My Personal Growth

The achievement gap is considered the "Greatest Civil Right's Issue of Our Time". As a minority student myself, I have always questioned the underlying factors of the achievement gap. Fortunately, I have not been a victim of some of the detrimental effects of the gap, but from attending a racially diverse high school, I have been acquainted with students who have suffered from it. The research that I have found through this blog project has helped me develop a better understanding of the stigma of racial inferiority. The disparity between the races has given me added motivation to succeed in life and in return, reach out to other minorities as well to push them in the right direction, so that they too can prevail through the discrimination and the doubts.

As I reflect over my growth as in individual, I must admit that I initially felt particularly swayed on the issue because I believed minorities were not given a fair chance to become successful. This feeling came from my school days before college, where I witnessed teachers treating kids differently in their teaching styles, as well as their tone of voice in classrooms, solely because of the student's race. It seemed as if teachers labeled some of the minority kids at my high school with a stereotype, before they even had the chance to prove themselves. These pre-existing feelings put students at a disadvantage from day one. Studies have found that incidences like this take place in schools throughout the country. I have also known teachers who did not commit to their responsibility as much as they could, or should have. If a minority child was failing, I expected teachers to dedicate extra time to that student so that he or she develops a better understanding of the material, but that was not always the outcome; this caused me to begin holding them accountable as part of the reasoning for why the achievement gap still persists today.

           

After weeks of working on this project, I have not entirely changed my original beliefs. Instead, I have evolved the way that I see different aspects of the achievement gap and in doing so, I have formulated my own opinion of the steps we should take to improve the current statistics between the races. Education is key to survival in this economy and since the children of today will soon be leaders of this country, a considerable amount of additional attention needs to be placed into its operation. The future of this country depends on it.

The utmost emphasis should be allocated to the parents of minority students. It is critical that minority parents start taking more responsibility in the academic lifestyle of their child because they are the student’s most influential role models. Looking back at my own childhood, I acknowledge the time and effort that my family put into my education. Furthermore, I respect the way they remained involved because their approval gave me an added incentive to work for. I know that not all students are graced with a family such as mine, so by making national efforts to expand the responsibilities of the parents or parent, the chance of a minority student succeeding increases significantly. Forming a reliable support system at home prepares the child in more ways than one. If minority parents begin to set higher expectations and become more active in their child’s schoolwork, then the child can only continue to develop into a better student. For example, a study shows found that in comparison to the parents of white students, the parents of black students have a higher tolerance for lower grades. The differentiation in the level of parental engagement between the races is completely unacceptable and it is one of the main reasons why the achievement gap is as wide as it is today.

There is no exact way to fully remove the plague of the achievement gap in education. Even though there has been a standstill in the gap between the academic achievements of minority students and black students, we must make the necessary attempts to improve its current statistics. As a nation, we have a great deal to overcome in education, so we must work together to fix the problem at hand. Everyone, including the government, school board officials, teachers, and most importantly, parents, must keep fighting to give our students the level of education that they deserve. America is known to be the “best”, so the scores of the students from current and future generations must reflect this assumption. Minority students have come a long way since the initial implement of the school system and must keep working to achieve their full potential. Even with the added support of adults, minority students must have to self-will to succeed. If I could tell minority students one thing, I would say, “Walk confidently and never settle. Always think highly of yourself, because the world takes you at your own estimate.”

Affirmative Action

President Barack Obama's Views on Affirmative Action

There are many people who believe it is not fair that minority students are given a special advantage in education. These same people do not consider race as a factor that should separate the way we see the success of children. They think that each child has the individual willpower to do well in school, so if they do not do well, then it is only their fault to blame.

These concepts contradict the view of Affirmative Action, a policy that President Obama discusses in the above video. Affirmative Action is a policy based off of preferential selection and is designed to take into consideration factors such as race, color, religion, sex or national origin. In relation to my blog, I want to focus on how affirmative action impacts the achievement gap.

