tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/african-american-children-21586/articlesAfrican American children – The Conversation2020-11-17T13:22:58Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1433132020-11-17T13:22:58Z2020-11-17T13:22:58ZRacial discrimination ages Black Americans faster, according to a 25-year-long study of families<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/366512/original/file-20201029-21-aenhdo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C11%2C4000%2C2646&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Anti-racism protest, 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/woman-wearing-a-protective-face-mask-reading-i-cant-breathe-news-photo/1218209395">Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>I’m part of a <a href="https://cfr.uga.edu/fachs/">research team</a> that has been following more than 800 Black American families for almost 25 years. We found that people who had reported experiencing high levels of racial discrimination when they were young teenagers <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/hea0000788">had significantly higher levels of depression in their 20s</a> than those who hadn’t. This elevated depression, in turn, showed up in their blood samples, which revealed accelerated aging on a cellular level. </p>
<p>Our research is not the first to show <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-040218-043750">Black Americans live sicker lives and die younger</a> than other racial or ethnic groups. The experience of constant and accumulating stress due to racism throughout an individual’s lifetime can wear and tear down the body – literally “getting under the skin” to affect health.</p>
<p>These findings highlight how stress from racism, particularly experienced early in life, can affect the mental and physical health disparities seen among Black Americans. </p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>As news stories of Black American women, men and children being killed due to racial injustice persist, our research on the effects of racism continue to have significant implications.</p>
<p>COVID-19 has been <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/13/stress-was-already-killing-black-americans-covid-19-is-making-it-worse/">labeled a “stress pandemic” for Black populations</a> that are <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-is-hitting-black-and-poor-communities-the-hardest-underscoring-fault-lines-in-access-and-care-for-those-on-margins-135615">disproportionately affected</a> due to factors like poverty, unemployment and lack of access to health care. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365258/original/file-20201023-19-1eyt63q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=30%2C20%2C6679%2C4446&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Young black mother comforting sad school age daughter at home." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365258/original/file-20201023-19-1eyt63q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=30%2C20%2C6679%2C4446&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365258/original/file-20201023-19-1eyt63q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365258/original/file-20201023-19-1eyt63q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365258/original/file-20201023-19-1eyt63q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365258/original/file-20201023-19-1eyt63q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365258/original/file-20201023-19-1eyt63q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365258/original/file-20201023-19-1eyt63q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Racism has a far-reaching impact on children’s health.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/young-black-mother-taking-care-of-her-sad-little-royalty-free-image/1143896999">skynesher/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>In 2019, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2019-1765">American Academy of Pediatrics identified racism</a> as having a profound impact on the health of children, adolescents, emerging adults and their families. Our findings support this conclusion – and show the need for society to truly reflect on the lifelong impact racism can have on a Black child’s ability to prosper in the U.S.</p>
<h2>How we do the work</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://cfr.uga.edu/fachs/">Family and Community Health Study</a>, established in 1996 at Iowa State University and the University of Georgia, is looking at how stress, neighborhood characteristics and other factors affect Black American parents and their children over a lifetime. Participants were recruited from rural, suburban and metropolitan communities. Funded by the National Institutes of Health, this research is the largest study of African American families in the U.S., with <a href="https://cfr.uga.edu/fachs/">800 families participating</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365260/original/file-20201023-18-1mcm3we.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Black man concentrates while completing a form." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365260/original/file-20201023-18-1mcm3we.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365260/original/file-20201023-18-1mcm3we.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365260/original/file-20201023-18-1mcm3we.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365260/original/file-20201023-18-1mcm3we.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365260/original/file-20201023-18-1mcm3we.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365260/original/file-20201023-18-1mcm3we.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365260/original/file-20201023-18-1mcm3we.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Early experiences of racism can have long-term physical effects.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/attractive-young-african-american-man-writing-royalty-free-image/181864094">PamelaJoeMcFarlane/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
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<p>Researchers collected data – including self-reported questionnaires on experiences of racial discrimination and depressive symptoms – every two to three years. In 2015, the team started taking blood samples, too, to assess participants’ risks for heart disease and diabetes, as well as test for biomarkers that predict the early onset of these diseases. </p>
<p>We utilized a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9570">technique that examines how old a person is at a cellular level</a> compared with their chronological age. We found that some young people were older at a cellular level than would have been expected based on their chronological age. Racial discrimination accounted for much of this variation, suggesting that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/hea0000788">such experiences were accelerating aging</a>. </p>
<p>Our study shows how vital it is to think about how mental and physical health difficulties are interconnected. </p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>Some of the next steps for our work include focusing more closely on the accelerated aging process. We also will look at resiliency and early life interventions that could possibly offset and prevent health decline among Black Americans.</p>
<p>Due to COVID-19, the next scheduled blood sample collection has been delayed until at least spring 2021. The original children from this study will be in their mid- to late 30s and might possibly be experiencing chronic illnesses at this age due, in part, to accelerated aging. </p>
<p>With continued research, my colleagues and I hope to identify ways to interrupt the harmful effects of racism so that Black lives matter and are able to thrive.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143313/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
(R01HD080749), the National Heart, Lung, Blood Institute (R01HL118045), the National
Institute of Drug Abuse (R01DA021898). In addition, support for this study was provided by the
Center for Translational and Prevention Science (P30DA02782) funded by the National Institute
on Drug Abuse. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily
represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.</span></em></p>A study of 800 Black American families shows early experiences of racism have long-term consequences for physical and mental health.Sierra Carter, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Georgia State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/635762016-10-02T23:06:50Z2016-10-02T23:06:50ZWhat it means to be black in the American educational system<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139951/original/image-20160930-6248-1p8gjs6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What do black Americans experience in the school system?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/masshighered/26681994970/in/photolist-GDNcw3-GDNchA-G9yU64-H4YTuk-G9tuSb-H4YT4R-H4YSfX-H4YRZX-G9yQai-H4YRLR-H4YRBn-H4YRxz-G9yNB8-G9tsgQ-GVDCaf-GDNaCo-GVDBqu-GVDAJu-GVDAj1-GDN8Su-GDN8FY-GDN8jf-GDN89f-GDN81u-GDN7i7-GDN6Xs-GDN6Ko-GDN6BC-GXUXbi-H4YRhp-GXUXuz-p9A9tY-diw1rt-divZYd-9W79Te-nqTT24-pUtPu7-nHcmr7-diwDmJ-divVWE-divWEr-nH6x8D-divYhW-nqTMq3-pUBowr-diwMKs-pUAzXx-pffwup-qbVxQv-pSHhyz">masshighered</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many people still think that racism is no longer a problem in America. After the election of President Obama, academic <a href="http://english.columbia.edu/people/profile/442">John McWhorter</a> argued that
racism in America is, for all intents and purposes, <a href="http://www.forbes.com/2008/12/30/end-of-racism-oped-cx_jm_1230mcwhorter.html">dead</a>. The prominent conservative scholar and African-American economist <a href="http://www.tsowell.com/">Thomas Sowell</a> has argued that “<a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/427160/racism-america-history">racism isn’t dead, but it is on life support</a>.” Harvard professors <a href="http://sociology.fas.harvard.edu/people/william-julius-wilson">William Julius Wilson</a> and <a href="http://scholar.harvard.edu/fryer/home">Roland Fryer</a> too <a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w16256#fromrss">have argued</a> about the <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18489466">declining significance</a> of race and discrimination.</p>
<p>However, as we wind down the final months of Obama’s presidency, the declining significance of race and discrimination narratives seem to be at odds with the lived realities for African-Americans. President Obama himself has faced <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/30/politics/why-black-america-may-be-relieved-to-see-obama-go/">racist treatment,</a> such as the <a href="http://politic365.com/2012/01/27/the-10-worst-moments-of-disrespect-towards-president-obama/#">birther controversy and a member of Congress saying “you lie.”</a> And then, one incident after another <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/31/the-counted-police-killings-2015-young-black-men">has highlighted</a> the painful reality that black men are disproportionately likely to die at the hands of the police in comparison to any other demographic group.</p>
<p>Sadly, racism and discrimination are facts of life for many black Americans. As an African-American scholar who studies the experiences of black college students, I am especially interested in this issue. My research has found that black college students <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.2161-1912.2013.00029.x/abstract">report higher levels of stress</a> related to racial discrimination than other racial or ethnic groups. The unfortunate reality is that black Americans experience subtle and overt discrimination from preschool all the way to college.</p>
<h2>Here’s what studies show</h2>
<p>The results of a <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/27/blacks-with-college-experience-more-likely-to-say-they-faced-discrimination/?utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&utm_campaign=9dca022fe6-_Weekly_July_28_20167_28_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3e953b9b70-9dca022fe6-400094317">recent survey</a> by the Pew Research Center underscore this point. The survey found that black Americans with some college experience are more likely to say that they have experienced discrimination compared to blacks who did not report having any college experience. </p>
<p>Additional survey results <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/27/blacks-with-college-experience-more-likely-to-say-they-faced-discrimination/?utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&utm_campaign=9dca022fe6-_Weekly_July_28_20167_28_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3e953b9b70-9dca022fe6-400094317">revealed several differences</a> between blacks with college experience versus blacks without college experience. For example, in the past 12 months, 55 percent of people with some college experience reported people had acted suspicious of them, compared to 38 percent of those with no college experience. </p>
<p>Similarly, 52 percent of people with some college experience reported people had acted as if they thought the <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/27/blacks-with-college-experience-more-likely-to-say-they-faced-discrimination/?utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&utm_campaign=9dca022fe6-_Weekly_July_28_20167_28_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3e953b9b70-9dca022fe6-400094317">individual wasn’t smart</a>, compared to 37 percent of people with no college experience. </p>
<p>So, what are the race-related struggles experienced by African-American students throughout their schooling?</p>
<h2>Story of Tyrone</h2>
<p>Let’s consider the case of Tyrone. Tyrone is a four-year-old black male raised in a two-parent household. Like most four-year-olds, Tyrone is intellectually curious, and has a vivid imagination. He loves books, loves to color and paint, and also loves physical activities such as running, jumping and playing games with his friends. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139952/original/image-20160930-8472-1gu4fyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139952/original/image-20160930-8472-1gu4fyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139952/original/image-20160930-8472-1gu4fyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139952/original/image-20160930-8472-1gu4fyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139952/original/image-20160930-8472-1gu4fyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139952/original/image-20160930-8472-1gu4fyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139952/original/image-20160930-8472-1gu4fyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What’s the early school experience of black kids?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-138148640/stock-photo-elementary-pupils-counting-with-teacher-in-classroom.html?src=8DL8Z2jxKjYCqN5kBeJe3g-1-85">Teacher image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>Behaviorally, Tyrone is also similar to many four-year-olds in that he often likes to talk more than listen, and he can be temperamental. He can engage in hitting, kicking and spitting behaviors when he is angry. </p>
<p>One day Tyrone was playing a game with a friend and he lost. Tyrone got angry and threw the ball at his friend. A teacher witnessed that and immediately confronted Tyrone about his behavior. </p>
<p>Angry about being confronted, Tyrone started to walk away. The teacher grabbed his arm. Tyrone reacted by pushing the teacher away. The teacher sent Tyrone to the principal’s office. After consultation with the principal, Tyrone was deemed to be a danger to students and staff. </p>
<p>He was consequently suspended.</p>
<h2>Early years of schooling</h2>
<p>On the surface this looks like a simple case of meting out the appropriate punishment for perceived serious student misbehavior. There does not appear to be anything explicitly racial about the interaction.</p>
<p>However, consider the fact that there have been many instances of white students engaging in the same behavior, none of which ever result in suspension. This is the racialized reality black students experience every day in American schools. </p>
<p>Black boys are <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-harsher-disciplinary-measures-school-systems-fail-black-kids-39906">almost three times</a> as likely to be suspended than white boys, and black girls are <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/education/14suspend.html">four times as likely</a> to be suspended than white girls. Black students’ (mis)behavior is <a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/latest-columns/20150914-kevin-cokley-lets-end-racial-disparity-in-school-discipline.ece">more often criminalized</a> compared to other students.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139953/original/image-20160930-8472-12hu8is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139953/original/image-20160930-8472-12hu8is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139953/original/image-20160930-8472-12hu8is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139953/original/image-20160930-8472-12hu8is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139953/original/image-20160930-8472-12hu8is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139953/original/image-20160930-8472-12hu8is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139953/original/image-20160930-8472-12hu8is.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Black boys are three times more likely to be suspended than white kids.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-138148646/stock-photo-elementary-pupils-in-classroom-working-with-teacher.html?src=pd-same_model-138148640-8DL8Z2jxKjYCqN5kBeJe3g-3">Children image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>While black kids make up 18 percent of preschool enrollment, they represent <a href="https://theconversation.com/racial-inequality-starts-early-in-preschool-61896">48 percent of students</a> receiving one or more suspensions. Getting suspended matters because it is correlated with being referred to law enforcement and arrested. <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-harsher-disciplinary-measures-school-systems-fail-black-kids-39906">Black students account for</a> 27 percent of students who are referred to law enforcement and 31 percent of students who are arrested, while they only make up 18 percent of enrolled students. As a general rule, black students do not often receive the benefit of the doubt when they engage in bad or questionable behavior. </p>
