Functionalist Perspective Of Underprivileged Schools

More likely to serve low income students is urban public schools which who are reportedly failing to educate the students they serve. In urban public schools, Numerous understudies and their families are living with serious financial disservice. Students are not proven to be the problem. The education that urban students in government funded schools get is evidently insufficient. To be a school that promotes a good academic status of students, you can’t lack basic social utilities. Poverty in urban schools can be fixed. A feature that characterizes effective schools involves coordination instruction among teachers which contributed to the weak academic performance of low income students. You must ask yourself what would be the best solution to help these students succeed? Because urban school are being run badly, they are failing. Improvement within management lies a solution. According to Chicago Tribune in the news article” Economic Inequality: The real cause of the urban school problem” findings show that the root of the problems facing urban schools can be found in gradual but extremely powerful changes in the nation's economy It takes a comfortable environment, suitable effective committed teachers, more use of instructional practices consistently and available necessities and needs. The most important statistic provided is the Growing economic inequality contributes in a multitude of ways to a widening gulf between the educational outcomes of rich and poor

For decades now, there have been educational problems in the inner city schools in the United States. The schools inability to teach some students relates to the poor conditions in the public schools. Some of the conditions are the lack of funds that give students with the proper supplies, inexperienced teachers, inadequate resources, low testing scores and the crime-infested neighborhoods. These conditions have been an issue for centuries, but there is nothing being done about it. Yet, state and local governments focus on other priorities, including schools with better academics. It is fair to say that some schools need more attention than other does. However, when schools have no academic problems then the attention should be focused

America’s school system and student population remains segregated, by race and class. The inequalities that exist in schools today result from more than just poorly managed schools; they reflect the racial and socioeconomic inequities of society as a whole. Most of the problems of schools boil down to either racism in and outside the school or financial disparity between wealthy and poor school districts. Because schools receive funding through local property taxes, low-income communities start at an economic disadvantage. Less funding means fewer resources, lower quality instruction and curricula, and little to no community involvement. Even when low-income schools manage to find adequate funding, the money doesn’t solve all the school’s

Throughout history, public schools have suffered and still continue to fail while the rest of the world is moving ahead. There are various barriers that have prevented low-income student from succeeding with the rest of the world. Parent involvement plays a role because if they lack higher levels of education, most likely this will cause the student to have a disadvantage. Also, because of families with

Using material from item A and elsewhere assess the contribution of functionalism to our understanding of the role of education.

School funding is a mix of different funding sources like federal, state, and local. About ninety percent of funding for education comes from state and local community. K-12 education has failed to keep up with high enrollment. Schools must spend to counter effects of poverty while many European countries alleviate these conditions through government spending. Currently more than forty percent of low income school get an extremely unfair share of state and local funds. Low income school are receiving inadequate funds for their school, whereas other schools in the United States are unfairly distributing their state and local funds. That is unfair to the low income schools because those schools really need the money for school books, field trips, etc. Funding for public schools has been quite unequal for years, but even though Americans are fully aware of this issue no one does anything to solve it. Researchers are trying to show them both sides of this unequal funding issue in public schools in order to help balance the distribution of educational funding.

If the education system relies most of their funding from taxes, where do they end up getting the rest of the money. The government and administration grant more money to wealthier areas than low -income areas. Wealthier communities are granted more money because they have a higher percentage of funding coming from property taxes. This leaves the low-income students at a disadvantage. People living in low income areas mainly rent and don’t own their own property. As a result of not having a house or owning property, they have little property taxes. If low -income students are not given enough money for funding a school, the students are suffering. With the lack of money causes students to miss out on college prep classes such as AP classes and Honors classes. These classes are pivotal to the students that want to pursue higher education and a road to success. For example students in the low-income areas are given a poor education. They are not given the resources, or quality teachers in order to achieve success. According to George Miller House Education and the Workforce committee, many students are not educationally ready to graduate and attend higher education (Minority 1). This is another reason why low income students should be provided the same classes as a middle class or a wealthier community. In a study, 2 million students in 7,300 schools had no access to all calculus classes, a staple in many high – achieving high schools (Minority 2). Low-income

