Root Causes
Inequalities in education has been around for many years, even before my time. These problems have rooted from many places and many things, however, i believe that their are certain things that are key to why the schooling system in the united states has went downhill. These reasons are, the mindset that we are currently stuck in when it comes to education as a whole, the lack of responsibility when it comes to our officials that are in charge of the education system, and the over usage of standardized testing.
I believe that we are stuck in a mindset that was intended for education years ago. What i mean by this, is that when education first came around there was certain goal for these kids to accomplish and learn about. Now however, as we have evolved out of that era, so has our education needs and capabilities. For example, when the education system was first coming around, it was during the industrial revolution. This means that they set up schooling so that once they got out of school, they had a mindset to work. It was made to have two types of directions, those who didn't stand a chance due to lack of income at home, and those who were lucky enough to succeed because income at home. They also put them into categories that were considered to be the people who were academic, and those who were not academic. And we still see this today in school systems, when neighborhood schools get the last of the resources and when school such as selective enrollment schools receive majority of the resources. We need to get out of this idea that this still applies.
The lack of responsibility that our officials have not taken on, has made a blueprint of what's to come from our education which is a fulfillment what i've previously explained about our mindset on education as a whole. Today they tell us that if we want to succeed in life and we want to be successful we need education and it's a stepping stone to our future, but in all reality this is not the case. They make it so that those who have the resources are able to succeed and go beyond, and for those who don't, have to fight and thrive through the odds. They set people like myself and my community up for failure. However, they also do not have us in their mindset when it comes to our greatest benefit. For example, “within the attendance boundaries of closed schools, more money has been spent on incarceration ($2.7 billion) than on schools ($2.2 billion)” This means that they are more concentrated on incarcerating us than educating us. They have shut schools down because of funding, and then go turn around and spend money on jails, when we should be focusing our funding on keeping them out of jail and in classrooms. That money could have easily been spent on funding for resources, keeping our schools open, or even hiring librarians to access the libraries in our schools.
The over usage of standardized test are a big issue when it comes to inequalities in education. Today the funding and future of our schools depends on a piece paper with bubbles with letters from A-F. They believe that if you can score high on these test’s than we are making “progress,” but in reality these test are completely unreliable and do not do anything for us. For example, they have just added on a new standardized test on top of all the other ones, for freshman's called the Parc Test. According to http://www.parcconline.org, “The PARCC member states share this fundamental goal: ensuring that every student graduates from high school prepared for success in college and the workplace.” However, they cannot expect these students to progress if they are simply taking out more time of class time to prepare for yet another test. Also this does not affect students, but teachers as well. “According to a Sep. 2010 report by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, over 17% of Houston teachers ranked in the top category on the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills reading test were ranked among the two lowest categories on the equivalent Stanford Achievement Test. The results were based on the same students, tested in the same subject, at approximately the same time of year, using two different tests." This means that not only does this test affect us on an unreliable measure, but our teachers as well, and this is wrong.The quicker we come to a realization of this, the quicker we can reform our schooling.
Inequalities in education has been around for many years, even before my time. These problems have rooted from many places and many things, however, i believe that their are certain things that are key to why the schooling system in the united states has went downhill. These reasons are, the mindset that we are currently stuck in when it comes to education as a whole, the lack of responsibility when it comes to our officials that are in charge of the education system, and the over usage of standardized testing.
I believe that we are stuck in a mindset that was intended for education years ago. What i mean by this, is that when education first came around there was certain goal for these kids to accomplish and learn about. Now however, as we have evolved out of that era, so has our education needs and capabilities. For example, when the education system was first coming around, it was during the industrial revolution. This means that they set up schooling so that once they got out of school, they had a mindset to work. It was made to have two types of directions, those who didn't stand a chance due to lack of income at home, and those who were lucky enough to succeed because income at home. They also put them into categories that were considered to be the people who were academic, and those who were not academic. And we still see this today in school systems, when neighborhood schools get the last of the resources and when school such as selective enrollment schools receive majority of the resources. We need to get out of this idea that this still applies.
The lack of responsibility that our officials have not taken on, has made a blueprint of what's to come from our education which is a fulfillment what i've previously explained about our mindset on education as a whole. Today they tell us that if we want to succeed in life and we want to be successful we need education and it's a stepping stone to our future, but in all reality this is not the case. They make it so that those who have the resources are able to succeed and go beyond, and for those who don't, have to fight and thrive through the odds. They set people like myself and my community up for failure. However, they also do not have us in their mindset when it comes to our greatest benefit. For example, “within the attendance boundaries of closed schools, more money has been spent on incarceration ($2.7 billion) than on schools ($2.2 billion)” This means that they are more concentrated on incarcerating us than educating us. They have shut schools down because of funding, and then go turn around and spend money on jails, when we should be focusing our funding on keeping them out of jail and in classrooms. That money could have easily been spent on funding for resources, keeping our schools open, or even hiring librarians to access the libraries in our schools.
The over usage of standardized test are a big issue when it comes to inequalities in education. Today the funding and future of our schools depends on a piece paper with bubbles with letters from A-F. They believe that if you can score high on these test’s than we are making “progress,” but in reality these test are completely unreliable and do not do anything for us. For example, they have just added on a new standardized test on top of all the other ones, for freshman's called the Parc Test. According to http://www.parcconline.org, “The PARCC member states share this fundamental goal: ensuring that every student graduates from high school prepared for success in college and the workplace.” However, they cannot expect these students to progress if they are simply taking out more time of class time to prepare for yet another test. Also this does not affect students, but teachers as well. “According to a Sep. 2010 report by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, over 17% of Houston teachers ranked in the top category on the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills reading test were ranked among the two lowest categories on the equivalent Stanford Achievement Test. The results were based on the same students, tested in the same subject, at approximately the same time of year, using two different tests." This means that not only does this test affect us on an unreliable measure, but our teachers as well, and this is wrong.The quicker we come to a realization of this, the quicker we can reform our schooling.