<h2>School experience</h2>
<p>When Tyrone entered fourth grade, teachers noticed a change in his demeanor. His enthusiasm for school and learning had diminished considerably. He no longer eagerly raised his hand to answer questions. He no longer appeared to love books and listening to stories. He appeared to have little joy participating in class activities. His teachers characterized Tyrone as “unmotivated,” “apathetic,” having “learning difficulties” and “a bad attitude.”</p>
<p>Educators and researchers have referred to this phenomenon as “<a href="http://people.terry.uga.edu/dawndba/4500FailingBlkBoys.html">the fourth grade failure syndrome</a>” for black boys. Early childhood educator <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442207448/Early-Childhood-Education-History-Theory-and-Practice-Second-edition">Harry Morgan</a> suggested that this phenomenon occurred during this time because the classroom environment changes between the third and fourth grade from a socially interactive style to a <a href="http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ220389">more individualistic, competitive style.</a></p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139954/original/image-20160930-8030-1bx57fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139954/original/image-20160930-8030-1bx57fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139954/original/image-20160930-8030-1bx57fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139954/original/image-20160930-8030-1bx57fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139954/original/image-20160930-8030-1bx57fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139954/original/image-20160930-8030-1bx57fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139954/original/image-20160930-8030-1bx57fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">By fourth grade, a child’s enthusiasm can diminish.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-128729594/stock-photo-a-sister-are-helping-her-little-brother-with-his-home-work.html?src=8DL8Z2jxKjYCqN5kBeJe3g-1-83">Boy image via www.shutterstock,com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This change in style is counter to the more communal and cooperative cultural learning environment which, according to research, <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=2006-01954-005">black students tend to prefer</a>. The fourth grade failure syndrome refers to a bias in schools (e.g., cultural insensitivity, disproportionately harsh discipline, lowered teacher expectations, tracking black students into special education or remedial classes) that has the cumulative effect of diminishing black students’ (especially boys’) enthusiasm and motivation for school.</p>
<p>By high school Tyrone no longer identified with school. His sense of pride and self-esteem increasingly came from his popularity and his athletic abilities rather than his intelligence. <a href="https://ed.stanford.edu/faculty/steele">Psychologist Claude Steele</a> has referred to this as “academic disidentification,” a phenomenon where a student’s self-esteem is disconnected from how they perform in school. </p>
<p>Tyrone is not alone. According to one study based on national data from almost 25,000 students black males were the only students that showed <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=1997-43826-014">significant disidentification</a> throughout the 12th grade. My <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41343015?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">research</a> too has confirmed this, although I did not find evidence among black females, white males or white females. </p>
<h2>What’s the college experience?</h2>
<p>While the narrative of more black men being in prison than in college has been thoroughly <a href="http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2013/02/more_black_men_in_jail_than_college_myth_rose_from_questionable_report/">debunked</a> by <a href="http://www.journalnegroed.org/ivorytoldson.html">psychologist Ivory Toldson</a>, it is still the case that black men are <a href="https://www.jbhe.com/2015/11/a-snapshot-of-the-gender-gap-in-african-american-enrollments-in-higher-education/">underrepresented</a> in college. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 887,000 black women enrolled in college compared to 618,000 black men. </p>
<p>Owing in large part to the emphasis of education by his family, Tyrone is fortunate enough to be accepted to college. Excited and nervous about being away from home, Tyrone looks forward to starting his college experience. </p>
<p>Like <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/04/how-the-kids-do-it-now-partying/360367/">many college students</a>, Tyrone likes to go to parties thrown by Greek organizations, and he frequently attends parties thrown by black fraternities. While attending one party, Tyrone and his friends became upset when campus police broke up the party because of complaints of loud music and threaten to arrest the attendees. </p>
<p>Tyrone has partied with white friends and knows firsthand that their parties often involve <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/03/the-dark-power-of-fraternities/357580/">drugs and reckless behavior</a>, yet, as my students tell me, police almost never break up their parties. As it turns out, white fraternities are frequently the perpetrators of <a href="http://college.usatoday.com/2015/03/15/timeline-list-of-recent-sorority-and-fraternity-racist-incidents/">racist incidents</a>, which cause Tyrone and other black students to engage in campus protests.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/college-fraternity-holds-racist-mlk-day-party-article-1.1586776">For example</a>, in 2014, Tau Kappa Epsilon, a fraternity at Arizona State University, was suspended for having a racist Martin Luther King Jr. party at which they drank from watermelon cups, held their crotches, wore bandannas and formed gang signs with their hands. </p>
<h2>Resilience</h2>
<p>To add insult to injury, Tyrone and other black students read opinion pieces in the student paper complaining how affirmative action discriminates against white students and allows less qualified “minority” students on campus. </p>
<p>Tyrone finds refuge in black studies classes, where he learns about theories such as “critical race theory” and terms such as “institutional racism,” “white privilege” and “hegemony.” Exposure to these classes provides Tyrone with the vocabulary and critical analytical tools to better understand the challenges facing black people.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139955/original/image-20160930-8030-1m7li9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139955/original/image-20160930-8030-1m7li9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139955/original/image-20160930-8030-1m7li9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139955/original/image-20160930-8030-1m7li9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139955/original/image-20160930-8030-1m7li9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139955/original/image-20160930-8030-1m7li9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/139955/original/image-20160930-8030-1m7li9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Interest among black students in obtaining a degree remains high.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/chandlerchristian/14065260817/in/photolist-nqTWL8-nH6EeT-nH6Dhc-nqTUqL-nH6rYR-nqU4SJ-nHmCxj-8F9wcY-nKaVQp-nHcgfW-nqU8fn-nqU3US-nHorZx-nqTT24-nHcmr7-nHcqzY-nH6x8D-nqTMq3-nqTHzN-nqUefD-nHcm3m-nqTKEk-nqTR2m-nqTLAh-nKaNwM-nFkTpj-nKaVtH-nqTHeC-nH6sax-nFkLNo-nHmHJ1-nqU91R-nKb1G8-nHckGS-nqU9rd">chandlerchristian</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So it is not surprising that college-educated blacks like Tyrone <a href="https://www.jbhe.com/incidents/">are more likely</a> to report experiencing discrimination in college than blacks with no college experience in college environments where racist incidents and racial microagressions are frequently reported. In spite of the desire among many for America to be colorblind, at every level of education black students experience disproportionate amounts of discrimination. </p>
<p>In many ways my research on African-American students reflects my own experiences as a black male negotiating the challenges of being in predominantly white academic environments. The silver lining to this story is that black students are incredibly resilient and there are positive things to report. </p>
<p>In 2016, for example, enrollment at historically black colleges and universities <a href="https://www.jbhe.com/2016/09/more-good-news-on-enrollments-at-historically-black-universities/">has increased</a>. It is difficult to know if this increase is related to the negative experiences of discrimination black students often experience on predominantly white campuses, but it does suggest that interest among black students in obtaining a college education remains high. According to 2016 data reported in the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, black women now have the highest graduation rate of any demographic group at the University of Georgia. </p>
<p>For every positive outcome for students like Tyrone, there are unfortunately also too many negative outcomes for other similar students. The educational experiences of Tyrone and all black students matters should be of concern to everyone.</p>
<p>While education is not a cure all for experiences with racism and discrimination, education can equip us with the tools to better understand, analyze and ultimately find solutions to the tragic incidents we are seeing too frequently involving police killings of black people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63576/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin O'Neal Cokley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What are the race-related struggles that African-American students experience throughout their school years? Here’s the story of Tyrone.Kevin O'Neal Cokley, Professor of Educational Psychology and African and African Diaspora Studies, The University of Texas at AustinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/647232016-09-07T02:43:21Z2016-09-07T02:43:21ZWhy are police inside public schools?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136797/original/image-20160906-25266-1jqb2oi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Are police being asked to do too much?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/northcharleston/19559553200/in/photolist-vNpPHS-r2cV3W-6P5J26-asg91N-riCnbz-bofTdN-bBaLr6-4HQQyr-r2cTzq-asg5mQ-pEWWY-6Vyn3X-bBcmSB-6VCqSu-qmKEU9-3jBZWz-qmXZZi-bofTnh-bBaLuF-6Vym5T-riJuWM-74z7hv-6P9S9S-4oMAgu-74yhR4-74D6NC-6P5EhV-eC4XQw-6P9JX5-6P9QEw-74D455-6P9Kbd-h5XxTv-avnQyK-6Vsy2f-74z5nB-6Votog-6P5CDM-6Vsyv9-6Vot1e-6Vsyxy-6VszbW-6P9HsL-74ysg4-6Y2iik-6P9Fz9-6P5FcK-7fCsfa-6VosVn-6Vouex">North Charleston</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Children across the U.S. have now returned to school. Many of these children are going to schools with sworn police officers patrolling the hallways. These officers, usually called school resource officers, are placed in schools across the country to help <a href="https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43126.pdf">maintain school safety</a>. </p>
<p>According to the most recent data reported by the Department of Education, police or security guards <a href="http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/iscs15.pdf">were present in 76.4 percent</a> of U.S. public high schools in the 2009-2010 school year.</p>
<p>In many of these schools, police officers are being asked to deal with a range of issues that are very different from traditional policing duties, such as being a mental health counselor for a traumatized child. This is an unfair request.</p>
<p>Days after the recent tragedy in Dallas, for example, as he grieved for the five slain officers, Dallas Police Chief David Brown referred to this problem <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/07/25/the-dallas-police-chief-told-protesters-to-apply-for-police-jobs-now-job-applications-are-up-344-percent/">when he said</a>,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We’re asking cops to do too much in this country… Every societal failure, we put it off on the cops to solve. Not enough mental health funding, let the cops handle it. … Schools fail, let’s give it to the cops. … ” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>For the past decade I have been studying how we police schools and punish students. My recent book, <a href="http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520284203">“The Real School Safety Problem,”</a> and a <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/police-in-the-hallways">growing body</a> <a href="http://www.nyclu.org/pdfs/criminalizing_the_classroom_report.pdf">of other studies</a> point to the fact that, indeed, schools ask police to do too much in schools. </p>
<p>Not only is it unfair to the police, it can be harmful for children.</p>
<h2>Policing schools</h2>
<p>Though there are no national data collected on exactly how many police officers are in schools, <a href="https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43126.pdf">estimates suggest</a> that the practice became popular in the early 1990s, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/governing-through-crime-9780195181081?cc=us&lang=en&">as society began to rethink</a> policing and punishment in the community outside of schools. That resulted in more rigorous policing practices and expansion of our prison system. </p>
<p>In 1999, following the <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/columbine-high-school-shootings">Columbine school shooting</a>, when two teens went on a shooting spree, policing practices grew further: <a href="http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/iscs15.pdf">Federal funding was increased</a> to have more police officers in schools. </p>
<p>However, for over 20 years, school crime has been plummeting. Between 1993 and 2010 the number of students who reportedly became victims of a violent crime at school <a href="http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/iscs15.pdf">decreased by 82 percent</a>. Since most schools are now safe places, officers in them aren’t needed to respond to many crimes. </p>
<p>So they are being asked to do many other tasks. </p>
<p>There are no national data on what officers do while at schools. But <a href="http://nyupress.org/books/9780814748206/;%20https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/police-in-the-hallways">studies in specific schools</a> find that officers are being asked to deal with mental health problems, family crises, self-injurious behavior and manifestation of childhood trauma. They also mentor students and teach law-related courses.</p>
<p>Every jurisdiction makes its own decision about what officers should do in schools, and the training that they should receive to work in schools. The National Association of School Resource Officers does offer <a href="https://nasro.org/training/nasro-training-courses/">a week-long basic training course</a>. That training does include a component on counseling and mentoring youth, but it is not clear how comprehensive the sessions are. Moreover, not all officers are required to take the course. </p>
<p>But students’ mental health and other problems are, not surprisingly, often beyond the <a href="http://nyupress.org/books/9780814748206/">skills gained from a week-long course</a>. Even if they are trained, police officers are not mental health professionals whose years of training and practice teach them how to calm youth down, assess mental health needs and address the <a href="http://nyupress.org/books/9780814748206/">underlying causes of student misbehavior</a>.</p>
<h2>What are the consequences?</h2>
<p>I have found in my prior research that the presence of officers can change the school environment in subtle ways – from one that focuses on children’s social, emotional and academic needs to one <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/police-in-the-hallways">focusing</a> on <a href="http://nyupress.org/books/9780814776384/">policing potential</a> <a href="http://nyupress.org/books/9780814748206/">criminals</a>. </p>
<p>For example, in one school I observed what happened when a student overdosed on multiple bottles of cough syrup. Rather than the school seeing this as a mental health issue or suicide attempt, the school turned to its “go to” person for handling difficult student issues: the officer.</p>
<p>After dealing with the initial emergency and ensuring the child went to the hospital, the officer’s (and thus the school’s) only response was to investigate what crime the <a href="http://nyupress.org/books/9780814748206/">child could be charged with</a>, not what help he needed. </p>
