Brown II, M. Christopher (Ed.) (2007). Still Not Equal: Expanding Educational Opportunity in Society. Reviewed by Luke Wood, Arizona State University

Brown II, M. Christopher (Ed.) (2007). Still Not Equal: Expanding Educational Opportunity in Society. NY: Peter Lang. Pp. 465     $37 (papercover)     ISBN 9780820495224                 $120 (hardcover)     ISBN 9780820497273 Reviewed by Luke Wood Arizona State University August 13, 2008 Still Not Equal: Expanding Educational Opportunity in Society examines critical issues facing people of color in education today through the lens of Brown vs. Topeka (1954) and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Christopher Brown II is the Dean of the College of Education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and is the former Executive Director of the Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute at the United Negro College Fund. The content of Still Not Equal is composed of thirty Chapters organized into five topics (hereafter referred to as "sections"): 1) Racial Inequalities; 2) Student Performance and Assessment; 3) Legal Issues and Black Colleges; 4) School and Community; and 5) Global Perspectives. These sections provide the reader with basic information on educational and social issues facing African-Americans (used interchangeably with “Black”) and to a lesser degree Hispanic-Americans and Africans prior to engaging in critical analysis of the issues addressed. Racial Inequalities (Section One) In Chapter One, Christopher Brown II, Tazewell Hurst III, RoSusan Bartee, and Trimika Yates provide a basic analysis of African-American enrollment, persistence, and graduation rates in higher education in general and by gender. In Chapter Two David Boers presents an examination of Black education through an analysis of the divergent educational philosophies of W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington. In Chapter Three Lisa Martinez and Don Woods address African-American and Hispanic education through an analysis of population data, anti-affirmative action rulings, prison data, and disparities in school funding. In Chapter Four Cookie Newsom and Archie Ervin address the role of diversity affairs officers in addressing legal, political and institutional challenges of their academic institutions. In Chapter Five Theodore Thompson III examines issues facing Black males from a historical and current perspective such as: the institution of slavery; black codes; health issues; the black family and incarceration rates. In Chapter Six Sharon Chambers presents findings from a multi-state study on racial profiling which documents that 62% of Black respondents had a friend or relative who had been a victim of racial profiling. In Chapter Seven Renee White-Clark, Grace Lappin and Odesa Weatherford-Jacobs analyze the effect of court rulings on teacher education and pedagogy, noting that educators are dissatisfied with their preparation to work with culturally diverse students. Student Performance and Assessment (Section Two) In Chapter Eight Patricia Larke, Alvin Larke Jr and Evangeline Castle examine the effect of the Brown decision on teacher education, educational sociology and agricultural education. In Chapter Nine Jim Horn examines the perceptions of educators in an urban school with respect to high stakes testing, focusing on the anxiety associated with these tests. In Chapter Ten Rudolph Bustos uses Jigsawing Cooperative-Group technique to analyze second language acquisition of Hispanic students. In Chapter Eleven Angiline Powell and Robert Berry III examine the perceptions of African-American middle school and college students on math achievement. In Chapter Twelve John Hamilton presents a study on the experiences of African-American male college graduates which focuses on the barriers and enabler to their persistence. In Chapter Thirteen Boyce Williams discusses the needs and issues associated with improving collaboration and assessment of teacher preparation. Legal Issues and Black Colleges (Section Three) In Chapter Fourteen Otis Alexander describes the perceptions of the Civil Rights Act by students, professors, unemployed individuals, and ex-offenders. In Chapter Fifteen, Erhabor Ighodaro discusses the “curriculum violence” that has resulted from standardized testing. In Chapter Sixteen Cynthia Northington addresses the use of corporal punishment on students of color, noting that African-Americans are more likely than other students to receive corporal punishment. In Chapter Seventeen Louis Castenell Jr. advocates for collaboration between Historically Black Colleges (HBCU’s) and Predominantly White Institutions (PWI’s) to meet the needs of a global marketplace. In Chapter Eighteen Baruti Katembo discusses how future corporate downsizing may result in a decreasing need for African-American college graduates. Katembo also presents the advantages of having African-Americans in the workforce. School and Community (Section Four) In Chapter Nineteen Floyd Beachum, Festus Obiakor and Carlos McCray analyze Community Uplift Theory in relationship to ethics, in order to change the educational philosophy of educators. In Chapter Twenty Fred Muskal addresses the barriers to mentoring students of color by examining the types and structures of mentoring and the need for mentoring across social-class barriers. In Chapter Twenty-One