Charles Payne

Race, Education, and Outcomes

In 2012 Charles Payne addressed the crucial role racial identity plays in education, the state of urban schools in America, and the formidable subject of how teachers can do a better job teaching about race and ethnicity.

As the Frank P. Hixon Distinguished Service Professor in the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago, Payne is highly sought after inside and outside of academia, especially by education policy makers at local and national levels and by educators and researchers working to improve schools and neighborhoods in Chicago and across the United States. In Chicago, Payne provided consultative guidance and expertise in 2012 for schools in Englewood, Bronzeville, West Garfield Park, and Humboldt Park and for the Woodlawn Children’s Promise Community. These on-the-ground activities were matched by ongoing teaching, research, and writing, much of it focused on issues of race, urban education, and youth development.

Some 2012–13 highlights:

  • Completion of When I Know Who I Am, which argues that educators have paid too little attention to racial identity’s role in shaping youth outcomes, which is particularly deleterious to African American and Latino boys.
  • Planning for Fragile Victories, a three-volume project focused on urban schools. The first chapter will be presented at the presidential session of the American Educational Research Association conference in 2013, and a separate paper will be developed from it.
  • Leadership, along with SSA alumnus and doctoral candidate Andy Brake, AM’08, of a working group of doctoral students who seek to improve their ability to teach about race and ethnicity.
  • Leading the University’s 2013 Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Program by conducting an onstage interview of civil rights activist Judy Richardson.
  • Teaching courses on urban education and educational policy, a research seminar examining the social meaning of race and race as a determinant of life opportunities and risks, and a new course he developed examining the dynamics of the civil rights movement and its implications on social policy and other social justice movements. He also helped organize a job fair for education students.
  • Academic service to UChicago and other institutions, which included participation in admission and dissertation committees, promotion committees, the Graham School board, and the University of Chicago Urban Teacher Education Program Evaluation Advisory Committee.