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.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario