The Right Thing to Do, The Smart Thing to Do Enhancing Diversity in the Health Professions -- Summary of the Symposium on Diversity in Health Professions in Honor of Herbert W. Nickens, M.D. (2001) / Chapter Skim
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Inequality in Teaching and Schooling: How Opportunity Is Rationed to Students of Color in America
Inequality in Teaching and Schooling: How Opportunity Is Rationed to Students of Color in America
Pages 208-233
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From page 208... ...
Poor and minority students are concentrated in the least well-funded schools, most of which are located in central cities or rural areas and funded at levels substantially below those of neighboring suburban districts. Recent analyses of data prepared for school finance cases in Alabama, New Jersey, New York, Louisiana, and Texas have found that on every tangible measure—from qualified teachers to curriculum offerings schools serving greater numbers of students of color had significantly fewer resources than schools serving mostly white students.
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181 and 221~. Increased incarceration, and its disproportionate effects upon the AfricanAmerican community, are a function of new criminal justice policies and ongoing police discrimination (Miller, 1997)
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As I describe below, schools that serve large numbers of students of color are least likely to offer the kind of curriculum and teaching needed to meet the new standards being enacted across the states and to help students attain the skills needed in a knowledge work economy. In most states, schools serving minority and low-income students lack the courses, materials, equipment, and qualified teachers that would give students access to the education they will need to participate in today's and tomorrow's world.
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. Not only do funding systems and tax policies leave most urban districts with fewer resources than their suburban neighbors, but schools with high concentrations of"minority" students receive fewer resources than other schools within these districts.
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Studies have found that by virtually any resource measure—state and local dollars per pupil, student-teacher ratios and student-staff ratios, class sizes, teacher experience, and teacher qualificationsdistricts with greater proportions of poor and minority students receive fewer resources than others (Berne, 1995~. In January 2001, the New York State Supreme Court declared the funding system unconstitutional because it denies students in high-need, low-spending districts like New York City the opportunities to learn needed to meet the state's standards, including well-qualified teachers and curriculum supports (`Campaign for Fiscal Equity v.
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Ferguson repeated this analysis in Alabama, and still found sizable influences of teacher expertise and smaller class sizes on student achievement gains in reading and mathematics (Ferguson & Ladd, 1996~. They found that 31% of the predicted difference in mathematics achievement between districts in We top and bottom quartiles was explained by teacher qualifications and class sizes, while 29.5% was explained by poverty, race, and parent education.
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47~. These findings are reinforced by a recent review of 60 production fixation studies, which found that teacher education, ability, and experience along with small schools and lower teacher-pupil ratios are associated with significant increases in student achievement (Greenwald, Hedges, & Laine, 1996~.
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From page 215... ...
Since the novel tasks required for problem solving are more difficult to manage than the routine tasks associated with rote learning, lack of knowledge about how to manage an active, inquiry-oriented classroom can lead teachers to turn to passive tactics that "dumb down" the curriculum, busying students with workbooks rather than complex tasks that require more skill to orchestrate (Carter & Doyle, 1987; Doyle, 1986; Cooper & Sherk, 1989~. Teacher education is also related to the use of teaching strategies that encourage higher-order learning and the use of strategies responsive to students' needs and learning styles.
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described the results of his study of reading instruction and outcomes for 300 black and white first graders across seven schools in the Chicago area. He found that differences in reading outcomes among students were almost entirely explained not by socioeconomic status or race, but by the quality of instruction the students received: Our evidence shows that the level of learning responds strongly to the quality of instruction: having and using enough time, covering a substantial amount of rich curricular material, and matching instruction appropriately to the ability levels of groups .
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From page 217... ...
Curricular differences like these are widespread, and they explain much of the disparity between the achievement of white and minority students and between those of higher- and lower-income levels (Oakes, 1985; Lee & Bryk, 1988~. When students of similar backgrounds and initial achievement levels are exposed to more and less challenging curriculum material, those given the richer curriculum opportunities outperfo~ those placed in less challenging classes (Alexander & McDill, 1976; Oakes, 1985; Gamoran & Behrends, 1987~.
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From page 218... ...
Where these practices persist, many children in central city schools are taught by a parade of shortterm substitute teachers, inexperienced teachers without support, and underqualified teachers who are not really familiar with either their subject matter or effective methods. The California Commission on the Teaching Profession (1985)
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From page 219... ...
Schools serving predominantly minority and poor populations offer fewer advanced courses and more remedial courses in academic subjects, and they have smaller academic tracks and larger vocational programs (NCES, 1985; Rock et al., 1985~. The size and rigor of college preparatory programs within schools vary with the race and socioeconomic status of school populations (California State Department of Education, 1984~.
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Although test scores and prior educational opportunities partially explain these differential placements, race and socioeconomic status play a distinct role. Even after test scores are controlled, race and socioeconomic status determine assignments to high school honors courses (Gamoran, 1992)
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S schools are structured such that students routinely receive dramatically unequal learning opportunities based on their race and social status is simply not widely recognized.
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The presumption that "the schools are fine, it's the children who need help" is flawed. The schools serving large concentrations of low-income and minority students are generally not fine, and many of their problems originate with district and state policies and practices that fund them inadequately, send them incompetent staff, require inordinate attention to arcane administrative requirements that fragment educational programs and drain resources from classrooms, and preclude the adoption of more promising curriculum and teaching strategies.
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From page 223... ...
The state raised standards for teacher education and licensing, initiated scholarships and forgivable loans to recruit high-need teachers into the profession (including teachers in shortage fields, those who would teach in high-need locations, and minority teachers) , created a mentoring and assessment program for all beginning teachers, and invested money in high-quality professional development, with special aid to lowachieving districts.
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information about the nature of the teaching and learning opportunities made available to students in different districts and schools across the state; . incentives for states and school districts to create policies that ensure adequate and equitable resources, curriculum opportunities, and teaching to all schools; .
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As a 1990 study of the implementation of California's new mathematics curriculum framework points out, when a curriculum reform aimed at problem solving and higher-order thinking skills encounters an already mandated rote-oriented basic skills testing program, the tests win out (Cohen et al., 1990; Darling-Hammond, 1990b)
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They will also benefit from targeted policies that provide quality preparation programs and financial aid for highly qualified prospective teachers who will teach in central cities and poor rural areas. Providing equity in the distribution of teacher quality requires changing policies and long-standing incentive structures in education so that shortages of trained teachers are overcome, and that schools serving lowincome and minority students are not disadvantaged by lower salaries and poorer working conditions in the bidding war for good teachers.
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From page 227... ...
The federal government can play a leadership role in providing an adequate supply of well-qualified teachers just as it has in providing an adequate supply of qualified physicians. When shortages of physicians were a major problem more than 30 years ago, Congress passed the 1963 Health Professions Education Assistance Act to support and improve the caliber of medical training, to create and strengthen teaching hospitals, to provide scholarships and loans to medical students, and to create incentives for physicians to train in shortage specialties and to locate in underserved areas.
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Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Boston. Berne, R
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Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Boston. Gamoran, A
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Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Boston. Good, T.L., & Brophy, J
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(1967-1968~. Junior high schools science teacher preparation, teaching behavior, and student achievement.
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335-409. Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.
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From page 233... ...
Santa Monica, CA: The RAND Corporation.
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