Racial Discrimination In Public Schools

For my historical conversations project, I want to focus upon the racial bias that is present within and negatively impacts our modern education system. I want to illustrate that racial bias is still present today, despite any major counter arguments, through two major factors including: faculty support towards colored students vs. non-colored and the distribution of school funds upon being dependent upon the ethnic make-up of the student population. I want to make this point to show how the U.S. education system has yet to achieve equal education opportunities for everyone, greatly affecting the success rates throughout a wide array of institutions from lower grade public schools to higher education at the university level. Even though I am

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

Gary Orfield a professor of Education, Law, Political Science and Urban Planning at the University of California Los Angeles states in the book “Closing the Opportunity Gap”, chapter four of “Housing Segregation Produces Unequal Schools”, “Educational opportunity is directly and deeply connected with housing segregated neighborhoods linked to segregated schools produce unequal education. Where a family lives generally determines the quality of the schools its children attend” (Orfield 40). In many cases minorities attend schools that are generally linked to segregated schools because their

Education and economic justice were two forms of systemic inequalities that make inequality difficult to talk about. Education is a requirement if someone wishes to have a better life, but not everyone has access to quality education. In the U.S there has always been a battle, people of color have fought to be able to access quality education, (Philips, 2016: 130) they are constantly attending inferior and ineffective school where there are many distractions for students to be fully successful in the classrooms. Often these schools where children of color attend lack quality facilities, educational resources, and qualified teachers. Someone can’t help to notice that in general such unqualified schools are mostly in color people’s neighborhoods.

With the use of actual statistics, Kozol provides analytical support and demonstrates how racial segregation and inequality is very evident within many poverties and the afflicted inner-city school

Two articles, The Facts about the Achievement Gap by Diane Ravitch and From Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid by Jonathan Kozol, provide facts about the crumbling education system in the inner cities of America. Schools there have shown to be segregated, poorly staffed, and underfunded. While the theme of both articles may be educational shortcomings, the content is surrounded by discussions of segregation. There are more underlying factors the authors are missing. Readers need to be rallied together in a unilateral cause to identify the issues affecting the nation’s education system, segregation is not one of them.

In the article “Still separate, still unequal” Jonathan Kozol describes the reality of urban public schools and the segregation in education, which is still a major problem in our educational system. According to the author the main problem for minorities is money. White students can afford a good education before they enter kindergarten, while minority students are limited in what they study. For example, suburban schools, which primarily consist of white students, have better education than urban schools which primarily have African American and Hispanics. If Jonatan Kozol is right that the educational system is still separate and unequal, as I think he is, then we need to reassess the popular assumption that the educational system is the

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

In the article “Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Education Apartheid” author Jonathan Kozol informs us about inequality and segregation in today’s school systems. Kozol talks about schools were minority’s makes up the student body. For example, Kozol refers to John F. Kennedy High School where the majority of the student body is made up by African Americans and Hispanic students, only a third of the students are white. Kozol states that schools like these are typically underprivileged schools that normally have structural issues and also lack behind in technology and resources for students. Kozol also brings up the predominately white schools where on average there is more money spent on students and funding is not a problem, these

As I read about the achievement gap (Taylor), I felt a sense of despair. Families of color are positioned between a rock and a hard place. When children enter kindergarten, the racial gap is half of its ultimate size because many children of color do not participate in high-quality programs. How can people of color "catch up" to their counterparts when they are behind at the age of 5? There are also institutional factors that continue this achievement gap and perpetuate racism by consequence. After Brown v Board of Education (1954), white families enrolled their children in private and suburban schools. Since school busing has been discontinued, school assignments based on residential neighborhoods have created racially segregated schools.

Unequal educational opportunities for black students are a huge effect of racial segregation. Education has become a major problem dealing with racial segregation. Education is the foundation of literacy and success in America and African American students and schools are suffering. Schools in the U.S. are retracting back to segregation. As schools districts began to release schools from court order integration schools began to retract increasing test score disparities and national achievement gaps in large amounts not seen in four decades in the south. A national study conducted on the achievement gap between black and white students says “Nationally the achievement gap between whites and blacks during the integration period narrowed but as schools began to be released from court order integration schools became more segregated widening the achievement gap between black and white students” (Jones 1). Because of racial segregation the quality and access to education in African Americans is worsening over the years as school districts stop enforcing integration. But surprisingly, residential segregation has a big play in how well

There is also an underlying punishment in the segregation found in education. Schools that black children attend are segregated because they are located in poor neighborhoods. Living in high-poverty neighborhoods for multiple generations adds a barrier to accessing achievement. It is not possible to desegregate schools without desegregating both low-income and high-income neighborhoods. Residential segregation and ongoing poverty have left African Americans in some of the most terrible housing in several of the lowest-resourced communities (Rothstein). Black citizens also suffer from concentrated poverty. About 45 percent of poor black children live in neighborhoods with concentrated poverty. Only 12 percent of poor white children live in concentrated poverty (Algeron). Children in neighborhoods with concentrated poverty experience more social and behavioral problems, have lower test scores, and are more likely to drop out of school. Part of the difference in educational outcomes likely comes from the different environments black and white children live in during their school years. Black children are far more likely to live in households that are low-income, extremely poor, food-insecure, or receiving long-term welfare support (Ford). Black children are less likely than white children are to live in households where at least one parent has secure employment. In addition, black children have the greatest

This can be clearly seen in the strong relationship that exists between a school being predominantly black and concentrated poverty, and the fact that an intensely segregated African America/and or Latino school is 14 times more likely to be a high poverty school than one that is less than 10% black or Latino, (Williams, 179). Another significant indicator of the lower socioeconomic status experienced by

“Persistent school segregation does not only mean that children of different racial and ethnic backgrounds attend different schools, but their schools are also unequal in their performance” (Logan, Minca, and Adar, 2012, p. 40). Although segregation is not done intentionally, the negative effects of this are seen in urban school districts. This is evident in high stakes test scores and the graduation rates when compared to their suburban peers. This paper will argue that the schools themselves, including teachers, are a piece of the puzzle that continues to spread inequality in our urban educational system.

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