Still Separate And Unequal Summary

the term receivement gap is useful because it focuses attention on educational inputs-what the students receive on their educational journey, instead of outputs-their performance on a standardized test. This refocusing also moves attention away from the students as the source of these disparities, and toward the larger structure and forces that play a role in their education and development (p. 417). Venzant-Chambers (2009) asserted the issue of the Black and White achievement gap must be viewed through other lenses opposed to the single view of Black students cannot perform as well as White students. Venzant-Chambers (2009) offered other avenues by which to examine the achievement gap such as school tracking, examining 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

The disparity facing African-Americans in education is cyclic in nature in that if a parent lacks the proper education required to possess a high earning power and as a result become another statistic of the lower class of the economy, hence being unable to provide their children with resources such as tutoring and other services that would help provide educational equity for them, these children are stuck lagging behind their upper-class peers that have access to these resources, leaving them with a lesser quality of education and limiting both their future earning power and their future children’s exposure to better educational resources, hence the cycle of educational disparity that plagues the African-Americans as a race.

There is much research on the Black and White opportunity gap and the potential solutions to address the education of Black students. Now more than 50 years after Brown v. the Board of Education (1954), the educational opportunities afforded to many Black students remains unequal when compared with what their White and Asian peers receive (Meier & Wood, 2004). Denslow (2000) describes how the opportunity gap has persisted over the past five decades, noting its deep

The achievement gap is defined as the an unequal or inequitable distribution of educational outcomes and benefits. Researchers have identified a variety of reasons why the achievement gap between whites and blacks continues to persist. Fryer and Levitt (2002) argue that initially there is no difference between equivalent Black and White children upon entering kindergarten. Supsequently as they continue in school they take very different paths due to Black children falling behind their White counterparts. Jencks and Phillips (1998) found that family experiences and preschool are instrumental in creating the achievement gap. They also argue that there is already a significant disparity between Black and White students as they enter kindergarten, which is different than the assertions of Fryer and Levitt.

In the literature, the gap is sometimes called an opportunity gap and sometimes it is called an achievement gap. The opportunity gap refers to the undeniable difference that exists between the opportunities for minorities versus their white counterparts. There seem to be several factors that influence this gap. A study by Oakes, Rogers, Silver, Horng, & Goode, (2004), observed that modern day schools in some California cities do not even meet the criteria for the landmark case Plessy vs Ferguson (Oakes et al., 2004). These schools are still segregated and there is an extreme disproportion of funds between the schools that service mainly minorities and those that service mainly whites. The schools that have a white majority usually tend to receive funding from local community members or the parents of the students that attend. While the schools that are made up of minority students, usually tend to be underfunded and the conditions inside the schools are not always the best (Oakes et al., 2004).

Rochelle Rowley and David Wright’s article, No “White” Child Left Behind, illustrates how racial inequality remains an issue in education. The authors incorporated the Longitudinal Study of 2002 to determine factors that resulted in the academic performance gap between White and Black students. This article critique will reflect on their findings and factors that contribute to the gap.

Kozol notes discrepancies in the education system, especially while focusing on schools with student bodies of different races and economic backgrounds. In fact, he conducts numerous studies with regard to disparities in schooling, which can be seen across regions that differ in their racial composition and wealth. For instance, he makes various observations in Washington D.C., Chicago, New York, and Cincinnati, which reveal the extent of disunity in the learning structure throughout the nation. Kozol’s findings provide a key insight, namely that the inconsistencies in the education system ultimately translate into vast disparities among students’ individual contributions to the society once they finish school. Ideally, the education system should offer everyone equal opportunities to best discover their talent and potential, allowing them to become productive members of society. However, in reality there exists a lot of unpredictability in the education system across the United States, which results in students being nurtured in dissimilar environments with vast discrepancies in the quality and cost of their schooling (Kozol 11). For instance, some of the schools in New Jersey are reportedly spending the lowest per capita amount of $3,000 on their students, whereas some schools spend up to $15,000 in Long Island. Such variations in raw expenditure cannot reasonably be expected to result in the

The education gap has been a long standing issue through the years in the United States. A study showing that over the past 50 years some causes of the education gap attribute it to income and the inequality amongst the races (Reardon 91). One event that we can associate with the difference in the education gap is the segregation of the races in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Blacks and whites lived in segregated areas, received different services and worked different jobs with different pay that created a gap in income. Since the majority of blacks were living in lower income areas receiving lower incomes and attending schools that provided inferior education, they were also subject to inequality in income achievement (Reardon 103). We

