Does segregation exist in our schools today?
As entrenched as we are as educational leaders in creating policies and procedures that limit bias and segregation practices within our schools, it is often too evident that segregation continues to plague educational institutions to this day. Many people minimize segregation to solely an act of prejudice, rather than a systematic act of oppression used to provide a specific group with an advantage over others. Segregation within schools has a historic link to housing segregation throughout our country. The act of redlining has had a profound impact on where, specifically African Americans and other minorities, could live and access bank loans for mortgages. Many Realtors played a major role in pushing potential buyers into specific areas, creating segregated neighborhoods and hence segregated schools. Today, there is a major push to “end bussing” and return students to their neighborhood schools. Some schools are changing into “Community School” providing K-8 or K-12 to the families they serve. This is often masked as a way to better support the community. However, it is also argued that this is re-segregating educational institutions (Orfield, 2013).
Testing is also a major factor in the way schools perpetuate segregation practices today. With high stakes testing and data being the supreme focus of many schools, students are often segregated based on assessment scores. This impacts African Americans (male students especially) and other minorities the most. This is due to the style of testing questions, which often reflects the cultural socio-economic diction of the white middle-class demographic or higher. Thus, many minorities that are unfamiliar with this style of testing are often segregated into lower-level academic groups and even pushed into special needs programs. Robert Williams, creator of the 1972 Black Intelligence Test of Cultural Homogeneity, discovered that black students who took this test that was based on African American cultural using a more familiar diction scored significantly higher than their white counterparts on the same assessment (Knoester, M., & Au, W. (2017).
What do you think about busing and segregation? How is it different and similar today as compared to the Brown vs. Board of Education Case?
As a product of the bussing system, I have mixed feelings on the topic. Busing creates a great disadvantage for families in poorer communities to be able to properly support their students. This occurs due to the lack of ability to reach the schools because of the distance from the home or parent’s place of work, and other economic strains on the families. It also creates a situation where we see internal segregation within schools where students who are bussed in are more than likely from less affluent areas, and are often placed in lower-level courses, see highly levels of Special needs placement, and higher levels of suspension and expulsions. These schools also often see a higher number in white flight, where their white student population decreases as white families decide to move their families to other public, private, and charter schools with a lower number of minorities, similar to what was occurring during the 1950’s. However, students
who are bussed often are able to gain a better understanding of other ways of life and customs and cultures from the wide range backgrounds for the student’s they interact with. Many communities are now moving towards community-based schools. At first glance, this can be a good way to solve some of the issues families face regarding transportation and other economic and social issues that bussing has created. However, this also re-segregates students limiting their exposure to others outside of their community (Charles, Vock, & Maciag, 2019).
Separate but equal in today’s classrooms
Today, we are seeing more trends to better support our students. Students come to us as educators with a wide range of abilities, belief systems, learning styles, languages, and other unique characteristics. This is why schools are pushing differentiation of instruction as a key tool to limit separation among peers. This style of instruction meets the individual needs of our students while allowing the student to see the thinking and learning process from their more advanced peers. It also allows for grouping within a single class to take place to maximize support. Another trend that is growing in population is the Universal Design for Learning. This strategy allows students and educators to understand that creating an environment where accessibility is key rather than equality or equity, creates a better learning situation for all. Unfortunately, the old ways of thinking about separation within the educational system is still not without flaws. We still have a long way to go as a nation to limit these types of bias and discriminatory practices.
Do you believe individual views on human rights affects the way a teacher instructs a class?
Teaching students from different backgrounds does not thwart bias on the part of the educator. An individual’s personal views on human rights can often affect their professional life as well. Studies have found that there is a correlation between the number of suspensions and
expulsions among African American male students in particular, but minority students as a whole and the number of white teachers (often middle-class and female) within education. Due to there being a large population of white teachers working at urban area schools and largely Black and Latino populated schools, there are often social, political, and cultural challenges that both students and educators face. These cultural differences often lead teachers to feel a level of disrespect due to their lack of understanding and sometimes lack of care, leading to a low or zero level of tolerance for their students. It is often the teacher who feels that the student should assimilate to the Eurocentric style of teaching and learning. There is often a decrease in the levels of suspensions and expulsions among the same groups when the teachers can better relate, see themselves in their students, and identify themselves as culturally, socially, politically similar (Berne, 2018).
Ideas of Social Darwinism, survival of the fittest, and natural selection also plays a role in education today. This is why there is much focus on educational competition and increasing federal and state budgets for charter and private educational institutions. This is occurring while simultaneously defunding Title 1 programs and Special Education (Klonsky, 2011).
Reference
Berne, P. (2018). Black Suspensions and White Teachers.
https://medium.com/@philipberne/black-suspensions-and-white-teachers-8239b4691ed9.
Charles, J., Vock, D., and Maciag, M. (2019). Still Separate After All These Years: How Schools Fuel White Flight. https://www.governing.com/topics/education/gov-segregation schools.html.
Klonsky, M. (2011). The New Social-Darwinism Charter Schools for Those with “Highest Potential”. https://nepc.colorado.edu/blog/new-social-darwinism-charter-schools-those highest-potential.
Knoester, M., & Au, W. (2017). Standardized testing and school segregation: like tinder for fire?. Race Ethnicity and Education, 20(1), 1-14.
Orfield, G. (2013). Housing segregation produces unequal schools. Closing the opportunity gap: What America must do to give every child and even chance, 40-60.