Equity and Equality of Public Education - Assignment Example

Equity and Equality of Public Education School Affiliation: MEMO Board of Education Gatsy A. Moye-Lavergne Subject: With Regards to Equity and Equality of Public Education Opening Segment The public education in the US faces a myriad of challenges especially with the American society comprising of varied races. While efforts have been made to ensure equality, there tends to arise difficulties in ensuring equity. The education system offers all the races fair playing ground, meaning no member of any society is forbidden from pursuing education. Nonetheless, the challenges arise when it comes to guaranteeing equity. Normally, equality talks of availing a level-ground for all irrespective of their conditions. On the other hand, equity considers the conditions, which might hinder some people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Statistics reveal that students from poor backgrounds, particularly the African American, face stiff challenges in education. They often undergo expulsion and suspension from the learning institutions besides encountering challenges in accessing highly qualified teachers. Discussion segment The public education in the United States undoubtedly offers everyone an opportunity to learn. In other words, there is no valid debate as to whether there is a fair playing ground for students. However, the same cannot be said of the equity, which is critical in determining the effectiveness of equality. Equality provides everyone with equal opportunities ensuring that no one is favored in the process. However, without first addressing the issue of equity, equality might not be effective for a number of reasons. First, offering equal opportunities is commendable but when some people cannot access these opportunities because of separate predicaments, equality in the end is not achieved. This is the scenario in the public education. While all races can access the education, other factors such as income and historic injustices become a hurdle in seizing the opportunities (Lee, 2015). For that reason, it is imperative to scrutinize the proper steps to take and subsequently implement them accordingly. Findings Teaching strategies ought to be rectified, as there is ample evidence that they are not as effective as is expected, and this has adverse effects. It was noted that some students dropped out of school even before high school graduation. Worse still, those who completed and received high school diplomas did not certify the expected competence (Levin, Belfield, Muennig & Rouse, 2007). While the public education sector could be suffering from other issues, the strategies implemented do little to remedy the situation. Thus, it is vitally important to have a change on these in order to ensure that the much-hyped equality is existent. From the above findings, a very interest issue rises up in explaining the reason equity and equality are hardly achieved practically in the US public education despite the portrayal of the same. When these students drop from schools with their backgrounds being a major catalyst, it means only a handful graduate (Brown, White & Waymer, 2011; Kruckeberg & Vujnovic, 2005). Consequently, the society can only absorb only a few of them in comparison to others from the other races. In the end, there is neither equality nor equity because the underlying issues are never addressed adequately. Therefore, addressing the issue of equity before equality will be pivotal in the improvement of the public education. Unless there is an overhaul of the teaching strategies, which ought to include all the stakeholders, there is a possibility of this issue becoming even direr. In worrying statistics, it was reported that in comparison to the Whites and Asian students, only 53% of the African American make it to the high school graduation. Nationally, male students from the African American society in the K-12 grades were reportedly three times facing suspension from school in comparison to their white counterparts. Worse still, in a 2007 survey, close to 6.2 million was the number, a majority of which were African American, of young people who had dropped out of school hence costing the country a whopping $260,000 in as far as taxes, productivity and lost earnings were concerned (Lee, 2015). Clearly, these are indications that equality in the public education is not indeed practical especially with regard to the outcome. In other words, while everybody can attain education in the American system, other background issues stifle this plan. As a result, it leads to eventual inequality because equity was not addressed in the first place. Even though other races might be affected by the trends in the education system, the African Americans seem to have a worse condition. For instance, an African American in the 12th grade has the same reading level with a white 8th grade student. Furthermore, it was established that the African American is reading scores of 12th grade were low compared to a combination of all other racial groups. Still, it has been noted that among the eight graders, only 14% of the African Americans can hit the proficient level. The implications