In education, white people have always been at an advantage compared to other races. African-American have had quite a setback in prior years. There was a time when African-American weren’t even allowed to learn how to write or read in our country just because of the color of their skin. There has been quite the improvement from those times in terms of African-Americans obtaining an education. According to Essentials of Sociology, only about 20 percent of African-Americans had a high school diploma in the year of 1960. The number has increased significantly to roughly 82 percent in 2013. That percentage represents a significant change that shows how our nation has progressed throughout the years. However, you are still at a set back if you aren’t white. “Black students were expelled at three times the rate of white students” (Hsieh, 2014).

Education in United States had come a long way since the last century with the acceptance of diversity in schooling; racial is not a problem in school, but rather economy is the obstacle. The article Racial Stratification and Education in the United States: Why Inequality Persist mentions “In the past the problem was “racism” and was blamed on the whites; today the problem is “poverty” and is blamed on the underclass. In the article also shows the studies of black and white children in the classroom. Both middle-class white and black children tend to do better in school than lower-class children. In the lower-class, the children might have more struggles outside of school in the money aspect; therefore, children have to take on different jobs

Modern research identifies race as a cause for educational attainment disparities; despite this conclusion, researchers have not yet ascertained a definitive reason why students of minority races have lesser academic achievement when provided the same economic opportunities and environment in which to learn as white students.  Several hypotheses assert that the inequalities must be due to racialized peer pressure and unjust teacher interactions or different racial expectations to which minority students and white students hold themselves.  In her article “Studying While Black: Trust, Opportunity, and Disrespect,” Sally Haslanger asserts that blacks are denied access to equal opportunity for knowledge based on racial discrimination and the resulting ego depletion of black students; she states that unjust epistemic exclusion is the cause for the education gap between blacks and whites.  In “It 's Not "A Black Thing": Understanding the Burden of Acting White and Other Dilemmas of High Achievement,” Tyson, Darity, and Castellino argue that black culture encourages black youths to uphold stereotypes and underperform in school so as not to be the target of racial bullying. If a black child were to achieve highly in school, they would be, in high school culture, “acting white,” which may cause peers to bully them.  Generally, this study says that cultural norms may influence race differences in education but does not hold

For instance, the gap in reading in 2007 between Black and White groups was significant in 44 states, in grade four. However, in 1999 to 2004 the gap for the age nine, in reading, was lower for a longer term than any other period. In the mathematic department, Black groups have grown significantly in 2005, while the White counterpart’s scores have not changed. Thus, causing the gaps between White and Black groups to be narrower in 2005. In 2005, Whites had a twenty-seven point lead over Blacks. The gap point gap in 2007 remained almost the same, with Whites having a twenty-six point lead in reading over Blacks. The reasons for the achievement gaps between Black and White groups are based on family income, social status, and poor schools.

Kiran Manglani, a second year Education student at the University of St. Martin, in her essay “Academic Competition,” reviews how students can benefit from academic competition. The author examines how competition is daily exercise that is a necessity throughout life and how empowering student to be competitors helps them to boost self confidence. Kiran states that students become better achievers in school when they compete. Competing also encourages the development of the student’s learning and helps them to gain self confidence from competing in competitions.

E. Campbell. In this article, Campbell explains the contrasting rates of achievement performed by White non-Hispanics and other ethnic groups. He says that minorities such as Hispanics and African Americans have higher drop-out rates than do non-Hispanic Whites. Consequentially, we are becoming a more divided nation; Schools for low income children and children of color are being overlooked and inadequately secure, staffed, and funded. The statistics show that those economic choices of unequal funding of schools produce most of the differences of achievement, which show evidence of racial superiority and inferiority. Campbell also gives in great detail the unsanitary conditions of schools containing a higher percentage of low income students. Campbell states that most of the failing schools in Chicago are predominantly African American and Latino. Finally, Campbell mentions our country’s history of race relations such as the enslavement of Africans, the murder of Native Americans, and the seizure of land claimed by Mexico. He wrote that despite decades of resistance and struggle, only little progress has been made toward abolishing racial oppression and stratification.