<p>Other research, too, shows that the presence of police in schools can result in increased arrests of students for minor behaviors. For example, a 2013 study by criminologists <a href="http://www.jjay.cuny.edu/faculty/chongmin-na">Chongmin Na</a> and <a href="https://ccjs.umd.edu/facultyprofile/Gottfredson/Denise">Denise C. Gottfredson</a> found that schools that added police officers subsequently <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2011.615754">saw more weapons and drug crimes</a>, and a larger number of minor offenses reported to the police. </p>
<p>A 2016 study by University of Florida law professor <a href="https://www.law.ufl.edu/faculty/jason-p-nance">Jason P. Nance</a> found that the presence of a police officer predicted greater likelihood that student misbehaviors <a href="http://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_lawreview/vol93/iss4/6/">would result in an arrest</a>.</p>
<h2>Who gets hurt?</h2>
<p>Childhood trauma is often a cause of <a href="http://www.naspcenter.org/safe_schools/safeschools.htm">serious childhood misconduct</a>. Black and Latino students are <a href="https://www.law.berkeley.edu/files/BMOC_Exclusionary_School_Discipline_Final.pdf">at a greater risk</a> than white students of having experienced childhood trauma. Youth of color are also more likely than white youth to <a href="http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/iscs15.pdf">attend schools with police officers</a>. This means that students of color, who may have greater need for mental health care than white youth, are instead dealt with by police officers who are untrained or insufficiently trained in responding to trauma.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136786/original/image-20160906-25237-1ddya5l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136786/original/image-20160906-25237-1ddya5l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136786/original/image-20160906-25237-1ddya5l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136786/original/image-20160906-25237-1ddya5l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136786/original/image-20160906-25237-1ddya5l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136786/original/image-20160906-25237-1ddya5l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136786/original/image-20160906-25237-1ddya5l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">African-American boys are arrested at school more often than other students.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/northcharleston/14122936415/in/photolist-nvZJXH-6VCrWS-6Z3kia-74DceJ-6VCs2f-6Vymzn-74zfG2-6P5y84-6VCrPJ-74zdGr-6P5xSR-6P9Kvf-6VymGT-6Z7qvb-vihbt-74D7v9-6P5BdB-6Z7kUy-7BQvog-4rRDxE-6VotRR-92JAE-6Vszdd-9jYeSt-bntZTX-6Z7qHb-6Vym6T-74z4Lr-74ysyz-6Z3j7t-6Z3quc-74CXK5-6Z7mdj-74zfL6-R2KJ-74zefx-6VCrzf-6Z3j1Z-6VCs5o-6P5xm6-6Z7jpY-6VCrJ1-6P5AxM-6VynsH-6Z3ka2-6VCrDy-6Z3kg2-74ymC4-6P9Lzu-6PbsBJ">North Charleston</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is therefore not surprising that recent research from the <a href="https://consortium.uchicago.edu/">University of Chicago Consortium</a> found that the arrest rate in Chicago for African-American boys was <a href="https://consortium.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/publications/Discipline%20Report.pdf">twice as high</a> as that for students in the school district, overall. </p>
<h2>Policing can be counterproductive</h2>
<p>Police officers in schools often serve as mentors and role models. For example, the officer I described above – who looked to charge a potentially suicidal student with a crime – had volunteered to work in a school because of his desire to help kids. He took time to advise youth and be a positive influence in the lives of many. Often students would come to his office to ask for advice, and just “check in.” He would respond with care and compassion. </p>
<p>Though there is no sound evidence that <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1368292">police officers in schools</a> prevent crime, it would be reasonable in my view to place officers in those few schools where there is violence. Despite steep declines in school violence, nationally, there are some schools where teachers and students <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/offices/OUS/PES/studies-school-violence/school-crime-pattern.pdf">face frequent threats of violence</a>. </p>
<p>Having said that, the cost of the daily presence of police outweighs the benefit in the majority of schools. For example, the officer I describe above as a caring counselor and role model switched roles dramatically when he thought a crime might have been committed. </p>
<p>Then he would act like any traditional officer focused only on law and order. In those moments, he failed to address the underlying cause of the problem. By relying on him as the primary responder to student problems, the school replaced a focus on social issues and mental health with a focus on law enforcement. </p>
<p>The result is that children do not receive the help they need, and officers are placed in a no-win position by being asked to respond to students’ needs as if they had the same training as a mental health professional.</p>
<p>The fact is, policing alone cannot solve all societal problems.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64723/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aaron Kupchik has received funding from the National Science Foundation (2006-2008, #SES-550208) for his prior work. </span></em></p>Police in schools are being asked to deal with a range of issues, such as being a mental health counselor for a traumatized child. It is unfair to the police and can be harmful for children.Aaron Kupchik, Professor of Sociology & Criminal Justice, University of DelawareLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/635742016-08-22T00:21:20Z2016-08-22T00:21:20ZHow racism has shaped welfare policy in America since 1935<p><a href="https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/rc10_eng.pdf">A recent UNICEF report</a> found that the U.S. ranked 34th on the list of 35 developed countries surveyed on the well-being of children. According to the <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/07/14/black-child-poverty-rate-holds-steady-even-as-other-groups-see-declines/">Pew Institute</a>, children under the age of 18 are the most impoverished age population of Americans, and African-American children are almost four times as likely as white children to be in poverty.</p>
<p>These findings are alarming, not least because they come on the 20th anniversary of President Clinton’s promise to “<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/welfare/stories/wf082396.htm">end welfare as we know it</a>” with his signing into law, on Aug. 23, 1996, <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/history/tally1996.html">the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (P.L. 104-193).</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/21/us/politics/welfare-arizona-bill-hillary-clinton.html?_r=0">It is true that the data show</a> the number of families receiving cash assistance fell from 12.3 million in 1996 to current levels of 4.1 million as <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/21/us/politics/welfare-arizona-bill-hillary-clinton.html?_r=0">reported by The New York Times</a>. But it is also true that child poverty rates for black children remain stubbornly high in the U.S. </p>
<p>My research indicates that this didn’t happen by chance. In a <a href="https://www.naswpress.org/publications/profession/inside/american-social-welfare-state-preface.html">recent book</a>, I examine social welfare policy developments in the U.S. over a 50-year period from the New Deal to the 1996 reforms. Findings reveal that U.S. welfare policies have, from their very inception, been discriminatory. </p>
<h2>Blemished by a history of discrimination</h2>
<p>It was the 1935 Social Security Act, introduced by the Franklin Roosevelt administration, that first committed the U.S. to the <a href="http://www.academia.edu/4424824/Freedom_From_Fear_-_Using_the_Social_Security_Act_to_Rebuild_America_s_Social_Safety_Net">safety net philosophy.</a> </p>
<p>From the beginning, the policy had two tiers that intended to protect families from loss of income. </p>
<p>On one level were the contributory social insurance programs that provided income support to the surviving dependents of workers in the event of their death or incapacitation and Social Security for retired older Americans. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134697/original/image-20160818-12300-jnqzgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134697/original/image-20160818-12300-jnqzgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134697/original/image-20160818-12300-jnqzgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134697/original/image-20160818-12300-jnqzgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134697/original/image-20160818-12300-jnqzgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134697/original/image-20160818-12300-jnqzgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134697/original/image-20160818-12300-jnqzgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal#/media/File:SocialSecurityposter1.gif">Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The second tier was made up of means-tested public assistance programs that included what was originally called the <a href="http://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/public-welfare/aid-to-dependent-children-the-legal-history/">“Aid to Dependent Children”</a> program and was subsequently renamed the <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v25n10/v25n10p3.pdf">Aid to Families with Dependent Children</a> in the 1962 Public Welfare Amendments to the SSA under the Kennedy administration.</p>
<p>The optimistic vision of the architects of the ADC program was that it would die “a natural death” with the rising quality of life in the country as a whole, resulting in more families becoming eligible for the work-related social insurance programs. </p>
<p>But this scenario was problematic for black Americans because of pervasive <a href="http://socialistworker.org/2012/06/28/blacks-and-the-great-depression">racial discrimination in employment</a> in the decades of the 1930s and 1940s. During these decades, blacks typically worked in menial jobs. Not tied to the formal workforce, they were paid in cash and “off the books,” making them ineligible for social insurance programs that called for contributions through payroll taxes from both employers and employees. </p>
<p>Nor did blacks fare much better under ADC during these years. </p>
<p>The ADC was an extension of the state-operated <a href="http://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/programs/widows-pensions-an-introduction/">mothers’ pension programs</a>, where <a href="http://www.yorku.ca/crsp/issue51/issue51-14.pdf">white widows</a> were the primary beneficiaries. The criteria for eligibility and need were state-determined, so blacks continued to be barred from full participation because the country operated under the <a href="http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/">“separate but equal”</a> doctrine adopted by the Supreme Court in 1896.</p>
<p>Jim Crow Laws and the separate but equal doctrine resulted in the creation of a two-track service delivery system in both law and custom, one for whites and one for blacks that were anything but equal. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134698/original/image-20160818-12274-1uonazl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/134698/original/image-20160818-12274-1uonazl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134698/original/image-20160818-12274-1uonazl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134698/original/image-20160818-12274-1uonazl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134698/original/image-20160818-12274-1uonazl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134698/original/image-20160818-12274-1uonazl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/134698/original/image-20160818-12274-1uonazl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A ‘colored’ drinking fountain – segregation applied to welfare benefits too.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22Colored%22_drinking_fountain_from_mid-20th_century_with_african-american_drinking.jpg">Russell Lee/Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Developments in the 1950s and ‘60’s further disadvantaged black families.</p>
<p>This happened when <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/09/nyregion/metro-matters-spirit-of-newburgh-past-haunts-political-present.html">states stepped up efforts</a> to <a href="https://people.eou.edu/socwelf/readings/week-2/welfare-expands-in-the-1960s/">reduce ADC enrollment and costs</a>. As I examined in my book, <a href="https://www.naswpress.org/publications/profession/inside/american-social-welfare-state-preface.html">residency requirements were proposed</a> so as to bar blacks migrating from the South to qualify for the program. New York City’s “<a href="https://people.eou.edu/socwelf/readings/week-2/welfare-expands-in-the-1960s/">man in the house rule</a>” required welfare workers to make unannounced visits to determine if fathers were living in the home – if evidence of a male presence was found, cases were closed and welfare checks discontinued. </p>
<h2>Always an unpopular program</h2>
<p>Because of the strong American work ethic, and preference for a “hand up” versus a “hand-out,” the means-tested, cash assistance programs for poor families – and especially ADC renamed AFDC – have never been popular among Americans. As FDR himself said in his 1935 State of the Union address to Congress, “<a href="http://stateoftheunionaddress.org/1935-franklin-d-roosevelt">the government must and shall quit this business of relief.”</a> </p>
<p>As the quality of life did indeed improve for whites, the number of white widows and their children on the AFDC rolls declined. At the same time, the easing of racial discrimination widened eligibility to more blacks, increasing the number of <a href="http://www.aei.org/publication/welfare-reform-and-marriage/">never-married women of color </a> and their children who were born out of wedlock. </p>
<p>One point, however, to note here is that there has always been a <a href="http://www.nap.edu/read/9719/chapter/8">public misconception about race and welfare.</a> It is true that over the years blacks became <a href="http://www.nap.edu/read/9719/chapter/8#153">disproportionately represented.</a> But given that whites constitute <a href="http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-05.pdf">a majority of the population</a>, numerically they have always been the largest users of the AFDC program. </p>
<h2>Holes in the safety net</h2>
<p>The retreat from the safety net philosophy can be dated to the presidencies of <a href="http://www.ontheissues.org/Celeb/Richard_Nixon_Welfare_+_Poverty.htm">Richard Nixon</a> and <a href="http://www.ontheissues.org/Celeb/Ronald_Reagan_Welfare_+_Poverty.htm">Ronald Reagan.</a> </p>
<p>On the one hand, politicians wanted to reduce the cost of welfare. Under Reagan policies of <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/reagan-domestic/">New Federalism,</a> social welfare expenditures <a href="http://www.policyalmanac.org/social_welfare/archive/ssbg.shtml">were capped</a> and responsibility for programs for poor families given back to states.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the demographic shift in the welfare rolls exacerbated the politics around welfare and racialized the debate. </p>
<p>Ronald Reagan’s <a href="http://www.salon.com/2015/09/27/ronald_reagans_welfare_queen_myth_how_the_gipper_kickstarted_the_war_on_the_working_poor/">“Welfare Queen</a>” narrative only reinforced existing white stereotypes about blacks: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“There’s a woman in Chicago. She has 80 names, 30 addressees, 12 Social Security cards and is collecting veterans’ benefits on four nonexistent deceased husbands. She’s got Medicaid, is getting food stamps and welfare under each of her names. Her tax-free cash income alone is over $150,000.”</p>
</blockquote>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/I9pk8FG8LPA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Reagan’s assertions that the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/23/us/reagan-on-homelessness-many-choose-to-live-in-the-streets.html">homeless were living on the streets by choice</a> played to conventional wisdom about the causes of poverty, blamed poor people for their own misfortune and helped disparage government programs to help the poor. </p>
<h2>The 1990s gear change</h2>
<p>By the late 1990s efforts of reforms targeting the AFDC program shifted to more nuanced forms of racism with <a href="http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/1996/06/bg1084nbsp-how-welfare-harms-kids">claims</a> that the program encouraged out-of-wedlock births, irresponsible fatherhood and intergenerational dependency. </p>
<p>The political context for the 1996 reforms, then, was fueled by racist undertones that played into <a href="https://www.press.umich.edu/10015/changing_american_mind">public angst about rising taxes</a> and the national debt that were <a href="http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2013/11/the-2013-index-of-dependence-on-government">attributed</a> to the high payout of welfare checks to people who were not carrying their own weight. </p>
<p>This emotionally charged environment distorted the poverty debate, and paved the way for a reform bill that many saw as excessively punitive in its harsh treatment of poor families.</p>
