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Equal opportunity in education today
Essays on the myth of meritocracy in educational achievement
Meritocracy in education essay
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Von Steuben is one of the better schools located in the north side of Chicago. Being one of the better schools also means better quality in education.There are two types of students: those who are Magnets, otherwise known as “Regulars”, and those known as Scholars. Although in the same building these students roam, they are both very different. Scholars have gone through more requirements for acceptance into the program while Regulars have simply been accepted based on a lottery system ran by admissions. Scholars are expected perform many more hours of community service and take more rigorous classes early on. In exchange, they receive slight but very much significant more opportunities. Such examples consist of field trips to highly acclaimed …show more content…
Two-Thirds strongly agreed that Magnet Students should have the same opportunities as Scholar Students. More than half of students either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that these two programs cause a division or separation within the student body and that this causes students to have less pride for their school. Most importantly, all the students reminded us that there should be equal opportunity by polling that Scholars should not have exclusive privileges. Of course, six opinions DOES NOT speak for the whole student body. It doesn’t even come close by a mile, but we can at least sense some kind of trend, despite being small, that suggests the feeling of …show more content…
This should be done by showing statistics that Scholar Students often times get more scholarship money and get into better colleges. Those in the Scholars programs should also be closely examined and be accountable for high expectations to stay in their heavily privileged program. I know Scholar students who have copped out of taking the rigorous AP classes. At the same time, I know Regular students who wished they could’ve gone to Madison and feel inspired to get the grades and become the ideal student. I know Regular students who have been put into honor classes full of Scholar students and not really knowing anyone in the room. I know Scholar students who don’t feel like they can ever catch up to the demanding workload and who would happily step
Two professors of different backgrounds, Mike Rose of California, and Gerald Graff, of Illinois, discuss the problems college students face today in America. Though similar in slight variations, both professors view the problem in different regards and prepare solutions that solve what they feel to be the heart of this academic problem.
...ntegration of student-faculty conferences, educational facilities will become places full of smiling, bright scholars. As a current student in high school, it is very easy to see these issues in the education system. Each day I walk the halls beside exhausted zombies who debate whether they should use their lunch periods to get math help in the library or sacrifice a club so they could read a chapter of anatomy that is not even relative to what they talk about in class. Due to the ever-increasing competition and subsequent elevation in performance standards, kids’ academic and emotional prosperity is only going to get worse. When I am an adult and have children, there is nothing more that I would love to see in their long drives through high school than an improvement in the education system, so that they would not have to struggle through school my peers and I did.
When a person presently looks at university school systems, one never imagines the struggle to obtain such diverse campuses. With Caucasians, Asians, Latinos, and African Americans all willing and able to attend any institution, it is difficult now to envision a world where, because of one’s skin color, a person is denied university acceptance. In actuality, this world existed only fifty years ago. In a time of extreme racial discrimination, African Americans fought and struggled toward one of many goals: to integrate schools. As a pioneer in the South, a man named James Meredith took a courageous step by applying to the University of Mississippi, an all white university. After overcoming many legal and social obstacles, the University of Mississippi’s integration sent positive effects rippling among universities across the nation.
A potential incoming college freshman struts with confidence through the sliding doors of the Student Center, inhaling the freshly prepared pizza ready to be served at Sbarros, and sees the smiling faces as Pride Leaders try to convince each individual to enroll at Hofstra University; yet fail to admit that every university has its limitations and failed expectations. A journalist from U.S. News reports, “Hofstra University 's ranking in the 2016 edition of Best Colleges is National Universities, 135.” (Hofstra University)
Little Rock Central High School is considered a very prestigious high school and is recognized as one of the top academic high schools in the country by the amount of National Merit Scholars it produces every year. The reputation of the high school itself gives students a competitive advantage when applying to colleges, especially Ivy League Schools. However, still only students from high social- economic standing, majority of them being Caucasian, are the only ones reaping the benefits from high academics offered at Little Rock Central High School. The majority of low-economic African American students are considerably underrepresented in the high academic classes offered at Little Rock Central High School. Majority of these students will not go on to college or let alone graduate high
An industry that once promoted fairness and attainability was now itself becoming an obstacle to overcome. “American universities are in fact organized according to middle- and upper-class cultural norms or rules of the game and that these norms do indeed constitute an unseen academic disadvantage for first-generation college students transitioning to university settings” (Stephens et. al, 2012). This proposed characteristic serves as an almost uncontrollable and unchangeable disadvantage that students will likely fail to subdue. Institutions should serve as mediating platforms that allow students to start at impartial grounds, where their talents, abilities and connections are the only factors that can influence their
In today’s society there is a lot of pressure on students to make this huge payment to go to college, and due to an ungodly amount of money being thrown into universities students feel as though they will be handed a degree in return but that’s not the case at all. In the article “Let’s clarify the ‘College Worth It’ Conversation” by Andrew Kelly he gives the statistics that 45% percent of college students do not finish their degree. High schools need to better inform students interested in furthering their education with these statistics. This can be extremely eye opening to students who think college will be an easy journey with low expectations. I have learned that the more effort and participation I put into my education the more enjoyable and worth the money it seems to
My third policy alternative is to implement reverse magnet schools. I would like to start small and implement this policy on a small scale before scaling it up. To implement this policy on a trial period, I would survey two adjacent school districts, one with a high concentration of minorities and one which is predominately white, about magnets schools they would like to see in their area. Then I would implement two new magnet schools but in reverse, the magnet school that the white parents requested would be placed in the predominantly black school district and vice versa. Following the creation of these two new schools, free busing would be provided to both districts if they wanted their child to attend the magnet school in the other district.
