Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Blog

The Opportunity Gap: Racism in Education

By Julie Landsman

Instead of looking at the difference in test scores between white students and African-American and Latino students as part of an achievement gap, how about thinking about it as a reflection of an opportunity gap. It seems to me that all students are entitled to an opportunity to have an education that reflects their lives and cultures, their literature and history. Everyone has a story. Everyone has their own rituals, their own world-view. If students do not feel visible, if they are not reflected in the curriculum, on the walls, in the media centers, in the visitors who come to speak to them, then they are not receiving the same opportunity to learn as white students, who still find their lives visible in the texts and lessons taught by an overwhelmingly white teaching force.

Combining the unwelcoming, and discouraging effect of a classroom that excludes them, with the lack of resources many students of color possess given our history of racism and its connection to present day poverty, there must be no question that many students of color today are working without the same opportunities as many white students. To compare test scores of a young man with a family computer at home, a college education provided for by his parents, a school with a full science lab and many AP courses, a building that is clean and safe and with teachers who look like him, to those of a young man who goes to school in a building with no computer lab, few books in the media center, (if there is a media center) and class sizes of over 40 students per hour, is a false comparison. Combining racism and poverty, it seems self-evident, that the problem is not in the child, but rather in the system that perpetuates the lack of opportunity many urban students of color experience.

I believe every student must have the opportunity to attend a school where she sees herself everywhere in the building and in the readings and in the high expectations of demanding classes and firm teachers. In order to close the gap white teachers need to begin by thinking of each of these children as their own child, not as someone else’s child, and thus seeing each of their students as someone who has the same brilliant potential to achieve as their own.

In order to close the real gap, gifted programs. AP and IB classes must reflect the population of each school system and not continue to be white enclaves. Such a move would go long way to eliminating the re-segregation of students once they are enter the school room door. Each student, white, black, poor, rich, middle class, must have the opportunity for small class sizes, resources, textbooks, science equipment, in order to provide comparable opportunities for all students. When we can put the onus of the problem on the system that continues to disenfranchise students of color through institutional racism and economic disparity instead of on the low test scores of the children, then we will be one step closer to closing the real gap in education—the opportunity gap.

Julie Landsman is a retired public school teacher and consultant on multicultural education and building inclusive classrooms and is the author Growing Up White: A Veteran Teacher Reflects on Racism.

On Single-Sex Education

By Frances R. Spielhagen

It is no surprise that single-sex classes have emerged as a school reform that might foster student achievement. However, single-sex classes are not a “silver bullet” that will solve all problems associated with student achievement. Ideologically driven reform does not take into account the caveats that must accompany efforts to implement single sex classes.

Do single-sex classes work? The answer is a complex “Yes, no, and maybe.” While single-sex classes are not a panacea for the social ills that beset young adolescents and affect their academic performance, recent research that has examined the implementation of single-sex classes in several districts across the nation suggests that such arrangements work for some students, both boys and girls, in some academic areas. Single-sex class arrangements seem to be most effective when related to the developmental needs of the students. In fact, the younger the student, the more likely that being in a single-sex class will be a positive experience. Moreover, simply grouping students according to gender will not automatically enhance their achievement. Teachers must understand the ways in which they can address and actualize the various ways in which students learn. Such training takes place over time. There are no quick-fixes here. Finally, it is essential that equal curriculum opportunities be offered to all students, both boys and girls. The slippery slope to a curriculum that provides shop classes for boys and home economics classes for girls is dangerously real if one begins to believe that differences in style equals difference in capacity!

Should all students be taught in single-sex classes? Of course not! The very complexity of student personalities and populations precludes any “One size fits all” approach to education, especially in the middle grades. However, the more pertinent question is whether single-sex classes should be offered as a viable choice for students, parents, and teachers who strongly favor them and want to be involved in them. The answer to that question is a resounding “Yes.” Schools must involve parents in decision-making about single-sex classes. Moreover, students who opt for single-sex classes may benefit from the arrangement simply because they chose it. Their success may well be related to the chicken/egg symbiosis of choice and efficacy. Nevertheless, it is still success for those who choose the arrangement. As schools across the nation struggle to address declining achievement among all students, success is welcome wherever it can be found. Researchers who have examined the schools that have implemented single-sex classes can attest to the complexity of results that derive from separating students in any way.

Frances Spielhagen is currently an assistant professor of education at Mount Saint Mary College, in Newburgh, New York and is the author of Debating Single-Sex Education: Separate and Equal?

My High School Senior is Driving Everyone Crazy

After 12 years in the public education system, my child is driving me crazy. We can not blame it on hormonal rage or a transition period between the 10th, 11th and 12th grade. We can blame it on one thing, the failure of public schools to change and address the needs of our children. The senior in high school is at the top of the social order in his or her adolescent world with a vision, and only a vision, of what college is about. Many are left unchallenged academically and we all know that “idle hands are the devils disciple”. Unfortunately for many of these seniors they will return home after a semester at the college of their choice, a failure.