<p>Although credited to the Clinton administration, the blueprint for the 1996 welfare reform bill was crafted by a caucus of conservative Republicans led by Newt Gingrich as part of the <a href="http://www.heritage.org/research/lecture/the-contract-with-america-implementing-new-ideas-in-the-us">Contract with America</a> during the 1994 congressional election campaign. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/22/opinion/22clinton.html?_r=0">Twice President Clinton vetoed</a> the welfare reform bill sent to him by the GOP-dominated Congress. The third time he signed, creating much controversy, including the resignation of his own adviser on welfare reform, the leading scholar on poverty <a href="https://www.hks.harvard.edu/about/faculty-staff-directory/david-ellwood">David Ellwood.</a></p>
<figure>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">President Clinton announces the new welfare bill.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The new bill replaced the AFDC program with <a href="http://www.acf.hhs.gov/ofa/programs/tanf">Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)</a>. Stricter work requirements required single mothers to find work within two years of receiving benefits. A five-year lifetime limit was imposed for receiving benefits. To reinforce traditional family values, a core principle of the Republican Party, teenage mothers were to be prohibited benefits, and fathers who were delinquent in child support payments were threatened with imprisonment. States were banned from using federally funded TANF for certain groups of immigrants and restrictions were placed on their eligibility to Medicaid, food stamps and Supplementary Social Security Income (SSI).</p>
<h2>The impact</h2>
<p>Despite many bleak predictions, <a href="http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2006/08/welfare-reform-at-10-analyzing-welfare-caseload-fluctuations-1996-2002">favorable outcomes were reported</a> on the 10th anniversary of the bill’s signing. Welfare rolls had declined. Mothers had moved from welfare to work and children had benefited psychologically from having an employed parent.</p>
<p>However, the volume of research generated at the 10-year benchmark has not been matched, in my observation, by that produced in years leading up to the 20-year anniversary. </p>
<p>More research in particular is needed to understand what is happening with families who have left welfare rolls because of passing the five-year lifetime limit for receiving benefits but have not sustained a foothold in an ever-increasing specialized workforce.</p>
<h2>Disentangling intertwined effects of racism and poverty</h2>
<p>U.S. welfare policy is, arguably, as much a reflection of its economic policies as it is of the nation’s troublesome history of racism. </p>
<p>In the words of President Obama, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/23/us/obama-racism-marc-maron-podcast.html">racism is a part of America’s DNA and history.</a> Similarly, the notion that anyone who is willing to work hard can be rich is just as much a part of that DNA. Both have played an equal role in constraining adequate policy development for poor families and have been especially harmful to poor black families. </p>
<p>Racism has left an indelible mark on American institutions. In particular, it influences how we understand the causes of poverty and how we develop solutions for ending it. </p>
<p>Indeed, with the continual unraveling of the safety net, the 20th anniversary of welfare reforms can be an impetus for taking a closer look at how racism has shaped welfare policy in the U.S. and to what extent it accounts for the persistently high poverty rates for black children.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63574/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alma Carten receives no funding from public or private funders</span></em></p>On the 20th anniversary of Bill Clinton’s promise to “end welfare as we know it,” a social work scholar asks why child poverty is still such a problem in the U.S. and what race has to do with it.Alma Carten, Associate Professor of Social Work; McSilver Faculty Fellow, New York UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/582662016-06-23T10:05:11Z2016-06-23T10:05:11ZHow community schools can beat summer learning loss for low-income students<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/127775/original/image-20160622-7158-76f0rs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">School closure over the summer widens the achievement gap between classes.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&autocomplete_id=&search_tracking_id=bP6aCjJu5mIxxYLo1bYQQw&searchterm=summer%20no%20learning&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=387777430">School chair image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is a part of The Conversation’s series on summer learning loss. For other articles in this series, read <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-summertime-means-for-black-children-60152">here</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/giving-students-choice-in-reading-helps-stem-the-summer-slide-42735">here</a>.</em></p>
<p>My children spent summers reading Harry Potter, playing chess, swimming and hiking the Adirondack high peaks in upstate New York. </p>
<p>As a single parent with a career as a social worker and academic, I wasn’t rich. But I had enough to make sure that my children had what they needed to excel in education and enrichment outside of school. </p>
<p>While middle-class homes can often provide for summer enrichment activities, studies show a different reality for children from low-income families. These children and youth often lose <a href="http://asr.sagepub.com/content/72/2/167.abstract">months of reading and math skills</a> over the summer, widening the achievement gap between the classes. </p>
<p>What can schools do to address this learning loss?</p>
<h2>Summer slide</h2>
<p>The learning loss for youth in low-income communities adds up dramatically over the years. By ninth grade, about two-thirds of the academic achievement gap between disadvantaged youth and their more advantaged peers can be explained by <a href="http://summerlearning.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/SummerCanSetKidsOnTheRightOrWrongCourse.pdf">how they spend their elementary school summers</a>. </p>
<p>What makes this of concern is that a majority of U.S. students in public schools are now from low-income families. A 2013 study found that for the first time in U.S. history, <a href="http://www.southerneducation.org/getattachment/4ac62e27-5260-47a5-9d02-14896ec3a531/A-New-Majority-2015-Update-Low-Income-Students-Now.aspx">a majority (51 percent) of public school students</a> in the United States were eligible for a free or subsidized school lunch, indicating that they fell below the government’s low-income cutoff. </p>
<p>The majority of these students lack quality summer activities.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/127779/original/image-20160622-7196-muif73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/127779/original/image-20160622-7196-muif73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127779/original/image-20160622-7196-muif73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127779/original/image-20160622-7196-muif73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127779/original/image-20160622-7196-muif73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127779/original/image-20160622-7196-muif73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127779/original/image-20160622-7196-muif73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A majority of kids do not have quality summer activities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&autocomplete_id=&search_tracking_id=sAlhNvprNYJ_faTiRyXxjg&searchterm=children%20playing%20USA&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=139406240">Children image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Furthermore, these issues do not exist in isolation. Children from low-income communities who often experience summer learning loss also often face multiple related challenges that impact their ability to attend school or focus when they’re there. These challenges include insufficient access to health care, poor nutrition, community violence and lack of adult supervision, among others.</p>
<p>Partnerships between schools and communities can help students’ academic success. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which replaced the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law in December 2015, addresses the achievement gap between children from low- and middle-income families.</p>
<p><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9604.2011.01502_4.x/abstract">Title IV of the ESSA</a> under the program, “Community Supports for Success,” calls for a range of partnerships between schools and communities so students (especially those from low-income families) can gain access to services they need for academic achievement (e.g., physical and mental health care, adequate nutrition, supervision and access to healthy activities beyond school hours). </p>
<p>How can schools implement these partnerships?</p>
<p>Earlier this year, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo <a href="http://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/ny/2016/04/01/breaking-state-lawmakers-reach-budget-deal-with-big-wins-for-charters-community-schools/#.V2lIlpMrLUI">announced a US$175 million plan</a> that demonstrates a way to enable such partnerships. Cuomo’s plan aims to convert schools with the lowest test scores and graduation rates across the state into “community schools.”</p>
<h2>Providing comprehensive services</h2>
<p>So, what are community schools? And how do they help with student learning?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.communityschools.org/aboutschools/what_is_a_community_school.aspx">Community schools</a> pursue a unique learning model whereby they supplement classroom-based instruction with out-of-school (before school, after school and summer) learning. They provide support to students whose families do not have access to academic support beyond the classroom. Their support is not limited to the school term, but continues all through the year. </p>
<p>My <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/school-linked-services/9780231160957">research on community schools across the U.S.and the world</a> shows that they look different in each community as they develop in response to each school’s specific needs. </p>
<p>The idea behind this learning model goes back to the late 19th century. The first set of school-linked services (precursors to community schools) can be traced back to the 1890s. Back then, they were developed in response to the massive changes being brought about as a result of immigration and industrialization.</p>
<p>As teachers struggled with new sets of challenges in their classrooms, this model provided additional support. For example, in 1894, doctors visited Boston schools on a daily basis – a practice that <a href="https://www.princeton.edu/futureofchildren/publications/docs/02_01_01.pdf">helped bring down</a> rates of communicable diseases.</p>
<p>The amount of school-linked services and their gold standard – community schools in the U.S. – have ebbed and flowed over the years. In the last few decades, there has been a marked increase in the number of community schools. </p>
<p>Many individual schools, several counties and an array of cities have incorporated the community school model to reduce the achievement gap between students from low- and middle-income homes. These include Multnomah County (Portland, Oregon), Broome County (upstate New York), Cincinnati, Chicago, Hartford, Tulsa and more recently, New York City, among others. </p>
<h2>What’s the impact?</h2>
<p>The community school model has shown numerous successes. </p>
<p>For example, Oyler School in Cincinnati had fewer than 20 percent of its students reaching 10th grade in the late 1990s. After implementing a community school model in 2010, <a href="http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ965251">82 percent of students graduated</a> high school. </p>
<p>Many of these schools provide <a href="http://www.familiesinsocietyjournal.org/doi/pdf/10.1606/1044-3894.4306">extra outreach efforts</a> to involve families that may be hard to reach in the education of their children – a critical component of the partnership. A recent study of the impact of family engagement in elementary and secondary schools found positive correlations between engaged families and <a href="http://uex.sagepub.com/content/47/4/706.abstract">improved academic achievement</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/127781/original/image-20160622-7170-1l8z9p2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/127781/original/image-20160622-7170-1l8z9p2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127781/original/image-20160622-7170-1l8z9p2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127781/original/image-20160622-7170-1l8z9p2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127781/original/image-20160622-7170-1l8z9p2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127781/original/image-20160622-7170-1l8z9p2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127781/original/image-20160622-7170-1l8z9p2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Oyler School in Cincinnati.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/withoutsound/3390421423/in/photolist-brdbQX-6aAPcF-6aEYem-6aEY1Y-6aANst-6aEYaq-6aANn2-6aEYpb-6aEYkd-6aANG6-6aEYtq-6aEXsY-6aANaM-6aANx2-brdbYB-brdbHP-brdc12-brdbWx-brdbBt-brdbHa-brdbKP-brdbVr-brdbFM-brdc28-brdbEk-o9G5cQ-brdc4K-brdbSc-brdbNB-brdbJT-brdc3x-brdbMk-brdbCK-brdbTz-brdbPt-bVBXoK-brdbxP-nUeXvb-obzXB3-nUfN5p-obqYqT-obE59m-nUeXMy-obqZ9r-nUf3vc-dKK59-o9G531-pzvzRi-dq3HwH">Sean Biehle</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>School-based health centers are another frequent component of community schools. Studies indicate when there are school-based health centers, lost class time as a result of sickness <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20618619">reduces by as much as three times</a>.</p>
<p>Summer programs are often part of community schools. These programs provide enriched summer activities for students, such as music, dance, crafts, athletics and academics. This enables teachers in high-poverty neighborhoods to begin teaching new content at the start of the school year, without losing months backtracking over content forgotten from the previous year. </p>
<h2>Why we need community schools</h2>
<p>The community school model has been so successful that universities too are making this a focus of college students’ civic engagement efforts. </p>
<p>In 1985, the University of Pennsylvania took the lead in <a href="https://www.nettercenter.upenn.edu/sites/netter_internal/files/Harkavy_Hartley_Hodges_Weeks_Peabody_Journal.pdf">developing a university-assisted community school approach</a>. College students work with the community schools <a href="https://www.nettercenter.upenn.edu/programs/university-assisted-community-schools">to integrate knowledge gained</a> in their UPenn classrooms.</p>
<p>An example is the Moelis Access Science program where UPenn faculty and students provide STEM (science, technology, math and engineering) professional development to teachers serving students in West Philadelphia neighorhoods, which are marked by extreme poverty, violence and low educational attainment. </p>
<p>Over 20 universities are now <a href="http://www.communityschools.org/about/universityassistedcommunityschoolsnetwork.aspx">part of the network of university-assisted community schools</a> including Binghamton University (SUNY), Columbia University and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). </p>
<p>In an increasingly diverse society facing more complex social problems, the traditional model where education occurs completely within the school building, provided solely by teachers from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and from September to June, needs reviewing. </p>
<p>That <a href="http://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/Schools-are-trapped-in-the-past-4221901.php">calendar was designed long ago</a> to leave youth free to work in their families’ fields in the summer. Since farming is no longer a major role for the vast majority of students, time outside the classroom can either enhance academic year learning or diminish it. </p>
<p>Do community schools that offer year-round programming and supplemental services cost money? Of course they do. But they have <a href="http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/9780875530062ch29">also been shown to save</a> health care costs. They can also save funds that are now being spent on residential treatment facilities for youth, prison and remediation. </p>
