Segregation In Public Education

2061 Words5 Pages

Since the founding of America one of the largest and most controversial issues of social justice has been racism. Racism can best be defined as the belief of superiority that one race has over another. With a perfervid belief in racism a pattern of discriminatory action, socially, economically and ethically follows. Although this pattern of racism can be seen in many examples throughout the course of United States history, it is most vibrantly displayed through the segregation of both primary and secondary institutions of learning. Because segregation is a form of racism it is largely prejudice in nature, with many people forming a specific opinion of a person without knowing or interacting with that said person. Segregation in all of its prejudice …show more content…

The Board of Education of Topeka in 1954. Brown v. The Board of Education is in large effect the most important reason why primary and secondary institutions were later desegregated, thus leading to the integration of whites, African Americans and eventually other minorities such as Latinos, together in schools across the nation. Although this landmark court case shaped the basis of modern day race relations and paved the course toward outlawing segregation in the United States, the contemporary world is still segregated and unequal, especially in educational institutions through the process of academic tracking. Through the process of academic tracking in primary and secondary schools, students of all minorities have remained effectively separated based on their academic performance, thus making the predominant strides made towards segregation in Brown v. The Board of Education to an extent null and void. While educational segregation is not as momentous as it was during the twentieth century Civil Rights movement, it continues to separate students academically, bringing forth an unequal level of opportunity not given to each individual venturing for an …show more content…

It is believed that through the use of academic tracking, teaching can become vastly more effective by placing factions of homologous students together in a classroom. This process however discriminates against students by creating a higher standard of expectation for more proficient students and a significantly lower standard of expectation for the less proficient. This system segregates classrooms and forms prejudice thoughts in the minds of teachers, to expect less out of one group of students then from another, thus dramatically decreasing the morale and drive of the lesser group to strive for academic success. The system of tracking is furthermore unfair because it inhibits learning and encourages unequal teaching practices. In this sense low performing factions of students appeal more to less knowledgeable educational practitioners, contributing to the hindered goals and motivations of those students. What is even more concerning then the academic effects of tracking are its effects on student behavior. Academic journalist Katrina Walesmann argues “ inequalities across and within the education system affect the health behaviors of individuals in the short term and the long term”. The inequalities present within school can increase the chances of developing bad habits such as drinking and

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