martes, 1 de abril de 2014

Map:The education gap between Asians and other minorities is huge inevery state

Eugenia Padilla
SOCUS
04/01/2014

Map:The education gap between Asians and other minorities is huge inevery state

BY NIRAJ CHOKSHI April 1 at 11:36 am


This report elaborates on the wide education gap that exists between Asian Americans, whites and black, Latino, and American Indian minorities in the United States. The Annie E. Casey Foundation, which measured this data, focused on 12 measures “such as early-childhood enrollment, test scores throughout childhood, poverty, and degree achievement” in this study. The highest scores were in the following order: Asians, whites, Latinos, American Indians, and lastly blacks. In the article the author draws upon the statistics that focus mainly on the lowest-scoring recipients and how their social background contributes to this gap.

    I agree that there is a persistent education gap among minorities in the United States. The data the author presents exemplifies inequalities that can be attributed to racial issues, a defined class system and poverty. Having read the article and taken into account what we have discussed in class regarding these topics, I interpreted and concluded the following two points regarding the educational gap measures exposed in this article:

   1.  It is a combination of racial inequality with class standards and poverty. This gap can be caused by an ongoing cycle of racial discrimination, which leave out the opportunity for a poor sector of these minorities from the access to education. For example, in the article, the author cites “too often, children of color grow up in environments where they experience high levels of poverty and violence. Such circumstances derail healthy development and lead to significant psychological and physiological trauma.” If these are factors tat relate to the education gap, one can also connect them to factors of racial inequality, like the case of “ extreme residential segregation” that, ends up having a direct impact on the schools in the district and, obviously, the a student's school performance and attendance. Moreover, the variables of a large funding gap (that relies on property taxes), and the variation and distribution of teacher qualifications (inexperienced and experienced teachers) also affect children but, in this case children part of minorities. Although these factors are not substantiated by racial discrimination or class standards, they have a serious effect in limiting “the opportunities for good-quality education” of the specified minorities .

      2. In addition, The educational gap a shows how there are ways of excluding people from gaining a better education, for example those with a higher income are able to pay for tutors and courses before tests which will probably increase their possibilities of having a better test score. This may prove that the approach of “class opportunity hoarding” exists between the American middle class and working class societies. In this case, the middle class executes the “mechanisms of exclusion concerning the acquisition of education and skills” (199) and the working class may be called the victim of these mechanisms being characterized by “its exclusion from both higher educational credentials and capital” (199). Thus, this gap can potentially be one of the obstacles that prevents members of minorities from fully becoming “human capital”.

      Nevertheless, this report that shows an educational gap between minorities that one can link to effects of racial inequality, poverty and class standards in the U.S., does not strictly mean that the less education a person has access to, determines a stagnated future. But this should become a concern for the government in providing an equal opportunity when it comes to education in all states and to all its population.




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