Over the years, theories have been developed by sociologists to help them explain some forms of social concept. Unfortunately, there are too many social phenomena that need explaining and not so many theories put forward for each one of these theories. This has resulted in the subdivision of the sociology perspectives into three main branches from which these numerous theories branch out. These include symbolic interactionist, structural functionalist and conflict perspectives. Some of the most prevalent social concepts in today’s society are culture, social structure, inequality, identity and social organization to mention a few. This paper addresses the racial and the socioeconomic impact of the education policies in the United States.
An unstable relationship exists between the racial inequality in the U.S and the education sector and implementation of education policies. As a thesis statement to base this paper on, an opportunity gap exists between the different races in the U.S in the education sector. This gap can be clearly defined in the income and wealth status between the races, politics and government policies surrounding education, school policies and the general achievement in schools and life after school.
The sociological perspective that we are going to adapt to approach this research will be the conflict perspective. This perspective originated from Karl Max’s writings about the struggles of different classes in society with a focus on the negative aspect, contrary to the symbolic interactionist and structural-functionalist perspectives that focus on the positive aspects of society. The conflict perspective is a sociological framework that illustrates the society as a struggle for supremacy between the capitalist or elite class that is in power and the working class, who are the labor force conflicting for limited resources (Dahrendorf, 1959). In our research, the minority races represent the working class while the dominant white people are the elite members of society.
Under this perspective, inequality, culture and the social structure sociological concepts are relevant to use for the research purposes. The inequality concept can be further branched out into three parts for better comprehension of this concept. These are; race – A group that is defined by others or defines itself as different using physical characteristics. Ethnicity – A community’s cultural practices that make them different from other groups and social stratification – Referring to the socio-economic division of people based on wealth and property (Rothman, 2015). The culture concept refers to a set of rules and traditions which shape the behaviors and thoughts of a group of people seen through their language, values, and norms (Kroeber " Kluckhohn, 1952). The social structure concept refers to the organized social relationships that groups are variously associated (Merton " Merton, 1968). These often become institutionalized and therefore sometimes invisible to society.
According to a study by the Pew Research Center, Paul Taylor (2014) noted that the minority population in America would make up about 37% of the American population by 2043, the highest in American history accredited to factors such as immigration and intermarriages between races, which has resulted to children of mixed races. The National Center for Education Statistics (2016) accounts for a majority of children from the minority groups in public schools since 2014.
Joseph Stiglitz implied that people born of poor and not well-educated parents were not likely to live to their potential (Noguera, 2017). From the conflict perspective of sociology, a majority of these people are from the minority groups. Inequality concept is affecting the employment opportunities of these parents as well as access to education among other services for their children. Arguably, there are poor working class Whites in America who are also facing these economic obstacles, but the fact remains that, employment opportunities and income for Whites are higher as compared to African Americans and the Latino population. Currently, approximately 52% of students in the American public school system come from these low-income homes as tracked by the National Center for Education Statistics (Southern Education Foundation, 2015). Rising poverty and economic inequality impacts on the education opportunities available for the minority children. Schools in the black ghetto communities perform poorly generally. Latinos and Native Americans too are highly unlikely to be concentrated in urban areas, and their children attend segregated schools as well (Orfield " Ee, 2014).
This inequality and segregated conditions have seen low achievement levels from these minority students, which is mostly attributed to their culture and lack of effort (Thernstrom " Thernstrom, 2009). What this does is to downplay their unequal access to educational resources.
Politics and government policies surrounding the education sector have also played a different role instead of acting as the pivotal point from where change can occur in these public schools. Many public schools lack space to accommodate the high populations of these minority students, adequate and well-trained teachers and other non-teaching personnel to cater for the needs of these students, poor quality curriculum and educational resources like library books and lab equipment are also scarce. Implementation of education policies by the Congress have also not focused on poverty and segregation based on race, but instead, higher academic standards are being used to pressure these marginalized schools to improve their performance (Barton $ Coley, 2010).
Unlike European and Asian countries where they fund schools both centrally and equally, in America, the wealthiest 10% of school districts spend almost ten times as much compared to the poorest 10%. During the 1960s, many African Americans, Latinos and Native American students received education in wholly segregated schools, which were funded at lower rates as compared to the white schools. Following the end of the segregation era since 1970 made a huge difference in students and narrowed the gap in test scores of the minority and the white elementary school students. Minority students have however continued to be separate and treated unequally. William and Dianne in 1991 filed a report to the American Congress and noted that the different systems of school funding cause sociological harm to the economically disadvantaged minority students.
School policies also have a substantial influence on education quality and outcomes. The social structure concept in sociology took center stage in these school policy matters. Under same circumstances, four aspects influence a student’s achievement; smaller schools of a population of about 300-500 students maximum, smaller class sizes, challenging curriculum and highly qualified teachers. As compared to white children, the minority students will less likely have these resources. When looking at public schools with a majority of minority and low-income students do not offer some courses needed for college, specifically related to math and science, and when offered, they are usually of the lower quality curriculum. Minority schools are twice as large as compared to white schools, with larger classrooms, lower quality curriculum and less qualified teachers concerning their certification and the fields they teach (Orfield " Lee, (2005). The National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future established that 25% of new teachers who are hired with fewer certification standards are assigned to teach at minority schools while wealthy schools hire their highly educated counterparts.
