There are a couple of blogs that I have really enjoyed reading during this project. While I feel that you should read up on as many of these blogs as you can, I feel that there are three in particular that should be at the top of your list.
I always enjoy reading the blog "Marriage: The Sex Is Always the Same." I like this post because of the author's ability to mix humor and serious issues together in a very comfortable laid back style. The title in and of itself is a great representation of the blog. It mirrors the witty humor that the blog is composed of. The author does a good job of making good points, but not in a heaving daunting way; everything seems very self-explanatory and simple.
The blog "Save or Destroy ANWR" is another blog that I enjoy to read. The creator of this blog has done a great job of making herself knowledgeable on the subject matter at hand. Her arguments are always sound and well thought out. She is extremely bright when it comes to her argumentation, which she repeatedly exemplifies in her comment sections. After reading her posts, I always come away feeling like I know something that I did not know prior to reading it. She also does a good job with actual presentation of the blog. It's strong black background juxtaposed to it's picture of Alaska help create the mood that she needs to help bring people to her side of the issue.
I also have enjoyed my time reading the blog "This is why WE hot...global warming." This blog takes an interesting approach to disseminate information about global warming. From the author's title, one can see that the blog is going to be different. The author wittily based the title of her blog on the title of a popular rap song. In most blogs about global warming, you would expect to find a black or other loud background with information to match. In this blog, the author has used a pink background with information to match. One of her goals in creating this blog was to relate her love of fashion to global warming, an approach that I had never seen or heard of before. Through the avenues she goes through to reach her audience, she is able to successfully create an interesting blog that is enjoyable to read.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Self Analysis
Over the course of this project, I have grown as a person, and as a thinker on the subject of closing the achievement gap. At the beginning of this project, I lacked the appropriate passion and fire that I needed to show in this blog with this type of issue. I tried to use more logical arguments rather than the necessary emotionally logical arguments that I tried to construct towards the end of my posting. I was, for lack of a better word, dry. Since this project, my thinking has changed in that now I am consumed with an urge to go out into the world right now and try to solve the problem, where as before, I was more passive to it. Over this period of blogging, not only have I learned new things, I have started to allow the information that I have learned to grow into more complex ideas. I now think for spurting out ideas about ways to solve the problem because I have matured enough to realize that there are always exceptions to every idea and solution.
When I started this project, unlike now, I felt that this problem was insurmountable; however, now I know better. There are special schools called KIPP Schools, Knowledge is Power Program, that are serving low-income minority students, with a college entry rate of nearly 80%. These schools are not without controversy, but regardless of that, they are working. When I first started this project, I though about the growing population of people who said that interracial contact was not important, but as I have grown and researched the issue, I have found lots of evidence that supports the idea that integration is good and necessary. I have found out about blogs like Acting White by James C. Collier that help me to organize my thoughts on the subject, and present new ideas that I had not thought of. I have become aware of the efforts of people, like Bill Cosby, who are trying to help fix the problem.
I have hope and faith that this problem is reversible. There are states in America that have either started to reverse the achievement gap, or are trying to figure out how to. Mike Easley, governor of North Carolina, has created a pre-school program, which is showing gains in closing the achievement gap.
I feel that over the course of my blogging career, I have become better with argumentation. I have tried to use and internalize the art of rhetorical appeals. It is imperative that when discussing an issue, one must be able to sufficiently back up there conclusions in order to aviod logical fallacies. At the beginning, I knew about logical fallacies, but I didn't realize how important it is to avoid them. I have learned that argumentation is helped by sources. From doing this project, I've learned that a lot of websites are not as reliable as others, but the "non reliable" websites also have there uses. As I conclude with the my own analysis, I have come to terms that I am happy with my progress as a thinker on this issue.
I have hope and faith that this problem is reversible. There are states in America that have either started to reverse the achievement gap, or are trying to figure out how to. Mike Easley, governor of North Carolina, has created a pre-school program, which is showing gains in closing the achievement gap.
