The Problem We All Live With

 This week's reading/listening was a podcast by Nikole Hannah-Jones on the integration of poor black children into white, higher achieving schools as a means to close the achievement gap between poor and black children and upper/middle class white children.  The prologue of the podcast is Nikole Hannah-Jones arguing that integration is one of the most effective ways to close the achievement gap of black students and white students.  She mentions how at the peak of integration of schools in the U.S. in 1988, the achievement gap was cut in half; it dropped from a 40 point difference, to an 18 point difference (More details). To back her argument she also discusses why this is the case.  She claims that when poor black children are integrated with white children, they then have access to the same facilities, including quality teachers and quality instruction. 

Connections

There are many connections between this reading and the other readings that we have done thus far in this course.  The reaction of the parents' of the Francis Howell school district, probably wouldn't be of surprise to Johnson or Delpit due to their "luxury of obliviousness" (Johnson, 2001). Being of privileged status, these parents have not had to experience what the parents of the black children from Normandy have in regards to worrying about their children's education and are defensive about their children's education being interrupted or ruined just because of the status that they have.  They claim it is not their fault, they chose correctly when choosing where to live and send their kids to school, not imagining that the black families from Normandy might have also wanted to chose a town like Francis Howell to live in, but might not have been able to afford to do so. 

Children in segregated schools have high concentrations of children that have grown up in poverty.  They are entering school with more needs and already behind their white counterparts. I feel as though this is an important aspect of the segregation of schools in the U.S.  Being a teacher that currently works in an urban school district that one could make the argument is a segregated school district due to the high volume of black and latino students and low amount of white students, I know firsthand that many of my students do come from an impoverished background. I did my Personal Impact Project (PIP) for my graduate program that looked at how environmental factors affect students' math and reading scores.  There were many interesting findings, but the most impactful finding, based on my ground theory analysis approach, was that household income was highly correlated to students' reading and math  scores.  Because all of the participants from this study attended the same school, household income could be related to students' scores because of students' starting point of abilities when they first entered school.  It can be theorized that students that grew up in lower income households had less access to an educational environment in their early childhood years, which could affect their abilities once they are in school, when compared to their peers.  I was reminded of this research study I conducted when the author brought to light that an important factor in the evidence that black children perform below white children is that a high volume of these black children also come from poverty.

This link regarding integrated schools has podcasts and blogs that discuss the same issues that this week's podcast discusses. It is a parent created organization that focuses on raising awareness about how segregation is still happening in the U.S., as well as providing resources and support for families like Nedra Martin and Mah'Ria Pruitt-Martin that want better education for black children in poor communities, fully knowing it can have an influence on the rest of their lives.