THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY SCHREYER HONORS COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF AFRICAN AND AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDIES INEQUALITY, EDUCATION, AND RACE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF URBAN EDUCATION IN POST-CIVIL RIGHTS NEW YORK CITY AND POST-APARTHEID CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA KAYLA LARKIN Spring 2012 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for baccalaureate degrees in African and African-American Studies and Global and International Studies with Honors in African and African-American Studies Reviewed and approved* by the following: Dr. Clemente Abrokwaa Senior Lecturer, African Studies Thesis Supervisor Dr. Kevin Thomas Assistant Professor, Sociology and African Studies Honors Advisor *Signatures are on file in the Schreyer Honors College. ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to compare urban education in the United States and South Africa. Specifically, it focuses on urban education in post-Civil Rights New York City, and post-Apartheid Cape Town, South Africa. The objective is to determine any forms of inequality that may still exist in the educational offerings and practices in the two cities, due to a history of social inequality on the basis of race. Following the 1954 United States Supreme Court decision made in the Brown v. Board of Education and the end of Apartheid in 1994 in South Africa, educational inequality should have been deemed legally obsolete. The Brown v. Board of Education decision outlawed segregation in U.S public schools. Similarly, South Africa witnessed political negotiations and multi-racial democratic elections that brought about an end to its Apartheid regime in 1994, thus legally ending the country’s racial separation laws dating back to 1948. Despite these legal victories, inequality remains a problem in the educational systems of both the United States and the Republic of South Africa, particularly in the provision of urban education. These inequalities have created large achievement gaps between white students and non-white students. Several studies on comparative education have been conducted focusing on educational inequality in these two countries. However, very little research exists that focuses specifically on the inequalities found in the education systems of the cities of New York and Cape Town. This study hopes to fill the gap left by previous research studies. Data collection for the study will include library resources such as books, newspaper articles, Online journals, Internet sources, video documentaries, and interviews from teachers and university students in Cape Town and New York City. i TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I: Introduction………………………………………………………………...1 Purpose of the study……………………………………………………………….1 Statement of the problem………………………………………………………….1 Background to the problem………………………………………………………..2 Significance of the study…………………………………………………………..8 Hypothesis…………………………………………………………………………8 Methodology………………………………………………………………………8 Research Questions………………………………………………………………..8 CHAPTER II: Literature Review………………………………………………………...10 Introduction………………………………………………………………………10 Theories on Education and Inequality…………………………………………...10 Theories on Race…………………………………………………………………16 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….22 CHAPTER III: Urban Education in New York City and Cape Town, South Africa………………………………………………..23 Introduction………………………………………………………………………23 History of Educational segregation in New York City, pre-1954……………….24 Brown v. Board of Education (1954)…………………………………………….31 Post-Brown v. Board of Education: Education in New York City………………38 Analysis…………………………………………………………………………..50 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….55 Urban Education in Cape Town, South Africa History of Apartheid: 1948- 1994………………………………………………..56 The Bantu Education Act of 1953 & its Effects on Black Education ……………69 Post-Apartheid Education in South Africa: Cape Town…………………………77 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….90 CHAPTER IV: Summary, Conclusions, Recommendations, and Implications for Further Study……………………………………….......91 Summary…………………………………………………………………………91 Conclusions………………………………………………………………………91 Recommendations………………………………………………………………..93 Implications for Further Study…………………………………………………...94 References………………………………………………………………………..95 ii Chapter I Introduction Purpose of the Study The purpose of the study is to compare urban education in the United States and South Africa. Specifically, it focuses on urban education in post-Civil Rights New York City, and post-Apartheid Cape Town, South Africa. The objective is to determine any forms of inequality that may still exist in the educational offerings and practices in the two cities, due to a history of social inequality on the basis of race. Statement of the Problem Following the 1954 United States Supreme Court decision made in the Brown v. Board of Education and the end of Apartheid in 1994 in South Africa, educational inequality should have been deemed legally obsolete. The Brown v. Board of Education decision outlawed segregation in U.S public schools. Similarly, South Africa witnessed political negotiations and multi-racial democratic elections that brought about an end to its Apartheid regime in 1994, thus legally ending the nation’s racial separation laws dating back to 1948. Despite these legal victories, inequality remains a problem in the educational systems of both the United States and the Republic of South Africa, particularly in the provision of urban education. These inequalities have created large achievement gaps between white students and non-white students. Several studies on comparative education have been conducted focusing on educational inequality in these two countries. However, 1 very little research exists that focuses specifically on the inequalities found in the education systems of the cities of New York and Cape Town. This study hopes to fill the gap left by previous research studies. Background to the Problem Educational inequality involves access to education of a lesser quality. Research shows that this inequality directly correlates with economic, ethnic, and racial inequality. Closely related to this anomaly is what is known as the achievement gap. According to Education Week magazine (2004), the achievement gap “refers to the disparity in academic performance between groups of students. [It] shows up in grades, standardized test scores, course selection, dropout rates, and college completion rates.” These disparities can also be attributed to socioeconomic conditions (Education Week, 2004). Similarly, Heather Bennett (2009) states that these disparities in quality of education also manifest in the form of “overcrowded class sizes, teacher shortages, dilapidated buildings, ineffective curriculums, and lack of funding” (Bennett, 2009: 8). In order to understand the current inequalities found within the education systems of the cities of New York and Cape Town, one must examine the history of social inequality in these cities. Educational Inequality in New York City Fifty years after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, the U.S Supreme Court case that legally ended segregation in American public schools, New York City’s public schools continue to be among the most segregated in the country. The 1954 ruling 2 brought about minimal changes to the City’s educational system, where “the racial composition of schools today almost resembles those in the South of the 1950s” (Robinson, 2004). The city’s façade of integration has its roots in 1900, when the last two schools designated for black students in the State of New York were abolished, seemingly ending educational segregation in the greater New York area. Despite this legal decree, public schools in the City of New York remained overwhelmingly segregated. In 1955, the Public Education Association (PEA) found that approximately ninety-two percent of the City’s public schools were overwhelmingly segregated according to race. These schools contained student populations that were either upwards of eight-five percent white or upwards of eight-five percent black and Hispanic (Ravitch, 2000: 251- 254). This segregation was made possible by a number of factors. Firstly, the School Board of New York implemented deceptive policies in an attempt to circumvent the federal desegregation laws (Ravitch, 2000). White insistence, at the resolve of principals, teachers, parents, and school boards, was central to educational segregation. According to Diane Ravitch: “There were subtle administrative practices which were as racist in their effect as legal segregation: school-zoning laws drawn to keep minority group children out of white schools; districts gerrymandered into odd shapes to preserve the status quo in certain schools; junior high schools kept white by the arrangement of their elementary school feeders” (Ravitch, 2004: 246). Despite these findings, the PEA did little to hold the Board of Education responsible for these circumstances. The makers of educational zoning policies were deemed “color-blind” and practical, credited with creating policies that “minimized the distance from home to school, avoided traffic hazards and topographical features, and kept districts similar in size” (Douglas, 2005: 150- 152). In reality these school zones 3 were drawn along racial lines and exacerbated by residential segregation, an additional reason for the presence of overwhelming educational segregation within the New York City public school system. According to Davison M. Douglas (2005), residential segregation made educational segregation relatively easy for the City of New York.