Cultural Differences In Urban Education

Pedro Noguera, a phenomenal urban sociologist and a professor at New York University confronts the problems which exist in our nation’s education system in his book, City Schools and the American Dream: Reclaiming the Promise of Public Education. Noguera describes what he views to be the main problems facing urban education and suggests strategies for improvement. From years of experience as a teacher and school board member, he reflects on what he believes to be the real problems. Noguera blames the school’s failures on students, parents, and teachers which leads to blame local government officials or policymakers. Noguera states in City Schools and the American Dream, “The central argument of this book is that until there is a genuine commitment to address the social context of schooling — to confront the urban condition — it will be impossible to bring about significant and sustainable improvements in urban public schools” (pg.6). Noguera believes that we must address the central problem to make any type of solutions for improvement.

There are various reasons people continue to move from urban areas to the suburbs. These reasons include the fact that rural areas have better education, lower crime rates, better infrastructure, and inequality in the public services offered. Also, with the recent rise the population growth, cities have become more crowded and continue to grow beyond capacity, which contributes to people relocating to less population dense rural areas, such as the suburbs.

In my last paper, I discussed the achievement gaps within the low-income African American community at Steele School in Galesburg, IL. Now that I have looked into the history of low-income African American students, I am now going to research even more by exploring trends, issues, evidence-based remediation practices, the preferred learning styles and the identified achievement gap of low-income African American students. Through the chart I am going to display, this will show various ways that low-income African American students are struggling at Steele School. However, I am hoping with the information below I can use this to display to others how certain multicultural education, learning styles, and culturally responsive teaching can enhance learning environments for all underachieving students.

Geography played a huge part in my experience with K-12 education. In the study titled, The Geography of Inequality: Why Separate Means Unequal in American Public Schools (2012), Logan, Minca, and Adar noted that inequalities of performance between schools that have a majority of minority groups and found connections between the performance of school when looking through the lens of race and ethnicity. Key findings included that African American, Hispanic, and Native American students were most likely to attend a school that averages between the 35th-40th percentile (Logan, Minca, Adar 2012). Three types of high poverty schools were outlined; location in city center, majority African American and mixed location, and majority Hispanic (Logan et al., 2012). The school district that I attended for my K-12 education experience was nearly 95% white, located in the suburbs, and had low poverty. My education experience directly counters the education experience that my student engage in on a daily basis. This has created an internal motivation to

As Connell, White and Johnston (1990,p.9) state, 'There is not a “culture of poverty”, nor any key “deficit” that makes poor people different from everybody else and therefore and educational problem'. Teachers and Education Assistants need to adapt into the culture of poverty and be sensitive and understandable to the extensive bar of needs that children of poverty bring to the classroom and they need to consider the cultural values of these children as they arrange their learning. The basis of Groundwater-Smith, Ewing and Le Cornu's opinions in the article is they position readers to view that the teachers dispositions low income students and that rarely the educators offer the same level or enough aid and attention than the other students and they are less likely to succeed in school when compared with the more advantaged children. According to Groundwater-Smith, Ewing and Le Cornu's and Geoffrey D. Borman and Laura T. Rachuba they both state that students from lower income families may not have as high expectations from their parents, teachers or their peers within the school. The students may also not be confident in their own abilities and

Gloria Ladson-Billings spent time observing teachers in public schools that were located in predominately low-socioeconomic school districts to figure out what makes them successful with typically low performing students. Some of the things she observed are all the teachers “shared pride in and commitment to their profession and had an underlying belief that all children could be successful” (learnnc). Furthermore, these teachers established trusting relationships with their students that allowed the students to take responsibility for their own learning. Lastly, these teachers also went beyond the classroom to show support for their students such as attending community events. These observations led Ladson-Billings to realize that in order for “teachers to use culturally relevant pedagogy successfully, they must also show respect for students, and understand the need for the students to operate in the dual worlds of their home community and the

