In Schools We Trust Pt. 3

I've continued to read the Deborah Meier book that focuses on the education system in America.  She throws out several factors she believes are causes of the academic achievement gap between minorities )Blacks and Latinos) and white students. 

In the reading I did for this assignment, Meier states that many teachers and administrators have argued that a large number of "disadvantaged youth"  (mainly minorities) begin school without proper language.  Students lacked "grammar and vocabulary, not to mention the ability to articulate sounds properly, but also the words they did know were valueless, for building high levels of achievement." She goes on to say that poverty takes a toll on children's cognitive development skills and maturity.  I agree with this because many African-American/Latino homes speak a different "language".  Latino students may actually speak a foreign language i.e. different dialects of Spanish (Dominican, Puerto Rican, Honduran, Colombian, Mexican, etc.) Black students speak English, but slang and improper grammatical errors may go un-corrected for years and is used in the classroom.  This puts some minorities at an immediate disadvantage because language is an essential tool in success in the classroom.  From another source, I read that this word/language gap only increases at children grow older.

Culturally, minorities and white Americans can differ as well.  Meier states that when she worked at the Head Start Program in Philly, PA, she noticed the culture difference immediately.  She and her staff has to teach minority children how to raise their hands in the classroom, how to name the letters of the alphabet/colors, etc.  She also had to expose minority students to outside things, like going to the zoo and museums - something their parents didn't do/weren't able to do for their children.  But I'd like to emphasize that this is an overall picture of what Meier faced when working with the Head Start , as I am sure some white children had never been to these places as well.           

I plan on continued to read this book for my project.

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.                      

    

In Schools We Trust Pt.1

I recently started reading the book, In Schools We Trust by Deborah Meier.  I discovered that this book mainly focuses on the standardized tests that all students are required to take in order to pursue a college education and overall public education in general, but it does talk about African-American students in the public school system.  Meier mentions that standardized tests "undermine the education we truly want". I was mainly focused in reading the chapter titled "The Achievement Gap" seeing as though she gets to the core of my topic. 

Meier also has Boston roots in that she is the founder of the Mission Hill School in our very own Boston, Massachusetts.

Meier defines the achievement gap as, "The gap in achievement on almost all standard measures based on socioeconomic class and income, and also the gap that is evident when race is viewed as a separate category" (137).  Meier talks a lot about family income as well as parental education.  She claims that minority drop-out rates, college attendance and graduation from college remains high as compared to whites even after they correct for income and years of parental education (138).  So according to Meier, family income and parental education aren't causes of the achievement gap - I disagree with this.  I believe that family income and parental education are both two huge factors in the achievement gap.  I don't believe in causation with this issue, as I don't believe that any ONE thing is a direct cause, but rather many things are potential factors.  I'd like to see what data she used to make this conclusion.

Meier also talked about a book named The Bell Curve by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray.  In this book, both authors make claims of African-Americans naturally having "low intelligence".  They claim that blacks still deserve equal treatment, but knowing that blacks aren't as smart as whites should be taken into account.  Hernstein and Murray say that the only plausible factor for the achievement gap is race alone - nothing else.  Although this argument in no way could possibly be true, it hurts to see such racist words in actual literature.  These authors must not have been familiar with the brilliant minds of WEB DuBois, Booker T. Washington, Ben Carson, etc.  The list goes on and on in listing the thousands of educated black pioneers in American and WORLD history.

In Schools We Trust so far is a good book and I look forward to reading more into it.
Pages Read: 88-138          

 

Possible Causes for the Academic Achievement Gap

What's the source of the achievement gap between minority students and white students in the classroom?  Is there only one cause or several causes that have contributed to the gap's growing rate within the past years?  There are several theories in the world that try to explain the main cause of the gap.  One theory is that minority students lack proper and up to date technological resources that white students have in their public school systems.  Another theory is that middle/lower class minority students seem to have a lack of parental structure at home and in result they don't have resources more privileged students have and are less likely to get help from parents with their homework.  Some say that many minority students live in single family households and that single parent is having to work much harder to provide for the family, so the child(ren) is/are left to fend for themselves more often.  Some theorists say that minority students (mainly Hispanic and some African-American) have too different of a culture at home to relate to the culture of their white peers at school and sometimes they lack adequate vocabulary from a young age.  This lack of good grammar only grows larger as the child gets older.  Students with parents who have immigrated to the United States from another country may face problems with a language-barrier.  Some theorists say that minority students have less motivation to do their best on standardized tests (MCAS for Mass and the SAT/ACT tests).  This could possibly be because the SAT/ACT test seems to have a bias towards White/European Americans.  Minority students may feel as though they aren't supposed to succeed on these test and therefore begin a self-fulfilling prophecy begins - they purposely don't try as hard because they only can imagine failing or not doing well.

Possible causes go on and on for the reasons behind the achievement gap between white and minority students - I have yet to conclude with what reason I believe in the most.          

First Reading Assignment

For my first reading assignment on the academic achievement gap between African-American (and maybe Latino students) and white students, I decided to read the book Keepin' It Real by Harvard University Professor, Prudence L. Carter.  This book has a primary focus on minorities (excluding Asians) who live in low-income communities in New York and other urban cities across the country.  Carter uses these students as a platform for the rest of the minority population of students in the country.  She believes that outside and societal views and impressions are hindering Black and Hispanic students from reaching their full potential. I have learned many new things about the academic achievement gap from the first 50 pages I have read thus far.  The most significant aspect of the book so far is that despite a general assumption, most African-American and Latino students believe that education is extremely important and beneficial to the progress of their life.  They believe that education is the ticket for success.  Sixty-four out of the sixty-eight students in Professor Carter's study said that "getting a good education is a practical road to success for young Black and Hispanic persons like them" (23).  Carter then goes on to say that according to a 1998 national survey by Douglas Downey and James Ainsworth-Darnell, "Black students report more optimistic occupational expectations, view education as more important to their future, and maintain more pro-school attitudes than do their White counterparts" (25).  This was shocking to me.  It seems that Blacks believe more in the value of an education as compared to White students, but are seemingly not achieving at the levels of White students overall.  How could this be?  This seems really ironic to me.   I look forward in continuing to read this book and explore her other possible reasons for this achievement gap and possibly some of her plausible solutions for the United States chronic problem.

Senior Paper Topic

I have decided to change  my initial topic of teen aged drug use in Brookline to the academic achievement gap between minority students and white students.  I did a project on this topic last school year and am still very interested in it.  Questions I will attempt to answer are "Why is there an achievement gap?" "What can we as the Brookline/Boston community do to close the gap?" "Do we solely blame the students or do we solely blame the teachers and administration for allowing some students to fall behind others?" "Is there an achievement gap in private schools and boarding schools as well?" "Does the achievement only affect minorities who live in public housing or in a lower economic setting?" "Have there been any improvements with the closing of the gap in recent years?" And the list goes on...

I'm not sure if I should only focus on African-Americans/Blacks or if I should focus on all minorities students in general?  I'm leaning towards primarily focusing on black students.  I will talk to administration in BHS such as Dr. Vick, Dr. Mims, Mr. Lezama, Dr. Bob, and some teachers as well.  I want to get their input on why there is an achievement gap and what they think are possible solutions/ways to close it.

As for sources, there are several books written on the academic achievement gap that give reasons for the gap and possible solutions as well.

I know a good amount about my topic that creates a good starting foundation for my research.