<p>With too many youth dropping out of school, the jobs and workforce necessary to compete in a global economy are at risk. Community schools make sense in a country that is committed to opportunities for educational success for any and all students, irrespective of their family income or their zip code.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58266/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura Bronstein oversees the Binghamton University Broome County Promise Zone, which receives funding from the Broome County Department of Mental Health to implement a county-wide system of university-assisted community schools. </span></em></p>The learning loss that occurs over the summer for poor students can lead to a growing academic achievement gap in subsequent years. What are community schools and how do they help low-income students?Laura Bronstein, Dean of the College of Community and Public Affairs Professor, Binghamton University, State University of New YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/601522016-06-22T10:03:17Z2016-06-22T10:03:17ZWhat summertime means for black children<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/127588/original/image-20160621-12995-c6qikt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What struggles do black families face over the summer?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/s/black+parent/search.html?page=3&thumb_size=mosaic&inline=165821084">Mother child image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The arrival of summer generates excitement. But it could also bring challenges for both parents and educators. Many students experience a loss in math learning during the summer months known commonly as <a href="http://psychandneuro.duke.edu/uploads/media_items/summer-learning-loss.original.pdf">“summer slide.”</a> </p>
<p>Students from middle-class families may not be as affected as they have access to more resources to make up for the learning loss. However, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=KiA4EI77HBYC&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=making+summer+count&ots=720lw8ofPG&sig=fRRw_VgsQ7P0HzBPbBB_YW20vTA#v=onepage&q=making%20summer%20count&f=false">those from lower-income backgrounds</a> could experience significant losses, particularly in math and reading. </p>
<p>Researchers point to the summer slide as a contributing factor in the persistent academic achievement gap between students from lower-income backgrounds and their middle-class peers. </p>
<p>But, does race also conflate with class, when it comes to summer slide? What does summertime mean for black children and the parents and caregivers who care for them?</p>
<p>We are education researchers who are black and parents to two black children – one in elementary school and another in preschool. If the U.S. imagination constructs summer as a time for swimming, free play, baseball and lazy days on the beach, it has never played out this way in our home. </p>
<p>We feel the weight of summer – both for its limitations and its possibilities. To us, the summer is less a time to focus solely on fun and more of what we call the “summer soar.” </p>
<h2>Summer goals for black parents</h2>
<p>The term “summer soar” is not taken from research or policy studies. We use it to reflect the triple burden that some parents of color – in our case, black parents – could endure during the summer months. </p>
<p>For these parents, summertime provides time to accomplish three goals: (1) reinforce what was learned in the previous year, (2) get a head start on the upcoming year and, most importantly, (3) supplement valuable yet missing curriculum knowledge generally not offered in traditional schools that reflects students’ racial and cultural identities. </p>
<p>Let’s look at what we mean by missing curriculum knowledge.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/127583/original/image-20160621-13039-jw2xj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/127583/original/image-20160621-13039-jw2xj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127583/original/image-20160621-13039-jw2xj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127583/original/image-20160621-13039-jw2xj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127583/original/image-20160621-13039-jw2xj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127583/original/image-20160621-13039-jw2xj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127583/original/image-20160621-13039-jw2xj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Summer is a time to fill in the curriculum gaps for black kids.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&autocomplete_id=ippiw2i9j7kx0iir3&searchterm=black%20children&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=299368478">Black family image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We offer an example of this in a <a href="http://hepg.org/her-home/issues/harvard-educational-review-volume-82-number-3/herarticle/a-critical-race-theory-textual-analysis-of-race-an">study</a> we conducted with a researcher at Sacramento State College, <a href="http://www.csus.edu/coe/faculty/profiles/vasquez-heilig-julian.html">Julian Vasquez-Heilig</a>. The study examined how culture and race were addressed in the most recently adopted 11th grade U.S. history Texas state standards. </p>
<p>Findings highlighted that topics in the social studies standards did not fully address the contributions of people of color in the U.S. In the case of black people, much of the focus centered only on cultural contributions and not on the other ways black people contributed to the U.S. narrative. </p>
<p>Added to this was the tendency to give partial attention to the legacy of racism. This history of U.S. racism was not discussed as foundational to the development and maintenance of the country. </p>
<h2>Black students’ mis-education</h2>
<p>This is not unique to Texas nor found in the area of social studies alone. Education researchers have long acknowledged how official K-12 school <a href="http://store.tcpress.com/0807750786.shtml">curriculum</a> and approaches to <a href="http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470408154.html">teaching</a> fail to affirm black students’ cultural identities. They also reinforce the belief that black people have not made any contributions to the U.S. society.</p>
<p>As far back as the turn of the 20th century, notable scholars including <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/web-du-bois-9279924">W.E.B. Du Bois</a>, <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/carter-g-woodson-9536515">Carter G. Woodson</a> and <a href="http://www.blackpast.org/aah/cooper-anna-julia-haywood-1858-1964">Anna Julia Cooper</a> addressed the <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Black-Intellectual-Thought-in-Education-The-Missing-Traditions-of-Anna/Grant-Brown-Brown/p/book/9780415641913">problems and limitations of schooling for African-Americans</a>. </p>
<p>As a result, black students run the risk of experiencing what historian Carter G. Woodson called <a href="https://devontekwatson.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/miseducation-text.pdf">“mis-education.”</a> Mis-education is a process where school knowledge helps to foster a sense of contempt or disregard for one’s own histories and experiences, regardless of the level of education attained. </p>
<p>So, for us as parents and educators, the “summer soar” is not just about further developing our son’s academics. It is also about fostering a consciousness to help ward off the subtle effects of mis-education – a concern shared by many black families. </p>
<h2>Why it is uniquely burdensome</h2>
<p>We recognize that black parents are not the only ones worried about their children’s academic achievement and social development. Families, in general, are critical about the overreliance on <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=XGyTAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=parents+standardized+testing&ots=dEgOgFvTwN&sig=Lli_pE2FYfma8eO2gMCaL6IgE2E#v=onepage&q=parents%20standardized%20testing&f=false">standardized testing</a> that makes school less a place for <a href="http://www.soe.vt.edu/elementaryed/files/faculty/Mary_Alice_Barksdale/BarksdaleThomasHST.pdf">meaningful engagement</a>. </p>
<p>Yet what makes the “summer slide” and as a consequence the “summer soar” experience of black parents uniquely burdensome is the context in which it occurs. </p>
<p>Along with the curriculum and teaching problems black children encounter in schools around race and culture, there is a legacy of positioning <a href="https://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentID=16182">black males</a> and <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/doi/abs/10.1080/13613324.2012.725039#.V03Wd2bgVSE">black children</a> in troubling, dehumanizing ways. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/127589/original/image-20160621-13036-10838vy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/127589/original/image-20160621-13036-10838vy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127589/original/image-20160621-13036-10838vy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127589/original/image-20160621-13036-10838vy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127589/original/image-20160621-13036-10838vy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127589/original/image-20160621-13036-10838vy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/127589/original/image-20160621-13036-10838vy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Black male children are portrayed in some troubling ways.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&autocomplete_id=&search_tracking_id=MhHeWtbbP1qea1Ltb6hq5w&searchterm=black%20child&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=352073783">Boy image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, scholars note that black children, specifically black boys, are often viewed as mature and <a href="https://www.press.umich.edu/16797/bad_boys">“adult-like.”</a> Their behaviors and experiences are not seen as part of the normal arc of childhood development. Scholars find that in this “adultification” process, black children are not given the allowance of <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2014-06238-001/">childhood innocence</a>. </p>
<p>These “deficit-oriented” perspectives are found not only in academic literature, but also in public policy, popular media and everyday conversations. A contemporary reflection of this is found in the call for the popular <a href="http://blacklivesmatter.com/">#BlackLivesMatter</a> movement. </p>
<h2>Being black in the summer</h2>
<p>To be clear: We don’t feel we are approaching the “summer slide” or our “summer soar” from a place of unfounded anxiety or as parents too focused on their child’s education. </p>
<p>Black people have been and continue to be dealt with in schools and society in deeply problematic ways. Just consider the growing number of black families that are choosing to homeschool their children. </p>
<p>In a study that examined the perspectives of 74 African-American homeschoolers in the U.S., researchers <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ama-mazama-158500">Ama Mazama</a> and Garvey Lundy found that the second most important reason that <a href="http://jbs.sagepub.com.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/content/early/2012/08/23/0021934712457042.abstract">black parents chose to homeschool</a>, right behind concerns with quality of education, was to <a href="https://theconversation.com/struggling-with-racial-biases-black-families-homeschool-kids-38694">protect against the racism</a> found in traditional school settings.</p>
<p>Being black in the summer (or anytime really) is not easy. The challenge black families face is navigating an educational context that requires excelling in mainstream school settings, while buffering against the very same education systems that deny one’s humanity. </p>
<p>This summer, like all summers for us, is filled with ambitious goals. We want to help our rising second grader memorize multiplication facts, advance his reading level and improve his writing. But we also want to introduce him to poetry and literature by black authors, teach him about ancient African civilizations and expose him to the concepts of fairness and justice as key to the black struggle in the U.S. </p>
<p>Our task is not easy. But it is our reality – one that we share with countless others – that goes unrecognized in the popular discussions around “summer slide” and the idyllic dream of a lazy summer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60152/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Summer is not an idyllic time for all. Two researchers who are black and are parents to two black children describe why they feel the weight of the summer.Keffrelyn Brown, Associate Professor of Cultural Studies in Education, The University of Texas at AustinAnthony L. Brown, Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction, The University of Texas at AustinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/567852016-04-11T10:09:10Z2016-04-11T10:09:10ZHere’s why kids fall behind in science<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117891/original/image-20160407-16278-1mlkc46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How can more kids be interested in science?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/drakelelane/4336390583/in/photolist-dx5nnh-ci3JAG-bUJ3Xz-aRPPHv-cc6iwQ-7RjH1-bUJ4qc-7WEzra-9439F2-5FucDb-7A5GHi-cc6iKo-bUJ4gF-4RCdZy-di3t4B-bUJ4iM-bUJ43Z-bUJ3Qc-dz59eH-6cyvJ7-8x6G34-9xMqJA-7WEy2a-8x9GoC-7Bc8QT-ci3MmW-4vnJ7J-bfLqrx-ci3TaL-7fdeqw-bfLuEZ-noBD2S-CK27W6-Cm42Tj-CRoMVm-Cm4KKf-DiyUr6-Dk27CT-CmaWeP-D8WeyQ-CmudGd-CSTm47-DgDfeC-zt7GT5-zte3zX-zKK2yZ-qzrHps-noNZEJ-nnzLD5-s1rxiy">Shawn Anderson</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Globally, the U.S. is at risk of <a href="http://www.nap.edu/catalog/12999/rising-above-the-gathering-storm-revisited-rapidly-approaching-category-5">declining economic competitiveness</a> due to its continuing lower levels of educational attainment in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). </p>
<p>The U.S. <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjL98GE6PzLAhXCGh4KHS_2CAMQFggdMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww3.weforum.org%2Fdocs%2Fgcr%2F2015-2016%2FGlobal_Competitiveness_Report_2015-2016.pdf&usg=AFQjCNHprvEobTBFpsRXQv0dXPUACXdXqA&sig2=zuUpNI5rZ01WZb-yrqIImA">currently ranks 44th</a> according to the quality of its mathematics and science education.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://jcfsandiego.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/PISA-Scores-STEM-Aug-2013.pdf">“leaky STEM pipeline”</a> – in which factors such as lower expectations, discrimination, and a lack of interest make it less likely that <a href="http://changetheequation.org/stemtistics">racial or ethnic minorities</a>, women or those from low-income families will pursue STEM careers – makes many adults <a href="http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/2013/digest/">less likely to be employed</a> in these types of positions. </p>
<p>Yet STEM positions are often high-paying and provide greater economic well-being and employment stability, especially as the U.S. transitions to a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/stem-majors-earn-a-lot-more-money-after-graduation-2014-7">knowledge-based economy</a>. </p>
<p>Efforts that increase schoolchildren’s science achievement – particularly those from diverse, traditionally marginalized populations – could help provide children with greater future employment opportunities while ensuring that the U.S. remains economically competitive. </p>
<p>The question is, when should these efforts begin? That is, how early do leaks in the STEM pipeline begin to occur? </p>
<h2>Science achievement gaps</h2>
<p>My research seeks to understand why some groups of children are more likely to struggle academically in U.S. schools. To date, I have been reporting on factors that increase children’s risk for lower achievement in reading and mathematics. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117892/original/image-20160407-16272-b7nltr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117892/original/image-20160407-16272-b7nltr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117892/original/image-20160407-16272-b7nltr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117892/original/image-20160407-16272-b7nltr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117892/original/image-20160407-16272-b7nltr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117892/original/image-20160407-16272-b7nltr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117892/original/image-20160407-16272-b7nltr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Early on, racial and ethnic minorities fall behind in science.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasawebbtelescope/5369844183/in/photolist-9bvRAp-e6CoDW-e6CoxJ-6H4bx7-6oNvtU-aYNUgK-e6CoAj-e6Covh-e6wKkr-8x9H1d-aYNUon-EtdCty-f6UG5z-8x9H5U-E3yWhj-CRNdFr-E3yWdS-BcHzoi-Cmuw1k-Dgzh35-DhJuaY-Cnwxa5-CRQYvh-CnwUpQ-Cms9Js-CmvpLp-DgfTqY-CmcvoH-DiXgWr-CmovW5-Dk45UD-CnvB9j-Dbiwqa-DaEYCf-5XPv2w-cc6i3W-cc6i5m-e7aE5W-dwYTpp-cc6iih-cUn5UU-7FbefS-39YLM-iQYXj-doAjtK-bUJ4cV-dwYTfB-dx5nLs-cc6ikw-yvwY9">NASA's James Webb Space Telescope</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Researchers have found that <a href="http://www.nationsreportcard.gov/science_2011/summary.aspx">large science achievement gaps</a> occur within the U.S. These gaps are very large by middle school, and they are disproportionately experienced by children who are racial or ethnic minorities, English Language Learners (ELLs), and those from lower-income families. </p>
<p>For example, 63 percent of U.S. eighth graders who are black display “below basic” (that is, less than partial mastery of knowledge and skills necessary for grade level work) levels of science achievement. The contrasting percentage for white children is 20 percent. While 52 percent of low-income children display below basic levels of science achievement, only 20 percent of higher-income children do so. </p>
<p>Yet why these science achievement gaps are occurring has been unclear. </p>
<p>Very few studies have examined children’s science achievement across time. Most studies have used samples of middle or high school students. As a result, when science achievement gaps begin to occur has not been well understood. </p>
<h2>Here’s what our study shows</h2>
