...Critical Analysis of Article Education and Urban Society, Vol. 35 No. 2 (February 3003) The Achievement Gap: Issues of Competition, Class, and Race Retrieved from http://eus.sagepub.com/content/35/2/151.full.pdf+html One of the key arguments in the Education and Urban Society, Vol. 35 No. 2 article is that closing the achievement gap between racial minorities and the racial majority does not merely require more competition and choice, but requires more objectives for educational attainment that are clearly defined, practices that are adequately implemented, and evaluations that are based on long-term effectiveness instead of short-term gains. An example given was the fact that public schools face critical challenges when defining equitable access and equality of opportunity for racial minorities in today’s standardized system of education. Due to the fact that Neither African Americans nor Hispanics have been able to receive adequate and equal opportunities to excel, their performance on standardize testing has paled in comparison to the rest of the population in the United States (Heubert & Hauser, 1999; Irvine, 1990; Jencks & Phillips, 1998; McNeil, 2000; Miller, 1995; Viadero, 2000). However, ironically enough, standardize testing is what is being used to measure the level of proficiency of students- even though these students are not being given sufficient tools to be able to learn the material given. Because of this many have scrutinized this system and have...
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...Assess the claim that ethnic differences in educational achievement are primarily the result of school factors. It is important to start by recognising that it is hard to measure the education achievement in different ethnic groups, as there are other factors apart from school factors that affect the achievement in pupils from different ethnic groups. Sociologists have identified several factors that could suggest that school factors are a big part of ethnic differences in educational achievement. An example of this is schools being blamed for coming across as ‘racist’ due to the ethnocentric curriculum that appears in the Curriculum within secondary schools. David conducted a research into the Ethnocentric Curriculum, whereby; he found that the history curriculum revolved around the history of white British people and their ‘glorious past’, with no recognition to any other ethnic groups and their history. However, the school would argue that this isn’t strong enough evidence to suggest that this is a factor that wouldn’t have any impact on educational achievement. Another factor that sociologists have suggested that affect educational achievement among different ethnic groups within schools is institutional racism. This is when a school is organised in such an ethnocentric way that every day school life discriminates ethnic minorities, with dress codes of the school policy, food supplied assemblies and school holidays could all be seen as institutional racism. School...
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...Effects of the California High School Exit Exam on Student Persistence, Achievement, and Graduation Sean F. Reardon Allison Atteberry Nicole Arshan Michal Kurlaender April, 2009 (full paper available at irepp.stanford.edu) Executive Summary Roughly half of the 50 U.S. states now require students to pass a high school exit exam in order to graduate from high school. These exam requirements are predicated on the belief that “raising the bar” for graduation will motivate low‐achieving students to work harder in school, motivate schools to improve their instruction for low‐achieving students, and provide employers with a clearer signal of high school graduates’ skills. Opponents of these requirements, however, argue that creating additional barriers to graduation discourages students—particularly academically and socially disadvantaged students—from persisting in school and hence leads to increased dropout rates and greater inequality of educational outcomes. Prior research has found somewhat mixed evidence regarding the effects of exit exam requirements, though the most rigorous studies suggest that the introduction of exit exam requirements leads to roughly a 2 percentage point decline in high school graduation rates. However, prior research has not examined closely the extent to which this effect results from students leaving school early or from students failing to pass the exam despite staying in school through 12th grade. In addition, prior research has not examined whether ...
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...The Achievement Gap How would you feel knowing your children won’t be able to have a good education because you are a minority or just because you don’t have enough money? The achievement gap is a difference in academics between different races and even in different social statuses. The major differences in the Achievement Gap are in the different grade levels, test scores and dropout rates between different ethnic groups The Achievement Gap affects a lot of people because they drop out before they develop adequate reading, writing, and mathematical skills. The Achievement Gap is a serious problem that affects Latinos and African-Americans because it reduces their educational opportunities and there are low expectations for those students; however groups like Harvest Prep are trying to close it. For Latinos and African- Americans, the Achievement Gap reduces their educational opportunities. One way the Achievement Gap reduces their educational opportunities is that “Only 1 in 50 Latinos and 1 in 100 African American 17-year-olds can read and gain information from specialized text—such as the science section in the newspaper compared to about 1 in 12 whites.” (Bottoms) This is saying that it is much more difficult for African- Americans and Latinos to understand some texts, but reading is only part of the struggle for minorities because they don’t get help when they are little they just get passed on to the next grade for someone else to deal with them. Another way the...
