The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights has just issued a report which consists of a comprehensive survey of civil rights data from the 97,000 US public schools. The report concluded to no one’s surprise that our schools are still plagued by systemic inequities in education based upon race and income. This data also shows that 40 percent of the country’s school districts lack any preschool programs while those who do have these programs only operate them on a part-time basis. Also, 25 percent of the schools with predominantly black and Latino students do not offer Algebra Two courses while 20 percent of these schools surveyed do not have a school counselor. In addition, the data disclosed that schools with a higher proportion of minority students tend to be taught by first-year teachers who lacked
Obama officials release a civil right’s report citing school racial inequities, but no explanation or action.
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experience and are paid less than teachers at schools with low minority populations. The report also found inequities in expulsion policies as young minority preschool and kindergarten students are being expelled at a higher rate than their white counterparts. What is strange is that these programs are staffed by trained professionals who are supposed to educationally motivate young children at this age and not punish them with expulsion. Unfortunately, this civil rights report from the Department of Education offers no analysis, explanation, nor corrective actions for these existing educational inequities. Both Attorney General Eric Holder and Education Secretary Arne Duncan strongly urged states and school districts to eliminate these harmful disparities which obstruct disadvantaged children from being provided with the opportunity to receive a quality education. Attorney General Holder even labeled these racial disparities within the educational system as a “school-to-prison pipeline” for minority boys. However, these type of redundant lectures and self-righteous speeches that were given by these two Obama officials have gone unheeded for decades by the states and local school districts and they will continue to be ignored unless stronger federal policies, enforcement and funding are forthcoming.
The myth of the “good old days” and local control were not that goodThe multitude of disunited and inequitable educational programs and academic standards that are presently scattered throughout the country are an anachronistic system left over from the early 1900′s and not suitable for the contemporary needs of our children and society. Nonsensical and nostalgic talk about a supposed “good old days” for education in reality means it was only good if a child was white, middle-class and attended a good school. If not, most children were segregated by social class, income and race into separate and unequal school districts and educational programs. These programs were generally underfunded, lacked quality teachers and facilities, and possessed an “academic” curriculum ingrained with low expectations and
Mendez v Westminster: 1940′s lawsuit which banned segregation in California’s schools, still unrealized
a structure that tracked these students into a narrow and superficial type of vocational learning. This traditional model of low-level and non-challenging school curriculum and standards was also reinforced by legal and de facto racial segregation which added to the isolation of disadvantaged children and the denial of their right to a quality education. This archaic model of local control over education and its built-in failures still exists much to the detriment of minority students. Currently, the quality of academic policies enacted by local school boards are dependent upon how much competence and experience their elected school board members possess which includes their personal ideological and religious beliefs, a community’s affluence and property tax values which are utilized for funding schools, and the racial and cultural attitudes of local school educators. These are the unpredictable variables that affect the education of our children. The existence of thousands of school boards and districts nationwide combine all of these contradictory factors into a fractured hodgepodge of inequitable educational policies and divergent programs. While many students who reside in districts with top-tier schools receive a quality education which equips them for college, the rapidly expanding bottom tier of children in society are left to attend underfunded and inferior schools that do not prepare them to achieve a socially productive life. Local control of education can be beneficial for specific tasks such as implementing an academic curriculum to local conditions and reviewing policies and making decisions that pertain to financial and organizational issues. However, the existing disparity that exists nationwide with different academic standards and educational services provided by a multitude of districts and schools is not conducive to ensuring that all students are given an equitable and quality education and the same opportunity to succeed.
Our broken educational system needs a fundamental restructuring The pending implementation by 45 states of the Common Core State Standards has as its goal an improvement in the equity and quality of existing educational programs throughout the states. The fundamental objective of utilizing these new standards is to take steps to provide all students with access to educational services that are fair and an opportunity to achieve academic success. Meanwhile, critics on the
US academic scores lag other developed nations due to its inability to educate its students.
political right are asserting that the implementation of the CCSS is an intrusion by “big government” into the realm of education and state’s rights. Other critics state that the utilization of these new standards does not essentially change the old approach and methodology of teaching and will entail too much testing. Still others raise concerns about the effect that these new standards will have on the academic progress of English learners. Some of these are valid concerns that can be addressed and resolved without totally scuttling this positive effort to improve the qualitative level of education within our schools. Any permanent obstruction of this initial and formative reform effort will merely leave us with the harmful alternative of returning to the status quo of a broken and failed school system. Some detractors of this CCSS reform believe that the privatization of public schools in the form of charters is the answer to a faltering educational system that has failed to reform itself. While some charters are good, others are not. However, the
A “diverse” meeting in Ohio and in other states to oppose the new standards.
creation of these for-profit schools is merely a form of escapism and avoidance of the fundamental reality and problem facing us which is the urgent need to fix our public schools. The US is one of the only developed countries that lacks a national curriculum and uniform educational standards for all of its schools and children. This weakness is reflected in international education indexes that report the level of student academic achievement in developed countries and which show US students consistently scoring at a low level. This situation is made even worse by the inability of the US to provide a decent education for its disadvantaged and minority children. The present class-based situation within our schools is that there are some educational programs within more affluent communities which provide a good education for their students whereas a large and growing number of low-income students across the country are relegated to enduring a shoddy and deficient education. Nationally, the present system that consists of a traditional mosaic of countless types of curriculum and standards contains deep-rooted structural inequities and biases that need to be fundamentally changed. These inequities are one of the key factors that contribute to the persistence of deficient academic programs within the country which are riddled with low expectations and that continue to generate high dropout rates within minority communities. Our traditional and out-of-touch academic curriculum and standards that were developed over a 100 years ago no longer serve the modern needs of our students and society.