<p>To better understand these science achievement gaps, <a href="http://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X16633182">we analyzed a nationally representative sample</a> of U.S. schoolchildren as they entered kindergarten and then continued through elementary and middle school.</p>
<p>The data were collected by the U.S. Department of Education, and designed to be representative of the <a href="http://nces.ed.gov/ecls/kindergarten.asp">population of children</a> who entered U.S. kindergarten classrooms in 1998-1999. </p>
<p>The data included children’s reading and mathematics achievement, their classroom behavior, and many characteristics of their families and schools. Such characteristics included the quality of the children’s parenting, their family’s income, and the racial segregation of their schools. From third grade to eighth grade, the surveys included a measure of children’s science achievement.</p>
<p>During kindergarten and first grade, the surveys assessed children’s general knowledge about their natural (e.g., the seasons, the lunar phases, erosion) and social worlds (e.g., what a fireman does, what planes and trains have in common).</p>
<p>Our analyses of these data yielded three surprising findings. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117893/original/image-20160407-16263-1but2w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117893/original/image-20160407-16263-1but2w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117893/original/image-20160407-16263-1but2w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117893/original/image-20160407-16263-1but2w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117893/original/image-20160407-16263-1but2w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117893/original/image-20160407-16263-1but2w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117893/original/image-20160407-16263-1but2w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The gaps exist when kids enter kindergarten.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nhks/8078441699/in/photolist-diS8gz-diS7aA-dAkRyB-dAkRkg-diS6Qk-dAkRHZ-dGwo7f-diS5af-dGqWPV-dAriH5-dAkPc8-diS3HG-dArjoG-4bVk3q-dArjrb-dAkRKt-dAkQCx-6VbZ2-4pdZqh-4wQnaK-rhDo7-5Dftec-4wQnLz-7qx75z-71iQ2D-cVB1u5-cVBaEC-5V4mLK-cVBbr3-cZLqS1-dQv6wC-cVAZMy-cZLqEy-xZawB-cVB2e3-7F3HAh-5RBB9P-6vhZXN-pxcsd-jgzT72-butFYG-butG17-bHotzi-butG5E-butGaf-butG4E-bHotBF-butFUA-cTq9Ly-butFWW">PRONavy Hale Keiki School</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>First, we found that very large gaps in general knowledge were already evident among children entering kindergarten classrooms in the U.S. For example, about 60 percent of black children scored in the bottom 25 percent on the general knowledge measure. The contrasting percentage for white children was 15 percent. </p>
<p>About 65 percent of low-income children entered kindergarten with low levels of general knowledge. Only 10 percent of high-income children did so. The general knowledge and science achievement gaps in kindergarten were even larger than the reading or mathematics achievement gaps. </p>
<p>In other words, leaks in the STEM pipeline were originating “close to the tap.”</p>
<p>The second surprising finding was that general knowledge gaps by kindergarten strongly predicted science achievement gaps by third grade. For example, of those whose general knowledge was in the lowest 25 percent during kindergarten, 62 percent, 60 percent and 54 percent had levels of science achievement in the lowest 25 percent at the end of third, fifth or eighth grade, respectively. </p>
<p>This suggests that children who are already struggling with low levels of general knowledge in kindergarten are likely to still be struggling in science throughout elementary and middle school.</p>
<p>Children’s general knowledge was a stronger predictor of third grade science achievement than race/ethnicity, reading or mathematics achievement, classroom behavior or family income. </p>
<p>Both the general knowledge and science achievement gaps were very stable over time. </p>
<p>Children who are racial or ethnic minorities, English Language Learners or from low-income households displayed lower levels of science achievement by third grade and typically continued to lag behind throughout elementary and middle school. Girls displayed relatively lower science achievement than boys in third grade. </p>
<h2>Closing these gaps</h2>
<p>Our third finding was more encouraging. We found that we could explain most of these general knowledge and science achievement gaps. And this could help inform efforts by parents, practitioners, and policymakers to close these gaps.</p>
<p>For example, we were able to explain 75 percent of the third grade science achievement gap between black and white children as well as 97 percent of the gap between low- and high-income children. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117894/original/image-20160407-16286-hgo2ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117894/original/image-20160407-16286-hgo2ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117894/original/image-20160407-16286-hgo2ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117894/original/image-20160407-16286-hgo2ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117894/original/image-20160407-16286-hgo2ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117894/original/image-20160407-16286-hgo2ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117894/original/image-20160407-16286-hgo2ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Early interventions could help.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/5161635695/in/photolist-8S7JsT-8S7Kup-pjFich-84xWrA-67b7q1-676TF8-ayha1Q-5tp42h-84xSzW-84xSdf-84xPH1-8Hpynr-84xNQy-AUh7cY-7WPjBh-5FNXHa-84uQWk-7WPjLy-8SaQLU-5FP1Jc-5G7y9S-8S7JHB-emT6Q9-8SaQDA-bpUhH5-5K8rex-KzfYi-8HpsMe-84uJ4e-7WPjHm-84uNQx-hLWxnz-5fkoDH-7KxJP1-bZspeY-84xRZY-5G7xDs-84xVH1-7WL63D-84uPq4-84xPzU-riuycX-84uLdB-84xRoo-84uQjK-84xN47-84uQur-67b7uS-9wfS87-hto9FE">NASA HQ PHOTO</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Factors that helped explain science achievement gaps included children’s reading and mathematics achievement, their behavior and, most importantly, their general knowledge. </p>
<p>Helping young children to be more knowledgeable about their physical and social surroundings, as well as to be better at reading and mathematics, may increase their <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0049089X08001282">science achievement</a> as they grow older.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nsta.org/about/positions/earlychildhood.aspx">Asking children questions</a> about their surroundings while encouraging and extending their <a href="http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2000/nsf99148/ch_2.htm">initial explorations</a> could help them improve their general knowledge and science achievement. </p>
<p>Encouraging <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/psychology/courses/3615/Readings/Preschool_Influences_on_Mathematics_Achievement.pdf">policies that lead</a> to high-quality childcare for children most at risk could reduce these gaps. <a href="http://doi.org/10.3102/0034654312475322">Policies that counter</a> the racial segregation of U.S. schools might also be helpful. </p>
<p>It is never too late to help children grow to be successful. But if we are really serious about their as well as our nation’s future opportunities, we will do more to help all children begin kindergarten already knowledgeable about their natural and social worlds. </p>
<p>Collective, coordinated, and sustained efforts by parents, practitioners, and policymakers during children’s early school careers could make all the difference.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56785/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Morgan receives funding from the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. </span></em></p>A ‘leaky STEM pipeline’ keeps many women, racial and ethnic minorities as well as adults from low-income families from pursuing STEM careers. How early do these leaks begin?Paul L. Morgan, Associate Professor of Education, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/537892016-02-12T11:10:17Z2016-02-12T11:10:17ZWhy music education needs to incorporate more diversity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111202/original/image-20160211-29180-lj4nkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Classrooms are becoming more diverse. So, why is music education focused on Western music?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/statefarm/6786057275/in/photolist-bkEjpv-EqpdW-bkEix8-bkEhnD-fmzSbr-p6f3ha-8Pomnt-nM78WC-5gV2QB-8vBW7x-8vBW22-BtcWbK-5zYqyR-AUh7cY-u6cA2g-7pUoXX-cvupTE-2kyBS2-cvurUA-cvupeQ-cvur8b-raMuxU-qVyoJd-qVE8xg-rd5WEr-rXf5Sd-uyWGZG-7LyPHJ-7LyMSS-7LuLFr-Eqp7L-8x9CJG-7LyNG3-cHBxX-7LyPqf-4F24dt-pXUqby-pHzjtM-pXUpb7-8289hq-nCfnL2-nUBAJ1-nUE18o-dH1xQd-q18Rtq-b8787z-p2sQGw-b878EZ-brcTpp-pFRQRu">State Farm</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As controversy over immigration continues, it’s essential we consider this: <a href="http://fcdus.org/sites/default/files/FINAL%20Children%20in%20Immigrant%20Families%20(2)_0.pdf">one in four</a> students under the age of eight in the U.S. has an immigrant parent. </p>
<p>Classrooms are getting more diverse as the percentage of minority students increases. In the fall of 2014 there were more minority students in the the public education system. According to a <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/08/18/u-s-public-schools-expected-to-be-majority-minority-starting-this-fall/">report</a> from the Pew Research Center, 50.3 percent of students in 2014 were minority, whereas 49.7 percent of all students were white. By 2022, 45.3 percent are projected to be white, and 54.7 percent are projected to be minority. </p>
<p>How can classrooms become more culturally responsive in their teaching practices in classrooms and foster respectful behavior? </p>
<p>As a music educator and music teacher educator focused on culturally responsive teaching, I believe a music classroom is an ideal place to begin. Music is an experience found across all cultures, and music classrooms are a logical place where difference and respect can be recognized, practiced and celebrated.</p>
<h2>Music programs lack diversity</h2>
<p>Music education programs in the high school setting typically bring to mind the images and sounds of bands, orchestras and choirs. In the elementary context, general music classes are viewed as places where children sing, dance, and play the recorder and other classroom instruments. </p>
<p>Each of these experiences is rooted in either a Western view of music that is focused on placement of Western classical music as the highest form of musical experience, or on methods of teaching that grew out of European music education practices.</p>
<p>In my research, I found that the reliance on a method of general music instruction within a classroom where the majority of the students were the children of Mexican immigrants resulted in a the creation of an inherent bias against the students’ culture and a <a href="http://jrm.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/05/13/0022429413485439.abstract">sense of isolation</a> for the students. This bias was the result of the the teacher’s views, which created an environment that did not support the integration of cultural, linguistic and popular music experiences.</p>
<p>This finding was supported by <a href="http://music.unm.edu/faculty/regina-carlow/">music education professor Regina Carlow</a>, who found that when the cultural identity of students in a high school choir setting was not respected or even acknowledged, students developed a <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/40319349?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">sense of isolation</a>.</p>
<p>This isolation can result in an unfair learning environment. </p>
<h2>Teachers lack diversity</h2>
<p>So why don’t classrooms engage students in musical practices that are rooted in their cultural and musical backgrounds? The answer can be found in the traditions of American music education. </p>
<p>In 2011, music education researchers <a href="http://www.miami.edu/frost/index.php/frost/frost_profiles/abril_carlos/">Carlos Abril</a> and <a href="http://www.music.umd.edu/faculty/music_directory/music_education/Kenneth_Elpus">Kenneth Elpus</a> <a href="http://jrm.sagepub.com/content/59/2/128.short">found</a> that 65.7 percent of music ensemble students were white and middle class; only 15.2 percent were black and 10.2 percent were Hispanic. These data demonstrate that white students are overrepresented in high school music ensembles. Students for whom English was not their native language accounted for only 9.6 percent of ensemble members. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111207/original/image-20160211-29198-1y2p2kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111207/original/image-20160211-29198-1y2p2kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111207/original/image-20160211-29198-1y2p2kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111207/original/image-20160211-29198-1y2p2kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111207/original/image-20160211-29198-1y2p2kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111207/original/image-20160211-29198-1y2p2kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111207/original/image-20160211-29198-1y2p2kj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The majority of teachers are white and middle-class.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/andybullock77/3413422661/in/photolist-6cCFCR-9A8XSa-9AbUny-4pj98Z-7CTxiZ-9Ec4Dx-84uLVk-eniZ2d-84xN47-84xUkd-84uQur-omvz61-eVTed9-4LfrBb-eVFP9i-eVTfkq-7htxa-eVFNRF-ffv3PR-ef2sTT-ntCFCD-eVTe2Q-edVyhz-7A5ryG-j1mpK4-j1k6nM-j1oWsq-j1oYr5-3jauew-aexAmq-84uLdB-84xTYS-j1nbQq-j1nbBQ-84uKAV-84xPzU-84uLqZ-j1oWqb-j1oVXY-j1k6jv-j1oYrq-eVTe1q-5wampv-ap9C5X-apcmEq-eVFNna-6mEWny-j1ndGm-aoKQyJ-j1mq4k">Andy Bullock</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Additionally, Elpus found that <a href="http://jrm.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/09/18/0022429415602470.abstract">the majority of music teachers – 86.02 percent –</a> entering the profession were white and middle-class. </p>
<p>Adding to this reality is the fact that the process of becoming a music teacher is rooted in the Western classical tradition. Though the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) <a href="http://nasm.arts-accredit.org/site/docs/Handbook/NASMHB_Excerpt-AdmissionUndergraduateStudies.pdf">does not stipulate</a> a classical performance audition, it is required in a majority of cases.</p>
<p>Based on my experience as a music education professor, aspiring music teachers must pass a Western classical performance audition with an orchestral instrument, classical voice or classical guitar in order to even begin down the path of becoming a music educator, even though no school explicitly states that.</p>
<p>Given this, music education programs not only primarily reflect Western European classical music, but they also create a self-perpetuating cycle. </p>
<h2>Start with understanding music</h2>
<p>In fact, music curriculum can be an ideal place to start culturally responsive teaching. Music crosses cultures and is an experience that can be considered universal. </p>
<p>Education researcher <a href="https://education.uw.edu/people/faculty/ggay">Geneva Gay</a> describes culturally responsive teaching <a href="http://mrc.spps.org/uploads/preparing_for_crt-_geneva_gay-2.pdf">as a practice</a> that supports learning through and about other cultures.</p>
<p>This includes cultural values, traditions, communication, learning styles, contributions and how people relate. It is not just taking a week or month to study the folk music of Mexico. It is about building a curriculum that enables students to experience, discuss, and perform music that is culturally and socially relevant. </p>
<p>This happens when teachers draw on musical styles and genres that are varied. For example, learning to sing the folk song “<a href="http://www.folkways.si.edu/froggie-went-courtin-elizabeth-mitchell-blue-clouds/american-folk-childrens/music/video/smithsonian">Frog Went a Courtin’</a>” based on its American variant, then comparing and contrasting it to the Flat Duo Jets’ rock version of the song.</p>
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<p>In this regard, <a href="http://www.nie.edu.sg/profile/lum-chee-hoo">music education researcher Chee-Hoo Lum</a> recommends that <a href="https://repository.nie.edu.sg/bitstream/10497/4579/3/BJME-26-1-27_a.pdf">music teachers start</a> with the students’ cultural and musical background in order to get them to better understand and interact with different musical experiences. </p>
<p>The cultural values and contributions of diverse musicians and genres provide the perfect avenue to explore and learn about the “other” in a classroom environment. Additionally, the chance to sing, play and listen to the music of other cultures creates an understanding that transcends personal experience, and creates a more global perspective. </p>
<h2>Reimagine and reconfigure</h2>
<p>This is not to say that we should forgo the current practices. Band, orchestra, and choir programs provide wonderful educational experiences for students throughout the country. </p>
<p>And these programs should continue. </p>
