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Issues and challenges in urban education
Issues and challenges in urban education
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An urban student faces many disadvantages when attending school regardless of whether they attend a public or private school. Before we can consider how to take an urban student seriously we must examine where they are from. Urban students are those living in higher density communities within the inner-cities; areas of diversity, poverty, crime and low-income. Today we can best assign the term “urban school” to public schools that are in these metropolitan areas. Many of these schools exist within educational systems that lack sufficient resources and quality educators to ensure their educational needs are met. We also tell ourselves that the United States cannot or may never completely successfully resolve the issues with our education system but we are be able to continue to endeavors. Urban student themselves need to make a stance on their education in order to have better futures. Furthermore, educational attainment is related to the availability of opportunities, as well as the academic abilities, financial resources, and persistence of the individual. Urban students’ face numerous challenges, for many of urban students come from neighbors or communities surrounded with alcohol, drug, sex, continuous violence, and poverty. Living in communities where urban students are surrounded with drug dealers and some of the dealers being individuals’ urban students know personally whether they went to school with the person who is now the drug dealer or they grew up with. Urban students are now being dealing with the pressures of the dealer who try to influence urban students to drop out of school and turn to a life of drugs and violence. According to Students Against Destructive Decisions Organization, about three out of ... ... middle of paper ... ...ol. 15 Sep. 2010. Web. 13 Dec 2010. Rich, Adrienne. "Taking Women Students Seriously." Yagelski 213-220. Students Against Destructive Decisions. SADD. 8 May 2010. Web. 8 Dec. 2010. United States. Bureau of the Census. “Census Current Population Survey 2008”. 4 Jan. 2010. Web. 10 Dec. 2010. United States. Bureau of the Census. “Characteristics of the Population Below the Poverty Level: 2008.” Current Population Reports, Series P-60. Report No. 133. Washington, D.C. 2008. Print. United States. U.S. Department of Education. Office of Education Research and Improvement. National Center for Education Statistics. 2008a. The Condition of Education, 6 Jun. 2009. Web. 11 Dec. 2010. Wright, Richard. "The Library Card." Yagelski 137-144. Yagelski, Robert P., ed. Reading Our World: Conversations in Context 2nd Ed. Boston, MA: Wadsworth , 2010. Print.
Poverty in America is a very complex issue that can be looked at from many directions. There are a plethora of statistics and theories about poverty in America that can be confusing and at times contradicting. It is important to objectively view statistics to gain a better understanding of poverty and to wade through the stereotypes and the haze of cultural views that can misrepresent the situation.The official poverty line in America begins with a person making at or below $12,060. To calculate the poverty line for a family, an additional $4,180 is added to the base of $12,060 for each additional member(“Federal Poverty Level Guidelines”). According to the last U.S. census, over 45 million or 14.5% of Americans are at or below the poverty line(Worstall). At this level, the U.S. poverty level has not changed much from the 1970s when the government began a “War on Poverty.” However,
US Census Bureau. 2015. “US and World Population Clock.” US Census Bureau, March 13. http://www.census.gov/popclock/ (March, 2015).
The gap between the nation’s best and worst public schools continues to grow. Our country is based on freedom and equality for all, yet in practice and in the spectrum of education this is rarely the case. We do not even have to step further than our own city and its public school system, which many media outlets have labeled “dysfunctional” and “in shambles.” At the same time, Montgomery County, located just northwest of the District in suburban Maryland, stands as one of the top school systems in the country. Within each of these systems, there are schools that excel and there are schools that consistently measure below average. Money alone can not erase this gap. While increased spending may help, the real problem is often rooted in the complex issues of social, cultural, and economic differences. When combined with factors involving the school itself and the institution that supports it, we arrive at what has been widely known as the divide between the suburban and urban schools. Can anything actually be done to reverse this apparent trend of inequality or are the outside factors too powerful to change?
