Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Alexis Cooper
Professor Noone
ENGW 103
The confidence in the United States' public-school system has dramatically declined. For
the most part, the public still supports the education system, but there is no doubt that criticism
exists. Public education is essentially the idea that all students should have access to a quality
education at the public's expense. How do we define this "quality education" for all students? It
does not stop at just providing a building for students to receive an education; it requires access
to key educational resources, including experienced teachers and valuable curriculum. We have
inner-city schools that lack many resources that their suburban counterparts acquire. The public-
school system is poorly constructed, unconstitutional, unequally funded, and this list could go
on. Students of lower socioeconomic status are being groomed to fail and this is not acceptable.
The school system is not up to par, specifically relating to inner-city schools. Officials
place schools in inner-cities and forget about the effects that the neighborhood would have on the
school. The biggest issue is the violence rate in these schools. Many underperforming schools
have high levels of school violence. Julia Burdick-Will, a sociologist, who received a James
Coleman Award for her article on school violence, conducted research on the impact of school
violence. Burdick finds “Even when students are not the direct victims of violent conflict,
attending a school with a high violent crime rate increases the probability that they will witness
violence or will know of someone who was involved in a violent incident. This exposure to
violence can have psychological consequences for learning even if there are no noticeable
changes in their reports of physical safety.” With the violent environment, students will then
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become less interested in school, more attracted in destructive behavior, which will then lead to
Problems like poverty are one of the biggest factors that impact the lives of these
children. In a study "The Challenge of Location and Poverty" conducted by the National Center
for Education Statistics, they reported “previous research suggests that both students from
schools with high concentrations of low-income students and those from urban schools would be
expected to have less successful education outcomes, home environments that are less
supportive, and less positive school experiences than students from other schools." The research
shows how having low-income or attending these urban schools impact the success rate of the
students. Poverty and violence directly affect a student’s education in inner-city schools. Without
a safe and stable community, students struggle throughout the years and ultimately fail to
complete high school because of the distractions within their community. Inner-city schools need
support from the government to create a safer environment and implant more programs that
promote safety and avoidance of drugs and crime. Programs like The Boys and Girls Club, the
YMCA, Big Brothers Big Sisters, have been shown in multiple studies to have helped inner-city
youth. According to Laura Lippman and the National Dropout Prevention Center, there was “A
recent report on California’s after-school programs that found many positive impacts that
demonstrated increased achievement, regular attendance, good behavior, and a reduction in grade
retention.” A study like this is just one example of many, but it does provide evidence of how
programs can be beneficial to the youth. The programs may be the only opportunity for at-risk
students have quality field trips, tutoring, academic advancement or enrichment activities such as
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dance and music. Programs would help students find activities that they are interested in and
prevent them from falling into the holes and loops of failure.
In some states like Texas, students typically have to pay an out-of-district transfer fee.
Hallsville Independent School District, located in Hallsville, Texas, has “an Out of District
Transfer Application fee of $50.00 per student; $75 per family with more than one child will be
payable at the time of application. The application fee is non-refundable if the student is not
accepted or chooses not to enroll. The application fee will be applied to tuition upon acceptance
and enrollment of student(s).” (HISD.com) Parents have to take the risk of wasting their money,
which might not seem like a lot but could be a lot to them, and if their children are accepted, they
would then be required to pay a yearly tuition, if the students will continue their education at the
school. The Hallsville ISD transfer “Tuition is $1,000 for the first child in a family, $500 for the
second child in a family, and caps at $1,500 per family.”(HISD.com) If the students are not able
to afford the fees and tuition, they are not able to receive the same education that the students at
these “better schools” receive. Chances to exercise school choice are very limited unless students
can afford to or fall into certain education categories. Ultimately, families end up paying tuition
for school choice, move into a different public-school district where schools are considered
Poverty has a strong connection with race and social class, as minorities are usually
living in poverty and are ranked low in the social economy. Students regularly receive intensely
different learning opportunities based on their social status. What can be done to guarantee that
low-income schools are developed to support successful teaching and learning? Tarsi Dunlop,
most recognized for her work with Learning First Alliance (LFA), a national partnership of
education associations committed to strengthening public schools for all children, points out that
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“driving reforms…are slowly eroding our public school system and creating an even wider and
more troubling achievement gap; ensuring that more affluent students have access to better
schools and more resources, while low-income students receive a second-class education.” In
other words, there is a system that prolongs inequality between upper and lower class students.
People from a racial minority group or a lower income family often do not have a family history
of higher education, which means parents will not have high expectations of their children nor
will they encourage productivity in school. Many of these families have generations that were
born into poverty due to institutional racism, and most are not able to move up in the economy.
According to the article "The Enduring Importance of Parental Involvement," the authors report
"Ongoing research shows that family engagement in schools improves student achievement,
reduces absenteeism, and restores parents’ confidence in their children’s education. Students
with involved parents…earn higher grades and test scores, have better social skills, and show
improved behavior." The research raises the question of how can parents actively be involved
when they often have to work multiple jobs just to support their family and simply do not have
time to monitor and participate in their children's school performance. Parental involvement does
play a large role in a child's school performance, but so does the role of the state and local
government. It is important to know that parental involvement and the role of government are not
equal in their influence of student progress, but the government should spend more time
adequately funding their schools. Funding these schools would lead to a better space for children
to actively learn.
There are multiple problems that inner-city schools have that government funding could
fix. There are multiple studies conducted by the American Psychological Association (APA)
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surrounding the idea of problems with inner-city schools. According to one study done by
Cynthia Hudley from the APA, these urban schools usually consist of:
These problems listed are only a small portion of the vast amounts of problems that exist in these
urban schools. With proper funding these inner-city schools could be properly renovated.
Considering the era that we live in today, schools that are not properly funded are not able to
supply their students with the very necessary materials and technology to adequately teach them.
Schools are also unable to afford to fix the decay of their buildings in order to create an
exceptional environment that will encourage learning. Tax-payers may argue, “Why should I pay
for students who do not seem to care about their education?” This is not really the problem.
Since these schools do not provide helpful resources for the students, they tend to believe that
they are not cared about. When teachers and faculty are not paid well enough or who aren’t well-
experienced, they do not expect much of the students, leading students to think they do not
matter. As shown by the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation case studies, teachers
in urban school districts can feel overwhelmed by what they consider to be the high needs of
their students, which will lower their own expectations for student performance. If the students
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are given the opportunity and proper support, they will live up to the high expectations that are
Education continues to be the basis of everyone's success and prosperity, but the public
education school system practices exclusion in many different ways. Since education is so
important to succeed in our society, the system must make extreme changes to accommodate the
drastic achievement gap between whites and non-Asian minorities. All of these factors discussed
are the principal reasons as to why these inner-city students are performing worse than others
and can be changed if officials attempted to care. Quality education resources would make a
difference, especially when funds are used for better-experienced teachers and high-quality
curriculum. Creating tailored learning communities in which children are not expected to
perform low will create space for the students to succeed. The local government needs to provide
Works Cited
Burdick-Will, Julia. “School Violent Crime and Academic Achievement in Chicago.” Sociology
Garcia, Lily Eskelsen, and Otha Thornton. "The Enduring Importance of Parental
2018.
Lippman, Laura et al. Urban Schools. U.S. Dept. Of Education, Office Of Educational Research
And Improvement, National Center For Education Statistics, 1996, pp. 1-125.
MDRC. Case Studies Of How Urban School Systems Improve Student Achievement. 2002,
2018.