Racial Discrimination In Schools

(a) With the growing amount of literature uncovering the racial disparities in school disciplinary practices, this study wanted to delve further and explore factors that contribute to the racial disparities of school suspensions specifically concerning Black students, and examined elementary age children and elementary teachers to perhaps determine a genesis of this discrepancy. The student’s overall level of behavior problems, characteristics of the classroom (i.e., overall level of disruption), and the teacher’s ethnicity were considered as potential factors that may contribute to the overrepresentation of Black students.

Racial disparities in school discipline have garnered recent attention in national reports issued by the U.S. Department of Education and Justice (U.S. Department of Education, 2014; Gregory, Hafen, Ruzek, Mikami, Allen, & Pianta, 2016). Suspension rates Black students are two to three times higher than those from other racial and ethnic groups. Various research has documented that Black students remain overrepresented in school discipline sanctions after accounting for their achievement, socioeconomic status, and teacher- and self-reported behavior (Gregory et al, 2016). There is a difference as to the reasons why White students are sent to the office versus Black students. Black students are sent to the office for subjective reasons such as “disrespect” and “perceived threat”, while White students are more than likely to be referred for more objective reasons including, smoking, vandalism, and leaving school without permission. (Gregory, et al, 2016). African Americans and especially African American boys, are more likely to be disciplined and often receive more out-of-school suspensions and expulsions than white students (Todd Rudd, 2014). Suspending students is taking away time from them being in the classroom. Students who receive suspensions, lose instructional time, fall behind on course work, become discouraged, and ultimately drop out…recent research has shown each suspension a student receives can decrease their odds for high graduation by any

Ever since Wilson High School opened its racial integration program, it changed from a prestigious, high achieving school to one filled with “at risk” students. Those new students get in fights often, skip school regularly, and have been in and out of jail throughout their lives. Because of their sketchy background, most of these students were treated differently and unequally than the other students at school. This issue has definitely gotten much better over time, and in today’s era we barely see much segregation at all.

African American students account for the larger majority of minorities in public schools in the United States. Most areas in the northern part of the United states and coastal areas are ethnically diverse. However, down south this is not the case. Students of color will experience a harder time in the education system. African American students meet the obstacle of educators who will not want them to succeed based on a preconceived thought. In fact, Caucasian teachers make up for 85% of all

Due to the discrimination of African-Americans, and oppression resulting from it, the government, justice system, educational system, and society has made it clear that African-American teenagers obtaining a thorough and effective education is the least of their concerns. It is almost as though African-American teenagers are purposely being set up to fail. As stated in “The Oppression of Black People, The Crimes of This System and the Revolution we need”, “Today the schools are more segregated than they have been since the 1960s with urban, predominantly Black and Latino schools receiving fewer resources and set up to fail. These schools more and more resemble prisons

African Americans are not the only ethnicity group to be singled out with behavior. Racial and ethnic minority students report experiencing low teacher expectations, having less access to educational resources, being placed on lower educational tracks, and being steered toward low-paying employment (Kozol, 1991; Olsen, 2008).This low expectation is causing

This chapter elaborates on how racism has a negative impact on African American education, in which has been happening for many decades and is currently taking place. Furthermore, it speaks about segregation and how it currently exists in different ways. Additionally, it speaks on how segregation not only exist in one school, but it likewise exists across the school districts. It speaks on how segregation in these schools has a negative impact on students’ academic success and future success.

Zero tolerance policies are the catalyst for the School-to-Prison pipeline. The problem with zero tolerance policies rely on several different factors. Even though, the vision for zero tolerance policies is clear in the sense that safety is a main priority, A ten year study of zero tolerance policies conducted by the American Psychological Association concluded that the use of these overly harsh policies "did not improve school safety." Since these policies are not increasing school safety it is a clear indicator that change in disciplinary methods is necessary. Additionally, these overly harsh policies create racial disparities mainly focused on minorities. The reason for these racial disparities particularly arise from implicit bias. Unfortunately, student of color and minorities are disportionately represented in suspensions, expulsions, and arrests. Exclusionary discipline principles disproportionately lead the youth, particularly minorities, from classrooms to court and prisons. Racial disparities within school’s disciplinary actions is clear when looking at discipline rates. The Civil Rights Data Collection, gathered by the US Department of Education, graphed suspension rates and disparities in a national test sample during 2012. Figure 1 portrays the ratio of white students that constitute for a little more than half of students enrolled in school while black and hispanic students constitute for less than

