Does skin pigmentation impact on the quality of education that students receive in the U.S schools? The U.S perceives that its educational system is incredible in the sense that it is accessible to all individuals irrespective of their socio-economic inclinations, ethnic categorization or race. However, a wide gap (20%) prevails about academic achievement between white students and students of color (Camille, Ryan & Kurt, 2016). The U.S has become a state that embraces segregation and inequality in academic institutions and watches as if nothing can be done to address the situation. The discussions herein will, therefore, focus on racial discrimination and their impact on student’s performance, methodologies for mitigating the disparities, and the importance of ethnic diversity in academic institutions.
The Civil Rights Act that was initiated in the year 1964 guaranteed that individuals would have equal access to education. This was after the landmark ruling by the Supreme Court following the Brown vs. Board of Education case (Resmovits, 2016). The ruling prohibited segregations in academic institutions and supported the right to access quality education for all individuals. Nevertheless, the current school system exhibits greater shortfall when dealing with the right to education for all. The U.S academic institutions are plunged in racism. Typically, there are numerous racial disparities when it comes to funding, disciplinary actions, school enrolment rates, and the curriculum adopted (APA, 2012). Despite the U.S efforts to address the matter by developing non-discriminatory programs, racial discrimination is still prevalent in her academic institutions. In fact, the initiated programs have turned out to be a major hurdle for the minority students hence elevating the rates of racists in schools.
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A survey report released by the U.S Education Department showed some of the racial disparities evident in the U.S public schools. The report indicated that many students of color get severe punishment. Statistics have shown that schools that had 75% of blacks and 51% of Latinos had police officer (Ahmed, 2016). Chances of a black student to be subjected to law enforcement by their schools were 2.3 times compared to the whites. On the other hand, surveys indicate that 31% constitutes the population of students who were arrested following an offense they committed while in school. Furthermore, students of color have limited access to professional teachers. It is unfortunate that majority of colored students lack the access to experienced and certified instructors (Ahmed, 2016).
Denying students with such opportunities is depriving them of a chance to that would make them productive post-education. The saddening part of the issue is limiting the possibilities of colored students from studying advanced courses such as medicine, engineering among others. Only 28% enrolled in the so called “gifted courses” (Ahmed, 2016). This denies them a lifetime opportunity. Students of color are regarded as the minorities in the majority of the academic institutions in the U.S. Most of these students are required to learn English so before proceeding with their converted courses. However, the majorities of them are stuck in schools and are regularly provided with new teachers who lack teaching experience. It has also been reported that 7% of these students school in institutions where an approximated 20% of instructors do not meet the standard professional qualification for the occupation. In addition, students of color are not fully represented during program preparation (U.S. Department of education, 2016).
Apparently, this is an implication that the U.S. tradition is risking the educational attainment of the students of color by creating a variation of qualification among teachers (Aud, Fox & KewalRamani, 2010). Allocating lowly certified teachers to schools with high enrollments of the minority groups is suicidal to the quality of education they get. Poor academic qualification is characteristic of students of color. However, where is this problem coming from? Notably, the deprivation to access certified teaching professionals and other resources to facilitate their academic programs justifies their poor performance (Orfield, 2016). Highly educated instructors who have a wealth of experience in teaching teach white students in public schools. Hence better performance is characteristic of them. Now, it is apparent that skin pigmentation determines the kind of school that a student will attend, which on the other hand will determine the quality of education they will get.
Typically, unqualified teachers are ineffective and will always have trouble in developing curriculum, managing classes, motivating learners as well as developing instructional strategies. They have little knowledge about how students learn and acquire skills. They will have challenges in understanding the vast learning styles of their students, the anticipated difficulties in students’ learning, or restructuring the instructions to meet the needs of the students. Additionally, they will always have a perception that it is not their duty to do that and in most cases, they will be shifting blames to the students whenever their teaching mechanism fails. The expertise of teachers interrelates with the quality of the curriculum in the sense that an expert teacher is required to address the challenges posed by the curriculum.