I feel that over the course of my blogging career, I have become better with argumentation. I have tried to use and internalize the art of rhetorical appeals. It is imperative that when discussing an issue, one must be able to sufficiently back up there conclusions in order to aviod logical fallacies. At the beginning, I knew about logical fallacies, but I didn't realize how important it is to avoid them. I have learned that argumentation is helped by sources. From doing this project, I've learned that a lot of websites are not as reliable as others, but the "non reliable" websites also have there uses. As I conclude with the my own analysis, I have come to terms that I am happy with my progress as a thinker on this issue.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Want to learn more?
From doing research for this blog, I have found several websites that are worth listing because they go into far greater detail about this issue than I can in a page post. I encourage you all to check out these links for further inspiration on ways to close the achievement gap.
For studies about the achievement gap:
http://www.jstor.org/view/01902725/dm993272/99p0211u/0
http://www.ncrel.org/policy/pubs/html/pivol13/dec2002b.htm
http://www.temple.edu/tempress/chapters_1400/1535_ch1.pdf
For articles or blogs about the achievement gap:
http://www.edletter.org/past/issues/2001-mj/gap.shtml
http://www.newhorizons.org/trans/snell.htm
For websites and and organizations that I have found:
http://www.nea.org/achievement/index.html
http://www.msanetwork.org/
I really liked the information presented on these sites. As you look through them though, please make sure that you look at the ending of the URL. The problem with using Internet sources is that sometimes they may be unreliable. In most cases, a .org ending is a little less reliable than a .gov or a .edu; however, this does not mean that the information presented on the .org does not instructional value. Also, it is important when checking out the links, that you are familiar with the appeals that the author is trying to make. With the studies, the appeal will most likely be a logical one. With the articles and organizational links, the appeals may be either emotional or logical. Throughout this project, I have tried to use both logical and emotional appeals because I feel that both are necessary at truly conveying the problem with American education.
For studies about the achievement gap:
http://www.jstor.org/view/01902725/dm993272/99p0211u/0
http://www.ncrel.org/policy/pubs/html/pivol13/dec2002b.htm
http://www.temple.edu/tempress/chapters_1400/1535_ch1.pdf
For articles or blogs about the achievement gap:
http://www.edletter.org/past/issues/2001-mj/gap.shtml
http://www.newhorizons.org/trans/snell.htm
For websites and and organizations that I have found:
http://www.nea.org/achievement/index.html
http://www.msanetwork.org/
I really liked the information presented on these sites. As you look through them though, please make sure that you look at the ending of the URL. The problem with using Internet sources is that sometimes they may be unreliable. In most cases, a .org ending is a little less reliable than a .gov or a .edu; however, this does not mean that the information presented on the .org does not instructional value. Also, it is important when checking out the links, that you are familiar with the appeals that the author is trying to make. With the studies, the appeal will most likely be a logical one. With the articles and organizational links, the appeals may be either emotional or logical. Throughout this project, I have tried to use both logical and emotional appeals because I feel that both are necessary at truly conveying the problem with American education.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Frustration
It has been more fifty years since the Board v. Brown decision. Where have we come? We have made gains, but are they enough? I feel ever more frustrated everyday with the current state of the union. We are weak when it comes to defending the rights of every child to receive a quality first-class education. I have recently been reading the book "Savage Inequalities." The book goes into first-hand detail about the the grotesque inequalities in some of America's schools. It discusses how in some African American communities, kids go to school in the winter with classrooms where the furnace is either broken or over-working. Where have we come? I don't think that Thurgood Marshall would appreciate the still apparent discrepancies in schools serving white students and schools serving black students. I do not think that the countless civil rights attorneys that spent endless hours coming up with arguments to break down the manacles of segregation in schools would be happy to see that segregation within schools is the new way that the races are being kept apart. Their work in many cases is becoming in vain. I think about all of this, and I become FRUSTRATED!
