In November 2008, then President-elect Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama decided to send their two girls to Sidwell Friends School, an elite private institution. Unfortunately, this educational opportunity is far beyond the reach of most African American families. Indeed, of the five million students in non-public K–12 schools in the United States, only 5.8 percent are African American, whereas African Americans compose 14.9 percent of the U.S. school-age population.
Closing the K–12 achievement gap is critical to the future welfare of African American individuals, families, and communities—and to the future of our nation as a whole. The black-white academic achievement gap—the significant statistical difference in academic performance between African American students and their white peers—is the single greatest impediment to achieving racial equality and social justice in America.
Black Educational Choice provides parents, citizens, educators, and policymakers the critical knowledge they need to leverage the national trend toward increasing and diversifying K–12 school choice beyond traditional neighborhood public schools. Parents can use this information to optimize the success of their own African American children, while policymakers and educators can apply these insights to help close the black-white academic achievement gap throughout America.
The book collects the interdisciplinary, multi-racial, and multi-ethnic perspectives of education experts to address the questions of millions of anxious African American families: “Would sending our children to a private school or a charter school significantly better their chances of closing the achievement gap and becoming successful individuals? And if so, what kinds of challenges would they likely experience in these alternative educational settings?”
