Can We Teach Our Way out of Educational Inequality? The Role of Schools

• In Event: 41.062 - Bridging the Differences: Equitable Education Opportunities in Barbados, Ghana, New Zealand, and the United States

Abstract

Objectives: The paper challenges the narrative that places the responsibilities of closing achievement gaps in America’s public schools on teachers and schools, and explores other options for increasing achievement of students in poverty.

Background/Context:
For over 25 years, there has been a persistent back noise about the academic achievement gap between the marginalized populations and their majority peers, and education researchers have been finding ways to address the gap. There have been many studies- some advocating for multicultural education (Gay, 2000; Ladson-Billings,1995), some calling for better pre-service teacher education (Oates, 2009; Sleeter, 2008) and others calling for equitable spending (National Center for Education Statistics, 2011). The one neglected element is systemic inequity fueled by the institutional racism that riddles our public education enterprise. The myth of equitable public education is built on a system that has historically short changed the descendants of former slaves, immigrants, poor whites and Native Americans. This short changing takes the form of inferior facilities and instructional materials, lower pay for teachers in those schools, and limited opportunities to progress beyond basic skills. Is it any wonder that in 2016 we are still grappling with the latent effects of over 200 years of racial and economic injustice as it is played out in our schools on a daily basis?

Attempts to rectify these inequalities center on teachers and school reforms. The arguments go- if we can prepare teachers better than they would do a better job of raising student test scores; if teachers are penalized for low student test scores then they would work harder at teaching and students’ test scores will rise; or if teachers used X method of teaching then student test scores will rise. Blindly focusing on schools and teachers’ practice negates the far more influential factors such as family income and education, neighborhood conditions, health, family mobility, and sets up teachers to shoulder the blame for student underachievement (Berliner, 2012).

So why all this focus on teacher factors related to student academic achievement by education researcher, politicians and policy makers? It may well be because we are daunted by the task of ensuring equal educational opportunity in a country that is at its core unequal. Children in poverty make up the bulk of our academic underachievers.
The issue is poverty, yet education policy, research, and the public narrative center on fixing schools. By far the only organizations that have benefited from the No Child Left Behind legislation that ushered in the high stakes testing and accountability movement has been educational testing, technology, and remediation support companies. So how do we change the narrative?

As education researchers we have to admit playing a supporting rule for the narrative. How many of us apply for funding to “test” teacher-centered solutions to close the achievement gap? When we agree to do professional development with teachers without speaking out about faulty policy we are tactically supporting those policies. Our community of education researchers has an obligation to “speak truth to power.”

Author

• Jacqueline Theresa McDonnough, Virginia Commonwealth University