After years of civil unrest during the Civil Rights Movement, President Lyndon B. Johnson set out on an ambitious goal: eliminate racial injustice and end poverty. In 1964, Johnson passed a massive set of policy proposals known as “The Great Society,” to that end. In a speech promoting the policies he made a bold statement, “Poverty must not be a bar to learning, and learning must offer an escape from poverty.” Yet over 50 years later, wide disparities still exist in the United States’ education system among various economic and racial groups. Though many policies have since been instituted to address these differences since, few have worked to achieve progress in this area. In this paper we will explore the current state of the United States’
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The best logical starting point is through looking at the aptitude of students entering college. In a study funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and researched by the group Complete College America entitled “Remediation: Higher Education’s Bridge to Nowhere,” we can begin to answer the question of aptitude. What the study found was that the highest predictor of dropout rates of higher education was needing to take remedial classes, (remedial classes are only necessary if the student does not have a level of college aptitude in an area that high school should have had the student). So, it can plausibly be seen that high amounts of students entering higher education requiring remediation would prove a lack of subsistence in America’s education system. What the study finds is troubling, 19.9 percent of students entering four-year colleges require remediation, while 51.7 percent of students entering two-year colleges require remediation. Of those requiring remediation at four-year colleges and two-year colleges, only 31.5 percent and 9.5 percent graduate, respectively. If we continue to evaluate the data, we find if a student is African-American, Hispanic or low-income, the chance they are headed toward remediation is significantly higher. For instance, 39.1 percent of African-Americans entering four-year universities require remediation compared with just 13.6 percent of their …show more content…
concerted cultivation has data beyond his own to back it up. Specifically, according to facts about children’s literacy gathered by America’s largest labor union, the National Education Association (NEA), data from the United States Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) shows children in families with incomes below the poverty line are less likely to be read to aloud everyday than are children in families with incomes at or above poverty. Furthermore, NCES data shows that only 53 percent of children ages three to five were read to daily by a family member (NEA, 2016). Lastly, in a 1996 report from U.S. Department of Education, researchers found that where parent involvement was low, the classroom mean average reading score is 46 points below the national average. Where involvement is high, classrooms score 28 points above the national average. This makes for a staggering reading proficiency gap of 74 points (ED,
The best logical starting point is through looking at the aptitude of students entering college. In a study funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and researched by the group Complete College America entitled “Remediation: Higher Education’s Bridge to Nowhere,” we can begin to answer the question of aptitude. What the study found was that the highest predictor of dropout rates of higher education was needing to take remedial classes, (remedial classes are only necessary if the student does not have a level of college aptitude in an area that high school should have had the student). So, it can plausibly be seen that high amounts of students entering higher education requiring remediation would prove a lack of subsistence in America’s education system. What the study finds is troubling, 19.9 percent of students entering four-year colleges require remediation, while 51.7 percent of students entering two-year colleges require remediation. Of those requiring remediation at four-year colleges and two-year colleges, only 31.5 percent and 9.5 percent graduate, respectively. If we continue to evaluate the data, we find if a student is African-American, Hispanic or low-income, the chance they are headed toward remediation is significantly higher. For instance, 39.1 percent of African-Americans entering four-year universities require remediation compared with just 13.6 percent of their …show more content…
concerted cultivation has data beyond his own to back it up. Specifically, according to facts about children’s literacy gathered by America’s largest labor union, the National Education Association (NEA), data from the United States Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) shows children in families with incomes below the poverty line are less likely to be read to aloud everyday than are children in families with incomes at or above poverty. Furthermore, NCES data shows that only 53 percent of children ages three to five were read to daily by a family member (NEA, 2016). Lastly, in a 1996 report from U.S. Department of Education, researchers found that where parent involvement was low, the classroom mean average reading score is 46 points below the national average. Where involvement is high, classrooms score 28 points above the national average. This makes for a staggering reading proficiency gap of 74 points (ED,