Courageous Conversation Analysis

Howard (2010) quickly changes gears in Chapter two, Changing Demographics, to look at the differences in language, ethnicity, race issues, culture and classism when regarded and compared to those who achieve on level and those who fall in the achievement gap. Howard examines the quickly changing face of America with the increase in Latino populations across the nation. Positing that teachers must adapt to understand and connect to students of diverse populations or there will be a great disconnect and divide that could be disastrous for the growing number of students that are part of the achievement gap, as well as the negative ramifications that could come from not evaluating the needs of those in the achievement gap. Howard (2010) also speculates the long term negative aspects that could come to the United States, especially in global market, if we as a country do

Racism is a big part of this book. It shows the absurdity of what people thought back then, which is an important lesson. It is important for us to learn what people’s views used to be, and how important it is not to go back to that mindset.

How should society handle the perceived differences between races when it comes to education? The goal of both researchers is to narrow the academic gap between white and black students. Both authors attribute the gap between the academic scores of black and white students from opposite sides of racial identity. As Dr. Beverly Daniels Tatum, President of Spelman College and clinical psychologist has written an article entitled “Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” Her approach is from the perspective of the student and how they perceive their role and upper limits while maintaining their place in their peer group's expectations of their race. Dr. Diane Ravitch, a research professor of education at New York University, has written an article entitled "The Facts about the Achievement Gap.” Her approach is from the perspective of how schools and society implicitly or explicitly cast students into achievement tracks based on their race. Both approach the same idea about racial identity, but they have different solutions, such as peer groups, the school board, and who is right about the solution.

Mark Biller describes the educational system like a delicate ecosystem, all parts of it need to work together if things are going to last. If the community does not support a school, odds are the school will have to close-down. If the teachers don’t work with parents, then kids will not get the support they need. If parents do not support teachers, students loose an

the term receivement gap is useful because it focuses attention on educational inputs-what the students receive on their educational journey, instead of outputs-their performance on a standardized test. This refocusing also moves attention away from the students as the source of these disparities, and toward the larger structure and forces that play a role in their education and development (p. 417). Venzant-Chambers (2009) asserted the issue of the Black and White achievement gap must be viewed through other lenses opposed to the single view of Black students cannot perform as well as White students. Venzant-Chambers (2009) offered other avenues by which to examine the achievement gap such as school tracking, examining the

All four pieces were enlightening, but there was one particular piece that really opened my eyes about race and the different reasons that individuals may or may not use the concept to help define who they are. The article by Johnston, Pizzolato and Kanny examined the ways by which individuals may or may not utilize the concept of race to form their sense of identity. It may be self-centered, but I had never really thought that other people might have a different way of thinking of race as part of their identity. I had just assumed that everyone understood race as I understood it; and so that everyone else’s race also was ingrained and played a part of their identity in the way that I believed race played a role in my sense of self. However, as I read the piece and the authors explained the ways by which the participants identified race s playing a role in their identity I was surprised. I

The pressures of racism on today’s society are being perpetuated by socioeconomic shaming against less fortunate black schoolchildren to look to the future of becoming less successful than the more financially stable white schoolchild sitting in the next classroom. The most unfortunate part about the white-black achievement gap is that there is no easy solution to solving it. One large proponent of the achievement gap between all schoolchildren is the factor of wealth and affluence in their homes. The racial achievement gap compared to the wealth achievement gap is quite staggering. Diane Ravitch states that “in contrast to the racial achievement gap, which has narrowed, the income achievement gap is growing…[and is] nearly twice as large

I don’t think there is one school district that is not fighting for or have some type of program in place to address the achievement between whites and student of color; but yet the issue doesn’t seem to be going away. As I reflect on the meaning of racism as defined by the authors, they also state that this mistreatment is carried out by societal institutions or people who have been conditioned by society to act, consciously or unconsciously in harmful ways towards people of color. Sadly, I fear that so many of our young people has or is falling prey to the transfer of racism. We (teachers, parents, and the community) have to acknowledge with our kids that race is part of their daily lives; but they do not need to conform and understand how to rise above the stereotypes through encouragement, high expectations, build caring relationships and self-confidence they will

As I video blog this Journal Entry, I will share personal thoughts and feelings on American Racial Relations. This week’s modules on American Racial Relations, which include Prejudice, Racism, and Oppression, have shown to be very a powerful, and influential topic.

An especially powerful quote from the book reads, “We must face that racism manifests itself not only in individual

"The Eight Conversations about Race and Ethnicity" by Markus and Moya was a fascinating read. At first, I was skeptical that there were eight standpoints regarding race and ethnicity. Before reading this article, I thought there were two types of views regarding race. One of the views I believed to be pure love for racial differences and the other, a hatred of racial differences. While reading through the eight conversations, I did come across some conversations that I knew of before reading this article which are "we're beyond race," "racial diversity is killing us," "everyone's s little bit racist," "variety is the spice of life," and "race is in our DNA.

I think the Ted Talk “The Danger of a Single Story” was eye-opening and a little daunting. As far as the eye-opening part, it was amazing to think about how often people assume a single story and not just about race. I remember I had a professor talk about how when he was at dinner parties or functions that he would talk around the single most asked question, “What do you do?” Because not only do we look at a person’s skin or clothes, hear their accent, or see a religious symbol from their neck and immediately classify them but we also have a pressing need to know what people do so that we can place them in the appropriate box. The difference between the single story of being a writer or an author, a teacher or a professor, a cook or a chef, is a part of our

Integration is an old practice, established in the Brown versus Board of Education case in 1954, but it’s a practice that worked. Seeing as how change is never instantaneous, it still took twenty years before desegregation ramped up. From the beginning of the 1970s to the late 1980s, the height of desegregation, the achievement gap was cut in half. There was about a 45 point reading score gap between blacks and whites starting in 1971. That dropped to 22 points in 1988. That’s a 23 point drop. And difference in math scores also drops a similar amount during this time period. Well, what does this data mean? It means that in 17 years, the achievement gap was cut in half. And when this is compared to the 350 years blacks first arrived on this

Within that moment, it became evident to me that he carried mostly all dominant identities. So, why would he see the greater systemic channels of oppression and racism? In view of that conversation, the notion of unconsciousness that surrounds oppression and racism is absolutely fascinating. Correspondingly, while completing week nine’s asynchronous material, it resonated with me that education is the best intervention when it comes to oppression and racism. Like the conversation between my husband and I, once education was rendered, self-awareness increased, which afforded him a shift in consciousness.

proves that all it takes to wipe out racism is knowledge and courage. Throughout the novel,