Separate but Equal?

Agenda

• School Reform Model Presentations• Share ASCD Articles• PPT: School and Neighborhood Segregation• Read and Discuss: “The Policy and Practice

of Curriculum Inequality”• Socratic Discussion: “How the Question we

Ask Most…”• Preparation for final• Updated Grades

ASCD Article Share

• How is the issue of curriculum and/or inequality/equality addressed in your article?

Top Challenges in Education

• School-Family-Community Partnerships• Diversity of race, language and income• Meeting the needs of diverse learners--

Special Education • Working with NCLB• Adequate funding for education• Public Support of Public Education

Emerging Divide: US Economy and Society

Traditional Theory of Assimilation

• The US economy/society allows equal opportunity for those who are poor to become wealthy through hard work and education.

• Immigrants arrive poor and with less education than their US counterparts.

• Through hard work and education of their children, their children attain middle-class status.

Segmented Assimilation

• The US is an increasingly divided economy/society by race and class.

• Service-sector is fastest growing sector of the economy: highly skilled workers in the knowledge highly skilled workers in the knowledge economy and many unskilled low-level jobseconomy and many unskilled low-level jobs

• Income disparities, and education as the key to one’s income/occupation.

• It becomes harder to move between economic levels (Waters, p. 254-255).

Segmented Assimilation

• Therefore, immigrants are not necessarily assimilating into the middle class but into these divided sectors of the economy: the professional class and the unskilled class.

A Little Background about School and Neighborhood Segregation in

the US

18% of children live in poverty* but they tend to live in areas and go to schools where poor

children are in the majority.

*Federal poverty threshold = $19,350 for family of four in 2005; Orfield is using reduced or free lunch as the indicator of family poverty, which goes up to $22,290

for family of four (2005-2006)National Center for Children in Poverty, Columbia University, “Low-

Income Children in the United States,” January 2006.

What is the effect of concentrated poverty on

school achievement?

School Achievement

• Loss of successful role models: Adults that a child sees are unemployed or working low-paying jobs

• Loss of access to networks to get jobs

• Loss of tax resources to support high-quality schools

One factor is neighborhood segregation,

by class and race.Schools reflect that segregation,

but do not create it.

Neighborhoods

Provide and determine:• Education• Recreational facilities• Insurance rates• Employment• Transportation• Safety• Health• Tax base for government services

What happens when poor people are concentrated together?

• Loss of private businesses: grocery stores, banks, etc

• Loss of political power: environmental discrimination (waste processing facilities and chemical plants)

• Lower property values: deteriorating buildings and and unsavory facilities (jails)

• Loss of medical facilities and clinics• Loss of revenue for public schools

Massey, Douglas S. 1990. “American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass. American Journal of Sociology 96(2): 329-357

While the majority of poor people are white, they are less

likely than poor African-Americans and Latinos to live

in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty.

Racial discrimination combines with class segregation for African-

Americans and Latinos to produce “hyper-segregation,” particularly in old industrial areas of the Midwest

and Northeast.

Three-quarters of African-Americans live in highly segregated neighborhoods

today, whereas 90-100% of other groups experience only moderate levels of

segregation.

Massey, Douglas S. and Mary J. Fischer. 2000. “How Segregation Concentrates Poverty.” Ethnic and Racial

Studies 23(4): 670-691.

Why do many African-Americans live in neighborhoods of

concentrated poverty and racial segregation?

Racial Discrimination

• Individual prejudice and feelings of comfort/discomfort

• Discrimination in real estate and banking industries

• Government policies increasing racial and class-based housing segregation

1992 Detroit Survey on Neighborhood Preference

• Neighborhood that is 20% black: One-third of whites uncomfortable and unwilling to live there.

• Neighborhood where one-third of the residents are black: 59% of whites would be unwilling to live there, 44% would be uncomfortable, and 29% would seek to leave.

• Neighborhood that is 50-50 black and white: becomes unacceptable to all but a small minority of whites.

1992 Detroit Survey on Neighborhood Preference

For African-Americans:

• The most popular choice is a neighborhood that is half black and half white.

• 87% willing to live in a neighborhood that is 20% black.

Neighborhood Turnover

• In a neighborhood that is 20% black, whites begin to not move in because they are uncomfortable, blacks move in because they comfortable with that balance.

• The balance tips towards a mix of 70% white, 30% black, and now some whites begin to sell their houses in order to move out.

Neighborhood Turnover

• When the neighborhood is 50-50, blacks begin to move in because the neighborhood is ideal; the majority of whites want to sell their houses

• Soon the neighborhood is entirely black

Neighborhood Turnover

• This is what happened in central cities during the 1980s and 1990s, in which white people for the most part abandoned cities and fled to the suburbs

• However, now, the same thing is happening with the inner ring of suburbs so that segregation is maintained even in the suburbs

Does neighborhood and school segregation apply to the students at your school?

If so, to what extent?

Agree/Disagree

• “Tracking [ability grouping by performance] promotes overall student achievement --- that is, that the academic needs of all students will be better met when they learn in groups with similar capabilities or prior levels of achievement.”

The Policy and Practice of Curriculum Inequality

• By Jeanie Oaks

• September 1986

• Access to Knowledge: high status vs. low status

• Opportunities to Learn: instructional time and teaching quality

• Classroom Climate: teacher/student/peer relations and intensity of student involvement in learning

1) How do these three areas, as described by Oakes, impact/relate to curriculum and instruction practices at your school cite? In your classroom?

2) What are the differences observed between classes in different tracks?

Socratic Discussion

• “How the Question We ask Most about Race in Education is the very Question we Most Suppress” by Pollack.

Last Class• Technology Group Presentation• WEB 2.0• Book share

• FINAL OPTIONS• Option 1: Take home final (due by

Wednesday December 5th at 10:00pm)• Option 2: Take final at regularly scheduled

date and time: FRIDAY DECEMBER 7, 2007 • 4:00 TO 5:20.

Preparation for Final and “Comps”

• Make a list of major contributors to curriculum philosophy.

• Summarize the positions of contributors and philosophies

• Write down key quotes or phrases representative of the different perspectives/philosophies/ philosophers

Major Philosophies studied in this course:

Education:• Essentialism (Bagley)• Progressivism (Dewy)• Existentialism (Apple)• Perennialism (Adler)Sociological Theories: Role of Education

– Durkheim (Functionalism)– Marx (Conflict Theory)

Concepts of Importance

• Aims of education (changing purposes over time--causes and effects)

• Curriculum Criteria (historical perspectives--Hass and Parkay)

• Equality and Access in Curriculum Design• School Reform: (What can be done? New

research, trends affecting education, changing purposes of ed, historical perspectives)

Helpful Articles to Review before “Comps.”

• “The Paideia Proposal,” by Mortimer Adler• “The Case for Essentialism vs. The Case for

Progressivism,” by Bagley and Kilpatrick• Schooling in America: Where are We Headed” by E.W.

Eisner• “Eighty Years of Curriculum Theory,” by Glen Hass• Who Should Plan Curriculum” by Glen Hass• “Perspectives on Curriculum Criteria” by Forrest Parkay.• “Accountability Systems: Implications of Requirements of

the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001” • “Keeping Track Part 1:The Policy and Practice of

Curriculum Inequality” Jeanie Oakes

Extra Credit Posts

• Session 9: Post a response to one of the two articles assigned.

• Session 10: Post your study guide for final!

• 5pts each.