Martha Peraza SOC 3340 Inequality in Education California State University, Bakersfield Abstract In the United States, there exists a gap in equality for different demographics of students. The factors contributing to educational disadvantages include socioeconomic struggles, gender of students, language or culture, and particularly for the scope of this paper, race. Racial inequality in education is predominant in black students and is perpetuated further by educators. A theory that explains this could be the “hidden curriculum” theory which conditions students to believe that their cultural backgrounds must be silenced to resemble the model white student. Studies show that training educators in cultural sensitivity and establishing trust between students and teachers allows students from varying cultural backgrounds to improve in classroom settings. RACE INEQUALITY IN U.S. EDUCATION Considered the “melting pot” of the world due to its high diversity, the United States has been renowned for the varying cultures and races populating the country. However, with diversity comes inequalities that people of color face throughout their lives. A particular issue in the United States, specifically in education, is unequal opportunities and treatment in regard to race. Research shows that students from single-parent black families had a high chance of dropping out and participating in illicit behavior (Hallinan 54). While the issue of race is a complicated issue to breach for
In the book, Other People’s Children, author Lisa Delpit does and excellent job compiling her experiences as a black educator through various essays and responses. It is though these essays and responses that Delpit tries to educate the American educator on the diversities we see in the classroom. She makes it known throughout the book that we need to make sure all students receive the same educational opportunities regardless of cultural background, race, or ethnicity. One thing that really stood out to me in this book was that she suggests that we appreciate linguistic diversity in the classroom. Stating that some student’s don’t have access to the “politically popular dialect form” also known as “Standard English”, and these particular
Resmovits utilizes surveys, including data from every U.S. school district, released by the U.S. Education Department to assert that public school students of color get an additional amount of punishment and less access to experienced, knowledgeable teachers than their white peers. Resmovits highlights the long-established inequalities that leave minority students at a disadvantage. As an example of one of the disadvantages, she mentions the “school-to-prison pipeline”, which leads troubles students into the justice system. Through data that shows disparities in students as early as preschool, Resmovits invalidates the widely believed misconception that varying discipline outcomes happen as a result of specific races acting out more than others.
whereby, placing these White students in a place of racial dominance (Lopez, 1996) Therefore, White students often do not recognize the existence of White privilege because it is not something that can be seen. Critical Whiteness Theory Mistrust. One of the things that these White female novice teachers kept discussing throughout the entire interviews was the fact that the Black students exhibited great mistrust and suspicion towards them.
Racial minorities and immigrants are not reaching the same outcomes of their White and non-recent immigrant counterparts. The dropout rates of visible-minority students still exceeds those of students belonging to the majority (Kirova, 2008, 103). For examples, Hispanic and Latino students have a dropout rate two times that of their White peers, and Black students have a dropout rate almost four times that of their White peers (Kahn, 2008, 527). School performance of African American and Hispanic students tends to be lower than the level achieved by their white peers (The Equity and Excellence Commission, 2013, 13). Groups that belong to races other than White are still represented proportionately higher than their White counterparts in the legal system (Kirova, 2008, 103).
An outrage among society today; high school students are not being admitted to their dream colleges based on ethnic background. Adolescents should not be burdened by the thought that they won’t get into the college they deserve to attend just based on their skin color. Affirmative Action is the cause of this appalling injustice in the college admissions process among big universities. There have been several cases where people have fought for their right to be admitted solely based on their qualifications. Universities’ use of Affirmative Action, and racial quotas in their admissions process should be exposed and terminated.
America’s school system is lacking in what it can offer its students. The inequality in our society causes lower income families to be treated less than someone of higher class. Unfortunately, this difference in status means a difference in the education a child would receice. Even though there are programs, grants, and other sources of help for these children, why are there still children struggling to gain such a basic need? The educational structure is varied from state to state and country to country.
The idea of segregating racial minorities into crowded residential areas is a reality, which influences lower socioeconomic standings and limits equality to health. Institutionalized racism serves to seemingly brand and constrain upward movements of success in society. Many of the schools, including junior high and high school, located in minority filled communities are limited in their educational merit and do not instill and prepare for higher education and advanced opportunities in employment (Williams & Collins, 2001). Residentially segregated schools are said to fall short in areas of teacher quality and educational resources (Williams & Collins, 2001). The schools themselves have less funds per student and are surrounded in high neighborhood
Only 75 percent of blacks have received post-high school education, compared to 85 percent of whites. Not surprisingly, blacks on average also make less money than whites” (Philip M. Deutsch). It’s unjust that people of color are treated as inferior to white people, and it is that kind of social issue that interferes with the liberties of all Americans of
In the United States, it is believed that if you get good grades you will get into a good college and obtain a degree and a high paying job. Education is the great equalizer among students to achieve upward mobility many think. But is this true? Is the racial gap in education really something to worry about? In the readings that follow, supporters say that the education gap does matter and is widening state.
Through STOMP I have worked in many schools that have diverse student bodies, allowing me to see first hand the dynamics of race and power in schools. I am also taking a class about race and gender in school and how the power hierarchy is perceived in education. As a White female I have lived a privileged life and was not exposed until high school to the race and class struggle that so many face in our country. After coming to college I began to realize and appreciate my background and the resources and opportunities I had as a child. Once I understood my own place of privilege I was better able to understand the power and privilege structures of communities.
This method of thinking has been applied to different educational situations that caused problematic issues regarding students’ trajectories to success. Furthermore, the combination of these social and ethnic inequalities that result to teachers’ deficit assumptions in their students’ abilities and the idea of meritocratic school system will definitely have a significant effect on students regarding educational inequalities (Clycq, Ward Nouwen, & Vandenbroucke, 2014). We argue that these deficiencies from different socio-ethnic background are not accurate; rather these are just inflicted on students of color with the assumptions that they will be less capable of success than the dominant
1. Introduction Economic inequality has shaped the structure of our society. This designates the disparities in the wealth distribution among individuals. More than a monetary issue, this economic inequality brings along a number side effects. This paper focuses on the unequal chance for children from diverse economic backgrounds to gain access to higher education, which has been a growing social concern.
The article is providing more evidence that lowered expectations for ethnic minority groups is negatively influencing their performance and achievement in school (Ryabov, 2016). Ryabov hypothesized a negative association between the darkness of skin and educational attainment. Results show that people of a darker skin tone were less likely to complete high school and to transition to college due to stereotyping from teachers (Ryabov,
One issue that is prevalent in the educational institution is the concept of the academic achievement gap bet between minority students and the majority. The issue is expanded upon the concept of how and why minority students are not achieving academically at the same rate of majority students. There are multiple reasons as to why this gap is so prevalent in today’s schools. Some of those reasons include language and cultural barriers, also the idea of how the minority culture views academic performance. These is also a disconnection between students and school that is impacting the way students learn and how much they ultimately learn within the classroom.
When I was a high school student, I noticed as the years went by, my high school performed worse and deteriorated academically. Flashing back on this, I question why my high school performs worse each year, and why are other schools improving in my area. This trend begins to have detrimental effects on the student’s education since it creates inequality in the quality of education students in my high school receive. The white flight phenomenon and residential segregation create the inequality on the quality of education and resources available to students in K-12 education. White Flight is when many white families move out of the cities and into the suburbs.