Internalized Inequalities In The Education System

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Internalized Inequality is a normality in the public school system that divides and separates students through race and socioeconomic status. People do not think to question the disproportion that is taking place in the school system due to the lack of equal resources provided for different socioeconomic groups. The issue at hand is the academic success of a high school student and how it is influenced by their race and social-class. For the purpose of this analysis, academic success is defined by a student’s social involvement (ie. extracurriculars and family-school relationships), performance on standardized testing, and their likelihood to continue their academic career after high school. There is not one factor that has the greatest impact …show more content…
Within this institution, there is an established structure that has been normalized over the years. This structure perpetuates the effect that socioeconomic status of the student has over their success in high school. Institutions such as high schools are unintentionally biased towards the more traditionally privileged student, showing the “result of people behaving themselves and following the rules, rather than the result of people breaking the rules” (Schwalbe 2015). Breaking the rules, in this regard, is unlikely because it requires ascending the social and economic ladder, which is not possible with the resources lower income people have, and “when a society is setup to operate this way, we can say that the reproduction of inequality has been institutionalized” (Schwalbe …show more content…
In a study from Florida A&M University, Ronald B. Lumpkin analyzed how the financial status of a school can affect standardized test scores based on the aesthetic of the school such as inadequate buildings, lighting, temperature, or deferred maintenance. He looked for a correlation between this “climate” of the school and the school’s socioeconomic and minority percentages. Lumpkin breaks down the concentration of minority enrollment by the National Center for Education Statistics’ (NCES) 2012 categories: less than 25% (low), 26%-49% (mid-low), 50%-74% (mid-high), and over 75% (high) (Lumpkin 2016). In his data from the North Florida Region of schools, he proves that low-minority, high-income schools tend to score higher than high-minority, low-income schools. In Greensboro High, where the minority percentage is 83 percent, which falls under the high category, aggregate Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) scores on the math section were 38 and 8 on the reading. In comparison, at Poplar Springs High School, where the minority percentage is 9 percent, under the low category, the aggregate FCAT scores on the math section were 65 and 25 on the

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