Brown Middle School: A Case Study

The data is compared to those students come from affluent socioeconomic status and backgrounds. The data is sourced from several diverse locations in order to give the broadest view of the disparities that exist. Howard (2010) compares data in reading, mathematics, SAT results and disciplinary rates. This data is a formidable beginning to the content of the book because it provides context for the reader to better understand the achievement gap.

Gifted students have a higher risk of dropping out of school due to a number of factors including a lack of challenge in academic areas, feeling disconnected to their fellow students and their teachers, potential drug and alcohol abuse and the lack of coping skills to deal with increased sensitivities. Additionally, gifted students are known to experience a lack of community or none acceptance at school, a high sensitivity not acknowledged in school, no help in learning coping skills for dealing with a major loss such as illness, death or changing schools, issues with authority but most importantly, they often do not have an advocate to help bring out meaningful change (Hansen and Torso, 2007). These factors have led to gifted students being underachievers, dropouts, or students who have developed an overall negative impression on school and learning in general.

One of the difficulties in identifying the needs of low-income students is the profound cultural barriers which exist that prevent their strengths and deficits from being identified. Children from low-income homes frequently have poorer vocabularies and a weaker basis of the type of knowledge that is frequently considered 'intelligence' on most forms of assessment. A low-income child's IQ may be high, even though he lacks a framework of accepted middle-class knowledge. "In January 2003, the National Academy of Sciences released a report on the seeming overrepresentation of minorities in special education and underrepresentation of those students in gifted education. The NRC reported that, nationwide, 7.47 percent of all white students and 9.9 percent of Asian students are placed in gifted programs. Meanwhile, 3.04 percent of African-American students, 3.57 percent of Hispanic students, and 4.86 percent of American Indian students are classified as gifted" (GT-minority identification, 2003, ERIC Clearinghouse). The discrepancy, the NAS believed, could not be solely explained by talent alone but was at least partially rooted in the methods of identifying students labeled as gifted. Biases in standardized and other tests identifying student strengths, combined with prejudices, however unintentional, amongst educators and administrators lead to under-identification of the gifted

High School is an incredibly important period of life. It influences your social, academic, and personal life for four years, and prepares you for college and a career. This is the reason County Prep High School is my school of choice. County Prep's thriving social environment, challenging academic curriculum, and wide variety of electives will help me successfully carry out my plans for the future.

Today's education is often viewed as failing in its goal of educating students, especially those students characterized as minorities, including African American, Hispanic, and Appalachian students (Quiroz, 1999). Among the minority groups mentioned, African American males are affected most adversely. Research has shown that when Black male students are compared to other students by gender and race they consistently rank lowest in academic achievement (Ogbu, 2003), have the worst attendance record (Voelkle, 1999), are suspended and expelled the most often (Raffaele Mendez, 2003; Staples, 1982), are most likely to drop out of school, and most often fail to graduate from high school or to earn a GED (Pinkney, 2000; Roderick, 2003).

Ever since the establishment of equal education in the United States, there has been a disparity in academic success between children of different races. The education of African American children has become a prime example of this. As discussed in the historical text, A Letter to My Nephew, which was written during the time of the civil rights movement in the 1950’s and 1960’s, African Americans were not given equal opportunities to succeed educationally and could do little to change their futures for the better. They had to work much harder than whites to receive even a portion of the recognition and success that whites achieved (Baldwin 1). Although many today believe America has overcome this problem, it still remains a pressing issue in many aspects of society, arguably the most important being education. The racial achievement gap, an important term to familiarize with when discussing this topic, refers to the disparity in educational performance between students of different races (National Education Association 1). As of now, although the education achievement gap has been narrowing, there still remains a large disparity between African Americans and their racial counterparts. According to a study by Roland G. Freyer and Steven D. Levitt, professors at Harvard University and W.E.B Du Bois Institute, respectively, African American students enter kindergarten already significantly behind children of other races, and their test scores continue to drop

Martin J., W. (2014). Standardized Testing, Stereotypes, and High-Performing African American Elementary School Students retrieved from

If I was the principle of Metro High School I would use the four types of reinforcements to motivate the students to improve performance and attendance.* This change of policies would realisticly take place over long period of time with a good system of data collection and other types of control functions. It is also very important to have the parents of the children involve as much as possible.

“Beyond religion, beyond class, beyond politics and ideology, for centuries race has been Americans dialogue.” In 1957 nine African American kids were prevented from entering Little Rock Central High School.

According to research, black student achievement has greatly improved since the desegregation of schools (Strauss, 2014). With the help of proper school supplies and conducive learning environments, students of all races have been able to achieve higher academic goals. The results of this court case extend beyond black students; Brown v. Board of Education opened the door for educational equality for a great deal of other students.

This is detrimental because the young generation gets lower exposure to a racially diverse and tolerant community. In addition, schools composed of mostly white population get better resources and more money. 90 percent or more pre dominantly white public’s schools receive an average of $733 dollars more per pupil [2]. Course offerings seem are unequal to with 25 percent of majority black not offering Algebra II and 33 percent not offering Chemistry. Even schools with majority black that have gifted programs only enroll a disproportionately low black students into their programs [3].

This research was to get a glance of racial inequality taken place in the country's education system. The research analyst has found that black students and others minorities such as; Native Americans and Latinos students have fewer opportunities to be in advanced science and math courses. The nations Education Department have noticed the excessive numbers of expectation and suspension African Americans have. The education department has come to an analysis students in kindergarten classes around the age of four years face racial inequality in school from administrators( Hsieh, S.2014) .During the 2011- 2015 school year, the department have noticed black students were expelled at a rate of three times more than white students, black girls have a higher suspension rate than all other girls and most boys, about one in four African American boys, with learning disabilities received home suspensions to contract to that one in five girls of African American decent with a disability receives home suspensions and as schools with a high demand population of black students did not offer algebra or chemistry( Hsieh, S.2014). About 40% black students who are accounted of enrolling into schools with gifted programs offered, but in statics only 26 percent of them are represented in the program( Hsieh,

My idea for this project in EAST would be to get a Therapy Dog for our school, Greenbrier Middle School. Mrs. Buchanan and possibly Mrs. Wilcox would be the handlers for this dog, since we think it would be a good fit to definitely have one in the counselor’s office, and then one with Mrs. Wilcox, since she has special Ed classes.

The goal of getting students to school on time has started with an all new vigor this year at Taft High School. A new process of scanning IDs of students who are late to first period has replaced the previously enforced method of handing out Pink Tardy Slips.

The topic of gifted and talented education is one that has always sparked debates among parents and teachers, and recent movements towards totally integrating classrooms have added to this debate. For many years now, "average" children, gifted and