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...Sociological research has challenged the view that ethnic differences in achievement reflect innate differences of intelligence and ability; this has become a view that very few sociologists now put forward. Ethnicity refers to the shared cultural traditions and history, which are distinct from other groups in society. The level of achievement of different ethnic groups varies. This may be due to factors such as home background, class, language and in-school factors. Recent studies highlight the effects of racism. Ethnicity influences factors that lead to an impact on education. There are many reasons for educational underachievement and it has been said that ethnicity is one of these key factors. Item A suggests that Chinese and Indian pupils are of higher educational achievement than Bangladeshi, Pakistani, and Black pupils. One possible cause of ethnic differences in education could be at the fault of the education system. To investigate this Sewell carried out a study using semi-structured interviews and observations in an inner-city boys’ comprehensive school. His study revealed the ways in which African-Caribbean students are labelled by their teachers, peers and white students as ‘problems’ in the classroom. Sewell showed how Black boys use these negative perceptions to construct different responses to school based on their own ‘masculine’ images. Many of these belong in the anti-school culture, such as conformists and rebels, all in favour of gang culture. However...
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...The American Achievement Gap America. The land of the free. Home of opportunities. A place where all of this may have been accurate, but stands a test of truth today, in the 21st century. One may think that the United States is a wonderful place to live, however if one were to ask an African American single mom of two how her life is going they will find out that there are quite a few things wrong with the way our system works. Or one can simply take a look at our news and get a trifling perception of what our world looks like day to day. One reason behind, more or less, all of our complications is the achievement gap. The achievement gap according to edglossary.org “refers to any significant and persistent disparity in academic performance...
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...this equal education to many of our children, especially minority. It isn’t that the education is not there, but many other things such as , teachers,learning styles, and the culture of the school itself affect a child’s education. African American students at Forest high experience school differently than Whites. For example, many students at school were they are the minority report they feel less connected to school than do their White peers; many Black students contend that they are forced to participate in a system that has little regard for their culture, values, beliefs and cultural-specific behaviors. I believe that is the case at Forest High which is predominately white. Moreover, the belief that their academic performance is compared to a standard based on White, middle-class society and culture is common among Black students. African American students report feeling particularly venerable because of negative serotypes and perceptions about their group (Polite & Davis, 1999). Another issued or trend that affects Forest High is the lack of minority teachers, especially black. The majority (84%) of the U.S. teaching force is White and middle-class. The majority of those are women. Moreover, 38% of the nation’s public schools do not have a teacher of color on staff (U.S. Department of Education, 2007). As a result, most teachers are not knowledgeable about Black culture and the learning needs of Black students, as they have limited contact with Black communities. The...
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...The term “Achievement Gap” is used to describe the constant discrepancies of performance measures between groups of students by socioeconomic conditions, race, and gender; there is also a segment that focuses on the achievement of disabled students. White students are by far more privileged in regards to education. Minority students are students who are not Caucasian, but are of Hispanic, African American, or Asian descent. Minority students test scores have always been lower than that of their white peers. Minority students are also more likely to get lower paying jobs, are less likely to pursue higher education than their white peers and are at more of a risk to be put in special education classes. In the 1980s there was a push in education...
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...either excluded racial and ethnic minorities or presented them in an unflattering way (Farley, 2012). To remedy this, a true multicultural approach to learning is needed. This means the cultural bias that weaves its way through the entire educational institution needs to be addressed. Thus, the current stance on educational tracks, bilingual education, textbook development, and testing needs to be reevaluated (Farley, 2012). Likewise, the influence of teacher expectations in regards to learning ability and achievement must be dealt with. Addressing Inequities in Education As previously mentioned, America is undoubtedly a culturally diverse nation. People from all different walks of life make this country their home. However, society has been slow to...
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...States Supreme Court rendered its decision in the case of Brown v. Board of Education. Reactions to the decision were varied and touched a range of emotions among nearly all citizens of the United States. For some, Brown was heralded as the triumph over legal barriers to better educational opportunities for racial/ethnic and minority students. Yet, for others, it endangered a way of life that in the eyes of some, ensured “separate but equal” under Plessy vs. Ferguson (1898). Whatever the perspective, Brown meant a departure from past rules and values. It meant change. Problem In “Public Education in the Twentieth Century and Beyond: High Hopes, Broken Promises, and an Uncertain Future,” Nieto (2005) outlines key legislation over the past seventy-five years in U.S. education that has aided in leveling the educational outcomes for minority students. After the ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education (1954), policies aimed at providing equal opportunities to racial/ ethnic and minority groups began to emerge. As such, changes in population in terms of race, ethnicity, social class, and other differences helped to form the educational experiences of all students in U.S. public schools along with how we view, design, and implement educational policy. This, according to Nieto (2005) has laid the groundwork for thwarted attempts to live up to Horace Mann’s ideal of education as the “great equalizer.” What is interesting to...
