[Reading-hall-of-fame] National Black History Month 2024

[Thomas Sticht]

February 10, 2024

*February is National Black History Month*

The Past is Prologue Part 2: The Intergenerational Transfer of Cognitive
Skills (ITCS)

Tom Sticht, International Consultant in Adult Education (Ret.)

Three African American colleagues with whom I have worked have long
addressed issues concerning the transfer of literacy and other cognitive
skills from parents to their children, and in some cases vice versa.  In
April of 1988 I chaired a Conference on the Intergenerational Transfer of
Cognitive Skills (ITCS) in San Diego, California where each of these
colleagues discussed the role of family influences on the development of
cognitive skills. Each of these presenters had considerable experience with
educational research and development in both white and black communities
and offered ideas for improving both parental and children’s educational
achievements.

*Dr. Diane Scott-Jones, Families and Cognitive
Development
                 * At the 1988 conference on the ITCS, Scott-Jones reviewed
programs aimed at improving  economic and educational outcomes for poor
minority children, families, and communities. She concluded that while
these programs had had some positive outcomes, “In the future, more
attention must be given to family and community control of programs; to
delivery systems that do not segregate and stigmatize poor and minority
children and families, to service delivery, monitoring, and evaluation that
emphasize family processes over the lifespan; and to policies for the
well-being of all children, families, and communities.”

She went on to further these recommendations with work at the National
Science Foundation where she started a grants program in child learning and
development,  She served on the American Psychology Association’s Task
Force to revise its Ethical Principles for Research with Human Participants
and on former President Clinton’s National Bioethics Advisory Commission.

*Dr. Diana T. Slaughter-Defoe, Home-School Relations
                                                               *Slaughter-Defoe
(later Slaughter Kotzin) brought to the 1988 ITCS conference her expertise
in human development focused on black and white families and the
discrepancy between how research in the early 1960s and 1970s had focused
on creating policies to improve educational achievements of children while
more recent R & D was not as clearly policy oriented.  She concluded, “The
hard-won, virtually conventional wisdom of the past about the important
interface between research in human development and social and educational
policy are only infrequently addressed in the more recent research efforts.”

Slaughter-Defoe continued work on families and educational policy at
Northwestern University’s Institute for Policy Research Studies and
department of African American studies. In 2012 she was elected to the
National Academy of Education and in 2019, the American Psychological
Association designated her a “pioneer woman of color among the first to
break into psychology’s ranks.”

*Dr. Warren Simmons, Developing Programs for the ITCS
                                                         *At the 1988 ITCS
conference Simmons discussed issues in the development of educational
delivery systems to improve education of underserved students. He had
recently published a book chapter concerned with the uses of computer
technology and how this differed in white and minority schools. Simmons
went on to serve in several research, development  and policy positions
carrying out activities to advance educational opportunities for
disadvantaged students.

In 1998 Simmons became Executive Director of the Annenberg Institute for
School Reform at Brown University to improve schools serving economically
disadvantaged students, including the use of computer technology. With his
educational technology background in 2006 he was invited by PLATO Learning,
Inc.  to join its Board of Directors to help advance the use of digital
technologies in education. For his many educational services he was awarded
the Distinguished Citizen’s Award by the National Governors Association.

*And the Past is Prologue*

Shortly following the ITCS conference with its focus on family literacy by
Scott-Jones and Slaughter-Defoe  and others, the national Even Start
program for the development of family literacy was initiated by the U. S.
Congress in 1991. Then in 1998 the U.S. Congress created the Workforce
Investment Act with Title II the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act
which was carried over into the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act
(WIOA) of 2014 which is still ongoing.

The U.S. Congressionally initiated Museum and Library Services Act of 2010
incorporated instructions for the provision of services  and resources for
the development of computer technology skills  (referred to as *digital
literacy*) addressed by Simmons at the 1988 ITCS conference. The presently
ongoing WIOA supports education for digital literacy defined as “the skills
associated with using technology to enable users to find, evaluate,
organize, create, and communicate information”.

Reference

Chapters by these three Black History Month honorees can be found in:
 Sticht, T., Beeler, M., &  McDonald, B., (Eds.). The Intergenerational
Transfer of Cognitive Skills: Volumes I & II: Ablex Publishing Corporation,
Norwood New Jersey
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