Defining the Challenge

DIVERSITY AND EQUITY TODAY

SCHOOLINGInequalities in educational resources

Inequalities in educational expectations Standardized achievement test differences

Educational attainment differences Language differences and school

achievement Inclusion of students with disabilities in

“mainstream” classroomsGender and learning differences

No Child Left Behind

IDEOLOGY Equal opportunity

Meritocracy Genetic deficit theory Cultural deficit theory

Racism Sexism

Class bias Disability bias

Social construction of which human differences matter

POLITICAL ECONOMY Social inequalities:• Racial and ethnic • Gender • Economic class

Diversity across and within groups Inequalities in employment Effects of poverty and racism on families. Income Vs. wealth differences Education for all Handicapped

Children Act

ANALYTIC

FRAMEWORK

INTRODUCTION: INEQUITY AND INEQUALITY • The distinction between equity and equality has been an American problem since it’s early

origins.

• Equity brings with it a meaning of “fairness”

• Equality brings with it a meaning of “equal”

THE FREE MARKET• (Those who have the most skill and talent, work hardest, and have the best luck are

expected to prosper in a free market economy)

• Supposed to structure a system of rewards that bring out the productive best in people

• However, theory is arguable

• Assumes that everyone everyone starts at the same point, allowing equal competition; or at least that social institutions treat everyone fairly.

LIBERAL IDEOLOGY: MERITOCRACY REEXAMINEDQuestion #2

• Inequalities with source in social organization

• Means socially privileged have advantages denied to others

• Most times the socially privileged use these advantages to put down the less fortunate.

LIBERAL IDEOLOGY: MERITOCRACY REEXAMINED • As a result of social inequality, what types of educational and social policies are needed?

• One policy implemented to to help solve the inequality issue is differentiated curriculum

Question #3

LIBERAL IDEOLOGY: MERITOCRACY REEXAMINED • Reemerging meritocracy issue (1960’s)

• Fueled by Brown v. Board of Education decision and The Coleman Study

Question #4

SOCIAL CONDITIONS BEHIND THE NEW DEBATE Question #5

• Biggest concern of the GI bill was to have soldiers enter college instead of the labor market.

Question #6

• Idea of these soldiers entering college feared educators

• Many soldiers came from poorly educated families

• At this time in meritocratic thinking, these types of low status people should have failed

SOCIAL CONDITIONS BEHIND THE NEW DEBATEQuestion #7

• “its doubted that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education…[and such opportunity] must be made to all on equal terms.

• This reopened the debate about equity, (fairness), in America.

THE COLEMAN REPORT• The Coleman Report was to fulfill one of the provisions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act

• 1964 Civil Rights Act banned major forms of discrimination against racial, ethnic, national and religious minorities, and women.

Question #8

Question #9

• The Coleman Report flawed in the way it wholly underestimated the positive effects of schooling on student achievement.

• If the study had been done differently, it would have shown that different levels of school input produce very different outcomes in student learning.

THE CULTURAL DEPRIVATION STUDIESQuestion #10

Question #11

• Moynihan – Mosteller On Equality of Equal Educational Opportunity

• Concluded that educational inputs are roughly the same for all children, therefore, America had achieved equal educational opportunity.

• Reinforced Coleman’s suggestion that the achievement problems faced by minority students rested not with the schools but with the students and their cultural backgrounds.

• Thought that spending more money on schools would not help the minorities succeed

THE CULTURAL DEPRIVATION STUDIES • Jencks and Colleagues Inequality

• Also asserted cognitive inequality was not affected by schooling but largely dependent on characteristics of child upon entering school

• Different view on money

• Thought that putting more money into school was good because most people spend 20 – 25 percent of their lives in school and it should be “pleasant”

• More worried about “pleasantness” of school rather than success because of the guess that economic success had to do with luck and special abilities

• This thought came at a cost

THE POLITICAL – ECONOMIC CONTEXT THE DEMOGRAPHICS OF MODERN AMERICAN SOCIETY Question #12

• Per Capita – for each person; in relation to people taken individually

• United States is one of the most schooled countries, in terms of years of schooling per capita.

