Open your eyes

Sarah Elgohary                                                                                         

People do not realize how fundamentally important The education system is in shaping civilization and society ignore the true impact of an individual's education. Unfortunately, Most people tend to look at the levels and structures of society at face value. But in order to understand why society is the way it is, people have to be like sociologists and peel away the layers individually to see where the problems really lie and find the solutions to fix social problems. American sociologist C. Wright Mills came up with the term “sociological imagination.”Mills was trying to say that in order for people to understand the world they need to peel away the layers of society, which means that people need to analyze a specific aspect of society in terms of all the different factors that are causing it.  Most people do not have the sociological imagination, which is why they only look at the inequality in the education system through one aspect. They do not look at all of the different elements that cause educational inequality in society. However, I will use the Sociological Imagination to analyze educational inequalities through the intersection of race with the concepts of differences in school funding, tracking, ascription, achievement, wealth, and social mobility.

One way that people can understand the differences in school funding as a reason for educational inequality is to examine how the differences in school funding are based on how wealthy or poor the neighborhoods or schools districts are.  The book The Savage Inequalities: Children in US Schools” by Johnson Cool, shows people the statistics of the different populations of both rich and poor children in schools. Therefore, Kozol analyzes educational inequalities by comparing the differences between students in the rich and poor schools As a result; he shows us examples of how unequal the education system is. For example, students in the Bronx only have access to old textbooks and worn facilities, with overcrowded classes, dirty bathrooms, and limited access to resources such as tutors and guidance counselors” (Kozol pg 25).In opposition, wealthier communities have fewer resources and facilities.. This is due to the fact that there is an unequal distribution of funds in schools because school funding is based on the economic status of the school’s neighborhoods. This discrepancy between poor and wealthy communities is because of racism and school funding being based on economic need in society. In addition, Kozol talks about how Schools funds are distributed unfairly and unequally to poorer populations such as African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asians. (Kozol p 25).  I know that school funding is greatly influenced by the economic status of certain areas and where people live in society, I agree with Jonathan Cool’s argument that “schools stack the deck against poor children (as cited by Kozol, 1956, p. 6)”. Unlike Jonathan Cool, however, I believe that money is not the only reason for the lack of school funding and educational inequality in many public schools. Those who live in underprivileged neighborhoods do not get the same funding as privileged neighborhoods not only for financial aspects but also because they do not have the power of influence. (Kozol, p 9).

Another   reason for educational inequality is the concept of   tracking.”Tracking” is a term in the educational language that determines where students will be placed during their secondary school years (Burris, 2008 , p 45)” In some schools, tracking begins with kindergarten screening. IQ and early achievement tests designed to measure so-called "ability" determine track placement in the elementary years, thus setting in place an educational trajectory for 12 years of schooling. In other schools, tracking is a meritocracy that relies on teacher recommendations, grades, and student motivation to determine placement. In still others, students and their parents are allowed to choose a track, with certain conditions attached to the placement. “(Burris, 2008, pg 45)” “A common example is allowing students to take an honors class provided that they maintain an average of 90 or above. Standards for track placement are uniform in some schools; in others, each department determines the number of tracks and track placement.” (Burris, 2008, pg 45) This suggests that Tracking is based on people‘s race because teachers unconsciously sort students into different groups depending on race.  As a result, each ethnic group is sorted with each other so for example white students are grouped together, African-Americans are grouped with each other and Hispanic student are grouped separately from the other students from the classes and finally Asians Students are grouped together “Tracking or sorting categorizes students into different groups based on standardized test scores. Grob, 2003, p. 202).These groups or tracks are vocational, general, and academic. Students are sorted into groups that will determine educational and vocational outcomes for the future. Grob, 2003, p. 202). “The sorting that occurs in the educational system parallels the hierarchical social and economic structures in society. Thus, students are viewed and treated differently according to their individual track. Each track has a designed curriculum that is meant to fit the unique educational and social needs of each sorted group. Consequently, the information taught as well as the expectations of the teachers differ based on the track resulting in the creation of dissimilar classroom cultures”. (Grob, 2003, p. 202).

 A person‘s race and social, the class can limit his or her exposure to advanced academic knowledge, as a result, this limits advanced educational opportunities for their future The tracking issue in schools tends to perpetuate prejudices( Grob, 2003, p. 202) . This suggests that there are many misconceptions and inequalities of the poor and minority people in society.  This is because Schools provide both an education and a setting for students to develop into unique individuals Schools have a unique acculturative process that helps to pattern self-perceptions and world views. (Banks, 2004)The expectations of the teachers and information taught differ based on tracks. Diverse classrooms and schools make it possible to teach students from many different cultures and group how to live together cooperatively and productively. However, racial prejudice and discrimination are challenges that arise when people from diverse groups interact. Teachers need to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to maximize the opportunities that diversity offers and to minimize its challenges. Teacher education programs should help teachers attain the knowledge, attitudes, and skills needed to work effectively with students from diverse groups as well as help students from mainstream groups develop cross-cultural knowledge, values, and competencies. , (Banks 2004 g 1).

