Do you think that race is a factor in education in the U.S.

by recovering 70 Replies latest social current

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  LoveUniHateExams

  Do you think that race is a factor in education in the US?

  Do I think that racially biased teachers is a big issue? No, I'm pretty sure the vast majority of teachers want what's best for their students, regardless of the students' backgrounds.

  Do I think different mean IQs between different groups is a factor in US education? No, not one bit. The differences between groups are only very slight. Exam results and academic potential are the criteria for college/uni applicants, not IQ scores.

  Race and culture must never be conflated because they are two different things. Race (or ethnicity) is something a person cannot change but culture is behaviour and thus can be changed.

  Having said that, there is some overlap with race and culture, e.g. Latino people often have 'Latino culture', black people often have 'black culture'.

  African-Americans have a big problem within their culture that is surely a factor in education ... and that's the high percentage of single parent families.

  I read somewhere that more black kids in the US grow up without a father today than in the 60s or at the time of emancipation.
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  LV101

  Great Teacher -- Perfect!

  Education begins in the home with responsible parents. It can't change as long as there are inadequate parents - it's very sad but reality. Good teachers are a tremendous encouragement and opportunity to the underprivileged child -- thank you for all you do. I have friends in same type of schools you are who work so very hard and are extremely committed. At least today low-income areas are funded with extra resources for the many challenges of children in these communities.
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  Simon

  Simon you just love to get a nasty comment in. Oh well I guess that is your nature lol

  Aw, diddums, did the nasty man hurt you? As I said, you're attempt to get me to say something you can use to criticize or label me is pretty obvious and transparent and I don't like when people play silly games. You're not as clever as you think you are.
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  humbled

  Below is a paragraph portion from a Fordham University paper on the school to prison pipeline.

  While many think of this phenomenon as a matter of overt racism this paper makes you strong case that it is not a matter of personal motive or buyers by people in authority but rather institutional structures that create cycles per by parents and children in communities of color fail.

  silentbuddha’s and Grrreat Teacher’s (Education begins in the home with responsible parents. It can't change as long as there are inadequate parents - it's very sad but reality.—GT)experiences of school cite first hand that poor students of color flounder and often fail. This 43 page footnoted look at these stunted communities is important to the matter.

  The pipeline's sorting dimension encompasses policies and practices that stratify students into social hierarchies which determine their chances of being pushed out of school and incarcerated. At a macro level, students are sorted through housing policies and practices that result in racially seg- regated communities, Macro-sorting contributes to the pipeline by locating students of color in underachieving schools that entail disproportionately high pushout and incarceration rates. Students are also stratified at a micro-level through education policies and practices, such as standardized testing and tracking, that racially segregate students within schools.

  https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=http://scholar.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=2632&context=ulj
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  LV101

  Simon is 100% correct re/teacher unions and the political system.

  The school districts administration departments are extremely top heavy -- over staffed chiefs and few Indians is the saying here. They're political from the top down and that's nothing new. Great salaries in this admin/political arena and teachers fight for every pay increase -- Pelosi's term "crumbs" can be applied re/education system. They lose so many teachers -- they can't make a decent living. Young, intelligent, vibrant, teachers, start out with so much enthusiasm to educate but many can't deal with the political-crazy, nonsense. I've not known the unions to be useful in any capacity other than to withdraw from their meager pay scales. Doubt even the strong-arm Teamsters could help them with the strong political system's legacy.

  The children in elementary schools are handed out (challenged schools) brand new laptops -- now just guess how many make it back to school after a weekend! It's crazy. Wild parents or significant others making threats to the staff/principal - just a normal day in many of their lives. Many lock downs because of nutters. Pawn shops and drug dealers do very well on laptop day. I
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  LV101

  Unions withdraw from teachers' paychecks in addition to any initial skimming of education budget.
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  Hairtrigger

  Recovering, I don't know! And that's the frustrating part!

  The only thing that keeps these schools functioning at all is the extra Title I money that provides for some equalizing and stabilizing. It provides breakfast for students. It provides extra staff for things like alternate learning areas for students who are disturbed so they don't affect the rest of the classroom. It provides extra teachers for smaller class sizes so the teacher has more time for personal (read remedial) help for each individual student. It can provide money for things like security cameras for safety. It can provide after school programs for homework help and mentoring. It can buy only what money can buy, which is a lot, but it's not enough!

  While this is true of some school districts others might not be using title 1 money’s for what it is meant for.

  LAUSD has a touted surplus of 1.7 billion. No librarians, No fine arts or Art. Ranks 46th in the nations n as far as class size . Take an average of 35-40 per class. Discipline shot to hell . No suspensions no Expulsions allowed. No janitors . Classrooms in schools I know swept one a week if at all.

  They now have something called Restorative Justice- borrowed and modified from the prison system - without the consequences for regular offenders. Teachers scoff at the stupid idea and it’s failure to cut the mustard.

  Did I mention the board members gave themselves a 179 percent ( not sure maybe 187percent ) raise a year or so ago. And they want to turn the whole shebang into Charter.

  Students with 4th and 5th grade reading skills are in high school. Teachers are compelled to give them passing grades for fear of being questioned as to why they have so many failures in the class.

  These are some of the obvious problems faced by the teaching community which no one wishes to question or talk about.
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  GrreatTeacher

  My teacher's union is for teachers only. I will gladly pay my dues for every paycheck for the collective bargaining over salary alone. For some reason people think teachers are grossly overpaid. We have Bachelor's degrees and Master's degrees. We have student loans for those degrees!

  We only get paid for 7.5 hours a day, yet routinely work much more. Our hourly rate sounds okay, but we don't work only those few hours, and late days are routine so our actual hourly rate is much lower! Our district and the public definitely get their money out of us!

  Administrators have their own union. Food service workers have their own union, so I can't speak to those.

  I don't necessarily agree that my district is top heavy. In fact, they've laid off a lot of people, especially curriculum writers, at the same time that they've decided to drop commercial programs/ textbooks in favor of writing their own curriculum!

  That crap flows directly downhill! They've created these guidelines for their new, inhouse curriculum, yet taken away textbooks/ commercial programs and then laid off curriculum writers! Guess who now gets to do the actual hard work of creating this inhouse curriculum? The teachers!

  I often have 4 novels that I read on weekends and have to create lessons for. Two years ago, there were small group reading books with resources galore for teachers. Nope, all gone! Now we have students reading novels and we have to create the lessons (which must follow strict, micromanaged guidelines) ourselves.

  Guess what I'm doing this summer? Reading novels and creating lessons for next school year because I physically and mentally can't handle another school year where I'm working hours after school and on weekends.
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  humbled

  http://alongtheline.ascjweb.com/education/rkolanz/

  Hairtrigger- coincidently was just reading about Boyle Heights school district in a gang area of LA. The brief video interviews are good to watch.

  Grrreat Teacher—you are a champion to do that work. The short interviews above mirror your experience. So frustrating that voices such as your own are not heard.

  These problems are similar to all failing schools and struggling communities . The incarceration rates in all these areas have impacts too.
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  LongHairGal

  LV101:

  I agree with you that there have to be responsible parents behind the scenes. Somehow many parents today have dropped the ball and think that somebody ELSE is responsible for their children.

  My parents read to me as a small child and I practically knew how to read before I learned it in school.