Low Diversity In Schools

Poverty is a serious issue which our society and children faces every day. It is a constant struggle that shouldn’t be ignored. UNICEF states “The study of OECD countries in 2007, over fourteen percent of Australian children under the age of eighteen are currently living in households who are defined as poor or with incomes less than half of the median national income”. The increase in the number and percentage of children living in poverty within our society has contributed to making today's classrooms more diverse than ever it has been. This highlights and makes both teaching and learning more challenging. Diversity exists in the students who are living in poverty and the education assistant and teachers must provide the concept of diversity

Districts could also assist in recruiting academically strong minorities to go into teaching and help to increase enrollment of minorities in teacher preparation programs. This will help in diversifying teacher staff.

Currently, I am student teaching at Alfred E. Zampella PS #27 School in the district of Jersey City. The school is located in a busy city, next to John F. Kennedy St. which is especially busy in the morning and during rush hour. This results in several late students on a day to day basis. On the other hand, this school is also highly accessible and as a little over a thousand students. The school has grade levels from kindergarten to 8th grade, and has a mix of general, special, and inclusion education classrooms. Typically, families that enroll their students into this school are of lower-middle socio-economic class, and tend to be majority Hispanic, Indian, and African American, with few Caucasians and Asians. This school provides a variety of special programs for their ESL students and special need students. Students may be offered speech language pathology, occupational therapy, physical therapy, ESL programs, reading recovery, and counseling.

As a member of several clubs and organizations, I have always valued the wide range of people you can find within the walls of my high school. If you walk into my Physics lab, you will find me collaborating with a dancer strongly involved in his cultural heritage and a volleyball player in the engineering academy. If you come to my Calculus class, you will see me calculating derivatives with a football player, a snowboarder, a National Honor Society officer, and a painter. The word “diversity” is often used to describe a cross-cultural population, but it is so much more than that. At Bartlett High School, students originate from hundreds of different cultures, with an abundance interests, and participate together in an assortment of activities.

According to the 2014 Public School Review Diversity Report, the state of Maryland is rated the third most diverse public school system in the nation, with 43% White students, 37% African American students, 11% Hispanic students, 6% Asian students, and 3% Unknown. With a significantly higher population of African American students compared to the state average, the Baltimore City School District is a far less diverse agency than the state school system as a whole. Collectively, the Baltimore City Public School District is comprised of 85% African American students, 8% White students, 5% Hispanic, 1% Asian/Pacific Islander, and less than 1% American Indian, Multiracial, Native Hawiian/other (Baltimore City Public Schools, 2013a). Considering

The problem is students in the middle school grades are not performing on grade level in reading fluency and comprehension benchmark assessments prior to the state assessment given in the spring. Also exploring more factors that can contribute to achievement gaps such as peer pressure, student tracking, negative stereotyping, and test bias go along with the gap being more than half the struggling readers.

I performed my field experience at Chiefland Elementary. Chiefland is a very small town with the population of six thousand. There are over eight hundred students enrolled at Chiefland Elementary. There are fifty-two instructional staff members and two administers. In those fifty-two staff members, there is one African American teacher and one male teacher; the rest are women. This is a white dominate school. In the school there is 73% Caucasian students, 17% African American students, and 4% Hispanic students. There is only 3% of students that are ESOL and 5% are Gifted and Talented. This semester we learned that in small areas and with low income schools, there are more Hispanics and African American people. In this case, Chiefland Elementary

Jonathan Kozol, a Harvard University scholar, witnessed the travesty of racial segregation within the inner city public educational system. After many years of teaching and exposure to substandard classrooms with dilapidated furniture, a shortage of materials to engage a pupil’s mind and a disproportionate diversity ratio, he could no longer tolerate the conditions in which he was surrounded. Kozol’s frustration compelled him to become a staunch advocate for disadvantaged children so that they might receive equal rights to a quality education.

In my high school black students are the majority, and I, a white girl, am in the minority. The city’s 60-40 white to black demographic ratio becomes 20-80 in the schools due to private school enrollment. The city of University Heights, our neighbor, does not share the same racial diversity that Cleveland Heights does. What diversity they do have is even further weakened due to a large private school population. Badly in need of structural renovations our high school is to be housed in a swing space for two years. Entering this swing space means crossing over city lines into the neighboring community. Many University Heights community members, including the mayor made it clear that the black faces that would be suddenly “invading” their

In chapter six the topic was about school and society. What I have gathered from this chapter is that a lot of schools and teachers aren’t incorporating and taking into consideration the culture and language of the students that attend the schools. The issue of diversity was major problem in schools and still happens today. The idea that minority students aren’t receiving the best education they can because teachers aren’t trained to fit their needs is kind of sad and unfair to those students. Students who come from Mexican families have a hard time communicating their teachers, because their teachers don’t know how to speak to them nor understand them.

Brisbane Catholic Education ensures that schools are an inclusive, supportive and engaging environment for all students, staff and caregivers. It strives to build a community that values, celebrates and responds to diversity (Brisbane Catholic Education, 2015). Catholic schools cater for students who have a diverse range of personal characteristics and experiences. These characteristics and experience include various physical, religious, cultural, personal health or wellbeing, intellectual, psychological, socio-economic or life experiences (Queensland Catholic Education Commission, ______). This diversity provides an opportunity to embellish the communal life of the school (Brisbane Catholic Education, 2015). This essay will

On average, a person set eyes on anywhere between 90,000 to 3 million faces in their lifetime, and only recollects approximately 3,000 of them (Bellamy). Regardless how many people a person may encounter in their lifetime, some people will form a false opinion about the other person based solely on their appearance. Never knowing what hardships a person might have gone through, how or why a person likes or dislikes certain things, or why a person reacts a certain way in different situations. As human beings, we have the ability to form opinions or beliefs based on what we have learned, read or heard. However, when it comes to certain topics such as HIV, people tend to jump to conclusions and begin the vicious cycle of discrimination, stigmatization

With my shift to SWA, it took me a great deal of time to research and question my decision on going to a new school, environment and class style knowing this was going to be a decision I couldn't go back on. With SWA having their own new switch to a new location, name and system of sorts having a new building that houses not only high schoolers but middles schoolers and younger! Sounds weird to have almost all grades within one build but they make it work with a diversity of classes, schedules, and teachings. With researching how SWA works with its diversity I saw no conflict between the diversity they have in the space they utilize, this seemed great for the type of environment I was looking for, inviting, friendly yet work orientated to finish

Educational Equity is a problem in the American School System today. Some students do not receive a fully developed education due to their rank in society. While the purpose of charter schools is to create educational opportunities for students who are socioeconomically disadvantaged, the reality of this effort often creates racially and economically segregated schools. Research from UC Berkeley shows that the percentage of elementary students who are black is higher in charter schools than in public schools. The driving force for creating these non diverse schools is the desire to provide under privileged students with equal educational opportunities. Philanthropists’ and benefactors’ focus on servicing minorities and high poverty students.

Maria is a new student in Mrs. Cowley’s 2nd grade class; she is from Houston, Texas. Maria’s family recently relocated to Pinckneyville, Illinois. Maria moved to Texas at the age of 3 from Mexico. Maria’s parents’ work visa has expired; therefore, Maria is an undocumented immigrant student.