While tracking has many negative qualities that lead to educational inequality,  there are some positive qualities to why people like tracking  For example, Students learn better academically in an equal group.  2Positive self-attitudes are developed in homogenous groups, especially for slower students that do not have a high rate of ability differences. The third reason for tracking is fair and accurate group placement is appropriate for future learning based on individual past performance and ability.  The last Reason for tracking in school is that Homogenous groups ease the teaching process. (Kaiser 228)

There are seven possible solutions to tracking and standardized testing: The first solution is “Legal action against standardized test based on discrimination against poor and minority students based on precedent set in the state of Massachusetts (Epstein, 1993)” The Second solution to track is “a school curriculum designed as age, culture, and language appropriate.” Epstein, 1993.)  The third solution is “”Recruit and train a diverse and highly skilled, culturally competent teaching force.” Epstein, 1993). The 4th solution is the “Elimination of norm-referenced testing.” The fifth   solution to tracking is for schools to have “Community constructed and culturally appropriate assessment tests” (Epstein, 1993.)The six solutions to tracking are for sociologists to explore critical race theory within the educational system to identify how race and racism is a part of the structural inequality of the public school system. ” (Epstein, 1993.)The seventh solution to tracking is for schools to “create alternative teacher education certification programs that allow teachers to work while earning credentials. (Epstein, 1993.)   In my opinion, all of these solutions to tracking can be implemented if the government passes laws to change school curriculums to make standardized tests less culturally bias and the government needs to pass last to prevent discrimination of minorities in schools.

Another aspect of educational inequality is inequality of income and socioeconomic status of people in society is based on race society.  The issue Of inequality of income and socioeconomic status of people is discussed in an article Education and Inequality Why are Poorer Students not Getting In top Schools.” by David Leichardt. In this article, David Leichardt talks about how poorer students who have the top test scores are not even applying to higher schools like Harvard, Princeton, and Yale because they do not have the money or resources to get Into these top schools  and they cannot afford tuition application fees for IV Leagues schools l This is because most of these Poor college students are ascribed into either the lower working class or middle-class social status As a result; this is another reason why people have class inequality. “Did you that   Harvard is not the top IV League School anymore, but Stanford University Is? ‘(. Star 2014 pg 1), in 2014, both parents and students in The Princeton Review’s “College Hopes & Worries Survey,” said they would pick Stanford over Harvard, Princeton, and Yale if they could go to any school, regardless of cost. However, the costs of an ivy league college are quite hefty”‘(. Star 2014 pg 1)” in 2014 Harvard’s tuition was  $57,050, just slightly below Stanford’s $58,846 tuition, Yale’s $59,320 tuition, and Columbia’s $61,540 tuition—and these are only the direct costs, not counting printing, travel, laundry, and extra expenses. ‘(. Star 2014 pg 1) 88% of parents say they will need financial aid to cover the hefty prices of a college education. ‘(. Star 2014 pg 1) Harvard, Princeton, and Yale do offer financial aid to poorer students but Harvard offers the most financial arid of the three schools.   In fact, Harvard has a policy where families earning fewer than 65,000 annually will pay absolutely toward the cost of education. Families earning between 65k and 150k will be expected to pay a sliding scale of 0 to 10 percent of their annual income. a student who was accepted to Harvard said’” I will tell you, that coming from a family that earns slightly more than 150k a year, we will only be paying for room and board and personal expenses, as the tuition was covered by financial aid. “(Harvard College. Term Bill Rises 3.5 Percent, (2012, p. 26). Despite this positive case, many poor students do not get much financial Aid and many students are eligible for financial aid because their families do not make enough money to meet the financial requirements to get aid so they cannot afford to pay the full tuition of IV League schools alone. As a result, poorer students do not get the same educational opportunities as upper or middle-class students in society.

Our class system stratification allows for very limited social mobility this leads to educational inequality, so it is very hard for poor working class citizens to become upper-class citizens. In fact it would take a working-class citizen nine generations to become an upper-class citizen. There are two types of social mobility in society intergenerational and intragenerational mobility.  Intergenerational social mobility is the ability of a specific individual to move up or down the ladder within his or her lifetime. You come from humble origins, but intelligence and hard work, climb up the social ladder. On the other hand, Intergenerational social mobility, the changes in the social class of different generations of family members. If, for example, your parents were squarely working class and you, for whatever reason, occupied a position in the middle class, you could serve as an example of Intergenerational social mobility of intergenerational mobility. David Leichardt talks about how poorer students have less Intergenerational social mobility the intergenerational mobility, their individual track. (Kstier 333).

