In American schools the level of achievement between private and inner city public schools varies greatly. The achievement gap in education refers to the disparity in academic performance between students of different socioeconomic make up. An average of a 22% difference between white and black students exists on the achievement gap scale. The no child left behind act passed in 2001 aimed to reform schooling. It hoped to close the achievement gap.
However, as we see today it did not entirely work because a large gap in achievement between the socioeconomic classes still exists. Students in public inner city schools do not meet the xpectations of their parents, teachers, and the government. In international standardized tests the United states public school system tested 15th out of 20 schools in math and sciences. Even on an international stage the United states public school systems struggle. America, already low on the global rankings, continue to fallI.
Students poor behavior contributes to the decline of inner city schools. Schools become more like a daycare center than a school. With the inappropriate school behavior, faculty members must focus more on controlling the students and babysitting them rather than teaching. The ehavior of students often connects with the behavior of their parents. Parents, often uninvolved in the school, do not always know how their children behave in school, or they do not care. The behavior of the students also affects the teachers.
Dealing with mouthy, rude students drives teachers away. Rebecca Schmidt talks about this topic,” I get mouthed off to everyday, and I just do not love my job like I used to. ” Kate Delmar also talks about her seven years’ time teaching English at an inner city public school. “As a teacher, I can only do so much. Parents need to take responsibility for their children, and teach them iscipline, help them with their studies, and make sure they get sleep so they are prepared for class. Parental involvement out of school helps students to mature and pushes them to work harder in school. The Catholic Church strives for more choice schools. The following statistics contain facts regarding the improvement of education of black and Hispanic minorities in choice Catholic schools.
The Catholic high schools graduated 95 percent of their students each year, while the public schools graduated slightly more 50 percent of their senior class; Over 66 percent of the Catholic school graduates received the New York State Regents diploma to signify completion of an academically demanding college preparatory curriculum, while only about 5 percent of the public school students received this distinction; 85 percent of the Catholic high school students took the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), compared with just 33 percent of the public high school students; The Catholic school students achieved an average combined SAT score of 803, while the public school students’ average combined SAT score was 642; and 60 percent of the Catholic school black students scored above the national average for black students on the SAT, and ver 70 percent of public school black students scored below the same national average.
Along with choice schools, The Safe and Affordable Schools Act, introduced by Senator Paul Coverdell, includes school choice demonstration projects for children who want to escape unsafe schools and provisions to encourage states and localities to design their own school choice programs. Through different programs, like the CISE and choice schools, the Catholic Church works to get inner city youth into schools that will provide them with an educational shot of leaving the poverty circle. The Catholic Church in Cincinnati pened a weekend meal program for children who attend inner city schools.
Children in the inner city often eat most their meals at school, and when the weekend comes some kids do not eat until they go to school on Monday morning. With most students who attend these inner-city schools being under the poverty line, families struggle to properly feed their children every day. In Cincinnati, the church makes sure kids eat a meal, along with helping them do any homework they bring along. The Catholic Churches of Cincinnati ask their parishioners for donations of $14 dollars for a weekend donation which would feed one child ver the weekend or a onetime donation of $168 to feed a child every weekend for a year, so that they can return to school on Monday nourished and prepared.
Along with providing food for children, the CISE, or the Catholic Inner-city School Education fund provides children with a place to go after school where they receive extra help, extra attention, and participate in sports. In New York, the Catholic Churches open schools that provide at-risk African American students to gain an opportunity at better schooling. Students who attend these schools not only gain a better education, but also gain discipline. The Catholic School Advantage, as they call it, stress that when the students enter the school building they must leave the streets at the door. At Rice, High School, a Catholic school advantage high school, in Harlem holds a plaque that reads “The Street ends here. The cultural transformation that takes place at the school, “symbolized when Rice students swipe their do-rags from their heads as they step into the building,” notes Patrick McCloskey, author of a moving book about Rice, forthcoming from the University of California Press.
The Catholic School Advantage also helps children of the Latino race. Designed to serve as a catalyst for a broad national effort to increase Latino enrollment in Catholic schools, the Catholic School Advantage Campaign has helped establish local initiatives throughout the country, partners with individual schools, and collaborates closely with several national programs. The government, community, and individuals all play a role in helping to fix this issue. Injustice in inner city schools effects the government, because the government passed the no child left behind act back in 2001, with extremely minimal results.