of these statistics is that millions of African Americans can seldom comprehend, evaluate or even offer inferences in written documents (Malott, 2010). Because of these trends which seem not attract the necessary attention, the US prison have continue to be bloated with more people from the African American races than any other. For instance, it was reported that almost 55% of the incarcerated people currently are African American. Many of them are poorly educated meaning they can hardly secure any meaningful employment (Malott, 2010). While one cannot necessarily blame lack of education for the menace, it is clear that it could have contributed. Nonetheless, focusing on the solution for this issue will be the right decision, and that is what this memo offers. Resolutions To resolve this issue, the change of strategies where teachers and parents are included couple with the inclusion of technology in the learning could be employed. First, the teaching strategies employed in the current set do little to impart the students with the required skills. As indicated earlier, many black students can hardly prove their competence upon graduation. Therefore, the strategies employed by the teachers are of great concern. However, this could be changed by ensuring technology in adopted in the sector. Technology could be used to close the gap of inequity that currently exists in the public schools. First, it could be used in tailoring studies in a way that African Americans and other races clearly understand the instructions (Ackerman, 2004). Secondly, availing technology in the schools will help the students in learning and understanding many concepts at their own pace. Earlier, it was noted that some students in the high school level either drop out or have poor results upon graduation. Some of the factors that were identified as the catalysts to this norm are the understanding of the students and the strategies by the teachers (Schnellert & Keengwe, 2012; Huerta, Gonzalez & dEntremont, 2006). In light of the above, technology will be vital in turning this situation around. Students can access learning materials even when it is not class time; also, the setting of the language used ought to consider the language barriers the African Americans face. Other students tend to have an advantage over the African Americans and other racial groups in a number of ways including access to private tutors. Where parents have a low income, it is possible they will not afford a private tutor. As a result, the student has to rely solely on the teacher who is then expected to teach students from all races. This will make it almost impossible for the teachers to sympathize with the plight of such students. However, where technology is adopted, the student could learn many things with the help of either their parents or other people. In other words, technology could complement a private teacher, who might be too costly to afford. Another important stakeholder in the public education is the parent where their role ought to be that of motivating and assisting the student right from home. While illiteracy levels could hinder a parent’s ability to offer lessons to their there is an additional role of motivation. There are parents who are well educated, and they too have to participate in the improvement of the education status in the US. By assisting their children and encouraging them to pursue education, parents can significantly improve the system. Closing segment Having presented the credible evidence of the current sorry state of the public education, it is imperative that necessary steps are implemented. Teachers ought to be introduced to new strategies as it has been proved the current ones do little to impart the much-needed knowledge. Secondly, sensitization of the parents on the need to play a critical role of motivation besides offering tutorials is needed. Finally, the use of technology ought to be embraced and implemented immediately to avert the looming of crisis continued inequity whereas the systems portray themselves as ones supporting equality. References Ackerman, M. (2004). Adopting New Technology Into Society: Going from an Idea to an Institution. Public Policy & Aging Report, 14(1), 25-25. Brown, K., White, C., & Waymer, D. (2011). African-American students’ perceptions of public relations education and practice: Implications for minority recruitment. Public Relations Review, 37(5), 522-523. Huerta, L., Gonzalez, M., & dEntremont, C. (2006). Cyber and Home School Charter Schools: Adopting Policy to New Forms of Public Schooling. Peabody Journal Of Education, 81(1), 103-104. Kruckeberg, D., & Vujnovic, M. (2005). Public relations, not propaganda, for US public diplomacy in a post‐9/11 world: Challenges and opportunities. Journal Of Communication Management, 9(4), 296-98. Levin, H., Belfield, C., Muennig, P., & Rouse, C. (2007). The public returns to public educational investments in African-American males. Economics Of Education Review, 26(6), 699-708. Lee, J. (2015). Challenges of Internationally Educated Teachers in the U.S. Public School System. IES, 8(3). Malott, C. (2010). African Americans and Education: A Contested History. Souls, 12(3), 197-99 Read More