Affirmative Actions is a controversial and complex issues. If often gets obfuscated by partisan politics and race baiting, but at its core, it acts as an equalizing force. Affirmative action, in the academic context, can best be defined as favoring a person of a specific race or ethnicity to compensate for past racial prejudice. Continue reading
Tag: high school
Data from the 2017 American census shows that the United States is rapidly becoming an increasingly diverse nation, with the number of racial and ethnic minorities growing faster than that of whites. Continue reading
Considerable research has focused on trying to identify and address essential factors contributing to the persisting United States racial achievement gap. Research demonstrates that these contributing factors exist both within the school and classroom walls, as well as externally in the home environment or during summer months (see here and here ). Many of these factors such as summer learning loss and limited school resources are addressable through policy shifts or better funding distribution. However, several serious contributors are substantially more difficult to recognize and resolve as they are happening in the unconscious, such as teachers implicit racial bias. Continue reading
Extensive research shows the continued presence of the achievement gap in the United States, drawing links predominantly between the quality of schools and children’s poorer academic performance (see here and here). However, a growing body of research suggests several health factors are being neglected consistently, while disproportionately negatively impacting school-aged children, especially low-income, urban minority youth (see here). Continue reading
U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke this past weekend at an education town hall about the specialized high schools in New York City. Instead of speaking to the proposal to get rid of admission exams for these elite schools, she questioned why all schools weren’t achieving similar reputations. What is the current discussion around the lack of diversity at specialized high schools?
Georgia has the nation’s third largest rural school population, but these rural schools are often underfunded, understaffed, and under-performing. Many rural schools are taking great strides to improve their outcomes, but are these improvements equal across disadvantaged groups?