• Over 85 percent of U.S students graduate from high schools, and U.S college and university systems enroll nearly 20 million students.

• Statistics are misleading

• Nearly half of those who go on to college will drop out, and a disproportionate number are from minority backgrounds.

Question #13

RACE, ETHNICITY, AND THE LIMITS OF LANGUAGEQuestion #14

• It is difficult for us as humans to use or write about the term race, for the fact that we appear to be continuing a concept that has no basis in science.

• The term has been historically used to differentiate us from one another, not to untie us.

• In some cases people are attached to a racial classes even though they don’t want to be

• Ex. African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans going by the term people of color

• There are many Hispanics in the U.S that identify themselves strongly with their European origins and would prefer to be called “white”

Question #15

ETHNICITY, INCOME, AND WEALTH• If it were true that race and ethnicity were of no importance in American society, it would

not be expected that we see great differences in income among different racial and ethnic groups.

Question #16

• Income differences are very real for different racial and ethnic groups

• Leads to different life chances for children in different groups

• Also, family income associates highly with school achievement

• High and Low SES children

ETHNICITY AND EMPLOYMENT • Differences in employment are unfortunately sometimes due to things other than

education

• Race, and socioeconomic status play parts

Question #17

ETHNICITY AND FAMILY• Changes in the American family affect all ethnic groups, some more harshly than others.

• From 2000 – 2002, 25 percent of white children were living in low – income or poverty – level families, 58 percent for African American children, and 62 percent for Latino children living in these types of families.

• With single parent households, the income level is typically low; when another income is added (another parent) the income does not double, it triples

• These deep economic differences contribute to different educational and life outcomes for these children.

Question #18

ETHNICITY AND HOUSING• Half the nations African Americans are concentrated into just 25 major metropolitan

areas, and two thirds of all African American youth still attend segregated schools

• Changing job market

• Shrinking middle class

• Elimination of manufacturing jobs for cheaper overseas work

• job shift from central city to suburbs

• This is leaving the inner city African Americans left behind with little hope for upward mobility.

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Paragraph 6

GENDER • Initially, political representation in America excluded women.

• Todays society proves otherwise.

• When the purpose of education is seen as preparing individuals for places in society, there are clear implications for the education of females in a male – controlled society

Question #19

GENDER AND EMPLOYMENT Question #20

• Most all of those surveyed felt that women should basically have the same rights as men do in the work place

• Equal pay

• Equal opportunity for higher positions

Question #21

• Gains have been made however, women have entered

into the ranks of doctors, lawyers, and other

professionals in numbers unparalleled to previous

generations

GENDER AND INCOME• Since the beginning of the industrial era, income differences have continued between

men and women.

• Until recently the gap in salaries had been shrinking when between 1991 and 2006 basically zero progress had been made.

Question #22

GENDER AND PARENTING • In the united states there are 56.5 million working women

• This represents 45 percent of the entire work force over the age of 16

• 10 million of these women are heads of households

Question #23

• Swedish working women received nine month maternity leave at 90 percent pay

• Italian working women received five month maternity leave at 80 percent pay

• Hungarian working women received 20 weeks leave at 100 percent pay

GENDER AND PARENTING• In 1992 the U.S was the was the only industrialized nation without a mandated maternity

leave policy

• Thus in 1993 the U.S passed the Family Medical Leave Act

• 12 weeks paid leave for specified family medical emergencies

• This only partially closed the gap with other nations policies

• In 2006 research by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research only 8 out of 100 companies offered the full 12 weeks encouraged by the U.S law, while 14 out of 100 offered 2 weeks or less. Sixty-two percent of the 100 best companies for working mothers offered 6 weeks or less.

SOCIOECONOMIC CLASSQuestion #24

• The notion of class is useful for noting group differences

• The myth that virtually all Americans are middle class, is not what numbers tell us

• It hides the fact that small percentage at top is spectacularly wealthy

• And disguises reasons why a disproportionate number of people at the bottom are truly distressed

• Poverty is a problem that hits ethnic minorities and women, as well as the young, at disproportionate rates.

• Among Hispanics, African Americans, and Whites poverty rates are disturbing given two things.

• Their stability over time (mostly increasing)

• Resistance to increasing education