This means that the good schools can only take in a few students, the proverbial tip of the ice berg. The rest of the students are relegated to schools in which their parents have no faith at all. This is tantamount to dooming these students to failure and being completely unable to do anything about it. The decline in the level of education in the public school system has prompted a lot of parents to opt for private schooling for their children. The problem with this is, of course, finances. Another problem facing the schooling system is the lack of streamlining of services. A comparison is drawn between the schools in the poor neighborhoods and their equivalents in the rich neighborhoods. The difference is astronomical. There is absolutely no coherency between the levels of services being provided in these institutions. Thus, the education system appears to be skewed. This is a worst case scenario situation for a system that is supposed to provide children with equal opportunities at a better life in the

“When we can predict how well students will do in school by looking at their zip code, we know we have a serious systemic problem” (Gloria Ladson-Billings 20). When we are able to forecast how a child will perform by where the child resides, then how can we say that every child is receiving quality education. The unsuccessful educational system infused into the United States is affecting the majority of minorities. In the United States students due to their race and social class, suffer from underfunded public schools, inexperienced teachers, and housing segregation, which in turn inhibit their opportunity to succeed through education. These difficulties plaque students from the very beginning of their public school experience and follow them throughout their academic life. There are a few solutions to these issues but they have to be implemented and enforced with a slow integration.

In the article entitled, A Tale of Two Schools: How Poor Children Are Lost to the World, by Jonathan Kozol, the writer is comparing the differences between New Trier High School, a school in Illinois that’s nestled in an affluent neighborhood against Du Sable High School, a school situated in an impoverished neighborhood that has 100% African American student in attendance. The article sadden and confirms things that myself and many others are already aware of, but has not been able to change. Schools located within the poor communities are

“ Historically, low-income students as a group have performed less well than high-income students on most measures of academic success” (Reardon, 2013). Typically low-income families come from low-income parts of the state making a school that does not have as much funding as a higher economic schools does lack in resources for their students. The school then has lower paid teachers and administrators, with lower quality supplies. This results in a school which typically has faculty who do not perform as well as the well-funded schools. “The law fails to address the pressing problems of unequal educational resources across schools serving wealthy and poor children” (Hammond, 2007). Students from low and high income families will not be able to achieve the same education because their education simply is not the same.

Department of Education, “documents that schools serving low-income students are being shortchanged because school districts across the country are inequitably distributing their state and local funds”. (Education, 2011). Students that come from low income families are not given the equal chance to get the education that students from high income families get. If students are not given the tools they need to be educated, then they will have a poor chance of succeeding in the world.

Having attended public schools throughout my childhood and adolescence, I never was familiar with the term functionalism and its many elements. After observing and analyzing my field placement classroom I have come to understand the concept of functionalism to some extent. In general, functionalists “see schools as serving to socialize students to adapt to the economic, political, and social institutions of that society” (Feinberg, p.6, 2004). They also theorize that in order for societies to survive, they must carry out vital functions such as, attaining fundamental knowledge and acquiring essential skills and proficiency, acknowledging certain norms and values within their community, and recognizing authority figures. It is also

Functionalist theory is one of the major theoretical perspectives in sociology. It can be argued that the functionalist theory has made a significant contribution to the study of society. It originates from the work of Emile Durkheim who suggests that social order is possible and society remains stable due to the functioning of several institutions. Everything has a specific function in society and society will always function in harmony. The main institutions studied by functionalism are the family, the education system, religion and crime and deviance.

The structural-functional theory also known as functionalism is sociological theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. Functionalists view education as a contribution to the smooth inner working of society. Education is a lifelong process, we are constantly learning new things and deepening our knowledge of things we already know. The education system works to prepare individuals to become fully functioning members of society. It works to teach people certain skills that will help them to be successful in life. However, education not only teaches people the skills they will need to be successful in life, but it also teaches them how to be decent citizens and to work well with others. Many people view education are a service to the overall function of society.