In the video, President Obama openly advocates for affirmative action, but acknowledges the fact that some minorities do not need the additional "advantage". The qualifications to achieve racial equality in education are influenced by affirmative action because race and class go hand in hand. Some students need an extra push to attain a certain level of success that is equal to their peers, and some can accomplish this without.

The policy of affirmative action counteracts against the many years of racial discrimination, which is part of the reason the U.S. Supreme Court upholds its existence in education. For example, public and private universities are allowed to use race as a factor in admissions, although not all institutions take advantage of this procedure.

The achievement gap influences affirmative action because minority students come from an economic disadvantaged background in comparison to white students, which negatively impacts their academic achievements. And because universities base their admittance off of test scores and academic reports of the students, students of color are put at a disadvantage. Affirmative Action is implemented to help restore the balance and maintain racial diversity within institutions. If affirmative action was ruled unconstitutional, the number of minority students enrolled in university's would be dramatically reduced because fewer would be granted admittance, so its existence is critical for the academic future of African American and Hispanic students.

Rapping About School...WHATTTT?

The Only "F" I Get is For "Fantastic Work!"

Click the above link, and then choose "8th Grade Rap" out of the selections for a video on a group of young men who are rapping about the education they are receiving at Amistad Academy.

Amistad Academy is a charter school founded in 1999 with the goal to close the dramatic achievement gap between minority students and white students. If you do not know the difference between a charter school and a public school, charter schools operate independently of the district board of education and are funded by the number of pupils enrolled. The school bases its purpose off of distinct school principles operates on a more child-centered basis than public schools.

I found this video entertaining, as well as inspiring to see young men so enthusiastic about learning! It reminded me about an earlier blog post in which I discussed how incorporating culture into a minority's education results in a higher learning. The connection provides a way for them to freely express themselves in a positive way.

There is much controversy over the success of charter schools over public schools. It is argued that charter school provides students with better teachers in smaller classrooms, which leads to a higher education. Amistad Academy epitomizes the success that can come from minority students enrolled in charter schools and displays their academic achievements, as well as social growth among their peers. The video shows the confidence the students have in completing their schoolwork and how they value actually attending school, which is something that you can't always find in public schools.

Amistad Academy was developed on a list of core elements. The success of the combination of these elements have given the founders the opportunity to expand their educational model by opening twenty new schools through a new organization called Achievement First. Achievement First is a non-profit charter management organization that will base the operation of its schools off of the following elements:

               1. Unwavering focus on the breakthrough of student achievement

               2. Consistent, proven, standards-based curriculum

               3. Interim assessments and strategic use of performance data

               4. Longer school days (1.5 extra hours)

               5. Principals with the power to lead

               6. Increased supervision of quality of education

               7. Disciplined, achievement-oriented school culture

               8. Rigorous, high-quality, focused training for principals & leaders

This leaves me questioning if these "keys to success" are successful in charter schools, why can't the same elements be combined into the educational components of public schools. Although the funding and the ratio of students to teachers may differ in amount, I feel as if these elements are not enough to prevent a whole school from flourishing and educating young, minority students.

Informational Links

There are thousands of websites that discuss the achievement gap. I want to highlight on seven sites that I found contained the most useful information in my research.

1. Real Education Solutions
This website searched through many internet websites and viewed the information from dozens of educational organizations to develop what it thought is the top five solutions to closing the achievement gap. It goes into detail by providing statistics and links from other websites to help prove why it thinks that that solution is one of the best. The content helped me gather information and ideas that I used throughout many of my posts.

2. The New Crisis
I found this magazine through Google Books. It was published as a special edition on education. The six pages that I used as support in my blogs not only contained statistics and quotes from kids, as well as teachers and school-board officials, but also history on the progress of minority education. It also discusses the assumed thought process of minority students concerning their feeling of being inadequate in classrooms, and included information on the status of schools in numerous areas across the nation.

