Sociopolitical Influences on Education

Who we are and how we are treated as children is directly correlated to who we will become as adults. Spoken by Lyndon B. Johnson, “Until Justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men’s skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact.” These words are echoed throughout the educational system that is put in place today. Jonathan Kozol, an award-winning writer and public lecturer who focuses on social injustice in the United States, reverberates these words in his article, “From Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid”. Kozol proves his mastery in persuasion by the facts he provides and the personal anecdotes from teachers and students.

After 60 years of the Brown v. Topeka Board of Education ruled, the issues of obstacle toward the minorities still remain as a widespread problem in this country (Jamies Binder, n.d). Minority students don 't have equivalent opportunity to access education as white students in some certain areas such as government doesn’t offer enough fund to minority schools; education system have low expectation on minority students; some schools still retain segregation institution. On the other hand, these obstacles have produced the serial of serious damage to the benefit of minority students such as uneducated, high dropout rate and lack of academic support due to poor educational circumstance. According to Jonathan Kozol 's Book The Shame of the Nation and Shawn Ginwright’s and Julio Cammarota’s article, “New Terrain in Youth Development: The promise of a Social Justice Approach,” the three obstacles are segregation, funding, low expectation which deprive minority students’ natural rights to access education without limitation as white students.

“The school districts with the highest minority enrollments receive an average of $877 less per student than school districts with the lowest number of minorities enrolled.” In turn, these children are able to go further with more resources readily available to them. However, children in less affluent school districts face serious educational shortcomings due to little investment in the beggared communities surrounding the school. It is more accurate to say that America has two systems of public education. The first system, based principally, but not entirely in the suburbs of America and in wealthier urban districts, is in many respects mediocre, specifically in comparison to international peers in advanced industrial nations. However, the second system, based principally in poorer urban and rural areas, is an absolute failure; in which an exceeding number of students dropout well before high school graduation. An astounding number of students receive high school diplomas that do not certify academic confidence in basic subjects. An outstanding number of students are unprepared for the world of employment. An incredible number of students are unprepared to matriculate to institutions of higher education or advanced training.

Racism in teaching ELLs is the same as teaching students that are not ELLs, based on the nationality of the ELL in question administration and even teacher can fell that it is not worth the time or energy to help a student. This can come into play with children of migrant workers the most. These students do not always finish a school year in the same school, but must travel with their parents as the growing season changes. For this reason, teachers may feel that it is not worth the extra work to help these students based on the fact that they will probably not finish school anyway, but even if they finish school they won’t finish at “THEIR” school so they don’t have to worry about TEST results. One stereotype

The historical events that shaped the social and political status of African American education between 1910 and 1960 revolved mainly around the issues of slavery. The constrained African American education was mainly applied as a method quelling fears of slavery rebellions, which intensified the African American people’s desire for education. After the abolition of slavery, education for African American people was consigned to poorly funded and segregated educational institutions. Racial segregation in the US was a term that included segregation of services and facilities including medical care, education, housing, transportation, and employment along racial lines. This implies that segregation referred to social and legal enforced separation

With the creation of affirmative action policy, the election of the United States’ first African American President, and debate concerning reparations for slavery, twenty-first century America appears to have largely disowned its iniquitous history seated in centuries-long mistreatment and intolerance of non-white, minority peoples. Though the overt designs of slavery and Jim Crow no longer mare the American cultural landscape, the covert racist and classist machinations of bygone individual agents and national policies persist—though in lesser forms—within the nation’s paramount cultural institution: its education system. African American and Hispanic students consistently score lower on standardized exams—which determine grade advancement, college admission, and professional success--than white students (Ford).

