Statistics: Within the US social class is an indication of affluence and is a source of stratification within our society. Social class is intricately intertwined with the process of schooling within the US. Sleeter and Grant present statistics based on social class structure. Although I was aware of the social class system, the exact numbers were alarming. "One fifth of Americans now own not quite 50 percent of the national wealth", this leave 95 percent for the other half of the nation to share. The fact is that the gap between the wealthy and poor is widening and this affects access to basic needs. Sleeter and Grant report that the 2003 official poverty rate was 35.9 million people and in the midst of an economic crisis, I can't begin to fathom what this number is now. Who should be held accountable for this? How can we relate this education?
How Students Learning Is Assessed: In class we discussed the relation of money and government funding and public school standardized testing. Unsurprisingly, affluent schools (where the one fifth of wealthy Americans send their children) are not subjected to the rigorous tests and are not competing for government funds. Too bad we all don't have this luxury. The passage of No Child Left Behind has caused a shift in public school teaching where teachers, schools and states are now held "accountable" for their students' level of achievement. Sadly attention is moved from authentic testing to "high stakes testing" in which standardized tests are used as the deciding factor of whether a student can move on to the next grade or graduate. It is no surprise of who is greatly affected by this. Students of color or those with disabilities are put at a disadvantage. It is not ironic that the implementation of a high school exit exam would cause many students to drop out. When we exam who these students are, they are once again those of color, those from low-income backgrounds and those are linguistically disadvantage. And here is where the creation of a stratified society is perpetuated. Those students who passed these exams are given a chance to go to college and advance economically. The unlucky majority of students who fail and must drop out become a part of the 95 percent left to share 50 percent of the nations wealth. This is a sad reality and when implementing standardized tests we must take a step back and look at the bigger picture, what will be the consequences of setting such strict testing policies in the public school system.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35P7FCMOePs
http://www.fairtest.org/facts/howharm.htm
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I really liked the video you posted. I found it so interesting to hear the opinions of the kids themselves. The first comment with the girl saying that thinks there isn't such a big gap. That made me wonder is this true? I think the girl is misunderstood because I see there to be a huge achievement gap, but I don't completely agree with it being because of race. I think its related to poverty. And according to the stats from Sleeter and Grant more Blacks live in poverty, and therefore they doing worst in school (as the White kid said). Great Video!
ReplyDeleteI read Johnathon Kozols "Shame of a Nation" for another class Kerri taught. On of the most shocking things I read was that in some inner city schools they do not teach students to continue on to college but instead teach children from kidergarten through high school to become employees for "sponser" companies sucj as JC Penny and Sears. This goes along with how the gap between the rich and poor is widening
ReplyDeleteThe latter link confirms my conviction that the majority of what you get out from a student is what you expect from that student, similar to what our Professor was saying in class. The widening gap between rich and poor reflects the same sentiments in my blog about how our "failed" or "flawed" education system is unquestionably related to historic institutional racism, capitalism and classism.
ReplyDeleteThe researcher leads the poor children to answer the way he wants but I'll let that go. The fact sheet has lots of information that I hope your classmates will see and read. Merge your links with your comments for future posts.
ReplyDeleteLoni thanks for your reply I just wanted to make one comment on what you said. I am in disagreement with poverty being the determining factor for the achievement gap. Race and class are so intricately intertwined that you can not ignore the influence of race. The history of this country demonstrates the people of color have been disenfranchised and contained to the lower end of the social ladder. Sleeter and Grant touched on this, so in actuality the basis on the achievement gap is do to race. We can ignore a lot but the statistics are clear evidence of this fact.
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