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Sonia Ramirez
Professor Bieber
English 113B
7 May 2015
We Have Come A Long Way
Have you ever felt as if you didnt belong in your high school? What factors contributed
to the feeling of being out of place, was it the color of your skin, the way your hair looked, the
color of your eyes or the way you talked? I have not had my personal experience but I have read
stories of teens that have felt out of place and it disrupts their learning because they dont feel
comfortable in their environment. Its not a bad thing to be different. However, especially being a
woman of color I understand the feeling of not belonging somewhere. In todays society, racial
discrimination in education has become crucial in the U.S. and has lead to resegregation of
schools, which has reduced the opportunity for blacks and Hispanic students to attend public
schools. Many students are dropping out of their high schools and teachers are basing their
academics on their students social background instead of their abilities and focusing on how to
teach students how to do better in school. While the zero-discipline rule has a major role in
keeping students out of trouble, it has also seemed to put many in trouble, for example, the more
strict teachers are with the no discipline rule the more chances of students getting
expelled/suspended from school for petty crimes. In order to help bring awareness to this issue
we must start advocating and no longer allow students to be racially profiled by the way they
look because we are all the same and we learn from our peers. We must acknowledge the fact
that we have a voice and we can push for better-conducted schools and programs to help
underprivileged students who are high school dropouts to succeed.

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Racial discrimination often goes on unnoticed because parents/peers arent asking
questions as to why our children are being kicked out or expelled from schools, suspended longer
than other students? There are lower expectations for blacks and Hispanic students to graduate
from high school or receive a college degree. In the article Dropout Rates: Are new policies
needed to keep more teens in school? Robert Kiener cites Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education,
as stating that; the percent of graduation rate of high school students is 80 percent which
translates into one in five students dropping out [or] 718,000 high school students [drop out of
high school] a year(Kiener 507). Kiener states Black students graduated at a 69 percent rate
and Hispanics at 73 percent, compared with whites at 86 percent and Asian-Americans at 88
percent(508). Dropping out of high school is seen most commonly in families who are poor,
disabled or still learning English and due to these factors the students who drop out young have
become a burden to society both economically and socially (507). Kiener notes that the life
expectancy for high school dropouts is six-nine years compared to those who do graduate from
highschool and many of the high school dropouts are affected by heart disease, diabetes and
obesity; 80 percent of dropouts depend on government for health care assistance(508). This has
become a critical crisis in the United States and students are not given much of the attention that
they need to survive and prosper in giving hope for their future. The lack of support from the
government has led to resegregation in some public schools and we should not be content with
the movement but try to keep our schools a place for balance through diversity.
In 1954, the Brown v. Board of Education stated, separate schools for black and white
students are inherently unequal and in todays society that still remains true. Many public
school districts had desegregation plans but due to courts limiting the impact of desegregation,
schools are becoming resegregated which limits opportunities to many students of color. The

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schools are limiting opportunities to students of color by not providing them with beneficial
academic programs such as elective courses, clubs, or extra curricular activities. In the article
Race and Education: Are U.S. schools becoming resegregated? Reed Karaim cites Gary
Orfield, co-director of the UCLA Civil Rights Project, Theres no doubt segregation is
increasing in terms of declining contact between African-American and Latino students and
white students (Karaim 724). Sean Reardon, an education professor specializing in poverty and
inequality of education at Californias Stanford University, says Youre not moving back to preBrown levels where white kids and black kids arent allowed to go to the same schools, youre
moving back to something in between meaning we arent completely in loss here but we are
still being overruled (724). Orfield suggests You can understand each other better. You
understand your society better. You understand how to think in a more complex way because
youre more exposed to alternative views and all of these ways of thinking are related to
diversity (725). Another contributing factor to having a racial discrimination in schools are
because of teachers as stated by Felix Schein, a spokesperson for Students Matter, says if youre
a poor African-American or Latino, youre much more likely to get a chronically
underperforming teacher (728). The worst teachers are placed with impoverished families
where as predominately white public schools are placed with teachers who are well educated and
contribute time to increase their students skills of developing critical thinking. Therefore,
students should take action and protest for better education opportunities where the government
funds the impoverished schools until they can get back to their feet and run the school smoothly.
In America we see discriminatory actions caused by police as we have seen today with
the protesting in Baltimore. The actions they are performing are because they are speaking up for
themselves they are showing that due to police corruption and lack of government help many

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African Americans are rioting and protesting for their civil rights. In the article Race in
America Alan Greenblatt has analyzed the racial disparity among whites, blacks and Latinos in
public schools. Greenblatt compares average rate of racial composition in attending public
school and study has shown that the average white student in the U.S. attends a school made up
of 80 percent whites; similar to most black who attend school which the majority of their fellow
students are the same race (596). Also, there has been an increase in resegregation in Southern
Schools, which has dropped to 31 percent, following abandonment of busing and other schooldesegregation efforts in the 1990s (597). This has lead to factors of whether teachers are
offering the right education to their students. In the article School Discipline Anne Rosen
indicates that teachers maybe misusing the zero-tolerance policy and denying students to be
educated. Rosen implies that schools are looking at a possible revision for the upcoming years,
which may lead to a productive method to keep children from getting incarcerated. Rosen
proposes that zero-tolerance has made an impact in schools by making them secure. Also, Rosen
purposes that teachers should reconsider what they think of as a crime or disruption in their
classroom and rather get to know and understand their students. Therefore, students they must
learn to get along with their teachers and have an equal balance.
In todays society we may not be aware of our surroundings and the entire ruckus that
has displayed due to the factors of education. We have learned that in order for students to be
educated they must make a bond with their teacher to gain the knowledge they need to survive in
this society. We acknowledge that schools are becoming resegregated and should enforce a new
law that consist of keeping schools equally diverse in order to not move in the past but look
forward to the future. As stated we have come a long way to take steps back when we should be
moving forward and conducting a community where we help each other through our failures and

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our achievements. Therefore, schools should compromise and use what they have to educate
their children while funds are made for impoverished schools to help them get the material they
need to learn.

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Works Cited
Reed Karaim. Race and Education: Are U.S. schools becoming resegregated? CQ Researcher
24.31 (2014): 721-744. Print.
Robert Kiener. Dropout Rate: Are new policies needed to keep more teens in school? CQ
Researcher 24.22 (2014): 505-528. Print.
Anne Farris Rosen. School Discipline: Should zero-tolerance policies be revised? CQ
Researcher 24.18 (2014): 409-432. Print.
Alan Greenblatt. Race in America: Are blacks still handicapped by racism? CQ Researcher
13.25 (2003): 593-624. Print.