Unequal Opportunity for minorities is the central problem in education for
minorities
Minority
groups in America are continuing to experience social problems attributed to
unequal access to resources and opportunities. The twenty-first century is an
era where people believe that equality but the country has never been as
divided as it is today. The divisions of color exist but in more clandestine
manners of society and are slowly hindering the efforts associated with
affirmative action. As the society believes that discrimination based on
the color of the skin has disappeared, other hidden forces play a foul game
ensuring that resources and not accessed equally and that one racial group
receives a bigger share of the cake than the others. Research shows that the
performances in schools also differ based on racial paradigms as people believe
that there still exists equality, the data from such researchers associated
with poor performances by minority groups are left justified by the low will
and lack of effort, genetics and also culture and these factors are some that
once fueled the eugenics approach to racism in America. These are factors that
play in a world where societal opportunities are very much dependent on
education and knowledge. This shows that unequal education opportunities are
just part of the bigger problems in society. Racial problems still exist in the
society and have been camouflaged in a manner that they can hardly raise any
questions. However, they still show based on the differences that exist within
the society regarding educational progress and economic development between
people of different races. Minority groups, therefore, suffer from limited
access to educational resources that hinder them from reaching their full
potential in society (Hammond, 1998).
There
has developed a pattern over the years of existing disparities in performances,
and mainly involve minority groups of people. These are patterns that greatly
mirror the society regarding racial as well as ethnic differences. These
disparities are usually evident beginning when children are young and are
progressive as they proceed to other levels of education. They are based on
various forms of assessments such as test scores, enrollment in institutions of
higher learning, the rates of dropping out of school, enrollment in schools for
talented and gifted children and also behavioral characteristics associated
with indiscipline cases, suspensions as well as expulsion from schools. These
are patterns that somewhat relate to almost all of the racial minorities in
America such as African Americans, Native Americans, Latinos, and people from
South East Asia. These are the racial groups that mostly underperform when
directly compare to White Americans as well as Asians from America. This topic
is very necessary and important in addressing discrimination as a major social
problem in America. It is an issue persistent in a nation that prides itself
on equality among all people and historical events prove the great strides the
nations has taken in ensuring that people receive equal opportunities. One of
the most current strides is associated action that was developed based on the
Civil Rights Act whereby it is unlawful for a person to be discriminated
racially in all aspect of The Society. The education system is one of them, and
most minority groups do not have access to the same education opportunities as
the other people in the country. There have been efforts to try and bridge the
gap such as the uses of Early Childhood Education like Head Start but access to
such programs is usually limited because of economic differences. Those that
access it usually get ones that are of low quality (Hammond, 1998).
Definition of terms
Educational resources; these are the
tools needed for effective education in schools. They include Quality teachers,
good curriculum, advanced educational technologies, etc.
Minorities groups; these are groups
of people who are usually singled out of the rest because of the cultural,
physical and economic characteristics where they receive unequal opportunities
There
are different sides of this issue of inequality when it comes to performance.
On one end there are those that believe the United is a country that is equal
with no differences in opportunities and therefore, other factors such as
culture, gene and the will to learn is what leads to poor performances from
children from minority groups in the country. America is considered as a
nation for the free, and therefore, all resources are placed equally for the
citizens to exploit and benefit from. However, minority groups have failed to
seize the opportunity because of the limiting factors explained above. As a
result of these limiting factors, these minority groups fall short when it
comes to educational performance.
On
the other side of the argument, educational outcomes of children from the
minority in the American society is associated with limited access to
educational resources, and it is little of a factor of racial discrimination.
The country is considered to have the biggest differences regarding
opportunities for learning, and it is usually a factor that is based on
resources and economic advantage. The system is characterized by varying
levels of opportunities and is usually a major factor in the social status of
people. The rich have schools that spend more money on the educational system
than poor schools in the country. This means that some resources between schools
for the wealthy and that for the poor are also quite varied. At the same time,
students are usually expected to have the same learning outcomes, yet there was
unequal access to educational resources (Presidential Task Force, 2014).
The
other argument is based on historical facts associated with discrimination and
segregation where the Jim Crow laws that have existed for decades set the
boundary between whites and people of color. The differences were enormous with
people of color received low-quality education for decades and were denied the
chance to enter institutions of higher learning. Based on this argument it is
clear that people of color have been denied social opportunities for many
years. These opportunities expected for social growth and development because
education leads to a high paying job and a good job is a good source of
economic development. However, for years minority groups have been denied the
chance of development, and even though the Civil rights movement helped change
the society by putting into law discrimination as something illegal, minority
groups remain behind other groups that had the chance to develop. Today the
difference is very clear the gap between the rich and the poor is immense, and
opportunities vary depending on social status. It is, therefore, important to
say that the social problems associated with a difference in performance in
children from minority groups are a factor of social problems that have
accumulated for years (Cook, 2015).
Unequal
opportunities for minorities is, therefore, a factor that exists in the
country, however, rather than being a racial and ethnic factor is a factor of
economic development. The disparities in educational opportunities are usually
based on social status, and the wealthy have better access to proper education
than the poor. Minorities have always been associated with the low economic
development, and this explains the whole situation with the main factor being
that minorities lack adequate access to education resources because of low
social status.
Works Cited
Cook, Lindsey. U.S.
Education: Still Separate and Unequal. 2015. 2017
<https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2015/01/28/us-education-still-separate-and-unequal>.
Force, Presidential Task. "Ethnic and
Racial Disparities in Education: Psychology’s Contributions to Understanding
and Reducing Disparities." American
Psychological Association (2014).
Hammond, Linda Darling. Unequal Opportunity: Race and Education.
1998. 2017
<https://www.brookings.edu/articles/unequal-opportunity-race-and-education/>.
Morris, Brittanie. "The Impact of Culture
& Ethnicity on the Counseling Process: Perspectives of Genetic Counselors
from Minority Ethnic Groups." University
of South Carolina Scholar Commons (2014).
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