The race allows for educational inequality in society because of ascription and achievement which are the two ways that sociologists measure educational attainment in society (kesiter 233). For example,  if a person is born an African American who lives in a poor neighborhood he or she is limited to the educational opportunities ( there are not many for African Americans and is very Limited by the barriers or being born Into the working class In society  Working class citizens have limited social mobility. this Is the opposite of the wealth of educational opportunities upper-class citizen get This Is proves that race Is a social construct because It Is the main factor that determines people access to resources  such money, power, educational opportunities, employment and social status, As A Result, the difference between an achievement culture and an ascription (born into culture is not difficult to understand. Achievement( is earned or learned status or behavior which in society means that people are judged on what they have accomplished and on their ability Ascription means that status is attributed to you by things like birth, relationship gender, age, interpersonal connections, or educational record. The former kind of status is called achieved status and the latter ascribed status. Achieved status refers to doing; ascribed status refers to being. (Kstier 333). Achievement-leaning societies or organizations justify their hierarchies by claiming that senior people have "achieved more."  In ascription-oriented cultures, however, hierarchies are justified by "power-to-get-things-done." (Kstier 333). People like college students in the article can get an Achieved status of education by going to college to get a degree but people cannot change their ascribed status unless people marry rich individuals. The United States of America is becoming more of an ascribed oriented culture than an achievement culture because our social hierarchies are justified by “The people who have the power and influence in society to-get-things-done these individuals are the upper-class citizens. This is why there is so much inequality in school systems the poor students never get to show off their skills in the world if the government only favors the rich upper-class citizens in society.   

Wealth overrides race for many reasons, and it is one reason for educational Inequality in society and this causes special treatment and minority groups based on race, social class, power and wealth. An example of special treatment is when a young girl who was Hispanic in elementary school was considered to be mentally ill because she was too talkative in her class, unlike the other students. After the school mistakes her daughter to be mentally ill, the mother is mad knowing her daughter’s potential, and being that the mother was a wealthy, powerful influence in the school community she begins to volunteer in the daughter’s school every day, As a result,   of the mother’s wealth and influence the school started to pay attention to the daughter and they put her daughter in the gifted program. This is just because the mother was wealthy. The fact is that the daughter was never mentally ill In the first place and the school board knew that the daughter was fine.   Therefore, the only reason that the daughter was declared mentally ill was the fact that the school was discriminating against the daughter because she was a minority and she was out of the ordinary. The Brown vs. broad of education movie in class

C. Wright Mills developed the principle of “sociological imagination,” which states that in order to explain any single problem in society, people have to look at the problem from all aspects.  Over the past four decades, there have been numerous discussions on student achievement and school failure. ALL people need to develop the sociological Imagination to understand the fundamentals principles that cause educational inequality in society. People need to use the sociological Imagination to analyze educational inequalities through the intersection of race with the concepts of differences in school funding, tracking, ascription, achievement, wealth, and social mobility

References

Banks, J. (2004). Tracking. In Selected chapters from: Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives (Updated 4th ed., Vol. 12, pp. 25-60). New York, New York: Wiley Custom Services.

Burris, C., & Garrity, D. (2008). Chapter 2. What Tracking Is and How to Start Dismantling It. In Detrack`ing for excellence and equity. Alexandria, Va.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Epstein, K. (1993). "Insights on Diversity: Toward a representative teaching force". Kappa Delta Pi Record 29 (4): 128.

Grob, M. (2003). "Educational systems and perceived social inequality". European Societies, 5 (2): 193.

. Harvard, College. Term Bill Rises 3.5 Percent to $54,496, 2012, March 26). Retrieved May 8, 2015, from http://harvardmagazine.com/2012/03/harvard-college-tuition-financial-aid-increase-2012

Kozol, J. (1991). Chapter 4.  Savage inequalities: Children in America's schools (pp. 35-150). New York: Crown Pub.

Lisa Kester. (2012) the contempory social inequality New York

Leichardt, D. (2015) “Why are Poorer Students not Getting In top Schools.” New York: new York Times  

Star, R. (2014, April 22). The Harvard Crimson Admissions Blog Harvard Not On Top? Retrieved May 7, 2015, from http://www.thecrimson.com/admissions/article/2014/4/22/harvard-not-on-top/