At that time, the parents and student will start the blame game. The student will not go back to visit their favorite teachers in high school because they would have to admit failure. They will probably take some classes at a community college and work until they grow up and mature. Then possibly re-enter a postsecondary institution to complete a bachelor’s degree.

This has become a norm of our society. State universities used to be famous for “tripling up” students in their dorm rooms which were designed for two students with the understanding that after their freshman year of college, 33% will fail out. Back in 1973 in my first Biology lecture, a seasoned professor told us to look left and then right, because next year one of you will not be there!

Change is difficult in public education and my book, Overcoming the Senior Slump: Meeting the Challenge with Internships, calls for such change. All of the adults in a child’s’ life, parents, educators and relatives will benefit from the progressive nature of the recommendations made in this book. The path for change is clearly outlined and the planning process needs to start now. We need to increase the academic rigor of the senior year, make learning challenging and relevant and give our seniors a chance to develop productive relationships with adults. Then, and only then, will all of our children make a smooth transition to college.

Dr. Randall Glading is a school administrator at Yorktown high School and an adjunct professor of Graduate Education at Mercy College and The College of New Rochelle. He is the author of Overcoming the Senior Slump: Meeting the Challenge with Internships, which will be available February 28th. Dr. Glading is the author of Overcoming the Senior Slump.

Racial Disparity in Discipline Contributes To Drop-Out Problem

By Martha R. Bireda, Ph.D.

The recent report labeling many American high schools as “dropout factories” is troubling indeed.  According to Johns Hopkins University researchers, of one in 10 high schools across the nation, no more than 60 percent of students who start as freshmen receive a diploma four years later (Balfanz and Legters, 2004). Not surprisingly, schools in large cities, high-poverty rural areas, and those with high proportions of minority students are most represented as “dropout factories”. As we react and rush to find solutions to the dropout problem, the way that discipline is meted out cannot be overlooked as a possible cause.   A common reason that students give for dropping out is that they had been suspended or expelled. The excessive and often unwarranted suspensions and expulsions of minority students, especially African American males must be examined if we are seriously seeking solutions to the dropout problem.

National studies (The Advancement Project, 2000; the Civil Rights  Project 2000), found that: Black and Latino students were more likely to be referred for disciplinary action; to be disciplined for minor conduct; and to receive punishments disproportionate to their conduct. In addition, zero tolerance policies are more likely to exist in predominately Black and Latino school districts.  It appears that Black students, especially males, fare worse than any other group in our schools when it comes to discipline issues. Black students, though they make up only 17 percent of the enrollment nationally, are 32 percent of the out-of-school suspensions and Black males are disciplined more often and more severely than any other group( The Office of Civil Rights, 2001; The Advancement Project, 2000; the Civil Rights Project, 2000).

Efforts to stem the tide of increasing dropout rates fly in the face of racial disparities in discipline. Evidence shows that students who are repeatedly suspended from school suffer academically and are more likely to drop-out (Dupper, 1997). African American and Hispanic students, in many cases already performing poorly become trapped in a suspension-failure cycle that almost certainly guarantees their non-completion. These students, already behind academically, are punished by being deprived of instruction while suspended. This denial of much needed instruction predisposed African American and Hispanic students to further academic underachievement.  As a result, the students who need school most are pushed away (Noguera, 2003; Fultz, 2002).

According to Deridder (1990), suspension places all of the blame on the student, with the school rarely evaluating whether it has served all of the emotional or academic needs of the student.  Eliminating Racial Profiling In School Discipline: Cultures In Conflict is one of the first books that addresses the school-related factors that contribute to the racial disparities in discipline that ultimately lead to large numbers of African American and Hispanic students dropping out.

In Eliminating Racial Profiling In School Discipline: Cultures In Conflict, I examine the two school-related factors in particular that contribute to disparities in discipline.  The first factor is lack of knowledge, understanding, and sensitivity to the culture of African American and Hispanic students.  The second school-related factor that negatively affects African American students, especially male students, is the set of faulty assumptions and negative expectations for the academic performance and behavior of African American students.

A lack of understanding regarding the culture, especially a lack of sensitivity to the communication styles of African American students, i.e., eye contact, distance, physical contact etc., can create physical tension between the teacher and student and lead to discipline problems. This lack of understanding and sensitivity is significant in escalating incidents between teacher and student.

Although the lack of knowledge and understanding the culture of African American male students places them at risk of disciplinary actions, the problems that they experience in the school setting are equally the result of faulty assumptions and erroneous beliefs based upon historical myths and stereotypes. These myths and stereotypes generate fear and the need to exercise absolute control in the minds of many teachers, especially non-African American female teachers, and create a vicious cycle from which African American male students in particular cannot escape.

