Chapter Eight: Educational Inequality

By Tanya Maria Golash-Boza

University Education Disparities in the representation of college graduates in ethnoracial groups is another disparity. The Bakke case determined that race could only be one factor in admission policies. Other court cases ruled on the use of race as a factor for admissions. Also, state propositions limited the use of race as a factor for admissions. For example, in California a proposition denied the use of race as a factor in admission, which contributed to the numbers of students of color plummeting in the University of California system.

Educational LevelsAll educational levels characterized by racialized and ethnic inequalities

-University level-Preschool/K-12 education

History of Educational Inequality K–12

• Separate but equal policies impacted Black, Asian American, and Latino education

• Native children impacted by policies that took them from their families and brought them to boarding schools where assimilation and where they often were punished for practicing their identities

• Most schools with high numbers of children from predominantly racialized groups experienced inequities in academic curriculum and resources

A teacher reads to his students at a segregatedschool in Uno, Virginia, in 1947.

p. 208: Copyright Bettmann/Corbis/AP Images

Court Cases • A number of court cases, government reports, and

new policy directions stimulated some changes , but over time also returned some schools to former unequal conditions.

Mendez v. Westminster 1947—Determined that denying enrollment to children on the basis of a Spanish last name violated the Constitution

Brown v. Board of Education 1954—Overturned the separate but equal doctrine and began a long attempt to integrate public schools

Mexican American students reading in asegregated classroom, 1942.

p. 212: Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

Court Cases Dowell v. Oklahoma City—Ruling that reversed school desegregation policies . “This decision meant that many school districts abandoned desegregation programs. Once children began to attend schools in the neighborhoods where they lived (as opposed to being bused to other neighborhoods), schools rapidly became resegregated.” (p. 213)In the South segregation has returned to higher levels than in 1970.

Despite This, Educational

Disparities Continue In all factors of measurement, racialized groups, with some exceptions with certain Asian American communities, experience disparities.-Graduation rates-School drop-out rates-Grade point averages-Math and literacy rates-Retention and having to retake a grade level -Expulsions

Figure 8-1.Percent of Black Students in Majority White Schools in the South, 1954–2001Source: Adapted from Orfield and Lee (2004).

Figure 8-1: adapted from Orfield and Lee (2004)

Explanations for Achievement Gap

Scholars use several explanations for these achievement gaps: -Income and wealth levels of parents-“Culture” -School structures that use tracking -Social and cultural capital-Hidden curriculum

Figure 8-2.Percentage of Population 25 Yearsand Over with a Bachelor’s Degreeor Higher, 2006–2010Source: National Center for Education Statistics (2010).

Figure 8-2: National Center for EducationStatistics

Figure 8-3.Average GPA by Race/Ethnicity, 2008–2009Source: National Center forEducation Statistics (2010).

Figure 8-3: National Center for Education Statistics

Income and Wealth Levels of Parents

Parents with more wealth and income are able to provide more opportunities and help to their children than parents who have to work multiple jobs and use income to meet basic needs.

“Culture”With this explanation, the behavior and habits of the children explain their investment in their education. An older theory posits that black children thought of education as “acting white” and took on an oppositional stance that interfered with their learning. Newer research shows that black children do gain a sense of excitement and satisfaction from their learning.

TrackingTracking means that students are predetermined to benefit from certain learning paths such as vocational or nonacademic versus a college preparatory track. Racialized students are more often set into a less academic track of curriculum as teacher and administrator expectations are lower for them due to racist assumptions about the students’ intelligence and motivation.

An honors Earth sciencesclass at a public highschool in Massachusetts,2013.

p. 225: Boston Globe via Getty Images

Social and Cultural Capital

Students that come from more economically beneficial and white-normed households may hold more social and cultural capital.

Social capital refers to having a network of people to provide direct help and information, and having access to institutional agents (gatekeepers and officials).

Cultural capital refers to knowing how things work in interactions, institutions, and systems: “students with access to dominant cultural capital—the norms, values, and cultural knowledge valued in the school—will have more chances for success than students whose families are not part of the dominant culture.” (p. 226)

Hidden Curriculum Cultural capital works in a way that disvalues other ways of being that do not match the dominant group. The process of disvaluing is called “symbolic violence” in which “the dominant group creates a context in which the norms, values, and tastes of other groups are labeled as inferior.” (p. 226)

An example is to disvalue other cultural ways of being. To compensate, children often begin to learn two sets of norms and interactional strategies.

Ending Thought “What does it say about us as a nation that we do not give truly equal opportunities to children from disadvantaged backgrounds?” (p. 231)