Race, Class, and Family Intervention: Engaging Parents and Families for Academic Success

(Paperback)

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In recent times, actor, comedian, and educator, Bill Cosby sparked a national debate over the role of poor black families in raising their children. Additionally, scholars including Reginald Clark, Annette Lareau, John Ogbu, Javier Tapia, James Comer, and William A. Sampson have done research that suggests that many poor black and Latino families have child-rearing strategies and home environments that are inconsistent with school achievement. Each of these educators contend that in order to increase student achievement, minority families need to change if their children are to do better in life and in school.

Race, Class, and Family Intervention: Engaging Parents and Families for Academic Success reports on efforts to intervene in the home life of a group of nonwhite parents and grandparents who have low-performing children. Each family was asked to adopt the characteristics of middle-class families. This researchconducted on eight disadvantaged black and Latino familiesdetails the author's analysis of the intervention and a conclusion based on actual results. Race, Class, and Family Intervention will be of interest to anyone striving to improve the education of minority students.

Reviews

Race, Class, and Family Intervention is a gigantic accomplishment, a ground-breaking work. Sampson has been able to go... into the daily lives of students who under perform in school. He has given us important clues about how to improve their school and life chances. While his methodology is sound and sophisticated, his reporting has the most minimal necessary jargon, making it accessible to researcher, practitioner, and policy-maker. This is a timely, highly useful, and important book! -- James P. Comer, MD, MPH, Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry, Yale University and founder, Yale Child Study Center School Development Program
This is an exciting, innovative, and important book. It is important because it tackles head-on the issue of what poor minority families can do to improve the educational performance of their children. It is innovative because it combines the joint methods of experimental intervention and ethnographic observation to see if parents can change their parenting practices in ways that will help their children. And it is exciting because, as all readers will learn, there are things that can be done, though doing them demands much discipline. The book is an easy and important read. -- Thomas Cook, Joan and Serepta Harrison Chair in Ethics and Justice and professor, Northwestern University, Institute for Policy Research
Dr. Sampson's book brings attention to the activities of poor Latino and African American students who lead school achievement and those that do not. It also brings into focus how interventions to change families are misguided in cases of severe poverty. -- Dr. Javier Tapia, School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Dr. Sampson's research is helping practitioners... better understand the basic nature of the cause and effect relationship between parent and child. In turn, with this clear understanding, we are able to refine our programmatic interventions to be more effective in preparing parents to successfully support their children's advancement at school. Dr. Sampson's research is also expanding a growing body of knowledge which is a prerequisite to public policy change. -- Kevin Limbeck, executive director, Family Focus, Inc., Chicago
My staff is currently using Dr. Sampson's research to assist parents in their role as their child's first and most important teacher and have found that those families that internalize and practice the recommendations are demonstrating improvements. Dr. Sampson's research and work with families in partnership with school and school-based programs can ultimately lead to a drastic decrease in the educational gap and to widespread social implications and policies. [This] book will lay a foundation for crucial conversations that need to take place in families, communities, districts, and among policymakers. It will also provide some guidance for social service and educational programs that work with at-risk families and children. -- Angela Johnson, center facilitator, District 65 Family Center, Evanston, IL

Author Bio

William Alfred Sampson is a professor of public policy at DePaul University in Chicago. His research has focused on both social class and the education of poor nonwhite students.