Abstract
In recent years there has been increasing attention to the achievement gap and efforts to ameliorate the racial disparities in educational performance. While education programs targeting low-performing students are not new, These Kids: Identity, Agency, and Social Justice at a Last Chance High School by Kysa Nygreen is a fresh take on the challenges of reforming last chance, or continuation, high schools. Nygreen analyzes the implications of school programs and discourses targeting students at the bottom of the educational hierarchy. She convincingly argues that while the narrative of “getting ahead” prevails, some students are being “left behind” to deal with grave consequences.
These Kids covers a youth-led participatory action research project at a continuation high school that tried to spark social and educational change through social justice programming. The group profiled in the book is the Participatory Action Research Team for Youth (PARTY), whose members included Nygreen and students and graduates of a last chance high school in California. Nygreen interrogates the factors reproducing the consequence gap for students at the bottom of the educational hierarchy and highlights the intransigence of discourses about this group, students referred to as “these kids.” Drawing on data from participant observation, interviews, autoethnography, and participatory action research, Nygreen finds that value-laden discourses about students at continuation high schools permeate school curriculum and policies, as well as the beliefs and behaviors of teachers and students themselves.
The book provides readers with a unique perspective on the challenges of participatory action research and educational change at last chance high schools. The author begins with the history of such schools in California and identifies the discourses and narratives that have shaped them over the past hundred years. According to Nygreen, continuation high schools rarely provide alternative education options, but instead reproduce the inequalities of mainstream schools. Further, continuation schools construct the label of “these kids,” which relegates the schools’ students to a separate, problematized category. The rest of the book explores the challenges PARTY faced in trying to disrupt the discourse of “these kids.” PARTY created a social justice project that aimed to encourage students to think critically and to act on their experiences. Nygreen shows how PARTY’s efforts were plagued by the very “these kids” discourse that they hoped to dismantle. In short, the assumptions and expectations of the “these kids” discourse infused the rhetoric, curriculum choices, behaviors, and everyday experiences of even PARTY members, despite their best efforts. Ultimately, Nygreen argues that effective interventions into the lives of “these kids” must minimize consequences rather than focus on achievement narratives such as “college for all” or “getting ahead.”
These Kids is an organized, well-written book. Nygreen explains her theories, methods, and analysis with enough clarity and detail that readers unfamiliar with education, social justice, ethnography, or participatory action research should understand. Her descriptions of PARTY discussions and classroom activities are engaging and convincing. She begins most chapters with a PARTY vignette and follows with data analysis that illustrates her main points and highlights the richness of the data. She also summarizes each chapter well by positioning the findings in a broader context and connecting them to related research to support her analysis and arguments.
A major strength of the book is the detail with which Nygreen describes her methods. Of particular note are her reflections about the differences between her analysis at the dissertation phase and her later analysis for the book. Rather than presenting herself as an all-knowing expert, Nygreen acknowledges and explores her assumptions and mistakes in the field, noting her own attachment to dominant discourses surrounding achievement.
Although Nygreen examines the difficulties students face related to multiple social identities, such as gender, race, and ethnicity, there were times that I wanted more details regarding problems and solutions. In particular, I hoped for more in-depth analysis regarding the intersecting effects of race, class, and gender for how students experience continuation high schools or relate to the “these kids” discourse. Although Nygreen does a good job of identifying implicit and explicit racial discourse regarding “these kids” and PARTY experiences, there were times that this analysis felt added on at the end of a section rather than woven throughout. Additionally, readers could benefit from more analysis and discussion of the consequence gap related to the experiences of PARTY participants and possible school reforms. After reading the conclusion, I wondered how PARTY would have operated if members had considered the consequence gap from the beginning. A reflection on this would help readers to consider improved implementation of social justice programs at continuation high schools.
Clearly written, These Kids sparks a sharp and difficult conversation about the consequences facing students at continuation schools and the challenges of social justice oriented programs. Nygreen’s reflexivity regarding her social identities and role in the field is one of the book’s greatest strengths and makes it worth requiring students in methods courses to read it. These Kids is an important book for practitioners; scholars interested in social identity, education, and PAR; and those generally concerned with the status of “these kids.”