{"id":46345,"date":"2018-12-18T11:25:10","date_gmt":"2018-12-18T19:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=46345"},"modified":"2018-12-18T11:25:10","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T19:25:10","slug":"how-t-m-landry-college-prep-failed-black-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/how-t-m-landry-college-prep-failed-black-families\/","title":{"rendered":"How T.M. Landry College Prep failed black families"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nOf all the challenges that vex black parents, perhaps none is more frustrating than to be forced to send their children to schools where their children\u2019s talents go\u00a0unrecognized, overlooked, ignored or even squashed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As I argue in my book \u2013\u00a0\u201cRac(e)ing to Class: Confronting Poverty and Race in Schools and Classrooms\u201d<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 teaching in a way that recognizes the strengths of black students takes considerable training. This is especially true in a system where the majority of teachers are\u00a0white and middle class<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As a\u00a0scholar of race and urban teacher education<\/a>, I see a major disconnect between what schools offer black students and the realities that black students face outside the classroom.<\/p>\n

Given how often\u00a0public schools fail black children<\/a>, the allure of a \u201ccollege prep\u201d school \u2013 even if it is in a nontraditional school environment \u2013 becomes easy to understand. A school like that is seen not only as an alternative to the regular public schools but as the doorway to the most elite educational institutions of higher education in the nation \u2013 and all that earning a degree from one of those institutions entails.<\/p>\n

Gateway to elite schools<\/strong><\/h4>\n

And so it was with\u00a0T.M. Landry College Prep<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 an independent private school located in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana. The school doesn\u2019t list race or ethnicity in its student profile. However, promotional materials and news reports suggest the majority of the student body is black.<\/p>\n

The school began to garner widespread attention in 2017 after students and school officials posted a series of videos of Landry students being\u00a0accepted into some of the nation\u2019s top colleges and universities<\/a>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0including Ivy League schools. The image of elated black students clad in college sweatshirts as they learned they had been accepted into the likes of Harvard and Yale made for striking theater.<\/p>\n

T.M. Landry had seemingly cemented its status as a model school for black students who hail from families that were struggling to make ends meet.
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