Common Core State Standards, The Mocombeian Strategy, Reading Room Curriculum, and a Mismatch of Linguistic Structure and Social Class Function
The black-white test score gap is an empirical problematic that dates back to the 1940s. On many standardized tests the mean scores of black students on average are typically at least 1 standard deviation below the mean scores of white students. For the most part, the test scores indicate that on average black American students have more limited skills in processing information from articles, books, tables, charts, and graphs compared to their white and Asian counterparts. In response to this achievement gap of black American students’ vis-a-vis whites and Asians, Paul C. Mocombe developed his Mocombeian Strategy and Reading Room Curriculum, which posit a comprehensive mentoring program of educated black professionals and the restructuring of the linguistic structure of black American inner-city students via phonetic and language arts instructions, as the solutions to resolving the gap. The two approaches are based on Mocombe’s hypothesis that the academic underachievement of black American students vis-a-vis their white and Asian counterparts is grounded in what he refers to as “a mismatch of linguistic structure and social class function.” This work explores the theoretical, practical, and pedagogical relationships between Mocombe’s “mismatch of linguistic structure and social class function hypothesis,” The Mocombeian Strategy, and Reading Room Curriculum (published as Mocombe’s Reading Room Series) as it stands in relation to the common core state standards (CCSS). The article concludes that like Mocombe’s Reading Room Series Curriculum, the CCSS, with its emphasis on language arts and literacy education, will aid black or African-American students in closing the academic achievement gap early on in their academic careers. However, later on as they matriculate through school they will further underachieve because of their social class functions or roles as athletes, entertainers, thugs, etc., in the American postindustrial economy. Key words: Ideological domination; Linguistic structure; Mismatch of linguistic structure and social class function; Capitalism; Underclass; Social structure; African Americans