the
interview? Great, thank you! I will share the transcript with you afterward to ensure you feel I’ve
captured everything fully, and we can schedule another interview after that if there is more you’d
like to share. Wonderful. Do you have any questions before we get started?
152

Setting the Stage of Interview
I’d like to get started by learning some basic information about the schools you attended.
1. How many years did you attend public schools in the United States (Background, RQ
1)? Probe: What years?
2. How many public schools did you attend (Background, RQ 1)? Probe: Did you change
in sequence, or more often than that (e.g., elementary to middle to high school, or
during elementary/middle/high school)?
3. Would you describe the schools as wealthy, average, or poor (Background, RQ 1)?
Probe: Tell me more.
4. How far was your school from your home (Background, RQ 1)? Probe: How did you
get there? In what town/city did you go to school?
Heart of the Interview
Thanks for sharing those details with me. The next section of questions is all about your
personal experience within and since being a Black child in a public K–12 school.
5. Did you feel you were supported as a child within the K–12 system (RQ 1)? Probe:
Give me an example of a time you did. Give me an example of a time you didn’t.
6. Did you have what you needed to be successful as a child within the K–12 system
(RQ 1)? Probe: Give me an example of a time you did. Give me an example of a time
you didn’t.
7. What do you believe is the common definition of success (RQ 1)? Probe: Why do you
believe that? When did that belief begin? Are you successful, by that definition?
8. How do you personally define success (RQ 1)? Probe: When did you form that
definition? Has it changed? Are you successful, by that definition?
153

9. How did your experiences in public school shape your life in relation to your
personal, academic, and professional success (RQ 1)? Probe: Personal? Academic?
Professional? Give me an example.
10. How do you define equity (RQ 2)? Probe: When did you create that definition? Has it
changed?
11. How does your definition of equity relate to your experience within the K–12
educational system (RQ 1)? Probe: Specific moment, memory, or year connected to
it?
12. How many Black teachers or principals did you have as a student within the K–12
educational system (RQ 1)? Probe: What grades? Teacher or principal, or both?
13. How many teachers or principals did you have within the K–12 educational system
that reflected you (RQ 1)? Probe: Tell me more.
14. How did the race/ethnicity of your teachers make an impact on your experience
within the K–12 educational system (RQ 1)? Give me an example.
15. How did the gender of your teachers impact your experience within the K–12
educational system? Give me an example.
16. What was the predominant racial or ethnic group of the students in your K–12
experience (RQ 1)? Probe: Did it change from elementary to middle to high school?
What was the predominant racial or ethnic group of the students you spent the most
time with during your K–12 experience?
17. As a child, what was your perception of the disciplinary system within the K–12
educational system as a child (RQ 1)? Probe: What is it now? Were you ever the
subject of disciplinary action? Give me an example?
154

Heart of the Interview, Part 2
Wow. Thanks for sharing those experiences with me. Before we dive into the last couple
of questions and explore how you think the education system can change, do you need to take a
break?
18. Describe the K–12 educational system as you experienced it in one word (RQ 2).
Probe: Describe the K–12 educational system as it is today in one word. Describe the
K–12 educational system as you think it could be or want it to be in one word.
19. What do you think Black children need to be successful (RQ 2)? Probe: Is it the same
or different for children from other racial/ethnic backgrounds?
20. What does it mean to support Black children well (RQ 2)? Probe: Do you think the
United States public school system supports Black children well?
21. If you could go back and create a public school system that supported you well as a
Black child, what would it look like (RQ 2)? Probe: Tell me more.
Conclusion to the Interview
That’s all the questions I have for you. Thank you so much for spending this time with
me. Do you have anything else you’d like to share? If you think of something you’d like to share
later on, feel free to email me at texlucas@usc.edu. I’ll drop my email address in the chat right
now, too. I will share the transcript with you via email when I finish transcribing it, so you can
let me know if you think I’ve captured everything fully. Are you open to a second interview if
either of us thinks it would be helpful? Wonderful. Thank you again! Have a great day/night!