A national curriculum and standards can reduce educational inequitiesIf we look at the successful educational models of other countries they all share a common denominator. This commonality that they share is a national curriculum and standards which ensure that all of their children will receive a fair education regardless of social class and race. This is the type of contemporary model that countries with successful educational systems such as Finland and others utilize and we should try to learn from what works elsewhere rather than continuing to dogmatically swing in the dark for a new solution to our broken schools. The roll out of the CCSS is a step in the right direction toward correcting our lack of a common set of national academic standards. However, this implementation needs to be accompanied by a clear plan and flexible process that allows the states and educators to prepare in an adequate manner and have the ability to adapt these standards to local conditions. Other factors that need to be addressed with the use of the new standards are the academic
A comprehensive reform of our education system is needed to prepare children for a 21st century society.
requirements of English learners and special needs children. California has done a good job of preparing itself for the implementation of the CCSS while New York has botched their effort by not training teachers and prematurely resorting to testing before the new system and standards were even firmly in place. This implementation has to be done in a thoughtful and comprehensive manner which necessitates intensive teacher training, new textbooks, instructional materials and assessment tests, and more funding to decrease class size. This includes taking into consideration the concerns of students, parents and teachers. Without this comprehensive approach and material support the outlook for success will be minimal. In addition, less emphasis needs to be placed on standardized testing and more on new teaching methodologies that eliminate rote learning and emphasize new skills such as the analysis and integration of knowledge and how to relate its deeper understanding to the real world of experience. The antiquated method of organizing school classes into periods one through six results in separating and compartmentalizing knowledge and needs to be eliminated as this type of capsulized thinking does not promote an integrated understanding of reality and the related problems that exist within our society. These new standards are not perfect and it will require a number of years to iron out all of the problems that will be encountered in their implementation. The development of a new academic culture within our schools will take time to nurture, but the educational results will be worth the effort. In summary, what is presently being done in regard to our children’s education is not working and needs to urgently be fixed.
Racial inequity in education is a civil rights issue and requires federal actionIt has now been 60 years since the US Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v Board of Education ruling which affirmed the right of children to a quality education and the ensuing 1964 Civil Rights Act that “guaranteed” all people an equal access to education. This latest civil rights report by the Department of Education and civil rights officials clearly identifies the blatant problems of inequity within our schools which has been apparent to most people for years. This comprehensive survey which pinpoints these persisting problems is a good beginning, however, it is incomplete and useless as it presently stands. The report gives no explanation nor causal factors for this harmful and continuing situation of racial inequity within our schools and merely calls for vague and voluntary measures to correct this existing discrimination. It is similar to officials declaring during the 1950′s that legal segregation by the states was harmful and a civil rights violation, but then not doing anything about it. What is lacking in this deficient report is a set of systematic policy
The inequities have been disclosed, now it’s time for the feds to take action
recommendations and corrective actions to rectify these ingrained and decades-long problems which undermine the academic integrity of the educational services provided to our nation’s children. Otherwise, this data-filled report is not worth the time, money and paper it’s written on. Analyzing a problem is one aspect of a process while the interrelated aspect is to concretely solve it, otherwise, this entire process is reduced to an incomplete and futile effort. The response by the Obama government to these inequities is not “yes, we can”, but essentially no we can’t! The urgent resolution of this ongoing problem of racial inequity within our schools can no longer be left to the political discretion of the states and local governments as they are primarily responsible for creating the problem over the years and continue to knowingly allow its existence. This is also not simply a narrow issue of state’s rights versus “big government” as some conservative obstructionists have framed it, but rather one of children’s civil rights versus a system of racially inequitable schools. In the past, it has been the responsibility of the federal government to eliminate civil rights violations especially when they have affected the well-being of children. Today, this is still their civil task which they are not carrying out. The defense of state’s rights and local control by the political right are merely a cover for maintaining these existing racial inequities within the schools and for blocking a thoroughgoing reform of our antiquated and broken educational system. It is the duty and role of the federal government and its Department of Education to remove such obstructions by implementing policies and recommendations that eradicate these deep-rooted injustices within our schools. If necessary, the Department of Justice must take legal and enforcement action in order to ensure that these civil rights abuses being inflicted upon our children are abolished. Presently, the flowery lectures and hollow speeches minus any content that have been given by Obama officials which merely “urge” the states to correct these racial inequities will not result in improving conditions for the children who face these injustices on a daily basis. It has already been substantiated by past research that when children experience discrimination in schools it results in a lower level of student achievement for them. Lastly, politicians and educators cannot merely lecture students and parents about their need to become more “responsible” for their education without first providing children with the opportunity to receive an equitable education. Unless federal recommendations and action are forthcoming, this racial discrimination within our schools will continue to mentally damage young children and permanently harm their future lives.
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