New Book - Ebonics: The Urban Education Debate

[Wayne Wright]

** New Book Announcement **

 Ebonics: The Urban Education Debate (2nd Ed.)

 Editors:
David Ramirez -->
David Ramirez
Terrence G Wiley -->Terrence G Wiley
Gerda de Klerk -->Gerda de Klerk
Enid Lee -->Enid Lee
Wayne E Wright -->Wayne E Wright

 2005, Multilingual Matters.

 http://www.multilingual-matters.com/multi/display.asp?isb=1853597961&TAG=BJXA2X5X7839X9471FQI4Z&CID=

 Summary:
This collection of papers, comments, and documents traces the distant and recent history of the Ebonics debate in the USA. The book examines how, despite increasing access to public education over the past century, schools continue to impose language standards and expectations on children that methodically privileges some, while disadvantaging others.

 From the Back Cover:

Controversy erupted in the 1996 when the Oakland Unified School District’s Ebonics Resolution proposed an approach to teaching Standard English that recognized the variety of English spoken by African American students. With new demands for accountability driven by the No Child Left Behind policy and its emphasis on high-stakes testing in Standard English, this debate will no doubt rise again. This book seeks to better inform this next episode.

In Part 1, leading scholars place the debate within its historical and contemporary context, provide clear explanations of what Ebonics is and is not, and offer practical approaches schools can and should follow  to address the linguistic needs of African American students. Part 2 provides original documents that accompanied the debate, including the original resolutions, legislation, organization position papers, and commentary/analyses from leading linguists. This book is written for all those whose work impacts the lives of Ebonics speakers in our public schools.



Contents

Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .vii

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix



Part 1: Ebonics in the Urban Education Debate



1 Ebonics: Background to the Current Policy Debate

Terrence G. Wiley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

2 Using the Vernacular to Teach the Standard

John R. Rickford . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

3 Educational Implications of Ebonics

John Baugh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

4 Black Language and the Education of Black Children:

One Mo Once

Geneva Smitherman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

5 Ebonics and Education in the Context of Culture:

Meeting the Language and Cultural Needs of LEP

African American Students

Subira Kifano and Ernie A. Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

6 Language Varieties in the School Curriculum: Where

Do They Belong and How Will They Get There?

Carolyn Temple Adger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96



Part 2: Background to the Ebonics Debate



Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Oakland Unified School District’s Resolution

A Original Oakland Unified School District (OUSD)

Resolution on Ebonics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Policy Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Clarification: Synopsis of the Adopted Policy on

Standard American English Language Development . . . . . . . . . . 120

Legislative Intent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Appendix 1: OUSD Findings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Appendix 2: OUSD Core Curriculum Standards at

Benchmark Grade Levels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Appendix 3: Overview of OUSD Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . 126

Amended Resolution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Appendix 4: Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Examples Of Legislative Reaction

B Congressional Response, 105th Congress. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

State Reaction: Virginia General Assembly 1997 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Proposed California Legislation: S.B. 205 ‘‘Equality in

English Instruction Act’’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

John Rickford’s response, ‘‘S.B. 205 _/ Well Intentioned,

but Uniformed’’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Legal Background

C Martin Luther King Junior School v. Ann Arbor

School District Board. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Linguists’ Reactions

D A Linguist looks at the Ebonics Debate

Charles Fillmore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Ebonics and Linguistic Science: Clarifying the Issues

Walter Wolfram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Dialect Readers Revisited

John R. Rickford and Angela E. Rickford . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Congressional Testimony

William Labov. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Organizational Responses

E Policy Statement of the TESOL Board on African

American Vernacular English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Policy Statement of the American Association for

Applied Linguistics (AAAL) on the Application of

Dialect Knowledge to Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) Statement to

the Media on Ebonics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

California Association for Bilingual Education (CABE)

Position Statement on Ebonics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Recommended Readings on Ebonics

F Scholarly References and News Titles

Wayne E. Wright . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

vi The Urban Education Debate







Wayne E. Wright, PhD

University of Texas, San Antonio

College of Education & Human Development

Bicultural-Bilingual Studies




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