Hartford Public Schools (HPS) implements exclusionary discipline practices such as out-of-school suspension and expulsion, with 43310 student school days lost to discipline in 2009-2010. This loss of school time fell disproportionately and excessively against Black students, especially males. In the 2009-2010 school year, 52.3 percent of Black students and 64.8 percent of Black males enrolled in K-12 schools in HPS faced suspension or expulsion at least once compared to only 16.3 percent for white students and 21 percent for white males.

A recent analysis was released based on 13 southern states where suspensions and expulsion rates are overwhelmingly higher for black students than they are of white students. The director of the Council of state Governments Justice Center, a nonprofit policy group, stated that “blacks are more likely to be expelled in situations where teachers or school leaders have discretion on deterring how to resound to behavior, such as when a student is deemed disrespectful or defiant or violates a dress code.” Educators are prepared for educating students but are not prepared to deal with personalities that they don’t understand. “People are doing their jobs or living their lives, and do not understand themselves as agents of oppression.”(Young pg.42) Studies have shown that students who are expelled or suspended are more likely to get into trouble and end up with criminal backgrounds, than students who are not removed from school. (New York Times)

Tragically, some poorly performing schools accommodate as pipelines to prison for youths. But black people in America have an opulent history of resisting the efforts to keep them uneducated, including slaves learning in secret, the elevate of ebony colleges and universities, court battles, the ebony history kinetics, Liberation Schools in the 1960s, and community-predicated academic and mentorship programs that avail our youths prosper. Once formal schooling begins, inequalities continue. More than 140,000 students were held back in kindergarten in the 2011-2012 school year. Black students are more likely to be held back, despite mounting research showing that holding back children doesn’t benefit them socially or academically and makes them more likely to drop out later. Retention rates for students hit a high in ninth grade, when 34 percent of students held back are black. While 12 percent of black students are held back in ninth grade, just 4 percent of white students are, according to the U.S. Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection. When all grade levels are combined, black students are nearly three times more likely to be held back as their white peers. There is no surer way to get a whoop of appreciation from a Negro consultation than to affirm how strong black people are, how we have survived. As the title of a popular motivational book for African American English puts

A free public education is a right for every child in the United States of America, but not all schools are equipped to meet the needs of their diverse population. Therefore, success rates and academic achievement vary to a great extent. There are many unique gender and racial problems African American male students face and special attention needs to be given in order to close the achievement gap. Some of the societal and educational challenges faced include negative racial stereotypes, low income households, and institutional racism. However, educators play an import role in reducing those challenges through connecting their curriculum to African American culture and reducing their subconscious biases. There are many educational reforms that need to be implemented to create a more inclusive environment that fosters growth, learning, and success.

Often times this feeling of suffering that many black students face at schools are silenced and made to believe that it does not because our country doesn’t “see color”. But not acknowledging that schools serves as a place of suffering to Black students is doing them a disservice and continuing to add to the burden of what it means to be black in America.

Education is the foundation and building blocks to a successful and joyous life. With an education, you gain helpful knowledge, can attend different levels of school, earn a good living, and relish your life. But, here is the issue: African Americans find it tough to get a great education for various reasons ranging from our location to our environment. Another obstacle that restricts us from obtaining an education is racism and inferiority. It is widely said that, "Black intelligence is the most feared thing in the world". Because of this fear, others contribute less to black schools, make schools expensive, and sometimes make stricter requirements for admittance to great schools.

In 1954, the Historic Brown vs. Board educational decision took place to discontinue racially separate schools. Today, students of all races come together in a safe environment to learn. However, in American schools one can currently find evidence of desegregation in the system. Racial integration has become a large problem in today’s school systems. Instead of getting better after the Brown vs. Board decision, it is steadily worsening. The schooling system has strived to reduce stereotypes and racial biases that their students struggle with, but one can find evidence of failure. Racial integration is a growing monster that is hovering over America’s schools. Once the monster grows too big, there may not be a solution to scare it away. The problem of segregation is seen through unawareness, unintentionality, and unacceptance.