3. Education Week
This website focused on the disparities between the races and highlighted on one of the most influential assessments that researchers use to gather information on the status of the achievement gap. Commonly known as "The Nation's Report Card", the National Assessment of Education Progress highlights on the numerical achievements of African American and Hispanic students in comparison to White students. Furthermore, it discusses the results of surveys and other analysis's from experts to explain the differing performance between the races. I used this website specifically in my analysis post.

4. Parent Involvement
This is actually a like to a powerpoint that was changed into PDF format. The presentation focuses on how parental involvement and culture on the academic achievement of elementary school children. It divides the results of its study into the distinguished races to emphasize the differences. The study dedicated special attention to extent and impact of five contrasting types of parental involvement and provided the results that came from each inequality.

5. Status and Trends in the Education
In most cases, poverty is viewed as an added setback to minority students because they do not have access to adequate resources. This websites notes the percentages of Hispanics and Blacks who live in poverty in the United States, and as a result do not always have the same quality of education than students who live in better neighborhoods. The website also distinguishes the difference between students who come from married families in poverty and students who come from single-parent homes in poverty.

6. Worries Facing Minority Education
This website does exactly what it title says and discusses the extent of the achievement gap and the problems that will arise it progresses. It defines the terms involved in the issue, as well as some information on the history of the generation of minorities in education. In the article, the writer uses statistics that beg for an immediate change in our nation's school system.

7. Black Parents Waging Against War
This websites incorporates information and comments from an article published by a well-known black magazine, Essence Magazine. It takes into account social issues and how the views of parental involvement in their role in their child's education has changed since the initial desegregation of schools. Interesting enough, the site even comments on how some people blame the achievement gap on black women for "feminising" boys.

What About the Government?

If only completely ending the achievement gap was as easy as looking up a recipe to find the necessary “ingredients” and their individual measurements for its solution, the students of America would be in a much better situation. Unfortunately, that specific mixture for the recipe has yet to be found. Even though we have taken various steps to fix the problem, it has not been enough to rid us of the misfortune. Still, we, and especially the government, must continue to keep mixing different solutions to find the right method. Since I have discussed the interaction of family and teachers in education, in this post I would like to expand on the government’s influence on the achievement gap.

Former President George Bush attempted to improve the achievement gap by implementing the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) that called for stronger accountability from schools for results and put emphasis on stronger educational programs. The act requires students to be assessed by standardized tests, meaning all students in a state take the same test under the same conditions, in both reading and mathematics. In doing so, the goal is for every student to meet grade level requirements…in addition, if the school fails to meet these requirements, it will be imposed with punitive measures and students are to be provided with supplementary help. Although it provides specific attention to minority populations, the act has been highly criticized over the years for being ineffective, realistically unattainable, and encouraging teachers to “teach to the test”, meaning they focus more on multiple choice word problems in an attempt for students to score high on tests, instead of focusing on making sure the students understand the basics and concepts. Even I remember days when my teachers would stress over my class’s performance on practice tests, rather than just teaching and explaining the material.

President Obama’s administration directs special attention to the nation’s school system and education, and is currently redefining the government’s involvement in the way students learn. They plan to recruit new teachers and implement more incentives (yes! Teachers, ESPECIALLY those in public schools, deserve way more than they are currently receiving, *shoutout to my favorite high school English teacher, Mrs. Ward), better familiarize the future generation for success in college and in the workforce, and invest in early childhood education through programs such as Head Start, so that students are well-prepared before even entering kindergarten. In March of this year, Obama’s administration even announced their plans for revisions of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), which will push America into global leadership by focusing on “successful, safe, and healthy students”, supporting more subjects like mathematics and engineering, and by also administering college and career assessments.

Hopefully, by the government putting in added effort to improve the current statistics of America’s school system, more minority students will have the chance to succeed and become successful. In doing so, the recipe for closing the achievement gap will become a little more sweeter!

