THE SOCIAL EQUALITY PROBLEM and SCHOOL UNDERACHIEVEMENT

  From Evelyn Rothstein

From MY MANY years of  professional  experience  in schools with poor children, I believe that the major cause of underachievement is not  from “parental faults”, but from the vast differences in educational equality which result from:

• Limited access to pre-school
• Low quality curriculum
• Use of textbooks with inaccurate and uninteresting material
• Limited libraries and access to technology instruction and use
• Limited or no instruction in art, music, and drama
• Teachers with limited experience or access to quality professional development

These educational disparities are mainly what cause the ever-widening GAP between poor children mainly from marginalized racial and ethnic groups with children from families of means.

Yet little public recognition has been given to these social inequality disparities so that:

Poor and rich must take the same tests and pass them with the same grades

State-of-the-art technology “belongs” to the affluent

Pre-school and kindergarten remain “optional”.

Involvement with parents is limited and parents are often blamed for being “indifferent”.

Experienced teachers are in the high-level schools, less likely in the low-achieving schools.

By neglecting to change this dangerous and unfair division that keeps our poor children educationally limited, we also limit them from quality colleges and from finding high-level interesting and fulfilling employment.

We just have to check the school test scores, college admissions, and high salary earnings to see the truth of this inequality.

WHAT  SOLUTIONS AND RESEARCH DO I  PROPOSE TO MITIGATE THIS EDUCATIONAL GAP?

While there are many challenges to bringing about social equality through the schools, we know change can happen if this becomes our national goal. From my experience  as an educator who has worked extensively in low-achieving “ethnically and racially separated schools”, I have seen great changes in student learning and achievement when HIGH QUALITY TEACHING AND LEARNING is the only acceptable teaching and learning. I present  two “mantras" that create this high-level achievement:

One, is to DEFINE EXCELLENCE and provide excellence to all students.

Two, is teach all students to KNOW EVERYTHING.

These two concepts are not impossible.

To close the gap  we must bring these two essential elements to the schools, briefly stated:

DEFINING EXCELLENCE AND IMPARTING EXCELLENCE which requires “culturally-responsive teaching “ to 21^st century students in a digital age.

Combined with :

Teaching all its students how to KNOW EVERYTHING, an ongoing process that requires learning to ASK QUESTIONS, THINK DEEPLY,  AND ACQUIRE KNOWELDGE.

In order for this quality learning to take place whether one is rich or poor, the total school must accept KNOWING A LOT as its target and in order to know a lot, the information imparted and learned must be accurately presented and of continuous high-quality!

Ethnically-separated schools are a powerful barrier to achieving excellence and knowledge.  

A model of excellence does not require economic affluence, but does result in high-level knowledge—a result that gives all students an equal chance to live in a society of educational equality.