Karolyn Tyson’s Integration Interrupted explores, among other important issues, why some black students associate whiteness with academic success and why “acting white” in academic settings has been an ongoing issue. Starting with the exploration of the Brown v. Board of Education case, Tyson articulates that even more than five decades after the decision, black students and white students throughout the United States still experience separate and unequal schooling. Tyson insinuates that certain attitudes towards schooling (positive or not) are developed through specific life experiences. Linking achievement with whiteness is not the only aspect that Tyson explored, but also how institutional practices such as tracking, or other forms tracing can shape the Blacks or other students schooling experiences. There were several arguments that were made by Tyson, but the more prominent challenges included the obliviousness black students experienced between race and academic achievement. She also articulates that if they do point to this view, then “it is something that is learned in school” (p. 4). Though students are in a post-Brown era, Tyson explores how and why segregation remains in high school classrooms despite allowing students to be able to select their own program of study. Preliminary findings have shown that the schools’ early sorting steered students to a particular area of study, which, consequently influenced their network of friends and colleagues. Tyson concludes by articulating that our current academic system is failing students and that schools need to rid themselves of rules and “practices that mark and visibly separate students in the curriculum” (p. 173).
There were many strengths and weaknesses throughout Integration Interrupted, however, Tyson did a great job utilizing qualitative analyses that explored the effects of racial segregation and tracking of the population of interest. When it came to finding patterns of racialized tracking in racially diverse and predominantly white high schools, there were many detailed figures that painted a vivid picture of the student representation when it came to the AP and gifted classes. It seemed as though a lot of work spent collecting data, reflected her statement that Black students were “significantly underrepresented in most of the advanced classes” (p. 66). Tyson accompanied her own data collection and compared them to national survey data, which I felt was particularly insightful to bring in. In this section, she describes two different types of students who are able to navigate through these environments: the vulnerable and the secure adolescents. Both of these terms were useful when explaining peer pressure and the high-achieving black adolescents. Those who were vulnerable faced more identity issues whereas secure adolescents were more concerned with personal goals and expectations. The strength in her assertion came as Tyson interviewed and followed six children who have been described, from a variety of tables and charts, to come from a diverse family education and occupation background. The personal narratives of each child was documented in a way that was clear and succinct to the authors claim that investigated adolescents’ vulnerability to the influence of peer cultures and achievement norms.
Another strength within Integration Interrupted was how Tyson was able to give a very detailed account of the many experiences of black student populations that were attending the various publics schools. Using years of research data, Tyson synthesized that Black students in schools with a large enrollment of other Black students did not experience the concept of “acting white”, whereas, those who were enrolled in predominately white or mixed populations did. In short, this slue depended on the ethnic composition of institution. Certain accounts of students like Sandra, reinforced this by stating that prior to taking upper level courses she had many black friends, but after enrolling in these courses those friends started to dwindle. When confronted about this, she was told by her black friends that she “turned white on [them]” (p. 5). There is one critique about this however. Many of the schools that Tyson investigated had a predominantly white or predominantly black population schools. I felt that, apart from Sandra who had a 49% white and 44% black student population, there was not much of a middle ground regarding the relatively equal representation of both races, at the same time, in the schools. Likewise, there was no insight into how integrated classrooms in larger population schools were affected by “acting white” or with other concepts. One way to address this weakness is to include interviews or other means of representations of black and white students who weren’t necessarily considered “high achieving.” Most of this book focused on high achieving students but not necessarily those considered to low achievers. Therefore, it may be worthwhile to gain insight or ideas as to why the black population perceive that their high achieving counterparts were “acting white” or had these particular character traits.
Even though Tyson has a very detailed narrative that highlights the struggles of black students, their reconciliation of their identity and their individual achievements, there are a few areas that should have been given more attention. Though this literature has clearly indicated that most of the students that were being interviewed were being segregated by race from early education, there was no particular examination of other seemingly relevant factors such as gender, social classes, or other minority groups. Though there were some graphs that indicated family demographics and some conclusions for particular groups, I felt that this was a subtle weakness that could have been addressed. Tyson did go as far in her conclusions that this was a limitation of her study and that there were topics that couldn’t be addressed at the time. Therefore, It would be interesting if Tyson was able to study gender or social class in relation with different races.
There were several conclusions that Tyson stated, that I felt were very strong claims to make. One of the claims was that our current education system is failing students and that academic institutions should “do away with policies and practices that mark and visibly separate students in the curriculum” (p. 173). Though I do agree with Tysons notion that the current system is not perfect and requires attention to its infrastructure, I don’t necessarily know how successful integration would present itself. Even though she uses tracking as an example that categorizes students by “race, social class, gender, neighborhood”, there are no solutions or examples to help address the integration of students as being successful. The only support she gives to this argument is that “such practices [tracking]…reflect institutional racism and must be addressed” (p. 173). I felt as though more elaboration should have been given to counter this weakness or reflect different possibilities to change it.
Though I do agree that this book was a big undertaking and not every topic could be addressed at length, I felt that there were some topics that could have been given more attention or details. Though students like Kathy Flamingo indicated that how “nerds” conveyed on television were not necessarily how they were portrayed in her school, Tyson did not give much context as to how this compared to the experiences of black students being called this or other words like “geek.” In what contexts were these words being used, was it in connection to their intelligence or the other students that they associated or hung around with? Although, I believe I have my own definition of what this word means, I felt that it was important enough for Tyson to define what certain phrases or words meant in particular contexts. There were other quotes that Tyson brought in from interviews, but did not provide any further explanations to. For instance, a student at Beverly Daniel Tatum’s study stated that it was stuck him as “odd” that he is only black student in his classes despite the demographics showing that 35% of the student population was black. There was not necessarily any further explanation given by Tyson other than these students are left with making sense of “odd” situations for themselves. Therefore, I would have preferred to have an elaborated as to what is particularly “odd” about his situation and what conclusions could have been drawn out. By being “odd” does that mean that his white student counterparts are high achievers or smarter, or rather black students are not good enough? Although, it is evident that there are other statements that could be given more contexts or further explanations, Tyson did a great job overall in bringing in a personal narrative with each student account.
Given these strengths and weaknesses, Integration Interrupted would be most beneficial to school district administrators who are trying to provide as much equal opportunity to all students, regardless of race, SES, or other student representations in their districts. Observing my own district administration led me to believe that they have the most influence to elicit change. For example, with money and resources, administrators could make sure that students are not being pigeon holed by the classes that they forced to take. For those students who would be in vocational classes, there needs to be a system in place to make sure that these programs are not a dumping ground, but a program that provides rigorous coursework to provide the bestmost post-secondary opportunitiesy post high school. Even though teachers are the workhorses of academic environments, it is the administrators who are able to influence policies and see to it that changes are successfully implemented and sustained. Tyson indicated that there are strategies that schools could pursue to dismantle tracking, which I feel, can happen more effectively at the administrative level. Even though I don’t agree with Tyson with regards to eliminating “gifted programs and replacing them with more rigorous core curriculums for all students” (p. 173), such changes can be made and influenced by those who write and oversee curriculums. Given the chance to start at the very top , the administration staff could be the best chance these students may have to being provided with the most equitable opportunity to quality education.