Brett Blake provides an examination of the perceptions of youth in jail classrooms through discourse literacies based on the lens of critical race theory. In Chapter Twenty-Two Lisa Horton and Rodney Washington examine the history of hip-hop/rap and advocate that teachers use this music to incorporate student’s culture in the educational process. In Chapter Twenty-Three Deneese Jones, Sherry Powers, Antony Norman, William Bintz, Angela Cox, Margaret Davis, Yvonne Greenwalt, Patricia Higgins and Faye Newson explore early literary instruction in elementary schools with a focus on race, class and gender. In Chapter Twenty-Four James Richardson addresses the dehumanization of Black males in society for the purpose of “perpetuating a racist patriarchy” (p. 355). In Chapter Twenty-Five Mavis Mitchell, Malcolm Cort, George Young and Lorna Roberts examine students’ perceptions of mental health services, finding that African-Americans were unlikely to address health issues with health professionals. Global Perspectives (Section Five) In Chapter Twenty-Six James Mbuva examines the concepts of equality and fairness in a global education and marketplace through an analysis of the book The Animal Farm. In Chapter Twenty-Seven Elavie Ndura and Omiunota Ukpokodu address the opportunities of African refugees in the United States in terms of equitable employment, social isolation, family structure, cultural variance, language proficiency, and the memory of the communal living. In Chapter Twenty-Eight Richard Okorodudu examines global citizenship counseling education of specific African nations through eclectic counseling strategies. In Chapter Twenty-Nine I. Onyewadume and H. Dhaliwal address inequities in “recreational sports facilities and coaching for undergraduates in selected South African universities” (p. 427). In Chapter Thirty I. Onyewadume examines the quality and presence of physical education programs for students with and without disabilities. This study found that National policies treated physical education programs equally for disabled and regular students, but that funding disparities were evident. The editors state that Still Not Equal came as a result of “innovative ideas” that emerged from the United Negro College Fund’s (UNCF’s) 2004 Patterson Research Conference titled Still Not Equal: Expanding Opportunities in Global Societies. As a result, this book addresses wide-ranging issues associated with the conference theme. Thus, a reader should expect to find a text that focuses on a multitude of issues facing people of color. The editors’ attempt to address such a broad range of issues has produced a final product that is arguably scattered, lacking concentrated attention to the issues raised. For example, section three titled, “Legal Issues and Black Colleges” combines literature ranging from curriculum violence and standardized testing (in Chapter Fifteen) to issues facing HBCU’s (Chapters Seventeen and Eighteen). Clearly, there is little direct relationship if any between these areas of inquiry. In a similar vein, there is a scattered placement of Chapters that do have a similar focus. For instance, there are three chapters that focus on African-American males (Chapters Five, Twelve, and Twenty-Four); all of these chapters are placed in different sections of the book. This book may have been more appropriately organized into several books in a series on educational equity rather than a single book. There is a lack of focus on the identified purpose of the book which was to analyze the successes and failures of the Brown (1954) decision as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and to examine educational opportunity in society. While the Brown decision is clearly used throughout the text to begin discussions in each Chapter, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is dealt with much more infrequently (except in Chapter Fourteen). This oversight leaves the reader wondering about the true impact of this legislation on education, which might have been addressed by refining the scope of the book to focus on the effects of the Brown ruling rather than the Civil Rights Act as well. Most importantly, the book only addresses issues of Hispanics in a cursory fashion (Chapters Three and Ten). Any true analysis of the Brown decision and the Civil Rights Act must include more critical content on issues facing the largest growing racial/ethnic group in the United States. In consideration of its all encompassing orientation toward Black issues, this book is best suited for a beginning to intermediate text for students, administrators, parents and teachers for Black Studies as well as African-American education. Brown and Bartee and their authors have advanced the discussion of educational and social issues facing African-Americans as a resource for understanding the challenges facing racial/ethnic equity and access in the new millennium. About the Reviewer Luke Wood is a PhD student at Arizona State University in the Division of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies and is the co-coordinator of the Arizona Education Policy Fellowship Program. He is currently researching issues related to teachers and faculty of color. He holds a master’s degree in Higher Education Leadership and a bachelor’s degree in Black History and Politics from California State University, Sacramento.