<p>However, there are other music programs that focus on guitar as a popular and folk instrument. Such as this one:</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LCjdy2lWXWE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>And there are programs that <a href="https://www.nammfoundation.org/articles/2014-04-10-focus-students-it%E2%80%99s-time-rock-and-roll-revolution-music-education">run rock bands</a> within the school day. Then, there are programs where <a href="http://mwmedvinsky.weebly.com/meet-michael-medvinsky.html">students learn</a> to write songs, sample and compose. In addition, there are <a href="http://www.hiphopmusiced.com/blog">music education blogs</a> that <a href="http://evantobias.net">celebrate</a> the many “other” ways that students learn about music, outside of band, orchestra and choir.</p>
<p>These programs can help us reimagine and reconfigure.</p>
<p>Building walls and excluding groups do not engender respect and democratic growth in our classrooms or in our political arenas. Rather, they foster fear and prevent equality and opportunity. Music classrooms can and should become the places where diversity is embraced and integrated.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53789/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacqueline Kelly-McHale does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The majority of music education teachers in American schools are white, and education focuses on Western classical music. What impact does it have?Jacqueline Kelly-McHale, Associate Professor of Music Education, Public Voices Fellow, DePaul UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/537912016-02-02T11:07:32Z2016-02-02T11:07:32ZWhy do fewer black students get identified as gifted?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109842/original/image-20160201-32240-u4pl5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Why aren't enough black students identified for gifted programs?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/hocolibrary/8672913964/in/photolist-edoXao-edoVj1-ediikt-edighc-edijCP-edifkF-edifQM-edoW5S-edoVkL-edienx-ediee2-edid4K-edoU4Y-edoVNC-edoTaE-ediiWx-edijJB-edoXZb-edidsk-edoWa1-edicQ8-ediiwg-edoY8A-edoWBs-edoU2A-edierM-edoRT9-edicTM-edijnz-edoXum-edoTHs-edoV4b-edoTmJ-edid6Z-ediewZ-edoRNW-edoX3o-edoTz3-edieXp-ediekH-edoRgd-edigcx-ediebn-edoSpY-edoWqf-edoUyJ-edihQe-edoVD5-edoRH1-83VeBw">Howard County Library System</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nationally, black and Hispanic students are <a href="https://my.vanderbilt.edu/jasongrissom/files/2012/05/teacher_principal_diversity_gifted.pdf">underrepresented in gifted programs</a>, which provide specialized instruction or other services to meet the needs of especially bright or talented students.</p>
<p>Data from the U.S. Department of Education show that black and Hispanic students make up 40 percent of public school students but make up only <a href="http://ocrdata.ed.gov/StateNationalEstimations/Estimations_2011_12">26 percent of students</a> enrolled in gifted programs. </p>
<p>So what are the reasons for this underrepresentation?</p>
<p>One possibility is that these disproportionately low rates simply reflect differences in academic achievement across demographic groups. Indeed, a large body of research demonstrates that black and Hispanic students <a href="http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/003465304323031049">lag behind</a> their white and Asian peers even at kindergarten entry.</p>
<p>However, a recent <a href="http://ero.sagepub.com/content/2/1/2332858415622175">study</a> I coauthored with <a href="https://my.vanderbilt.edu/chrisredding/">Christopher Redding</a>, a doctoral student at Vanderbilt University, shows that differences in achievement are only part of the story. </p>
<h2>The black-white gap in gifted identification</h2>
<p>We based our research on an analysis of gifted placements in the <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/ecls/">Early Childhood Longitudinal Study</a>, which tracked a nationally representative sample of kindergartners throughout elementary school. A nice feature of these data is that they contain standardized achievement measures in math and reading for every student. </p>
<p>When we took student achievement levels into account, we found different patterns for Hispanic and black students. Essentially all of the gifted assignment gap between Hispanic and white students can be explained by test score differences. In stark contrast, math and reading scores explained only a little of <a href="http://ero.sagepub.com/content/2/1/2332858415622175">the black-white gap</a> in gifted assignment. In fact, a black student with the same scores as a white student is still only half as likely to be assigned to a gifted program.</p>
<p>In other words, two students – one black and one white – with the same math and reading achievement could have very different likelihoods of being identified as gifted. </p>
<p>This is a startling finding. </p>
<p>And, as additional analysis in our study shows, it cannot be explained by other differences in student background, such as parental education and household income.</p>
<p>Our investigation of school and classroom factors, however, does point toward two contributors to the black-white gap.</p>
<p>The first is that black students are less likely than white students to attend schools that offer gifted programs. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109844/original/image-20160201-32237-s5p83h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109844/original/image-20160201-32237-s5p83h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109844/original/image-20160201-32237-s5p83h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109844/original/image-20160201-32237-s5p83h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109844/original/image-20160201-32237-s5p83h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109844/original/image-20160201-32237-s5p83h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109844/original/image-20160201-32237-s5p83h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A teacher’s race can influence who gets selected for gifted programs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/departmentofed/9605585697/in/photolist-fCP8Yv-7QFkaS-fD6FGQ-9XjBSP-4sCHMR-6N6iwj-74jQRR-bmYYT5-fCVoqV-7y4D5d-e7Nm5-9hrRxn-akMvBf-fCVm5H-bzTN62-fD6Fvy-fCXgng-rbsKXR-7Qw18m-7Lgd87-bzTKMr-fDcVnW-gS6x9-kbHFt-fD6Grf-fCVioK-fCP8ua-fDcWah-bzTKGp-8UDAVN-kbHFu-6cPpRH-fCVnBr-fDcUzW-fCVkS6-fDcUTE-fCViac-fDcUZy-9cHyFS-fDcUsd-tCs3L-fDcULC-fD6GhA-dmYcfU-fD6Fkw-cU6sKU-3NQVr-fD6Fau-fCP8kR-oM4qKN">US Department of Education</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The second is that black students assigned to a white classroom teacher are much less likely to be assigned to gifted programs than those assigned to a black teacher.</p>
<p>The differences are big. </p>
<p>Black students in black teachers’ classrooms have almost the same probability of being assigned to gifted services as otherwise similar white students. However, black students in white teachers’ classrooms are identified for gifted services only about a third as often. </p>
<p>We find no similar evidence that having a same-race teacher matters for the gifted assignment of white, Hispanic or Asian students.</p>
<h2>Black teachers vs. white teachers</h2>
<p>Why would the teacher’s race matter for whether a black student is identified as gifted? </p>
<p>There are <a href="http://edr.sagepub.com/content/44/3/185.short">multiple possible explanations</a>. </p>
<p>Perhaps black students respond differently to teachers who look like them in ways that make their giftedness more apparent. Perhaps parents feel more comfortable advocating for their child to be evaluated for giftedness when they share a common background with the child’s teacher.</p>
<p>More likely, however, is that black teachers and white teachers perform differently when it comes to identifying giftedness in black students. What a black teacher more attuned to a black child’s background, culture and language may recognize as evidence of exceptional aptitude or talent may go undetected by a white teacher. </p>
<p><a href="http://research.upjohn.org/up_workingpapers/231/">Research</a> also shows that white teachers tend to express lower expectations for the academic success of black students than do black teachers. Worth noting is that at last count, <a href="http://edr.sagepub.com/content/44/3/185.short">83 percent of the teacher workforce is white</a>. </p>
<h2>How should students be screened?</h2>
<p>To receive gifted services, students must go through an evaluation to be formally designated as gifted. </p>
<p>School districts’ gifted evaluation processes vary, but most <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=xaJRhhzulgwC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&ots=SqZmn6FWGR&sig=5jJPkhokhDqOMYFmOPkkmorZNKY#v=onepage&q&f=false">begin with a referral</a> for gifted evaluation from a classroom teacher. Students who are not referred by a teacher are unlikely to be evaluated. Teachers failing to recognize (or expect) giftedness in some students can be an important barrier to equal access.</p>
<p>One solution to the problem is to reduce the role of teacher discretion in gifted identification. Testing or evaluating all students for giftedness could ensure that high-aptitude students from traditionally disadvantaged groups get access to the services they need. </p>
<p>Indeed, school districts that have implemented so-called “universal screening” policies have seen <a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w21519">dramatic increases</a> in the numbers of black, Hispanic and low-income students (another group our analysis shows are underrepresented) identified as gifted.</p>
<p>Studies show that gifted youth <a href="https://www.nagc.org/resources-publications/gifted-education-practices/why-are-gifted-programs-needed">benefit from gifted programs</a> on such outcomes as achievement and motivation. And gifted youth from marginalized groups <a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w20453">benefit even more</a> than other students. </p>
<p>Gifted black students deserve the same opportunities as gifted white students to reach their academic potential. Whether the strategy is universal screening or better training of teachers to recognize giftedness among all students or another approach, our research suggests that school districts need to get serious about making sure that gifted services are accessible to all students who need them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53791/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason A. Grissom does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Two students – one black and one white – with the same math and reading achievement could have very different likelihoods of being identified as gifted.Jason A. Grissom, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Education, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/462472015-12-11T14:34:12Z2015-12-11T14:34:12ZWhy Every Student Succeeds Act still leaves most vulnerable kids behind<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104743/original/image-20151207-3139-7vn3q1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What will the new law change?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/2885861465/in/photolist-5p1N5a-59KGLy-8MNrrm-8xf68h-auPuAq-d2koPW-akEecr-pRvT9s-eRYab1-4QuGnC-d2mcT1-9gL2FY-nocygt-d2mDuh-d2mxN7-d2kDVm-eKKTB7-5HtRMq-c45y97-f44iXT-akH3sU-7SCpn1-d2mvzw-d2kbmq-74sCVq-5fe6iw-8Ntba5-8ruhTy-eh62Ts-r9TFzv-7T4Hwp-nFFD5d-84T8dc-8kuwVZ-84T8f6-dKKAwf-aLdcq6-7XYRra-a4UhUQ-eh62Fh-7T4Met-7T8bPf-7T4Yd4-npoQeW-nocbWr-eh62WJ-9xHPBn-7T8ceE-7T4NFn-84WfdJ">woodleywonderworks</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For a decade, congressional attempts to revise the embattled <a href="http://www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/no-child-left-behind-overview-definition-summary.html">2001 No Child Left Behind Act</a> – a reauthorization of the <a href="http://www.ed.gov/esea">1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)</a> – hit a brick wall.</p>
<p>On December 10 2015, that changed. The <a href="http://www.help.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/ESSA%20FINAL%20Conference%20Report.pdf">Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)</a>, passed by the House (359-64) and Senate (85-12), got President Obama’s signature. </p>
<p>Will the Every Student Succeeds Act live up to its name and assure equal educational opportunity for every one of America’s <a href="http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=372">50 million public school</a> children? </p>
<p>As educators with both professional and personal (Felicity Crawford as special education teacher-educator, and Mary Battenfeld as a historian and urban public school parent) stakes in K-12 policy and practice, we think the answers range from certainly, in some ways, to a clear no.</p>
<p>The provisions of this 1,061-page bill (about 400 more than NCLB) do not vary radically from the “accountability through testing” mandates that have marked federal education policy for the last 14 years. The main difference is that the ESSA hands the educational accountability ball from the federal government to the states.</p>
<p>Every Student Succeeds is better, because it rightly takes aim at test and punish strategies, and creates some valuable programs. But ESSA, like NCLB, emphasizes K-12 accountability over root causes of educational inequality. And the new law flies against history’s lesson that federal oversight is a good thing for vulnerable children. </p>
<h2>What makes ESSA better</h2>
<p>Organizations with widely divergent views on education agree that the ESSA should replace NCLB.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.civilrights.org/press/2015/civil-rights-and-education-coalition-ESSA.html">Civil rights leaders</a> who had opposed earlier versions of an NCLB revision as well as the <a href="http://www.nea.org/home/64735.htm">National Education Association</a>, the <a href="https://www.pta.org/newsevents/newsdetail.cfm?ItemNumber=4676">National Parent Teacher Association</a>, <a href="http://www.publiccharters.org/press/national-alliance-releases-statement-house-passage-student-succeeds-act/">charter advocates</a> and the testing reform group <a href="http://www.fairtest.org/congress-vote-no-child-left-behind-overhaul">Fairtest</a> all see the ESSA as better policy than what now exists.</p>
<p>How is “Every Student Succeeds” better? It provides more flexibility on testing. It also ends <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/nclb/accountability/ayp/edpicks.jhtml?src=ln">“Adequate Yearly Progress”</a> – a measure that required schools to show test score gains. Schools that failed to meet goals were penalized.</p>
<p>Other provisions in Every Student Succeeds are also <a href="http://ffyf.org/resources/ffyf-endorsement-of-essa/">genuine steps forward</a>, such as preschool development grants for low-income children and an <a href="http://www.arteducators.org/advocacy/advocacy-esea-reauthorization">arts education fund</a>.</p>
<p>In addition, the new law drops the term “core academic subjects” and uses instead a “well-rounded education,” meaning that subjects like social studies and arts are less likely to be what one study called <a href="https://repository.library.northeastern.edu/files/neu:1077">“collateral damage of the No Child Left Behind Act.” </a></p>
<p>The ESSA also stops the practice of putting multiple student subgroups (students with disabilities and low-income students, for example) into “supersubgroups” – a practice that can <a href="http://thenotebook.org/blog/159205/accountability-and-esea-reauthorization-deal-your-cheat-sheet">mask inequities</a>.</p>
<p>But these changes are more about what’s bad in our current policies than what’s good in the new bill.</p>
<h2>Testing v anti-poverty</h2>
<p>In 2013, for the first time, low-income children (defined as living in households where the income is no more than 185% of the poverty threshhold) became the <a href="http://www.southerneducation.org/Our-Strategies/Research-and-Publications/New-Majority-Diverse-Majority-Report-Series/A-New-Majority-2015-Update-Low-Income-Students-Now">majority</a> in US public schools, prompting the Southern Education Foundation to warn that unless we provide more for these students, “the trends of the last decade will be prologue for a nation not at risk, but a nation in decline.” </p>
<p>Poor children and their families and communities <a href="http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/29_04/29-4_cariaga-coffey.shtml">show tremendous resilience</a> and learn in spite of tremendous obstacles. Yet, as researchers like Stanford’s Sean Reardon <a href="http://cepa.stanford.edu/content/widening-academic-achievement-gap-between-rich-and-poor-new-evidence-and-possible">have shown</a>, family income closely correlates to academic achievement. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104746/original/image-20151207-20451-1x6t4lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104746/original/image-20151207-20451-1x6t4lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104746/original/image-20151207-20451-1x6t4lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104746/original/image-20151207-20451-1x6t4lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104746/original/image-20151207-20451-1x6t4lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104746/original/image-20151207-20451-1x6t4lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104746/original/image-20151207-20451-1x6t4lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How much will ESSA help vulnerable kids?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/usaghumphreys/7891381628/in/photolist-d2koPW-akEecr-pRvT9s-eRYab1-4QuGnC-d2mcT1-9gL2FY-nocygt-d2mDuh-d2mxN7-d2kDVm-eKKTB7-5HtRMq-c45y97-f44iXT-akH3sU-7SCpn1-d2mvzw-d2kbmq-74sCVq-5fe6iw-8Ntba5-8ruhTy-eh62Ts-r9TFzv-7T4Hwp-nFFD5d-84T8dc-8kuwVZ-84T8f6-dKKAwf-aLdcq6-7XYRra-a4UhUQ-eh62Fh-7T4Met-7T8bPf-7T4Yd4-npoQeW-nocbWr-eh62WJ-9xHPBn-7T8ceE-7T4NFn-84WfdJ-92VvP4-ajZpew-84Wf3Y-7AAXdV-zgmDb">USAG- Humphreys</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In North Carolina, for example, all schools that received an “F” rating have <a href="http://www.publicschoolsfirstnc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/3-8-15-The-Facts-on-Child-Poverty-.pdfThe%2050">school populations</a> of more than 50% low-income children. </p>
