The National Assessment Of Educational Progress Essay

The 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education intended to signal the end of racial segregation in school, but the actual outcome was more complicated. The court decided the previous ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson of separate but equal was unconstitutional, and that unequal educational opportunities based on race have detrimental impacts (“Transcript of Brown” n.pag.). As schools began integrating after the case, a backlash emerged and many white southerners resisted the addition of Black children to their schools. In no way did Brown v. Board solve or end racism in the school system, even though it advanced integration and established a legal standing on the issue. One of the most prevalent, widely discussed ways that segregation has continued is with disparities in race between schools. In fact, a 2013 study showed that Black students are more isolated now than 40

50% of Latinos, 53% of Native Americans & 62% of Black 12th-graders, scored below grade level in Civics (NCES, 2011).

For example, analysis by the National Center for Education Statistics in 2009 and 2011 showed that African American and Hispanic students were behind their white peers by an average of more than 20 test score points on the NAEP math and reading assessments at 4th and 8th grades, Which averages out to about 2 grade levels below their white peers. These gaps persisted even though the score of students tests between African American and white students narrowed between 1992 and 2007 in 4th grade math and reading and 8th grade math (NCES, 2009,

Moreover, that gap is steadily growing. In addition, the rankings are worse among people of color who are still largely educated in segregated and ill-equipped school systems. With regards to reading, the United States fares better—primarily because of focused efforts on building literacy and improving teacher preparation in reading for comprehension and learning styles.

In 1965, Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act as part of his “war on poverty” in hopes of closing the achievement gap between low income schools, which typically house larger percentages of student of color, and their more affluent counterparts. The act has been redefined and reauthorized every five years since its original enactment. However, despite the last 50 years of education reform, the disparity amongst high and low poverty schools is as large as it ever was. In turn, the disparity between students of color and white students has only grown. Clearly, the one size fits all approach to education America has been using does not work. The U.S public education system is broken and, as a country, very

For instance, eighty-one percent of Asian Americans, and seventy-one percent of Caucasian Americans have access to advanced courses such as algebra, biology, and chemistry; compared to fifty-seven percent of African Americans (USDE_OCR,

The “gap” as referred to in the title, is the distribution of the scores on achievement tests that differ between black and white students in the United States. The purpose of this study was to record the degree of the gap in achievement scores, decide how much of the racial gap is due to social-class, how the gap differed in the 30-year period, and how that which is credited to the social-class has changed over the years.

Ever since the establishment of equal education in the United States, there has been a disparity in academic success between children of different races. The education of African American children has become a prime example of this. As discussed in the historical text, A Letter to My Nephew, which was written during the time of the civil rights movement in the 1950’s and 1960’s, African Americans were not given equal opportunities to succeed educationally and could do little to change their futures for the better. They had to work much harder than whites to receive even a portion of the recognition and success that whites achieved (Baldwin 1). Although many today believe America has overcome this problem, it still remains a pressing issue in many aspects of society, arguably the most important being education. The racial achievement gap, an important term to familiarize with when discussing this topic, refers to the disparity in educational performance between students of different races (National Education Association 1). As of now, although the education achievement gap has been narrowing, there still remains a large disparity between African Americans and their racial counterparts. According to a study by Roland G. Freyer and Steven D. Levitt, professors at Harvard University and W.E.B Du Bois Institute, respectively, African American students enter kindergarten already significantly behind children of other races, and their test scores continue to drop

In 1954 the Supreme Court saw a case called Brown v. Board of Education of Kansas. This case was about segregation of public schools but before this was to be found unconstitutional, the school system in Kansas and all over the United States had segregated schools. For example, Topeka Kansas had 18 neighborhood schools for white children, but only 4 schools for African American children. (Brown v. Board of Education) Many people believe that the problem is no longer existent; however, many present day African American students still attend schools that are segregated. This problem goes all the way back to the 18th and 19th centuries when slavery was prevalent, yet still to this day it has not come to an end. Complete racial integration has yet to happen in many areas. This problem is not only in the Kansas City School District, but all over the country. The segregation of races in schools can impact a student’s future greatly. The Kansas City school district has been known to have the most troubled school’s systems for a long time.(Source) I’m sure the school board is well aware of the problem of racial inequality that is before them, but I will help them become more aware of the problem and how it affects a student’s future. In today’s society it is commonly overlooked on how important the subject of racial segregation really is. In this memo I will discuss the topics of racial socialization and school based discrimination in Kansas City, and the resulting effects that