In Eliminating Racial Profiling In School Discipline: Cultures In Conflict, I discuss the ten consequences i.e., unrealistic expectations, faulty assumptions, “behavior tracking”, leading behaviors, etc, that result from cultural conflicts and stereotyping in the classroom. Eliminating school-related factors that place African American and Hispanic students at greater risk for disciplinary referrals and sanctions requires that fundamental and significant changes occur in the school culture and environment. Two types of changes on two different levels must take place: changes related to culturally responsive and culturally responsible actions must occur at both the institutional and individual level.

I offer suggestions and provide steps for administrators to change the school climate and for teachers to develop effective communication and relationships with students. Any efforts to reduce the dropout problem must necessarily involve addressing the issue of racial disparity in discipline. This book provides a guide for addressing this issue and to creating a culturally sensitive and responsive school environment, which will ensure student retention.

Martha R. Bireda, Ph.D. is an educational consultant who specializes in racial disparity in discipline and achievement gap issues. She conducts workshops for school administrators related to the topics.

Mark Dewalt Receives Bank of America Endowed Professorship

ROCK HILL, S.C.-Winthrop University recently selected Mark Dewalt as a recipient of the Bank of America Endowed Professorship for the Richard W. Riley College of Education.

He will use the endowed professorship to continue the next phase of his already 20-year research project of Amish education in the United States and Canada. During the professorship, which is renewable for up to three years, Dewalt will begin his next book on Amish Education, and write articles on Amish Mennonite Schools and the 1972 Supreme Court case Wisconsin v. Yoder which ruled that Amish children do not have to attend school after eighth grade. In addition, he will design two symposium courses for the Winthrop honors program.

University leaders chose Dewalt because of his continuous record of excellence in teaching, scholarship and service. "Mark is well respected as a teacher, scholar and contributor to the life of the university. His research is well grounded and addresses a unique area of education in North America," said Patricia Graham, Dean of the Richard W. Riley College of Education.

The Winthrop professor of education grew up in Pennsylvania near an Amish community and has traveled to dozens of communities stretching from New York to Iowa to observe Amish schools. He used the information as the basis for his latest book, Amish Education in the United States and Canada, which portrays the culture and history of the one-room schoolhouses of the Amish community. National and local media turned to Dewalt in the fall of 2006 to explain the Amish culture in the wake of a horrific shooting in an Amish schoolhouse near Nickel Mines,Pa.

Dewalt will be the second recipient of the Bank of America Endowed Professorship, which supports teaching and research for an outstanding faculty member in education. Winthrop's first recipient was Marshall G. Jones, who studied how those familiar with and those unfamiliar with digital technologies learn differently.

It's Hot in There!: Air Conditioning in Public Schools

By Cheryl Conrod

I read that public school classes were canceled in Cincinnati, Ohio, yesterday and today due to excessively high temperatures. I’m sure that these are not the only schools releasing students this week because of uncomfortable conditions in public school buildings. Millions of other students are sweating away in hot, stuffy classrooms. I would wager that the shut-down schools and thousands of others, both old and new, lack any form of air conditioning.

While serving on a citizen’s committee to win approval for a school bond in the rural Midwest, I was occasionally asked if the proposed school would be air conditioned. The explicit threat was, if the new school design included air conditioning, the referendum would be defeated. In order to get the school bond passed, we assured one and all that the new school would be heated only.

No one questions heating schools. No one wants the little kids to freeze to death at their desks. But most people we talked with were dead set against installing air cooling into the public schools. It was considered a frill. Why?

“Well, I went to school on hot, humid days, and I turned out all right,” was the overwhelming response.

“Why coddle those kids,” was another. “Sweating over one's studies builds character.”

In this day and age, I find it baffling that citizens--parents, grandparents, and non-parents--would wish to deny children a comfortable work environment. Children spend nearly half of their waking weekday hours, nine months each year, in school buildings. Would a retail store, doctor’s office waiting room, government office, or public library subject its customers to a hot, steamy environment? Do more than a few diehard motorists drive around on sticky summer days without air conditioning? Surely everyone is aware that physical discomfort interferes with productivity. Why would people insist on hobbling children’s learning in this way?

Some would argue that the expense is not justified since school is not in session during the summer. But we have begun to experience longer, hotter summers. Also the trend seems to be to start the school year ever earlier, especially in the Midwest.

Many school districts today get around this air conditioning bias by designing heating/cooling systems into the schools “at no extra expense.” Others build in geothermal systems which heat and cool the schools using passive designs. This justifies cooling classrooms with an environmental twist. But the anti-air-conditioning grumbling persists.

The United States has often been accused of being anti-intellectual and suspicious of education. But as President John Adams said, “The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people—and must be willing to bear the expense of it.” This expense should include creating a comfortable learning environment, including air conditioning where needed, for our public school students.

Cheryl Conrod is the author of The Winning School Bond: A Citizen's Guide to a Successful School Bond Campaign (ScarecrowEducation, 2002). She was co-chair of a successful school bond advocacy committee in rural Nebraska. She currently resides in Oregon. For more information, contact her at bcconrod@yahoo.com .