The Racial Learning Gap - Essay Example

1 “The Racial Learning Gap” Order no: 175950 No: of pages: 4 Premium – 6530 In order to acknowledge the much talked about and so called “achievement gap” in learning, no one needs to be branded a racist. From time immemorial “Racial discrimination” always existed but was not thrust so much into the foreground, but the present times nurture and cater to this fact and hence it always seems to be one of the most burning issues facing the present generation. “Today, not only are educators everywhere talking and writing about it, but also minorities themselves are leading the discussion”. (Kate Zernike, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Nov. 2nd, 1999) Edmond Gordon, a retired professor from Yale University, brought out this fact for a discussion at the conference. A general opinion was that “Blacks dont do as well as their white peers on a host of academic measures, even blacks with affluent and well-educated parents”. (Edmond Gordon, Nov. 2nd, 1999) Part of the frenzy seems to stem from the fact that colleges conduct new high stake tests that are become a necessity for graduation in many states. The results are segregated by race and income and made public by publishing them in newspapers. The real estate people use this to determine the 2 value of a neighborhood. “When the gap is in cold, hard type for the world to see, it is hard to ignore”. (Kate Zernike, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Nov. 2nd, 1999) In his article “Closing the reality Gap” Gerry House points out that our schools and colleges that boast of high graduation and the like, still do not use technology, information and skills to better their knowledge. Humanity has moved through the Primate or Stone age, the agricultural Age, the Industrial Age, the information Age and now it is in a totally new Age which author Daniel Pink calls, “the Conceptual Age”. (Daniel Pink, “Closing the Reality Gap”, April 2006) This age not only requires people to be knowledgeable but also competent, creative and curious. These types of skills are to be made use of in this conceptual age in order for good results. In a special report on “Closing the reality Gap”, (Gerry House, April 2006) he argues that our students face two serious gaps that risk the future prosperity of a country. One of them is an intellectual, rigorous and challenging curriculum and the other is about student achievement that is publicized after segregation by race, ethnicity and family income. Gerry calls the convergence of these two gaps as “Reality Gap” (Gerry House, “The Reality Gap”, April 2006) Recently speaking to the nation’s governors, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates recently stated that American high school education is “obsolete.” And “When I compare our high schools to what I see when I’m traveling abroad, I am terrified for our workforce of tomorrow”. Therefore the challenge lies in the hands of the educators who have to bridge these two gaps to ensure that high quality education reaches all sections of the people and not some of them. 3 In places like Minnesota, this gap seems wider. According to educators there, the student’s of color do not fare as well as the white students. They put this down to several reasons. The primary reason being poverty, the other is academic disparities between racial groups. They call this disparity as “achievement gap”. It has now become a national priority to close this “achievement gap”. “The No Child Left Behind Act” requires schools to report on the performance of different racial groups. States are asked to raise the performance of students or risk losing federal funds. (Minnesota Public radio, July 9th, 2007) “The Bell curve”, (Richard J. Hernstein and Charles Murray, 1994) the 1994 controversial best selling book by Richard J. Hernstein and Charles Murray claimed that student achievement gap were the natural result of disparities in a student’s genetic make up and ability. But these claims were ostensibly refuted by experts saying that more subtle factors in the environment were the cause of these achievement gaps. In a study conducted by Jeynes on a national sample of 20, 706 High school students proved that highly religious and intact families Latino and African American students scored equally well as their white counterparts. Jeynes emphatically states that the two major factors which help to eliminate the achievement gap are religious faith and stable families. “The results indicate that faith and the presence of two biological parents are sources of strength for many children of color," (Jeynes, Christian Post reporter, 30th March 2007) Another point taken into account by Jeynes was that the achievement gap was much higher in students who attended religious schools than students who attended public schools. According to the study conducted, he noted that there was a higher level of racial harmony in religious schools and that is why they are regarded as more racial friendly than public schools. In a paper presented recently to Columbia University from the Educational testing services, its senior vice president Michael T. Nettles states, “The gaps between African-Americans and whites are showing very few signs of closing”. (Michael T. Nettles, New York Times, 2006) The reports portrayed an educational landscape of tests score gaps that used black or Hispanic students and whites that appear in kindergarten and worsen through their 12 years of public education. The overview of these findings, pose a great challenge not only for Mr. Bush but also to all the Democratic law makers who joined him in examining and negotiating the original law “No Child Left Behind”. Speaking on the same Mr. Bush said, “There are good results of No Child Left Behind across the nation. We have an achievement gap in America that is — that I don’t like and you shouldn’t like, but the gap is closing”. (President Bush, New York Times, Nov. 20th, 2006) Several suggestions are put forward by experts to ensure that the poor and minority schools get quality teachers who should be rewarded in their struggle to bridge this achievement gap and also to stop good teachers leaving the city schools and going to suburban schools in pursuit of higher pay.As an education professor at the University of California who contributed in the study puts it, ““Not only have all boats stopped rising, but the boats that are under water are sinking further down,” (Bruce Fuller, University of California, Berkley, New York Times, 2006) References: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Nov. 2nd, 1999 “Racial Learning Gap no longer Taboo” http://aspj.com/specialreports/0406specialreportrs/s4.htmlAPRIL 2006 American School Board Journal, April 2006/ special Report “Closing the Reality Gap” www.asbj.com/specialreports/0406SpecialReports/S4.html MPR: Racial Learning gap defies easy explanation or solution news.Minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2004/09/20_pugmiret_gapoverview/ Faith, Stable Homes Close Black White Achievement Gap http://www.christianpost.com/article/20070330/26620_faith,_homes_close_black-white_achievement_gap.htm The New York Times Schools Slow in Closing Gaps Between Races, Nov. 20th 2006 www.nytimes.com/2006/11/20/education/20gap.html?ex=1321678800&en=0125b01e93f79baf&ei=5088&par ... 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