Achievement gap in the United States

personal motto is a quote from Mimfa A. Gibson: “Don’t expect mangoes when you plant papayas.” Through the turbulent and exhausting challenges presented in our everyday lives, it is easy for the correlation between preparation and achievement to become skewed. Current United States Army Ranger and member of the 101st Airborne division, Lieutenant Kyle Treece, helps me keep straight the path and live out my personal motto. By setting an example of discipline, determination, and fortitude,…

unfairly. As a black woman today, I know that one word alone is like the Helen of Troy, which was “the face that launch’d a thousand ships, and burnt the topless towers of Ilium.” This word and what it stands for is an abomination to not only the United State of America, but to the entire universe. Words like that are created to make someone feel worthless, useless, and undesirable. I cannot fathom seeing how people…

Equality has been a topic that has been fought for in the United States for many years now. Going back to past years, people fought for rights to vote, rights to resources, and rights for opportunities. Even after some of those rights have been accomplished, reality is that we still see oppression and isms in effect in our country. Yes, we have achieved some equality, however, there are people in our country that have more privilege and power due to their color, economic status, or gender. Our…

income level and the income level of the child. The child’s income should rise or fall depending on the talent of the individual. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The problem is more than ideological. The cycle of poverty is expensive for the United States. Poverty is associated with crime, increase use of public assistance and a loss of economic productivity. A good proxy for the victims of the cycle of…

training they need to work. But is school to blame for this? Hochschild later says that “Overall, about a third of the variation in students’ achievement is determined by what state they live in. But inequalities within a state can be just as severe.” State funding and wealth distribution are vastly affecting how students are getting opportunities. Many states, such as California, New York, and Nevada have extremely high urban density, and are very densely populated. However, according to…

remake and improve the American education system. The act uses standards and accountability to improve all student’s proficiency by the year 2014. This Obama administration initiative has attempted to bring change through offering competitive grants to states pursuing the change. Despite progress in some areas, it has not lead to a widespread improvement.…

No Child Left Behind According to the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) pamphlet, “the No Child Left Behind Act gives states and cities more control and more flexibility to use resources where they are needed most. Principals and administrators would spend less time filling out forms and more time helping a child learn” (Ten Facts Everyone Should Know about the NCLB). This claim shows how promising the NCLB was supposed to be. The government had NCLB pamphlets issued to parents and teachers to let…

Development and Educational Outcomes is not just found in the U.S. but in all countries, poverty presents a certain type of stress for children and families that may interfere with successful adjustment to developmental tasks, including school achievement (Lapin & Smith,…

The racial gap in student academic achievement is once again the focus of much attention. “Educational expectations are lower for black children, according to Child Trends, a non-profit and non-partisan research center that tracks data about children.” (Cook, 2015) Black American has less opportunities and lack of support from their parents to succeed in the United States. For example, in comparison to their White counterparts, fewer Black families can afford to live in neighborhoods with high…

Fueled by an anti-immigrant climate, Unz spearheaded a statewide campaign for Proposition 227, a highly controversial state initiative that required schools to teach language-minority students almost entirely in English. California was thus became the first state to prohibit bilingual programs in schools, radically altering the education of hundreds of thousands of children. Various states have even placed anti-bilingual education laws since then in Arizona and Massachusetts, and there was an…