Studies have also established that the learners and the instructors are both tracked. This statement is that teachers with remarkable expertise (highly monitored teachers) are employed to instruct demanding courses to learners who are advantaged (highly tracked students). On the other hand, lowly tracked teachers are assigned to lowly ranked students. The issue of tracking is race related in the U.S. Despite the fact that the scores between the black and white students may be comparable, the black students stand a higher chance of being assigned, lower-track instructors.
Students of color particularly the blacks have a limited instructional time since the likelihood of them becoming expelled or suspended from school is high (Ahmed, 2016). For instance, the rate at which black students were suspended or expelled was three times more that of their counterparts. The surveys by the U.S education department revealed that in one academic year, 16% of black students were suspended. On the other hand, only 5% of white students were suspended during the same period. According to the report, the rate at which black girls were suspended was 12% more than the rate at which girls from other ethnic groups was suspended (Resmovits, 2016). This coupled with their limited access to tutors with proper certification and robust professional experience implies that their performance will decline.
The severity of racial discrimination is also demonstrated in the pay that teachers get depending on the nature of the institutions where they are employed. A study by the U.S education department revealed that one out of four school districts paid instructors in schools with less diversity 5,000 dollars more than the instructors who were serving in schools with a high population of black and Latino students (Resmovits, 2016). Discrimination of this sort causes a decline in academic performance of students in the minority category. Many authors indicate that racial discrimination is the reason why the majority of the minority students drop out of school.
The effect of racial discrimination goes beyond the overall unequal access to resources in schools. It induces mental torture among students. The U.S. schools need to deal with the psychological pain that racism inflicts in students in learning institutions. For five days in a week, students are under the school custody to attain their academic goals. However, the minority students experience mental torture during this period. It is saddening that the U.S. does not take significant actions to ensure that students do not experience any form of mental torture. When a student is discriminated racially, he/she will develop mental suffering that will haunt him/her entirely. A student will become frustrated since he/she is disregarded, ranked lowly academically, punished severely, and lack of sufficient financial support to help him/her become successful in schools. With the current exponential trends in discrimination in schools, there is going to be elevated instances of mental suffering because students will nurture a feeling that they are inferior to their white counterparts.
In one way or another, many people find themselves segregated from particular groups in workplace, schools, public transport, or in their neighborhood. The segregation may be based on huge factors that make us different. In schools, for instance, race, gender, intellectual capabilities are just some of the factors that can lead to stratification. However, racial segregations that form a primary concern for this paper should not be advocated in learning institutions. Learners need to be encouraged to embrace racial diversity since it has plenty of benefits to offer both at individual and institutional level. The U.S. being a multicultural state, therefore, needs to shun racial discrimination by promoting racial diversity in educational institutions. Racial diversity is beneficial in schools because it expands the worldliness of students (GreatSchools, 2016). For instance, students in colleges can interact with people from all lifestyles for educational reasons. Schools that embrace diversity will thus have a chance of providing their students with an opportunity to interact indirectly with the world without traveling to distant places.
Interactions of this type are essential in promoting social development (GreatSchools, 2016). By mingling with students from various walks of lifestyle expands the students “social pool.” In other words, the number of individuals whom the student can associate or rather develop a relationship with will have increased drastically. Ideally, in this 21st Century “Non-Diverse” type of life is turning out to be boring. With that realization, many people including students seek to establish a friendship with individuals of different race and culture so that they can be enjoying the giving of nature. Furthermore, students study so that they can extend their services beyond their geographical boundaries. This is an implication that they need to be equipped with the necessary skills that would make them adaptable in diverse places they will intend to work. Therefore, by embracing diversity in educational institutions, students will ready themselves for their future careers. Why is this so? An academic institution that is racially diverse nurtures sensitivity to human diversity as well as the capability of associating with people from different cultural backgrounds.
