“We will remain the same, until the pain of remaining the same is greater than the pain of change.” ~Unknown~
Education has been an area of struggle, contention, and disparity for centuries. America has always been a pluralistic and multicultural society that desperately tries to operate within the context of a single dominant culture. Reform after reform has attempted to bring about change yet America ’s system of public education still does not adequately serve all American citizens. The current system is built on a foundation fundamentally rooted in colonial ideals, traditional philosophies, political ideologies, and controversial theories. National reports (e.g., A Nation at Risk) and international comparisons (e.g., the TIMMS report) reveal that America ’s education is in serious trouble and in need of major transformation.
The disparity in America ’s education is linked inextricably to its division along racial and economic lines. While there are pockets of success at the grassroots level, as a nation, we have not fundamentally embraced and engaged the concept of equal access to opportunity, education, or socioeconomic power. If the root cause of the achievement gap in education can be eradicated, then disparities in other areas (social and political) could potentially fall out of practice as well.
An Example of Disparity in Education
To illustrate the disparity of education, two school districts in New Jersey are compared here – Trenton and Princeton. Table 1 provides basic vital statistics from the NJ Department of Education and the US Census Bureau showing the districts are distinctly different by population and income but very similar in educational cost per pupil. Despite the similar cost per pupil, the disparity in educational outcomes is quite apparent.
No Child Left Behind?
Using data from the No Child Left Behind School Report Cards (2008-2009) it is clear that, while the two districts are approximately 20 miles apart, educationally speaking they are worlds apart.
Tables 2 and 3 demonstrate the disparity at the district level, the high school level, and the state level. The data show the results for mathematics and language arts/literature; very different educational outcomes are shown in the graphs. The Trenton district (TRN) is over 40 percentage points below the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) target of 74% in mathematics and nearly 30 percentage points below the AYP target of 85% in language arts/literature. By contrast Princeton is above the AYP target by nearly 18 percentage points in mathematics and over 10 percentage points in language arts/literature.
New Jersey School Rank
The data in Table 4 show the ranking of the 322 public high schools in NJ. In 2010 PTN is ranked #44 and TRN is ranked #317. Once again, the data reflect significant differences in educational outcomes for the two districts. The pattern is consistent when examining the data for multiple years; in general, Trenton is consistently near the bottom of the list while Princeton is consistently near the top.
Source: New Jersey Monthly, 2010
Historical and Sociological Assessment
“Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” ~Matthew 9:17 New International Version)~
Historical: Institutionalized Thinking, Beliefs, and Practices.
This Biblical passage is a reflection of educational reform efforts. Ideas and approaches perceived as new are poured into old vessels containing institutionalized thinking, beliefs, and practices resulting in the gradual ruination of the American system of education. Historically and socially it is system already standing on ground divided by race and class, while being denominated by those with self-proclaimed privilege and power.
In The American School: A Global Context from the Puritans to the Obama Era, author Joel Spring provides an excellent account of the historical context of the American School. An historical analysis of American schools can serve multiple purposes:
Establish or strengthen identification with a nation, family, community, ethnic group, religion, or other social group
Serve as a moral purpose by condemning or praising certain events
Analytically discern why certain events took place
Serve social and political purposes creating loyalty to a government
Preparing citizens to actively participate in social change
The goal of Spring ’s historical analysis of the American school is to educate readers to actively participating in the continuous improvement of educational policies and to present an interpretative framework around these particular themes:
A major part of US schools involves conflict over culture and religion.
Schools are one of many institutions that attempt to manage the distribution of ideas in society (ideology management).
Racism is a central issue in US history and in educational history.
Economic goals are important in understanding the evolution of US schools.
Sociological: The Function of Schools
In Sociology of Education: A Critical Reader (edited by Alan R Sadovnik), the chapter written by Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintas (Broken Promises: School Reform in Retrospect) present two intellectuals schools of thought underlying the notion of education as panacea –the democratic and the technocratic-meritocratic.
According to Bowles and Gintas the democratic school of thought is held by most liberal reformers who believe the educational system in a democracy must serve three functions.
Integrative function – integrating youth into occupational, political, social, and other adult roles required by an expanding economy and stable polity
Egalitarian function – assure fair competition and reduce economic gaps
Development function – major instrument in promoting human development
The compatibility of these functions is linked to two underlying assumptions; that personal development is economically productive; and that a free and universal school system should render opportunities for self-development independent of race, ethnic origins, class background, and gender.
The alternative school of thought, technocratic-meritocratic, is based on a view of the economy as a technical system where performance is based on technical competence. Inequality of income, power, and status is a reflection of unequal distribution of mental, physical, and other skills, hence the more successful individuals are more skilful and intelligent. Inequalities are attributed to inevitable human differences in intellectual capacities or patterns of free choice.
Poll: What’s Your Position?
From the perspective presented by Spring, Bowles and Gintas the following conclusions can be drawn:
US education remains relatively hostile to individual need for human development.
History of US education provides little support for the view that schools are a vehicle for equalization of status or opportunity.
The structure of US education did not evolve in a vacuum and educational change cannot be considered in isolation from other forces (social, political, and economic conditions).
Roots of repression and inequality embedded in the structure of the American economic system are inextricably linked to the system of education.
In light of the conclusions presented here, two central questions emerge for education in the 21st century. Participate in the poll and let others know what you think.
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