For some students, race is a central part of their identity. The struggles they face with it determines the achievements that they can present to the admissions officers. Despite the current ban on the usage of race in college admissions in Michigan, admissions officers should not ignore any part of a student’s unique circumstances, which may be related to one’s socioeconomic status, race, or both. In the article, “Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid,” Kozol argues that the ongoing racial segregation and the lack of funding in schools consisting primarily of blacks and Hispanics are putting the poor and minority children at an disadvantage by not providing them a chance to have good teachers, classrooms, and other resources. While universities use scores to assess the academic ability of a student, minorities who attend schools segregated based on race or socioeconomic status may excel at what they are given, have the

Education has always been valued in the African American community. During slavery freed slaves and those held captive, organized to educate themselves. After emancipation the value of education became even more important to ex-slaves, as it was their emblem of freedom and a means to full participation in American Society (Newby & Tyack, 1971). During this time many schools for African Americans were both founded and maintained by African Americans. African Americans continued to provide education throughout their own communities well into the 1930’s (Green, McIntosh, Cook-Morales, & Robinson-Zanartu, 2005). The atmosphere of these schools resembled a family. The

To sit down and choose one salient and defining aspect of my education was like asking me to choose which one of my Godchildren I love more—nearly impossible. Thinking though some defining events in my schooling, many of the events that stuck out to me were those related to my race. This came as a huge surprise to me because I had a very non-conventional schooling experience. Due to my dad’s job I attended 5 elementary schools, 2 middle school and 1 high school in 5 different states. In each state and through every move, we lived in a fairly affluent area and I attended a school with a GreatSchools rating between 8 and 10. The schools weren’t lacking diversity by any means but they were also far from exceptionally diverse. It is for this reason that I chose to analyze how my race has affected my education, is continuing to affect my education, and will affect my impact and experience as an aspiring educator.

In the primarily African American cities within the United States education in school systems is absolutely terrible. Not only that but also the children in the schools wouldn’t stay in them long enough to get a high school diploma. This mixed with the preconceptions southern white plantation owners had of African Americans circa 1860 led many people to believe that African Americans were not psychologically equal to people of other races and ethnicities. This series of transitive thinking made me wonder why are these school systems so bad? The answer was simple lack of

This research was to get a glance of racial inequality taken place in the country's education system. The research analyst has found that black students and others minorities such as; Native Americans and Latinos students have fewer opportunities to be in advanced science and math courses. The nations Education Department have noticed the excessive numbers of expectation and suspension African Americans have. The education department has come to an analysis students in kindergarten classes around the age of four years face racial inequality in school from administrators( Hsieh, S.2014) .During the 2011- 2015 school year, the department have noticed black students were expelled at a rate of three times more than white students, black girls have a higher suspension rate than all other girls and most boys, about one in four African American boys, with learning disabilities received home suspensions to contract to that one in five girls of African American decent with a disability receives home suspensions and as schools with a high demand population of black students did not offer algebra or chemistry( Hsieh, S.2014). About 40% black students who are accounted of enrolling into schools with gifted programs offered, but in statics only 26 percent of them are represented in the program( Hsieh,

In the United States there is a long history of failure to provide every young citizen of this country with a good education. While there has been revolutionary advances to give every child their best possible chance to get an education; the same cannot be said about the quality of the education given to each child. Many studies have brought forth data that show minority groups within the United States have a much more difficult academic experience when you look at a child’s transition to kindergarten, a school required qualification for teachers, and their views on academic achievement based on cultural norms, and racism experienced.

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

On October 29, 1969, the Supreme Court ruled the end of segregation in school districts. This was the day that black students and white students would attain the goal of integration and the day that children “will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” Integration did happen, but it came with a price; the loss of identity of black people and the overwhelming presence of the Eurocentric model, “Despite the ethnic changes in the population of the United States during the last 40 years, education has continued to be based upon Eurocentric model, the teaching of the world view from a European-centered or a Western-centered point of view. (Darling-Hammond, 2010). For decades the school system has used the Eurocentric model and for decades black students have been stereotyped as the rebellious race that cannot achieve academically.

The education system. This is a topic for everybody and everyone up next. Everyone has gotten or is going to get an education in his or her lifetime, and the system is flawed. Many theorists believe that education has its ups and downs. More like, a rollercoaster effect at this point, but it brings the question of when can we get the smooth road trip feel; for our kids and our teachers. Education puts into perceptive how out of control necessities can get. A lot of parents are losing money and sleep over choosing a school for their children. Using three theories’, we can try and sway an audience to peruse better legislation to amend the situation, that effects everyone.