After reviewing the Government laws and policies that have been in placed and replaced in history and more currently to contribute and correct the issue. The most important question of all remains. Why does the Achievement Gap still exist? According to former Secretary of Education John King (2016) “Black and Hispanic students continue to lag behind their White peers in achievement and graduation rates.”After so many attempts made by the Government to close the Gap and create equality, clearly there is something that is not being addressed across American Public Schools. Frederica Wilson (2013) former state senate member stated in the Brown vs Board Documentary There is such a difference in going to one school in one community and going to another in another community. Why don't we tackle that problem instead of testing the students predicting they will fail, watching them fail and denying them a good life?”The question now that remains how exactly are the schools different in different communities?

In American education, there is overwhelming evidence that there is an achievement gap between groups of students. In other words, there are measurable differences in the educations and test scores of different groups of students. Some gaps exist between groups or differing gender or socioeconomic status, but the largest gaps exist between groups of different races. America has always been a country with an influx of different cultures through immigration. In schools, these cultures still remain separated. The most noticeable separation is probably that of White and African American students. Although the achievement gap between White and Black students is easily seen there are other clear gaps in the education of Latino and Asian American

Equal access to quality education is a human right every individual deserves to acquire. However, disadvantaged communities are at risk when it comes to receiving quality education hence creating the achievement gap between colored students and white students. The article “In Their Own Words: Perceived Barriers To Achievement By African American and Latino High School Students” by Desireé Vega, James L. Moore III, and Antoinette H. Miranda and “Black Children Still Left Behind” by Ed Finkel both address the many factors that contribute to the achievement gap.

In “Opinion of the Court in Brown v Board of Education” (1954) Chief Justice Earl Warren argues that “separate but equal” has no place in American public education. Justice Warren goes on to support his claim by saying that black and white schools can never be equal because there are intangible things that go into a child’s learning that cannot be measured; therefore, if these things cannot be measured it can never be certain that the black and white schools are equal. In order to demonstrate the intangible inequities in segregated schools, Justice Warren recounts previous court cases where black students were placed at a disadvantage because they were sent to separate schools that were inherently unequal, despite having “equal facilities.”

We have come to understand public education in the United States as a core principle of one’s rights as a citizen in spite of it not explicitly guaranteed within the Constitution. Despite the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, we continue to witness the fight for complete and total integration within our public schools and thus, racial equality. The 14th Amendment forbid states from denying any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, but was unclear in terms of it’s exact intention with respect to public education. As a result, were unable to see the effective use and enforcement of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments until approximately the 1940s for a number reasons, but I believe that structural racism is the foremost cause. Today, we find ourselves struggling to achieve full integration within our public school system due to the covert intentions behind structural racism and therefore, it’s ability to overpower the law. Structural racism has the ability to impact legal authority in such a way where we end up with a lack of appropriate enforcement legislation at the Supreme Court level and a lack of acknowledgement and remedies for de jure segregation and thus, it is the primary cause of the current segregation within the American public school system.

This inequality and unnecessary act called racism within many school systems can be dated back to 1896 to the Plessy V. Ferguson case which resulted in “separate facilities for education” and an “equal education” (Campbell). This case is what provided us with the term “separate but equal”, this meant that white and black children had to attend separate schools but would supposedly get an equal education. Another case addressing racism in education is the Cumming V. Richmond case in 1899. This case involved three black families who petitioned the court to allow their children to finish their high school education at a white high school, due to the closing of the local black high school which would integrate African Americans and whites under one facility (Campbell). Racial segregation and its unfairness even continued into the 1950’s with the Sweatt V. Painter case involving an African American, Homas Sweatt, who was being denied access to the University of Texas Law School because he was black (Campbell). All of this unfair treatment of separate but equal education continued until 1954 when one of the most popular and familiar cases to all of us occurred, “Brown V. Board of Education”. In this case a young girl from Kansas had to walk 21 blocks to the closet black only school when a