US schools are making inequality worse

[LuckyTheDog]

The influence of student poverty on student learning is indisputable. International studies demonstrate that in every country, children from disadvantaged backgrounds are much less likely to excel in school than their more fortunate peers.

The easy explanation has been that for a variety of reasons, poverty makes it more difficult for less fortunate children to learn. It might seem obvious to explain the inequality in the learning between more and less affluent students by the direct effect of unequal family background.

But is this the whole story?

New evidence from our research, published recently in Education Researcher, one of the nation’s top peer-reviewed education journals, suggests that a substantial portion of the unequal education outcomes that we see between richer and poorer students is related not to the home, but to what happens in the schools. (emphasis added)

More here: http://yonside.com/how-american-schools-are-making-inequality-worse/

[tblue37]

1. K&R for visibility. nt

[KamaAina]

2. A friend of mine went to high school in east San Jose

which is the proverbial wrong side of the tracks here. She was among a handful of white students. She took mostly AP classes, but on those occasions when they weren't available and she had to take a regular class, she noticed that she was the only student asking questions in class.

Asking questions in class as white privilege. Ponder that for a moment.

[LuckyTheDog]

4. I have seen it close up

Minority kids get harsher treatment in schools -- even from minority teachers.

[Octafish]

3. Why would someone want to destroy what made America great -- a quality public education?

“The aim of totalitarian education has never been to instill convictions but to destroy the capacity to form any.” ― Hannah Arendt