Essentially, racial diversity in schools readies students for employment in a dynamic society that is reflective of the face of the global (GreatSchools, 2016). Irrespective of their career, students will always find themselves working in an environment that is productive in the workforce from all geographical corners. The fact that such candidates would have experienced racial diversity in the school, they would have developed a platform for ensuring that they are comfortable in such environments. In response, they will be able to interact freely with individuals from vast nationalities as they make significant contributions to the ongoing work. Besides, interacting with people from different races increases our pool of knowledge. Various scholars have shown that a lot can be learned from people who differ from us that those who relate to us. The same way an individual thinks harder whenever he/she encounters a novel material while undertaking a course in college is the same way they will react whenever they mingle with people from other races.
Academic institutions that fancy racial diversity encourages innovation or rather creative thinking. Naturally, humankind exhibits variations in the manner in which we deal with situations. Encouraging ethnic diversity in academic institutions is one of the ways in which organizations can develop to be centers of innovative ideas. This is true since there would be “hybridization of ideas” among the students that would later development of robust technologies, methodologies, and ideologies that would provide a way of tackling problems innovatively. In other words, racial diversity being a form of diversity provides for individuals to improve their perspectives on problems from different vantage points. Typically, the vantage points are advantageous to a person, particularly when a new challenge comes up in a slightly different situation. Importantly, instead of viewing the world from one perspective, an individual will have multiple options to weigh upon prior to making a decision.
The main importance of education is to stimulate intellectual awareness. Many studies show that such stimulation becomes difficult if self-awareness is not enhanced. One of the methods in which self-awareness can be strengthened among students is by embracing racial diversity. It has been established that learning from individuals whose background and experiences vary from ours develops our self-knowledge and self-understanding. Students can compare their experiences with that of other differing people. In so doing, they can make informed decisions regarding their academic and career profession (GreatSchools, 2016). Therefore, racial diversity in an educational institution will help in enriching the students in diverse angles that would free them from the traditional norms that were centered in ethnicity and ego.
Racial discrimination needs to be eliminated in schools. The government can achieve this goal by providing equal funding to students irrespective of their race. It is ironic to see that students who need more financial support are the ones who end up getting lesser funding for their education. It is also apparent that the tracking program initiated by the government is another cause for racial discrimination. Therefore, there is the need for the government to eliminate this program. The program locks majority of the blacks to remedial programs, yet their schools lack enough resources to improve their performance. Locking students is an implication that their right equal education is deprived.
In conclusion, there is the need for the government to re-examine the all its policies including those of discipline. It is apparent that some programs deprive student’s access to sound education. The manner in which schools apply some of the policies is wanting. This study has shown that some of the programs initiated such as the academic tracking program harms students with color compared to their white counterparts. Besides, many of them are suspended or expelled from schools hence ending up receiving less training time. The policies have given schools a lot of autonomy that is now being used to harm the minority students more that they do to white students. In this regards, some policies ought to be adjusted or eliminated.
References
Ahmed, S. (2016). Racial Disparities Persist in U.S. Schools, Study Finds. CNN . Retrieved from http://edition.cnn.com/2016/06/07/health/schools-disparity-education-study/.
American Psychological Association. (2012). Presidential Task Force on Educational Disparities . Ethnic and racial. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/ed/resources/racial-disparities.aspx.
Aud, S., Fox, M., & KewalRamani, A. (2010). Status and Trends in the Education of Racial and Ethnic Groups (NCES 2010-015). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2010/2010015.pdf.
Cameille, L., Ryan & Kurt, B. (2016). Current Population Reports: Educational Attainment in the United States, 2015. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2016/demo/p20-578.pdf.
GreatSchools Staff. (2016). How Important is Cultural Diversity at your School? Great Schools Retrieved from http://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/cultural-diversity-at-school/.
Orfield, G. (2016). Race and Schools: The Need for Action . Civiles University of California- Los Angeles: Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos. Retrieved from http://www.nea.org/home/13054.htm.
Resmovits, J. (2014). American Schools are Still Racist, Government Report Finds. The Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/21/schools-discrimination_n_5002954.html.
U.S. Department of Education. (2016). Report: The State of Racial Diversity in the Educator Workforce. U.S. Department of Education . Retrieved from http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/report-state-racial-diversity-educator-workforce.