<p>What is the new law’s solution to this? Same as the old law. </p>
<p>Schools will need to monitor academic performance of vulnerable groups, which include students living in poverty. So states will still have to test 95% of children, and intervene in the lowest performing schools. </p>
<p>That means the ESSA will likely <a href="http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=13&n=6">do little to disrupt</a> the NCLB pattern of <a href="http://www.wou.edu/%7Egirodm/foundations/Hursh.pdf">“punishing” vulnerable</a> children and the “low performance” of the schools they attend. This will not <a href="http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/4db9154t">fix achievement gaps</a>. </p>
<p>In Newark, New Jersey, as in many cities, “accountability” has <a href="http://www.bobbraunsledger.com/newark-activists-to-feds-help-us-achieve-genuine-community-schools/">meant more testing and school closures</a>, leading parent activist Sharon Smith to decry policies that “caused harm in our community…and long-term trauma for our children.” </p>
<p>Testing mandates in the ESSA continue the retreat from the anti-poverty focus of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act. In signing that act, President Lyndon Johnson <a href="http://www.socialwelfarehistory.com/events/elementary-and-secondary-education-act-of-1965/">identified poverty</a> as the “greatest barrier” to educational opportunity, and <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/programs/titleiparta/index.htmlprovisions">under Title I</a> provided $US1 billion for schools with large numbers of poor children. </p>
<p>Though Title I is central to the ESSA, LBJ’s understanding that educational achievement depends on civil and economic rights is largely absent. Thus the new law seems unlikely to hit pause on the practice of disproportionaly penalizing vulnerable students and their schools. For example, when <a href="http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/16804/CTU_report_CPS_chicago_closing">Chicago closed 49 elementary schools</a>, African-American students were the majority population in 90% of those schools. Nearly 60% had a high concentration of special needs students. </p>
<p>Often, <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=30">charters</a>, which receive increased support under the “Expanding Opportunity through Quality Charter Schools” section of ESSA, replace closed schools. Yet charters have a <a href="https://urbancharters.stanford.edu/download/Urban%20Charter%20School%20Study%20Report%20on%2041%20Regions.pdf">decidedly mixed record</a>, particularly with English language learners and children with disabilities.</p>
<p>The ESSA’s support for charter schools reflects a philosophy that favors autonomy, whether through privately run public schools, or through less federal regulation. Yet historically, expanded federal control of education, from nineteenth century land grant colleges, to the GI bill, to the original ESEA, has meant, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=UXuRAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=history+federal+education+control+benefits+poor+children&ots=pOa9Y7Ua4D&sig=yVq0Pl03th5y3OfX0ZJrqYgLAao#v=onepage&q=history%20federal%20education%20control%20benefits%20poor%20children&f=false">according</a> to <a href="http://jackjenningsdc.com/">educational researcher Jack Jennings</a>, “that public education could not avoid its responsibility to educate all children.” </p>
<p>The obligation to educate all children is weakened when we send the federal government to the sidelines. Given their history of <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/up-front/posts/2013/06/18-special-education-no-child-left-behind-bleiberg-west">opposing certain kinds of reforms</a>, is it wise to trust states to develop their own separate and potentially unequal guidelines and practices? </p>
<h2>Missing the early years</h2>
<p>Almost every page of the Every Student Succeeds Act concerns K-12 schools. But investments in early childhood education are both critical to educational success and <a href="http://www.nea.org/home/18163.htm">cost-effective in the long run</a>. Access to quality preschool is <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2014/04/22/304563233/what-exactly-is-high-quality-preschool">particularly critical</a> for poor children. </p>
<p>The new legislation <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/press/statement/2015/12/02/126635/statement-caps-carmel-martin-on-house-passage-of-the-every-student-succeeds-act/">proposes to allocate</a> $250 million for preschool grants. But given what we know about the <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/poverty-disturbs-children-s-brain-development-and-academic-performance/">importance of the ages from birth to three years to learning</a>, that’s far too little.</p>
<p>All this means the newest version of the ESEA is unlikely to lead us to a future where all children will be able to access high-quality educational opportunities. </p>
<p>As long as attention remains on testable accountability in K-12 schools rather than on poverty, inequality and early education, “every student succeeds,” like “no child left behind,” will continue to be an unfulfilled promise.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/46247/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary Battenfeld is affiliated with the public education advocacy group QUEST (Quality Education for Every Student), and is a member of the Boston Public Schools Citywide Parent Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Felicity Crawford does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is replacing No Child Left Behind (NCLB). How much of an improvement is it over the earlier law?Mary Battenfeld, Associate Professor of Humanities, Wheelock CollegeFelicity Crawford, Chair of Special Education and Associate Professor, Wheelock CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/490832015-10-14T16:31:20Z2015-10-14T16:31:20ZWhy disciplining kids can be so tricky for parents and teachers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98298/original/image-20151013-31119-dxvzgx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">When does disciplining kids work?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/modenadude/5384988017/in/photolist-9cRtjZ-cNWYaL-4C7no1-aUaDMF-jjhH5-48S5CY-4zsZqV-hJoGE-dYkLef-8TMGay-7Mo3Ez-dYkLSq-6X1rwV-9GSk8L-boSgDK-8TMG35-6bPtvZ-cyu9nE-5c847w-boSgbD-bNpPYR-5sS2Z4-zSbu8-96GHS2-xSeguE-6emZ5Y-8M3ziJ-6mi1Hz-rFrJsx-otiEUP-38Bp1A-4kby2a-7WTauH-8qv14b-89YXVM-cL2Ng7-fbK2y-2Ygx3M-h8muEj-atRxbW-d9ZcB5-xUxPhi-7fcNh1-5DPUzA-fbJXt-9iNLTs-5zXMRk-f92Jb-nkPxsw-7CaUj5">Asim Bharwani</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Disciplining works if it is not over the top and children understand the point of it.</p>
<p>Highlights magazine’s annual <a href="https://store.highlights.com/sotk15">State of Kids survey</a> found that a majority of children appreciated being disciplined and believed that it helped them behave better. </p>
<p>What children disagreed with were the strategies that were used by their parents – the most common ones being time-outs and taking away electronics. The report suggests that disciplining strategies work better when they open up communication and strengthen relationships among friends or siblings or between kids and adults.</p>
<p>However, my own work as an education professor and researcher who works with schools and families shows that <a href="https://stateimpact.npr.org/ohio/2012/08/06/locked-away-students-say-seclusion-doesnt-help/">disciplining is becoming a major issue at schools too</a>, taking up more and more of the school day. So, why are schools imposing severe disciplinary measures?</p>
<h2>What’s going on in schools?</h2>
<p>Let’s first look at what disciplining looks like in schools.</p>
<p>Many schools now have lines on the floor that students must walk on to get anywhere. Some schools even have tape on the ground to show where students should walk in the classroom. Hallways have stop signs at each corner and schools enforce zero noise zones. </p>
<p>Children are told to hold air in cheeks like a bubble when walking in the hallways or when they are supposed to be listening to instructions or storytime. They are told to walk straight, not touch anyone, keep their hands to themselves, sit on an X mark on the floor, raise a hand before speaking, keep eyes on the teacher, use only one piece of paper, follow directions and be quiet. </p>
<p>Over the past 10 years, strange discipline measures such as red, yellow and green lights, where green means well-done and red means bad behavior, have become commonplace. Children can get their <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/10/nixing-recess-the-silly-alarmingly-popular-way-to-punish-kids/280631/">recess</a> taken away or be put into an isolation room. Or, increasingly, even the <a href="https://www.aclu.org/fact-sheet/what-school-prison-pipeline?redirect=racial-justice/what-school-prison-pipeline">police</a> can be called.</p>
<p>Discipline is not only constant but also public. Just last week, I was in a class where a child’s name was on the board. Children at my table pointed it out to me and explained that the kid gets in trouble a lot. They told me that the teacher writes his name on the board and then when he is good, he gets one letter erased. When they are all erased, he can have free time.</p>
<p>So why are there such heavy amounts of discipline at school?</p>
<p>The unfortunate fact is that there is an extraordinary amount of <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10901027.2012.732665">content</a> that teachers are supposed to cover during a school year. Usually, school districts give teachers eight-week plans that tell them what to cover and when. </p>
<p>This means that children, whether they like it or not, need to learn with the speed, level and topic choices determined by adults who don’t know them. Children have to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/12/03/a-therapist-goes-to-middle-school-and-tries-to-sit-still-and-focus-she-cant-neither-can-the-kids/">sit still</a> and focus for extraordinary lengths of time. </p>
<p>Given the <a href="http://neatoday.org/2014/11/02/nea-survey-nearly-half-of-teachers-consider-leaving-profession-due-to-standardized-testing-2/">pressure on teachers</a>, discipline becomes a larger and larger part of the school day, just to get kids to get through what is required by the state or Common Core guidelines.</p>
<p>So, instead of encouraging children to engage with content, lessons or materials, teachers find themselves having to discipline them into it.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most troubling part of discipline at schools is how unfairly it is given out.</p>
<h2>Who gets the most disciplined?</h2>
<p>This emphasis on obedience over learning is <a href="http://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/impact-discrimination-early-schooling-experiences-children-immigrant-families">more likely</a> to be found in classrooms with a majority of children from marginalized communities. </p>
<p>Not only is heavy discipline starting younger and younger, it is also <a href="http://edr.sagepub.com/content/39/1/59.short">worse</a> for children of color.</p>
<p>In fact, suspensions now begin in <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/03/21/292456211/black-preschoolers-far-more-likely-to-be-suspended">prekindergarten</a> And almost <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/crdc-early-learning-snapshot.pdf">50%</a> of those suspended are African-American kids. </p>
<p>As educational psychologist <a href="http://www.edb.utexas.edu/education/departments/edp/about/faculty/cokley/">Kevin Cokley</a> has pointed out, “<a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/latest-columns/20150914-kevin-cokley-lets-end-racial-disparity-in-school-discipline.ece">There is a conspiracy against black children in our schools</a>.” Curiously, girls of color are suspended <a href="http://www.naacpldf.org/files/publications/Unlocking%20Opportunity%20for%20African%20American%20Girls_0.pdf">six times</a> more often than white girls. They are even disciplined <a href="https://www.academia.edu/7871609/The_SCHOOL-TO-_PRISON_PIPELINE_EXPANDING_OUR_DISCUSSION_TO_INCLUDE_BLACK_GIRLS">more</a> than white boys starting in the early grades. </p>
<p>This is not because children of color, in particular African-American children, are somehow more disobedient or rebellious than white children. It is because often, even when teachers don’t mean to, children’s behavior is <a href="http://news.stanford.edu/news/2015/april/discipline-black-students-041515.html">interpreted differently</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98413/original/image-20151014-15131-1e3rbk9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98413/original/image-20151014-15131-1e3rbk9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98413/original/image-20151014-15131-1e3rbk9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98413/original/image-20151014-15131-1e3rbk9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98413/original/image-20151014-15131-1e3rbk9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98413/original/image-20151014-15131-1e3rbk9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98413/original/image-20151014-15131-1e3rbk9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Prioritizing learning over disciplining can lead to better results.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/hocolibrary/8622419560/in/photolist-e8W9Wd-e8W9AG-e8QvJg-e8W7Ty-e8Qszi-e8Qwwv-e8QsHe-e8Qsue-e8QrAT-e8Qtrk-e8QtnB-e8W6KA-e8W76o-e8QvyH-e8W721-e8QuCg-e8QugD-e8QwbR-e8QvCF-e8W84A-e8QvmV-e8W9YW-e8QwhX-e8QvWX-e8WcLo-e8WbN1-e8WaAG-e8W9bd-e8W8Bq-e8QuqZ-e8WakG-e8Qwe8-e8W8a9-e8QrXr-e8WcB1-e8Wcuh-e8QwFX-e8W8Qy-e8W95y-e8WcxC-e8WaC1-e8QwK2-e8Wb7J-e8Qwni-e8Qwfg-e8Qxh6-e8Qx68-e8W7qU-e8Wcmd-e8Wcfs">Howard County Library System</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>White teachers notice black children first and often adopt society’s portrayals of communities of color as problematic or out of control. Over <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2013/2013314.pdf">80%</a> of teachers are white in public schools. </p>
<p>And there is <a href="http://www.researchgate.net/publication/263249994_Trouble_on_my_mind_toward_a_framework_of_humanizing_critical_sociocultural_knowledge_for_teaching_and_teacher_education">little preparation</a> for teachers to be positive, culturally engaged and anti-racist in classrooms. </p>
<h2>How discipline gets in the way of learning</h2>
<p>If most of what children hear are teachers trying to get everyone to sit still, be quiet and listen to directions, what does this teach them about learning and being a learner?</p>
<p>In my work on how young children use their agency (the ability to make decisions at school), I find that most children describe learning as following directions. As one child explained, “Learning is quiet.” </p>
<p>Children often see obedience as the point of school. In fact, teachers and students both tell me that they can tell children are learning when their “eyes are on the teacher.”</p>
<p>Of course, just because a child is obedient doesn’t mean they are learning.</p>
<p>If a classroom has a ton of rules and a narrow range of acceptable behavior (kids cannot get materials for themselves, help out classmates without permission, etc) then there are only a few behaviors that will not get someone in trouble. In such a scenario, there is much more likelihood for disobedience and more discipline. </p>
<p>The creation of such narrow spaces make it <a href="http://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/impact-discrimination-early-schooling-experiences-children-immigrant-families">difficult</a> for children to show a variety of skills, demonstrate capabilities or use a variety of coping skills when they are frustrated. </p>
<p>Just as the State of Kids survey pointed out, conversation is critical to discipline. Some schools are trading suspensions for dialogue. And it has resulted in much <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/new-approach-discipline-school/">success</a>.
Instead of jumping to discipline, these administrators and teachers are encouraging their students to problem solve and participate in making the situation better as part of the school community. </p>
<h2>What parents, teachers can do</h2>
<p>Classrooms need to be spaces where children can participate in fixing issues and taking <a href="http://hepg.org/her-home/issues/harvard-educational-review-volume-84-number-2/herarticle/agency-and-expanding-capabilities-in-early-grade-c">initiative</a>. Children need not be punished and taken away from the classroom. </p>
<p>Similar lessons can be applied at home. Parents can stress on discipline that focuses on hard work and not taking a break. Engaging kids through conversations, projects and helping out will emphasize learning more than discipline. </p>
<p>And the results will be well worth it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49083/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Keys Adair does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What happens when kids are put through harsh disciplinary measures?Jennifer Keys Adair, Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education, The University of Texas at AustinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.