The superintendent of schools plays a key role with government nvolvement with this issue Economics contribute a ton to the uncared for inner city schools. Children who live in generally better economic areas benefit with better schooling versus children who grow up in poorer areas. The money that taxpayers pay, does not always go to the schools that need dire help. The people whose children attend inner city schools need and want reform. They hope for changes in the way these schools operate, and hope for changes in the achievement gap. While the no child left behind act attempts to help children receive a better education that helps them get out of the inner ity, its results do not reach expectations.
Our faith states that our government must treat all people fairly, and help them receive necessities. The state government must act to help close the achievement gap and help children attending inner city schools receive a proper education. The state governments must set up funds to help inner city schools improve overall. The community affects poor inner city schools. With poor schools, it causes a challenge for kids to leave their poor neighborhoods, and with poorer, struggling neighborhoods usually comes crime. To seek a change, the community must ome together as one and stand up for better education. McDowell, West Virginia exemplifies a community working for a change.
In McDowell, a legislature passed an “innovation zone” a bill that allows the county to participate in a teacher-in- residence program with a local university, allowing promising young talent to enter the teaching workforce. Ultimately, this develops teachers for full time teaching jobs. The community has also set up a breakfast and lunch program for their kids, and currently setting up a dinner program as well. Cincinnati once had the worst school buildings in the country. One way to solve this problem was to have the community pay for the renovations need. In return, the school buildings also serve as a community center, staying open late on weeknights, and open on weekends.
Having the schools also serve as community centers, allows schools to renovate while helping the community save money by just using the same building. Family and community involvements form partnerships among schools, family and community groups, and individuals. these partnerships result in sharing and maximizing resources. Families need encouragement to participate in all aspects of their child’s education. Public schools must develop partnerships with businesses, and community groups to promote adult participation in their children’s education. Administrators must coordinate meetings with community leaders to set up fundraisers to help collect funds for the school.
Other solutions to helping poor inner city schools include, lowering class size. The teacher to student ratio shows that for every 27 students, only one teacher teaches. much too high for students to gain a proper education. With smaller class sizes, kids would have more opportunities to become involved. A study from the STAR program, or Student Teacher Achievement Ratio, proved that class sizes in a range of 13-18 students received better grades, tested better, and had fewer disciplinary referrals than students in a class size of 22-25 students. Students in high school also have a higher graduation rate in a smaller sized class versus a larger one.
Students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds use the smaller class sizes to gain attention that they do not always receive at home. “The mechanisms at work linking small classes to higher achievement include a mixture of higher levels of student engagement, increased time on task, and the opportunity small classes rovide for high-quality teachers to tailor their instruction to the students in the class. ” A paper from Colorado University states that overall, small class sizes lead to a better future with higher graduation rates and ultimately a higher paying job. Having two separate sessions of school potential may help class size reduce.
One class would take the early morning and the next would take the afternoon into the late evening. Another potential solution to this problem, school vouchers, also referred to as opportunity scholarships. Voucher schools pay for students to attend private school rather than public school. These lowincome students that meet a specified income threshold, students attending chronically low performing schools, students with disabilities, or students in military families or foster care qualify for voucher schools. While public school choice policies like charter schools serve a similar purpose, private schools have more flexibility in staffing, budgeting, curriculum, academic standards and accountability systems than even charter schools.
Research has found voucher recipients more likely to graduate from higher school than their public-school counterparts. The District of Columbia plus 13 states have school voucher programs. With these vouchers students attending poor inner city schools have the opportunity to attend a private school, and receive a better shot at an education. Along with voucher schools, choice schools strive to make a difference. Choice schools operate per the wants of the Board while working to implement the goals outlined in the school charter. A new report by Dr. Susan Aud finds that school choice programs have led to substantial savings for public schools and steady increases in per-student spending in public schools.
Dr. Aud, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, studied eleven school voucher programs in eight states. She found that the programs saved state and local taxpayers $444 million from 1990 to 2006$22 million for state budgets and $422 million for local school districts. Those savings mean that more money will go to those students who do remain in public schools. In today’s Milwaukee schools, kids do not receive an education strong enough to help them get out of the circle of poverty. Milwaukee, along with a multitude of other cities, has a struggling public school system that lacks resources it needs to help students reach their full potential.
Lacking trained teachers, supplies, and rundown buildings results in the school to prison pipeline. Surrounding communities can play a big role in helping these poorer schools get back on track. Communities push for parental involvement, which will hopefully push students to perform better. With new programs like voucher schools, choice schools, and the involvement of Catholic schools, some select students will have the opportunity to engage in an education far better than the one they will receive at the current public school that they attend. All in all, the goal to close the achievement gap and help minority students who attend poor inner city schools to have a chance to escape a life of poverty.
