In Schools We Trust Pt. 2

I'm continuing to read In Schools We Trust By Deborah Meier.  In the section I just concluded, Meier talked about responses to the book The Bell Curve mentioned in my previous post.  Many liberals argued that racism had taken a toll on the black community and differences between whites and blacks exist only because of environmental factors over biological ones.  IQ is made up of cultural differences between whites and blacks, not basic genetics and biology.  Meier states that IQ tests hurt the black community and reinforced fear and a prejudice within it.  She says that even if schools were run by either whites or blacks, types of textbooks availble, money available, class sizes, etc because of the damage IQ did upon the African-American community the academic gap grew.

Meier briefly talks about affirmative action being an "opportunity for the children of color who appeared brightest and most academically successful to get into college, where they often flourished, or to move into job situations where in reality they were able handle the demands of the workplace" p 139.  Meir then goes on to say that even with affirmative action, blacks were still, generally, out-performed by whites.  African-American students test scores rose, but whites scores rose at a constant rate as well.

Meier then goes on to write about a part of the achievement gap that I strongly agree with her about: Institutional racism. She defines it as "the myriad of ways in which the school experiences of children of color were injurious to their achievement" p 140.  I've always believed that students are strongly influenced by the environment in which they are in.  Learning is a process that requires a lot to be properly ingrained into a student.  The same education can be taught to a white or black student, but each student may perceive it differently because of the relationship with the teacher.  Many teachers can give off a vibe to African-
American students, whether intentional or unintentional, that they aren't smart enough to learn the material or aren't as smart as white students, because of their own personal bias. 

Institutional rasicm, in my opinion, can be a possible factor for the achievement gap between white and black students that attend the same school and district.  Both students have the same amount and type of resources available (at school) and the teachers are teaching the same materials to both sets of students.  In my opinion, this is also a possible factor for the achievement gap between white and black students that attend the same school districts and have the similar economic/financial situations - although I don't know the exact disproportion between those types of students.