For some students it is difficult to get a good education. These students live in a poor community and are required to go to schools that have a low graduation rate. These schools have a certain reputation such that other students refer to it as the “ghetto school”, “where the pregnant girls go”, and the “dropout factory”. This
Education." Midwest Quarterly 44, no. 2 (Winter2003 2003): 211. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed April 11, 2014).
U.S. Census Bureau, (2010). Cumulative Estimates of the Components of Resident Population Change by Race and Hispanic Origin for the United States. Retrieved from http://www.prb.org/Publications/PopulationBulletins/2010/latinosupdate1.aspx
6 American Community Survey Demographic and Housing Estimates: 2008. U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau. http:// factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ADPTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&- qr_name=ACS_2008_1YR_G00_DP5&-ds_name=ACS_2008_1YR_G00_&-_ lang=en&-redoLog=false&-format=
When kids are raised on this setting, where they see informal rules as the norm, they become familiar with it and see it as inspirational (Anderson, 1994). Inspirational in the sense that they see these adults that don’t work, but still survive and have money to spend. Therefore they might come to the conclusion that school is not necessary. Neighbors can have an impact on students’ views when it comes to their future. A good neighborhood promotes the importance of education because instead of students observing alcohol consumption in the streets and drug use, they will be motivated by neighbors that have stable jobs as result of achieving a
U.S. Census Bureau. 2012. “Poverty Thresholds by Size of Family and Number of Children” [Excel file].
Many people believe that urban schools are failing to educate all of the students they serve, but in reality, they are only failing a portion of them. Reports and observations give off the perception that these schools students achieve less, retain less material and the student’s success after the schooling process is over, is low. Some of the students are failing because they are lacking things like school readiness, a basic understanding of the English language or simply because they are not engaged. Schools need to find a way to incorporate each student in their own education and not forget about those who are struggling. Academic success hinges on many different factors that the families, students and schools are all responsible for helping.
"USA QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau." USA QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau. US Census Bureau, n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. .
Education is an integral part of society, school helps children learn social norms as well as teach them how to be successful adults. The school systems in United States, however are failing their students. In the world as a whole, the United States is quickly falling behind other countries in important math and reading scores. The United States ranked thirtieth in math on a global scale and twentieth in literacy. This is even more true in more urban, lower socio-economic areas in the United States. These schools have lower test scores and high dropout rates. In Trenton Central High School West, there was an 83% proficiency in literacy and only 49% of the students were proficient in math. Many of these students come from minority backgrounds and are often from low income families. There are many issues surrounding these urban schools. There is a severe lack of proper funding in these districts, and much of the money they do receive is sanctioned for non-crucial things. Schools also need a certain level of individualization with their students, and in many urban classes, this simply does not happen. While there are many factors affecting the low performance of urban schools, the lack of proper funding and distribution of funds, the cultural divide between teachers and students in urban districts, along with the lack of individualization in urban classrooms are crucial reasons to explain the poor performance in these districts. Through a process of teacher lead budget committees and further teacher education, urban schools can be transformed and be better equipped to prepare their students for the global stage.
United States Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2004). The condition of education 2004. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office.
I used to think that urban education simply meant education that went on in the cities, but from what I have learned is that, yes education goes on in cities, but it goes beyond that. Urban education is not so simple due to all of the dynamics and subsections that fall under it, such as the students and how they are taught, how the teachers teach vs. how the school/state want them to teach, the students learning, school funding, and many other factors that I used to not be aware of. As a whole urban education is the education which many, like myself, have experienced; I have learned a new view to education, re-evaluated my own, changed my view on education, defined urban education in my own way, discovered the factors within it, and have some
Currently, relatively few urban poor students go past the ninth grade. The graduation rates in large comprehensive inner-city schools are abysmally low. In fourteen such New York City Schools, for example, only 10 percent to 20 percent of ninth graders in 1996 graduated four years later. Despite the fact that low-income individuals desperately need a college degree to find decent employment, only 7 percent obtain a bachelors degree by age twenty-six. So, in relation to ...