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Tracking
A lot of debate about closing the achievement gap and segregation within schools has to do with academic tracking. Academic tracking "can be defined as the placement of students into courses based on their performance in standardized achievement tests and/or IQ tests and in previous courses in the same discipline. In simpler terms according to the Applied Research Center: 'Tracking is the practice of placing students in different classes based on perceived differences in their abilities. '(Tonya Gray, http://www.psparents.net)" Usually, tracking starts in at a very young age in a child's educational career, usually around the second or third grade. Although each child is supposed score a certain percentage on a "special" test to gain admittance into the tracking program, many do not. Through talking to a lot of kids that were placed the program, I have learned that most people just remember being told that they would go to a different class at some point within the day. This illustrates that the lines for getting into the program are not only murky, they do not always apply; when there is no standardized way of testing across the board, certain individuals are looked over, and in this country it is usually the minority students that receive the brunt of the blow.
Although tracking does serve great purpose, and is useful for many students, it is detrimental to some. In most schools, students that are "smart" enough to participated in advanced courses are dubbed gifted. The most widely practiced program for tracking is the AIG, or Academically Intellectually Gifted. This name in of itself discriminates against students that are not in the advanced track. The name "Gifted" creates feelings of superiority and inferiority. How is kid expected to feel and/or react when they are told that they are not gifted. Along with just the psychological effects, it creates de facto segregation within the school. The gifted classes begin to be seen as classes that are meant for the white students, in most cases only white students are placed in the higher tracts, and the remedial classes are seen for black students. Inadvertently, schools have created a system that keeps the races apart by directing them down paths consisting of people who are mostly the same race as them. This only perpetuates further problems by decreasing interracial interaction, limiting friendships, and causing blacks to feel that they can not achieve.
UPDATE: Please look at the comment section of this post, it's quite interesting, and claims are backed up.
Although tracking does serve great purpose, and is useful for many students, it is detrimental to some. In most schools, students that are "smart" enough to participated in advanced courses are dubbed gifted. The most widely practiced program for tracking is the AIG, or Academically Intellectually Gifted. This name in of itself discriminates against students that are not in the advanced track. The name "Gifted" creates feelings of superiority and inferiority. How is kid expected to feel and/or react when they are told that they are not gifted. Along with just the psychological effects, it creates de facto segregation within the school. The gifted classes begin to be seen as classes that are meant for the white students, in most cases only white students are placed in the higher tracts, and the remedial classes are seen for black students. Inadvertently, schools have created a system that keeps the races apart by directing them down paths consisting of people who are mostly the same race as them. This only perpetuates further problems by decreasing interracial interaction, limiting friendships, and causing blacks to feel that they can not achieve.
UPDATE: Please look at the comment section of this post, it's quite interesting, and claims are backed up.
Theories of why the madness exist
The achievement gap is an issue that brings in a lot of speculation, studies, special projects, and researchers. This problem is multi-dimensional, and has no one definitive answer on the best way to solve it. Researchers go back and forth about not only how to solve the problem, but simply trying to find out why it exists, especially in the United States of America.
I have several theories of my own. I think that the achievement gap is the offspring of centuries of racism and bigotry. The beginnings of the achievement gap, in a more broader sense, is exemplified in the 1800s in the Dred Scott case, when the supreme court ruled that African Americans could not expect to achieve the same rights as whites; blacks were not seen as Americans. This is only an example of how blacks were considered to be less than white. This ideology quickly moved into the education arena. White parents did not want their kids going to school with black kids, resulting in segregation. When the black children were segregated, and put in less than satisfactory shacks for schools, they began to internalize feelings of low self-esteem and low self-efficacy, shown through the work of the Clark's famous "Baby Doll Test." These feelings became harbored in the minds of many African Americans, and are still there to some degree today. It is exemplified through the "Acting White" threat, where African Americans that achieve are chastised, and are told that they are trying to be white.
