College Education Inequalities by Race, Class, Ethnicity, and Gender

There have been several inequities in the higher education system in recent years. The main factors causing the inequality are race, ethnicity, gender, and class. Extreme instances of inequality that contribute to the stratification of higher education can be found in the US. It is clear from the fact that students from middle class families make up the majority of students at most private colleges, and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are not represented on the graduation lists. This essay focuses on these disparities and how much they are affected by several factors, including race, gender, class, and ethnicity. There are cases where some students have higher chances to advance in their studies than others, for instance, white and Asian students will be exposed to continue with their advanced classes. This practice is more common in middle-class communities, and colleges are serving Asian and white students, and it is less practiced in urban schools which are serving blacks or disadvantaged populations. The practice has resulted in less underprivileged students having problems and hard times in accessing advanced coursework

The research also has made it evident that when a black student is matched with a black teacher, there is less likely hood that the student will be suspended from the colleges compared to when the same student is matched with a white teacher. When a teacher of the same color supervises a student of the same color that student tends to perform better than when he/she is being monitored by a teacher of different color. It shows that there is bias in color and discrimination of the same.

The research has also shown that black and Latino students enjoy low rates of enrollments in college education. It has led to them having little achievements as compared to their age mates whom they got more slots in enrollment in college education. The enrollment levels translates to low job slots for them because they do not have the required qualifications to fill specific job requirements

The low-income students do not have access to some selected schools which are perceived to be of high-income earners this leads to increased knowledge gap between the poor and the rich. Also, the low-income students do not, or they fear to apply for the schools which they have qualified due to fear of sabotage when they go to these colleges which are perceived to be attended by high-end students from the wealthy families. The high-income earners train their children targeting a specific area where they want them to fill hence when they clear with their educations they get direct entry to particular industries leaving the less fortunate not being attached to any industry. This widens up the gap between the rich and the poor.

The economy also is being controlled by people from wealthy families because these are the people who can study and hence get employment chances. This act leads to increase in the gap between the rich and the poor. The concentration of wealth and income will be skewed towards one side and balancing this graph becomes hard since the poor are becoming poorer and the rich are the only one benefiting from all resources. The economy at long last is controlled by a few individuals who have been able to penetrate in the economy by teaching their children on job tactics and securing them places in the economy.

From the past research, it has shown that for one to access good education, it will depend on his or her parent’s ability to pay the fees to or the class as to which they belong into and also their education background will also influence their decision to take their children to a specific college. If the parents achieved their degree at early ages their children will tend also achieving their college degrees at early ages as compared to parents who did not complete their college degrees or attained them in their late ages. The parent behavior, when they were young what they were able to achieve, will influence their children on what they will be able to achieve at the same age. This will lead to some college students not willing to participate in some areas since their parents also did not participate in those areas. These college students lack role models in those areas, but if they have role models, they will be motivated to go an extra mile to achieve more than their role models.

The increasing cost of tuition fees discourages the low-income classes leading to only the high-income earners being able to access the quality education; this leads to high-income earners grabbing all the opportunities leaving the less fortunate with no jobs for themselves to grab. The high cost of college education discourages the willing but disadvantaged students from pursuing their careers because as far as they want to achieve them, they cannot perform. The cost of college education if lowered will make more college students achieve their goals and motivate more students

As college try to impose changes in the sector ethnic groups has been a key which needs a transformation in college education to remove barriers which arise and hinders the performance of students. Students from different social, economic backgrounds and varying cultures raise questions on how students are taught and who teaches them. Another challenge which arises is the persistence of the gap between students of different color. Many graduates are coming from some few ethnic groups leaving other groups isolated from college sectors and education.

Most colleges do not have female lecturers, or the rate of female lecturers is decreasing in an increasing rate this leaves males teachers to oversee all the colleges’ performances even the area which needs female participation male counterparts mostly do it. This is a discouragement to ladies who are in the college since they lack a role model to whom they can copy, or they can rely on to guide them. All genders should be viewed as of equal importance in the college and attention is equally distributed and shared. This will lead to boosting morale to the students and encouragement to pursue more in their areas of expertise

If ladies who are in college see the higher management dominated by only men they tend to believe that all top management levels are designed for gentlemen, and they are not fit for those positions this lead to low morale in their performances. Colleges also discriminate on enrollment whereby some schools prefer some genders than others hence leading to unequal distribution of the gender in these institutions. The gender which will have a low representation will tend to feel inferior in that college (Gilborn and Safia Mirza 13).

The motivation is necessary to sex which does not like specific areas because they view it of the other gender area of expertise. Some areas are perceived to be of particular gender hence being neglected by the different sex.

This will be transformed to the job sector whereby we find that some careers are more dominated by some genders leaving the other gender. This will make the few genders available in those careers being discriminated or molested, and this may lead to either student dropping out of the school or increasing employment turnover increase (Reay, Miriam and Stephen 4).Gender discrimination should be discouraged to Improve the performance in colleges, and this will translate to equal genders representation in all sectors, and none should be viewed as feminine.

The enrollment should be regulated to ensure a balanced intake of students are enrolled in all departments of the college. High dropouts experienced in our colleges are associated with reasons such as gender discrimination, race discriminations, class and ethnicity reasons. Balance should be ensured and observed in college education system to be transformed into the economy operations. The treatment of all genders should be balanced to ensure that none of the gender feels inferior to the rest.

All colors should be treated with equality to ensure no ethnic group or race in the college feels inferior or less fortunate. Balance should be observed so that education transformation is balanced.Higher learning and universities have led to discrimination increase based on race, gender, ethnicity ant it should be highly discouraged, and new measures put ahead to ensure that balance is maintained in the college education.

Conclusion

Having discussed the inequalities associated with the college education system, it is evident that this developing challenge will have an adverse effect on the education sector. The government, parents, students and other stakeholders need to come up with lasting solutions to these problems. Some of the remedies include lowering the cost of education, gender balance in the education sector and reducing discrimination in the education sector.





Works Cited

Gillborn, David, and Heidi Safia Mirza. "Educational Inequality: Mapping race, class and gender: A synthesis of research evidence." (2000).

Reay, Diane, Miriam E. David, and Stephen J. Ball. Degrees of choice: Class, race, gender and higher education. Trentham Books, 2005.