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...ethnic differences in educational achievement. (20) Tony Lawson and Joan Garrod (2000) define ethnic groups as ‘people who share common history, customs and identity, as well as, in most cases, language and religion, and who see themselves as a distinct unit.’ When talking about culture we use terms such as customs, language and religion that is, about all of the things that are learned, shared and valued by a social group. It is a mistake to think of ethnic groups as always being defined by physical features such as skin colour. Although many ethnic minority groups in the UK are non-white, this is not applicable to all groups. According to Crystal (03), well over 100 languages are in routine use in the UK. Today, children from minority backgrounds make about21% of the pupils in English schools. The level of achievement of different ethnic groups varies greatly in Great Britain. This may be due to factors such as home background, class, language and in-school factors. Recent studies highlight the effects of racism. It is believed that ethnicity influences such factors, leading to an impact upon their education. When ethnic minority students do underachieve in education this may be explained partly by social class disadvantages and partly by educational disadvantages related specifically to their ethnicity. Although members of ethnic minorities are found throughout the UK class structure, Afro-Caribbean, Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin students are especially likely to be found...
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...feeling, meaning or definition to them, e.g. teachers might label their students as troublesome, or intelligent, mature or irresponsible. Interactionist theorists study face-to-face interactions where labelling occurs, looking at different ethnic differences in achievement. They focus on the range of labels that teachers will provide them with due to their different ethnic backgrounds. Their studies prove that teachers often see black and Asian pupils as far from being the ‘ideal pupil’. An example of this is that black pupils are often seen as a disruption to the class and the Asians as unreceptive. These negative labels may lead teachers to treat ethnic minority pupils differently and this could result to failure. A good example of black labelling is from the studies by Gillborn and Youdell; Gillborn found that teachers were quick to tell black students off for behaviour rather than others. They found that black pupils were expected by teachers to disruptive and have behavioural problems which would be seen as threatening or challenging authority. When this was interpreted wrongly, this resulted in negative feedback from the black students which also resulted in further conflict. They both conclude that most of the conflict that occurs between white teachers and black pupils comes from the racial stereotypes that teachers hold. Bernard Coard explains how the ethnocentric curriculum may create under-achievement. An example of this is the history of Britain, which are supposed to...
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...Currently, The Achievement Gap between white students and African American and Hispanic students cannot be completely closed by schools because there are too many outside factors limiting student success. In the contrary, others believe that the achievement gap can be closed through curriculum based changes made by schools themselves. There are factors that both sides can argue but, through investigation, I found that it is not possible to close the gap between white students and African American and Hispanic students by the help of schools alone. The issues preventing schools from closing the achievement gap stem from factors outside of school. The issues start with racial bias rooted in the government and results in unequal funding being...
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...Examine the impact of educational policies on achievement levels of different groups of students. Several educational policies have been established over many years, which had impacts on achievement levels of different groups of students, in terms of social class, gender and ethnicity. The mains policies include several types of compensatory education, Tripartite System through The Education Act 1944, comprehensive schooling, Education Reform Act 1988, Academies & Free Schools and tuition fees. Some viewed these policies positively as they believed that each of these changes had certain outcomes, however, others criticize them. The 1944 Education Act formed the Tripartite System, which established three types of schools separating into Grammar, Technical Secondary and Modern Secondary. Along with the system, 11+ exams were created to help allocate each child into the different schools, where the students who passed the exam went to Grammar and who failed attended either Technical or Modern. This Tripartite System was seen as effective as it discouraged social class discrimination because it was meritocratic as students are allocated according to their ability and performance. However, this so-called meritocratic Tripartite System was criticized since bourgeoisie students had parents with economic and cultural capital, which means they could afford private tutors and better education unlike proletariats so bourgeoisie students were more likely to pass the 11+ exams. Therefore...
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...Asses the strengths and limitations of unstructured interviews for the study of boys underachievement at school Unstructured interviews have advantages and disadvantages and as a qualitative method they are expressed through words and relay people’s thoughts, feelings and motivations. Unstructured interviews are interviews that don’t have certain questions meaning it’s more free and relaxed. They give us a deep understanding of the interviewee’s world because we can use the answers they give to shape our questions so that they are appropriate and relevant. However, using unstructured interviews can also cause problems, for example they take a long time to conduct. When looking at the advantages and disadvantages we need to look at how this effects what we are trying to research boys underachievement at school as this will affect whether the advantages and limitations are relevant to the study. A few advantages of using unstructured interviews when studying the underachievement of boys are that the informality of the interview allows the interviewer to gain the trust of the interviewee which is important in this example. Boys at school will not feel comfortable explaining their time at school and why they do/don’t enjoy school if the interviewer is very formal and makes them feel intimidated whereas by using an unstructured interview it allows the boys being interviewed and the interviewee feel more comfortable around each other meaning the boys will be more open and truthful...
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