I feel that this issue is the result of other problems as well. I theorize that the issue has to do with societies lack of zeal to take hand on steps to fix the problem by erasing the ideas and stereotypes that America still has about black people. I think that if we as a culture worked together to stop promoting the ideas that certain races are smart, certain races are stupid, and certain races are looking for a handout, we could begin to see that everyone does not start off on an equal playing field, and we could start to move forward from there.
I have several theories of my own. I think that the achievement gap is the offspring of centuries of racism and bigotry. The beginnings of the achievement gap, in a more broader sense, is exemplified in the 1800s in the Dred Scott case, when the supreme court ruled that African Americans could not expect to achieve the same rights as whites; blacks were not seen as Americans. This is only an example of how blacks were considered to be less than white. This ideology quickly moved into the education arena. White parents did not want their kids going to school with black kids, resulting in segregation. When the black children were segregated, and put in less than satisfactory shacks for schools, they began to internalize feelings of low self-esteem and low self-efficacy, shown through the work of the Clark's famous "Baby Doll Test." These feelings became harbored in the minds of many African Americans, and are still there to some degree today. It is exemplified through the "Acting White" threat, where African Americans that achieve are chastised, and are told that they are trying to be white.
I feel that this issue is the result of other problems as well. I theorize that the issue has to do with societies lack of zeal to take hand on steps to fix the problem by erasing the ideas and stereotypes that America still has about black people. I think that if we as a culture worked together to stop promoting the ideas that certain races are smart, certain races are stupid, and certain races are looking for a handout, we could begin to see that everyone does not start off on an equal playing field, and we could start to move forward from there.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Implications
Closing the achievement gap is a contentious problem that has been around for so long, that I wonder if it is possible to truly ever close the gap. Albeit there are examples in which there is empirical data that show that the rate is/was closing, I feel that the data is based on situational occurrences, and therefore does not apply to the entire country.
Although I am skeptical about the ability to solve the problem, I feel that there are several steps that we as a society can take to try to be proactive in fixing the problem. Firstly, centralized funding will help to ensure that every school is receiving an equal distribution of resources. Secondly, strengthening federal programs/acts like "No Child Left Behind" or Headstart programs through increased federal funding. Thirdly, financially rewarding schools that make an active effort to integrate, and keep integrated, schools. Fourthly, and possibly, I think that we as a society must work hard to put an end to racism. We can accomplish this by endorsing integrated neighborhoods, by electing governmental officials that pledge to work hard on solving this problem, by funding programs such as Big Brother/Sister or Project Uplift, that help minority students achieve, or programs like AVID, that help students motivate themselves.
I am cynical that some people are searching for a panacea for this problem. I think that this is issue will stick with us until we as a country decide that we are tired of it, and take an active stance in defeating it. I believe that it is also imperative that we reach out to minority children, and help them realize that unless they achieve, they are only perpetuating a cycle that they are victim to.
Although I am skeptical about the ability to solve the problem, I feel that there are several steps that we as a society can take to try to be proactive in fixing the problem. Firstly, centralized funding will help to ensure that every school is receiving an equal distribution of resources. Secondly, strengthening federal programs/acts like "No Child Left Behind" or Headstart programs through increased federal funding. Thirdly, financially rewarding schools that make an active effort to integrate, and keep integrated, schools. Fourthly, and possibly, I think that we as a society must work hard to put an end to racism. We can accomplish this by endorsing integrated neighborhoods, by electing governmental officials that pledge to work hard on solving this problem, by funding programs such as Big Brother/Sister or Project Uplift, that help minority students achieve, or programs like AVID, that help students motivate themselves.
I am cynical that some people are searching for a panacea for this problem. I think that this is issue will stick with us until we as a country decide that we are tired of it, and take an active stance in defeating it. I believe that it is also imperative that we reach out to minority children, and help them realize that unless they achieve, they are only perpetuating a cycle that they are victim to.
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