User:1Mehayla/Racial achievement gap in the United States

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The racial achievement gap in the United States refers to disparities in educational achievement between differing ethnic groups. It manifests itself in a variety of ways: among students, African-Americans, Latinos, and Chicano students are more likely to receive lower grades, score lower on standardized tests, drop out of high school, and they are less likely to enter and complete college than whites, while whites score lower than Asian Americans. There is disagreement among scholars regarding the origins of the racial achievement gap. Some focus on the home life of individual students, and others focus more on unequal access of certain ethnic groups to resources. Additionally, political histories such as anti-literacy laws and current policies such as school funding have resulted in a education debt between districts, schools, and students. The achievement gap effect economic disparities internally, the future of the national economy , political participation, and political representation. Solutions have ranged from national with policies such as No Child Left Behind and more recently the Every Student Succeeds Act to private industry closing this gap and even local efforts.

Income inequality

- Add section under theories about the origin of racial achievement gap

In the United States socioeconomic status of families affects children schooling. Sociologist Laura Perry found what she calls ‘Student Socioeconomic Status’ has the third strongest influence on educational outcomes in the United States out of nations within this study and it ranked sixth in influence of equity differences among schools. These families are more susceptible to multidimensional poverty, meaning the three dimensions of poverty, health, education, and standard of living are interconnected to give an overall assessment of a nations poverty.

Some researchers, such as Katherine Paschall, argue that family income plays more of a factor in the academic achievement gap than race/ethnicity. However, other studies find that the racial gaps persists between families of different race and ethnicity, and have similar income. When comparing White students from families with incomes below $10,000 they had a mean SAT test score that was 61 points higher than African American students whose families had incomes between $80,000 and $100,000. Which means there are more contributing factors than just economic status.

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In total, only 8% of public education funding comes from the federal government. The other 92% comes from local, state, and private sources. Local funding is consider unequal as it is based on property taxes. So those who are in areas in which there is lower property value, have less funded schools. Making schools unequal within a district.

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Teach For America

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Do I focus on pedagogical fixes or on reparations?

Teach for America (TFA) recruits and selects graduates from some of the top colleges and universities across the country to teach in the nation's most challenging K-12 schools throughout the nation. It began in 1990 with 500 teachers and has since expanded to over 4,000 teacher placements in 2010. In the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management they use individual-level student data linked to teacher data in North Carolina to estimate the effects of having a TFA teacher compared to a traditional teacher. According to studies about the effect of different teacher-preparation programs in Louisiana, North Carolina, and Tennessee, TFA is among the most effective sources of new teachers in low-income communities. Each of these statewide studies, conducted between 2009 and 2012, found that corps members often help their students achieve academic gains at rates equal to or larger than those for students of more veteran teachers. The findings show that TFA teachers are in general more effective, according to student exam scores, than traditional teachers that would be in the classroom in their stead. These estimates demonstrate that, compared with traditional teachers with similar levels of experience, TFA teachers have strong positive effects on student test scores. And despite the limitations of TFA teachers, they are no worse than average traditional teachers in teaching math subjects and much more effective in teaching science subjects.

Although TFA teachers tend to have stronger academic credentials, they have not been taught in traditional training programs, are more likely to teach for a few years, and are assigned to some of the most challenging schools in the country. Given these differences, the TFA program has been controversial. Critics of Teach For America point out two of the major problems. The first is that most TFA teachers have not received traditional teacher training. TFA corps members participate in an intensive five-week summer national institute and a two-week local orientation and induction program prior to their first teaching assignment, and therefore some argued they are not as prepared for the demands of the classroom as traditionally trained teachers. The second criticism is that TFA requires only a two-year teaching commitment, and the majority of corps members leave at the end of that commitment. The short tenure of TFA teachers is troubling because research shows that new teachers are generally less effective than more experienced teachers.

Legacy of discrimination argument

History Section?

- Discuss Education Debt History section

- Debunked theories of education

- Past policy that has contributed - Hyperlink to those wiki pages

- Ex. Banning reading ,

An argument has been put that the disparity in income that exists between African Americans and Whites directly contributes to the racial achievement gap. This school of thought argues that the origin of this "wealth gap" is the slavery and racism that made it extremely difficult for African-Americans to accumulate wealth for almost 100 years. A comparable history of discrimination created a similar gap between Hispanics and whites. This results in many minority children being born into low socioeconomic backgrounds, which in turn affects educational opportunities.

Research has shown time and again that the wealth and income of parents is a primary factor influencing student achievement . A low socioeconomic background can have negative effects on a child's educational achievement before even starting school; indeed, research has shown that the achievement gap is present between races before starting formal education. On average, when entering kindergarten, African-American students are one year behind White students in terms of vocabulary and basic math skills, and this gap continues to grow as a child's education continues.

I present a collection of contemporary racism as a reminder that racism still exists

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African-American family structure

Main article: African-American family structure

In 2010, 72% of Black babies were born to unwed mothers.

There is consensus in the literature about the negative consequences of growing up in single-parent homes on educational attainment and success. Children growing up in single-parent homes are more likely to not finish school and generally obtain less years of schooling than those in two-parent homes. Specifically, boys growing in homes with only their mothers are more likely to receive poorer grades and display behavioral problems.

For black high school students, the African American family structure does affect their educational goals and expectations also. Studies on the topic have indicated that children growing up in single-parent homes faces disturbances in young childhood, adolescence and young adulthood as well. Although these effects are sometimes minimal and contradictory, it is generally agreed that the family structure a child grows up in is important for their success in the educational sphere.

The black family structure is seen as a source of low student achievement because it is seen as a family structure that creates a “culture of poverty”. Research has found that student's that come from “culture of poverty” tend to be low achievers due to them already being at a disadvantage, making it hard for them to be high achievers.

Genetic differences[edit]

J. Philippe Rushton and Arthur Jensen suggested that the results of intelligence testing demonstrate that genetic differences can explain some or all of the racial achievement gap in American education.

Robert Sternberg later published a reply to Rushton and Jensen in which he wrote critically of their approach to the subject and of some of their specific claims and rhetoric. Sternberg states his belief that science should be conducted with values in mind. He then argues that Rushton and Jensen were wrong to suggest any policy implications of their research because international variation in social norms and definitions of success may affect the influence IQ has on the attainment of success. While Sternberg acknowledges that there is a genetic factor affecting individual intelligence, he asserts that intelligence is changeable, and at the group level, subjective.