Exclusion from school is arguably the worst sanction available to school heads in the education system. It includes a temporary exclusion, commonly referred to as suspension and a permanent exclusion, commonly referred to as an expulsion, which involves removal of a student from the school’s roll. Exclusion from schools is a highly controversial area sporting the conflict perspective and cultural inequality concepts. Over-exclusion of colored students as compared to white students has been a top concern for colored teachers, parents and the students themselves. Historically, there are more permanent exclusions of colored students as compared to white students. Gillborn (2001), suggests that during the mid-1990s, nationally Black Caribbean students got excluded from secondary schools almost six times more as compared to white students.
School achievements, as well as lifetime achievement outside schools, are also generously impacted on by the race inequalities. Given similar learning environments, and equal opportunities, the performance of the minority students, was comparable to those of the white students. In a study conducted by Robert Dreeben, of 300 first graders from Chicago, he established that the minority and the white students who received the same instructions, they attained the same reading skill levels. In his study, Dreeben also established that the minority colored students received averagely lower quality instruction materials as compared to white students. Subsequently, an achievement gap was developed when finalizing first grade (Darling-Hammond, 1998). A different study was used to compare African American high school students who were randomly placed in public housing facilities in the Chicago suburbs with their peers who had the same initial academic accomplishment and a similar income. The results reflected that these students who attended white-majority schools that received better funding and had more qualified teachers and better curriculums took more challenging courses, performed better and graduated on time as compared to their white counterparts.
Had the latter been a permanent condition for all the students, regardless of their race and without the cultural and inequality concepts affecting their education qualities, then a majority of the minority communities would be able to attain good grades and graduate from high school, attend great colleges and eventually find better well-paying jobs compared to their preceding parents’ jobs. However, this is only the case amongst a few minority colored students, which is merely enough effort to overturn the education afflictions that they face. Ultimately, having accomplished little achievements in life after coming off of the education system, this vicious cycle of segregation continues through their children, who in turn will also attend the minority public school system of America and face all these challenges all over again.
Conclusion
To make a great difference in the content that our education avenues impart on America’s future generations requires general focusing on the most important things that matter. This can create a huge difference in future societal accomplishments as a whole. This will diminish the different perspective that sociologists are currently viewing the education system with and promote viewing the education system from a more positive light. In absentia of inequality, culture and social structure concepts surrounding the education system in the U.S, the racial disparities would be history in the education sector, ushering in a new era where education provided an equal opportunity regardless of your economic status or racial background. The issues of financial status and wealth regarding property and investments will no longer be reason enough to derail students regardless of their ethnic and economic background from their initial focus of attaining academic excellence in school due to the opportunities presented. Politics and government policies also need to be revised and implemented to ensure equal distribution of resources to all schools regardless of the nature of the majority population of the students in a particular school. They should invest more time and resources trying to improve the least improving schools so that they catch up to the rest of the performing schools. Schools also on their part will play a key role in turning around this education system by developing better curriculums and employing only the best of the best teachers who are well equipped to tackle these curriculums. Non-discriminatory practices should also be embraced in the schools’ leadership system and treat all students fairly without consideration of their racial and economic backgrounds. To sum all of these up finally, academic achievement at the various levels in schools will be improved abundantly at the opportunity of equal treatment. This, in turn, means an improved education standard, finding better jobs after completing education, improved economic status of the country as a whole and subsequently, achievement of life goals for the future members of the American society.
Reflection Section
A gap does genuinely exist in the United States education center between the whites and the colored who jointly comprise of African Americans, Native Americans and Latinos. Their lower socioeconomic standards make them attend public schools where the majority of the students there are from the minority segregated tribes and also some whites with poor socio-economic status. Arguably, this could be in line with Karl Max’s sociological conflict perspective, where the elite in power utilizes resources allocation unequally to the minority members of society to retain their power positions at the top of the pyramid.
If change is not brought into these education systems to provide equal opportunities for all students despite their race and economic background, then certainly when we get to the mid-centuries era, the year 2043 to be precise as the study by Pew Research Center indicates, 37% which will comprise of the minority communities, in other terms the non-whites, will continue receiving unequal treatment when it comes to education matters still. That is almost half of the population of the people of America being mistreated and segregated due to their color and cultural backgrounds.
This will subsequently translate to almost a 37% of people in society who have received a poor quality education, which is the number with the lowest economic status and ultimately contributing decidedly less in the general economy of the country. This is the time a country’s economy stagnates or collapses when almost half of the population are not contributing to sustaining the economy. For the better future of the United States, the government needs to focus on adjusting the policies surrounding the education sector and to ensure that the number one priority in schools and education, in general, is equity.
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