The Substantive Meaning of Achievement

This issue of the JNE opens its 66th volume of continuous publication since 1932. During that time, multiple aspects of the education of people of color have been investigated and reported in these pages. One major continuing theme of this work has been academic achievement. Whether the focus of a particular article over this long span was on student personnel service needs, child development, or equity in salaries for African Americans teachers in southern states, the importance of performance and progress in school has been consistently emphasized. In this issue, for example, Mavis Sanders's article, "Overcoming Obstacles: Academic Achievement as a Response to Racism and Discrimination," reports an important study that provides some ideas on how to move toward improved academic performance for African American youth. Other articles in this issue, though varied in their perspectives, offer important information on achievement-related topics. Their contributions range from insights on the ways African American students at elite independent schools provide vital academic and social support to one another (Datnow & Cooper), to a focus on ongoing legal efforts to ensure equal educational opportunity in a majority-Black school district (Harris), and to programs designed to help grandparents play more meaningful roles in their grandchildren's educations as well as other aspects of children's lives (Watson). There are many factors in the lives of today's children that operate against their developing a positive, substantive, and internal sense of the importance of achievement. The lack of a system that has worked for such achievement in the lives of many of their parents and community members, and the obtrusive presence of get-rich-quick models in the culture of the streets, are factors that strongly mediate against our young people in this regard. Notwithstanding, the meaning of achievement for young learners is especially important now. The level of academic skills necessary for successful entry into today's job market, with or without a college education, has risen to the point that a focus on achieving academic success is necessary for all students throughout each and every year of schooling from prekindergarten to 12th grade. This critical condition underscores the importance of developing, or redeveloping, a culture of achievement. In such a culture, learning, progressing academically, and working steadily and purposefully in school is seen as the standard pattern of behavior for students in elementary and secondary school and beyond. For this to happen, kids have to "get it"-that is, there must be a substantive meaning of achievement that they understand and believe to the extent that it becomes the primary piece of their motivation to do well academically. This motivated desire can then result in performance that is reinforced in the school, the home, and the community until it becomes the guiding pattern of a child's life. …