Xxpandyourmind to Other Social Issues

As part of our English Class requirements, my fellow classmates also created blogs that discussed various issues that are taking place around the world. Here are a couple that I have found insightful and are definitely a must view! =)

Health Care Reform
The availability of healthcare to United States citizens' has been a controversial issue for the last couple of years. This blog clarified many of the aspects of the current policy, as well as the changes that the new bill would implement under President Obama's administration. I enjoyed following her posts because they expanded my opinion on how all Americans deserve to have access to healthcare. Furthermore, the United States is one of the only countries without a socialized form of healthcare, which could be the reason why our current policy is not as successful in comparison to others.

Rights for All
As the years have passed, society has become more accepting of Lesbians, Gay, Bi-Racial, and Transgendered people, also known as LGBT's. This blog takes into account how people should not be discriminated for their sexual preferences and discusses many of the setbacks that LGBT's are forced to deal with. A couple of the primary issues discussed are marriage between homosexuals, as well as adoptions rights. Who are we to decide what is love and what is not, and why is it that many gay couples are seen to be unfit parents? Visit this blog to learn more!

Algae: Powering the Future?
I can bet that many of you have never considered the use of algae as an alternative resource. It never crossed my mind either, until I came across my classmate's blog discussing the positives that results from transforming algae into a sustainable energy. Even though the power gained from algae is not as powerful as fossil fuels, it is evident that fossil fuels will not last forever, so any kind of alternative that reduces our dependence on them is a positive step into becoming a more resourceful world. Go Green!

If the Issue is Not Resolved...

           The effects of the achievement gap over the decades are evident in the drastic differences between the academic accomplishments between Black and Hispanic students in comparison to white students. Research on the issue shows that parents are not taking the necessary steps to engage in their child’s schoolwork, as well as their school, which prevents the child from experiencing a support system where they need, and will use the most…at home. More so, there has been a large amount of speculation regarding the achievement gap and the factors causing it, but there has not been enough actions taken to fix the problem at hand. Superintendent Stephen Price of Middletown County schools of Ohio comments, "People want to talk about the cultural languages, barriers, and poverty, but we have to be brave enough to confront."

            If the right actions aren’t taken to further prevent the decline in the achievement gap, more and more students will continue to lose the chance to have a valuable education that is equal to their white peers. White students will continue to dominate the testing scores across the nation, which will consequentially affect the mental psychic of minority students who will feel inferior to their counter peers. As a result, minority students will not have the same motivation to continue to do well. If many people doubted you before you even had the chance to prove yourself, and if you didn’t have parents who supported your educational endeavors, would you continue to put forth your best effort to do well in school?

             The prolong of the achievement gap will magnify the number of minority students who are unsuccessful in school, putting them at a higher disadvantage, resulting in them becoming adults who work minimum-wage jobs and live in poverty. From this, the cycle only continues as the children who were once raised in a family that had low income without an adequate support system, become parents too, who raise their own family in a similar, if not the same, situation because they will embody how they were raised. From this, the black man will still be considered “second-best” to the white man, especially in the work force, even if he had to work harder than the average white student to attain his current position in society. African American and Hispanic students’ account for more then 30% of the children in school in the United States, so needless to say their success is imperative to have a positive future for our economy. Literacy, one of the main focuses in education, is viewed as the “language of profit”. The Washington Post writes about literacy, establishing the view that it makes the “rich richer” and the “poor poorer”. As if it wasn't evident, minority students need literacy to become successful in this economy but they cannot achieve this if they are not given the right tools. Education affects every part of our society, so receiving a quality education should be mandatory. Dr. Claude Steele, of New York University School of Education, recognizes, "The Black-White Gap is not likely to be solved overnight. It's going to be with us for some time". But hasn't it been long enough? Each day that a minority student suffers in the school system takes away from him or her achieving his or her full potential.