Lisa Delpit’s book, Multiplication is for White People, she outlines different reform strategies that will change African American education in the 21st century. The first reform strategy Delpit outlines is to recognize and build on children’s strengths. When teaching in an urban school, teachers should begin by understanding the children and their home lives. Using the knowledge that the children already have, and building on that will help students succeed. Believing that African American students are not worth being taught, plays a major role in the way students react to their educator. I believe that once an educator begins at a specific school, they should survey the student's knowledge to use that to go forward. Then using that to build on everyone’s strengths throughout the year will help in class participation and build a sense of community in the class. Recognizing a student's strengths, will make the student believe that he or she has someone on their side who cares. Once they feel that someone cares, they will want to do

The argument Tyrone C. Howard tries to make in his article, Powerful Pedagogy for African American Students A Case of Four Teachers, is that effective learning occurs when different cultural background and experiences are incorporated in teaching. He shares that the rate at which African-American students learn is fifty fifty on part of the teachers as well as the students. While Howard believes that there are many quandaries to be addressed in the schooling system, only a part of it is reflected in the academic underachievement of African-American students. Howard states, “socially and emotionally, African American students struggle to adjust in US schools” (page 180, paragraph 2). This is not to say that African-American students have learning disabilities, but more so the teachers. The problems faced by African-Americans, too often are identified, but not addressed. Perhaps, the reason for this lies in the cultural and racial disparities in the US education system. A lot of African American children are sent to elite white schools because parents believe this is a better way for their children to obtain a good chance of moving up the social ladder. However, often times, these schools fail to supply such need and the children struggle because of the difference in ethnicity. People typically tend to believe that their way of life is better than others. What is worse is when children are taught that their culture is inferior in comparison to others. Being submerged in one 's

Watson (2011) discussed the views that pre-service teachers had when it came to teaching urban students. Watson interviewed pre-service teachers who were in a teaching program that catered to the needs of urban school districts. It was observed that these candidates had preconceived notions as to what urban meant. Some teachers were in shock to find out that these students did not live up to the expectations —or lack thereof—they had set for “urban” students. None of these pre-service teachers were black with only one of sixteen being of Asian descent. The majority of the teachers interviewed wanted to teach in an urban school, but they did not want the students to be too urban (Watson, 2011).

Urban school districts have the odds stacked against them. Often times the families attending urban schools live in poverty. Poverty creates many social-emotional, mental, physical, economic and educational issues. People regularly blame the students or their families as a reason why students in urban settings are receiving unequal education when compared to their suburban counterparts. What is not considered is “educational outcomes for students of color are much more a function of their unequal access to key educational resources, including skilled teachers and quality curriculum, than they are a function of race” (Darling-Hammond, 2007, p. 320). This shows that although poverty is an important issue to tackle, focusing on better preparing teachers and staff to deal with the special circumstances in urban situations is a higher priority when thinking about

My academic career at Saint Peter’s University provided me with the understanding in behavior modification, cognitive and personality development, economic disparities in urban communities, and cultural discrepancies. I found that these are interacting variables in academic and personal achievement. During my junior year, I had the opportunity to create an independent research project and presented it at the Eastern Psychological Association Conference with Dr. Maryellen Hamilton. The multiple socio-cultural environment of my school inspired me to investigate the linguistic factor of learning in an urban school. From my

Urban students are faced by far more challenges than students from affluent districts. Teachers in urban

Children who live in poor urban neighborhoods are disproportionately likely to be members of racial and ethnic minority groups and are at greater risk for school failure

In California, the academic achievement of low-income minority students in urban public schools falls behind the academic achievement of white students in higher-income areas. For example, according to the 2013 STAR test results, 86% of white non-economically disadvantaged 9th graders at Antelope High School, in the Roseville Unified School District, attained advanced scores in reading compared to only 58% of low-income Black and 49% Hispanic ninth graders (California Department of Education, 2015).

I believe my drive for wanting to become an urban teacher derives from my upbringing. I am an African American male who is himself a product of the inner-city schools, a low income, single parent house hold and a multi-ethnic underprivileged community. I am of the belief that education no longer needs to be an “elusive dream” for urban youth! Once we, as a nation, understand that every under-educated child is a national tragedy! Then we can begin to build meaningful partnerships based on trust and respect with the student, parent and community. I trust we can gain a better understanding of the dynamics impacting the urban learner by having a deeper understanding of the social, economic, societal, psychological, and environmental, forces that