Kozol addresses the horrific conditions of the institution, student’s feelings and emotions toward the lack of opportunity they feel that are not available to them, inconsistent staffing of teachers and lack of college preparation classes available to them. Students voiced their thoughts in regards to the lack of courses available, horrific school conditions with lack of bathrooms available to them. The large campus that could take up to fifteen minutes to arrive at the next class, inconsistent staff which hinder learning. Beverly Hills High School, a technical arts requirement, could be met by taking classes such as broadcast journalism, advanced computer graphics, carving and sculpture to name a few (709) compared to Fremont High offering sewing, hair dressing and life skills. It is quite apparent that the same opportunity is not available due to socioeconomic class and location of Fremont High School. The opportunities that even I was offered in small, country school are absent from Fremont High School and that in fact is distressing. One’s educational possibilities should not be limited due to socioeconomic class. All Americans should have educational opportunities readily available to
The right and privilege to higher education in today’s society teeters like the scales of justice. In reading Andrew Delbanco’s, “College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be, it is apparent that Delbanco believes that the main role of college is to accommodate that needs of all students in providing opportunities to discover individual passions and dreams while furthering and enhancing the economic strength of the nation. Additionally, Delbanco also views college as more than just a time to prepare for a job in the future but a way in which students and young adults can prepare for their future lives so they are meaningful and purposeful. Even more important is the role that college will play in helping and guiding students to learn how to accept alternate point of views and the importance that differing views play in a democratic society. With that said, the issue is not the importance that higher education plays in society, but exactly who should pay the costly price tag of higher education is a raging debate in all social classes, cultures, socioeconomic groups and races.
In their book Paying for the Party, Armstrong and Hamilton discuss how universities take class differences and class projects of distinct women to define what will be their college experience. In their book, Armstrong and Hamilton define class projects as individual and class characteristics that defines a person’s agenda and class- based orientation. Hence, people with similar class projects, not only shared the same financial and cultural resources, but also the same expectations toward school. (Armstrong & Hamilton, 2013). As a result, Armstrong and Hamilton claims that students with similar class projects end up becoming a collective constituency and a representative group for the university, whom in turn must take their interests to form a college pathway for them. Therefore, a college pathway for Armstrong and Hamilton refers to how universities are able to take successfully the interests, class characteristics and expectations of students to mold within the organizational and architecture context of the school. In a way, each college pathway is built not only to represent, but also to provision and guide the different types of students in a college.
When diversity is being discussed, there are a plethora of ideas that are associated with it. Whether people are talking being put on a waitlist for college, about people of color, or about representation in the media, the subject of diversity is not rare. Recently, the conversation of diversity has become more common because colleges want to demonstrate that they have diversified campus. How would diversity on campus be defined? Most importantly, diversity is more than having an extraordinary personality. Race, gender, sexuality, and social status are a few of the superfluous traits that make an individual unique in a college’s eyes. In Sophia Kerby’s article, “10 Reasons Why We Need Diversity on College Campuses”, she notes that, while there has already been an effort to diversify high schools and middle schools, accepting students of different backgrounds is not as apparent in higher education (1) . A university desires to diversify its campus in order to benefit the students that are attending the college. Students are not only likely to improve
Just as in matters of women’s rights, the plight of minorities in higher education is a matter which stems from lack of representation. On both high school and university campuses, minority teachers and proffers are scarce, and minority students make up a minute portion of colleges student bodies. This issue is perpetuated through state and federal laws, as well as the policies of universities, in a fashion highly reminiscent of De Jure segregation. For example, since California prohibited the consideration of race in the admissions process, the percent of minorities accepted into California colleges has dropped dramatically. This is an issue which impacts all, not just underrepresented individuals, as society becomes more globalized, diversity continues to grow in importance. Underrepresentation restricts all from being able to experience the true diversity of the world as creates an inaccurate portrait of society. Without adequate representation it is difficult for a groups issues to be addressed, which continues to leave behind groups that have already been disenfranchised for many years. Lack of representation leaves minority students isolated and i...
To establish institutional benchmarks and encourage greater progress, institutional-level tracking by program of student ethnicity and performance outcomes must begin to occur in a uniform manner, such that comparisons can be made across time, departments and institutions. What is now opaque can be made visible by systematically tracking the number of degree candidates and earners in STEM disciplines across demographic categories and making those numbers publicly available on institutional websites. In so doing, we (a) enable researchers and practitioners to identify institutions that are making progress (or not) and (b) allow for more careful data-driven analysis of what constitutes effective practices that can be adapted. Federal and private funding agencies should require this information from institutions that receive support in a standardized format that identifies disparity and equity. In addition, annual reports of institutional STEM data could be included in accreditation reviews. Most importantly, colleges and universities themselves stand to benefit from better institutional data on student performance (Hurtado et al., 2009;
Prejudice and discrimination exist as persistent manifestations of derisory power. Communities across the country are regularly deflated by untenable biases ripping at the seams of an individual’s psychological and social existence. These tendencies and biases effect on college campuses worldwide. The last century is warped with academic institution’s transformation from white exclusivity to an opportunity welcome to people from all gender, racial, disability backgrounds. From the outside looking in, it could seem that higher education stands isolated from the animosity and harms of larger society. Institutions however, are reflecting and struggling with the same social biases and historical struggle for inclusion. Only recently has higher