Abstract (if available)

Abstract This study sought to investigate and illustrate Black American adults’ experiences with the U.S. K–12 public education system. This was done by having Black American adults reflect on their experiences as children within the public K–12 education system in the United States in addition to their present understanding of the education system. The study was framed by critical race theory as outlined by Delgado and Stefancic (2001, 2017) and focused on the tenets of counterstorytelling (Bell, 1987; Matsuda, 1995), amplifying the voices of Black people (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001, 2017) and the permanence of racism (Parker & Lynn, 2002). The methodology was a qualitative design that included eight virtual semistructured interviews as counterstories. The study found, despite a positive or negative experience as a child within the K–12 public education system, Black Americans do not think the current U.S. public education system supports Black children well. Instead, they suggest a communal, uplifting system that supports children’s basic needs. The study findings also show Black American adults view the K–12 educational system as something they had to overcome to reach personal, academic, and professional success. This study provides data that can be used by Black individuals and families, teachers of Black students, administrators of public schools, and education policymakers, to inform decisions and make changes for years to come. Based on the findings and conceptual framework, this dissertation offers nine recommendations for practice. Limitations of the study and recommendations for future research provide guidance for forthcoming studies to examine how to eliminate the education debt owed by the United States to Black children.

Linked assets

University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Conceptually similar

PDF

School-to-prison pipeline: an all-out assault on Black males in U.S. K-12 public schools

PDF

Authors of our story: Black female students' experience during their first year at a predominantly White institution through a syncretic lens of critical race feminism and Afro-pessimism

PDF

Addressing the education debt: how community college educators utilize culturally relevant pedagogy to support Black and Latinx student success

PDF

Is healthcare for all? A qualitative questionnaire study of systemic racism in healthcare and the perception among stakeholders of U.S. healthcare corporations: an exploration of moral disengagement..

PDF

A path to K-12 educational equity: the practice of adaptive leadership, culture, and mindset

PDF

Out of the darkness into the marvelous light: anti-Black racism awareness in teacher education

PDF

Self-evident truth that all men are not perceived equally: examining perspectives of African American male college graduates who have been criminalized

PDF

Emancipating curriculum: practices for equity in the U.S. history classroom

PDF

A qualitative examination of postsecondary education as a remedy to recidivism among formerly incarcerated African-American men

PDF

The consequences of stereotype threat on Black and Latinx students in science and engineering

PDF

At the table, on the menu, and under the bus: are Black local health department employees psychologically safe?

PDF

College-educated older adults and information and communications technology

PDF

African American males’ anti-deficit achievement narratives of their college preparation experiences navigating through Los Angeles County K-12 public education system into college

PDF

Toxic leadership and U.S. Army special forces: a qualitative, phenomenological Study

PDF

An intersectional examination of inequity in Black Bahamian men’s employment experience: a critical theory and social cognitive perspective

PDF

The perceived impact of racial microaggressions on the well-being of African American female workers in nonprofit organizations

PDF

Exploring the satisfaction, experiences, institutional support of student veterans in transition to higher education: a case study

PDF

Perceptions of U.S. Army first-line supervisors on first-term soldier attrition

PDF

An examination of the impact of diversity initiatives and their supporting roles on organizational culture: an experiential study from the perspective of diversity personnel

PDF

Environmental influences on the diversity of professional sports executive leadership

Asset Metadata

Creator Exum Lucas, Theresa Nicole (author)

Core Title Black and [mis]educated: the Black American adult’s perspective of the U.S. K–12 public school system

School Rossier School of Education

Degree Doctor of Education

Degree Program Organizational Change and Leadership (On Line)

Degree Conferral Date 2023-08

Publication Date 08/14/2023

Defense Date 07/12/2023

Publisher University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag antiblackness,critical race theory,Education,education debt,equity,Learning and Instruction,OAI-PMH Harvest

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Hinga, Briana (committee chair), Green, Alan (committee member), Martinez Kellar, Frances (committee member)

Creator Email texlucas@usc.edu,tnexumlucas@gmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-oUC113298168

Unique identifier UC113298168

Identifier etd-ExumLucasT-12253.pdf (filename)

Document Type Dissertation

Rights Exum Lucas, Theresa Nicole

Internet Media Type application/pdf

Type texts

Source 20230816-usctheses-batch-1085 (batch), University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the author, as the original true and official version of the work, but does not grant the reader permission to use the work if the desired use is covered by copyright. It is the author, as rights holder, who must provide use permission if such use is covered by copyright. The original signature page accompanying the original submission of the work to the USC Libraries is retained by the USC Libraries and a copy of it may be obtained by authorized requesters contacting the repository e-mail address given.

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA

Repository Email cisadmin@lib.usc.edu