Racial Equity and Education

• Why_is_Equal_Opportunity_in_Education_Important_
• What_are_the_Barriers_to_Equal_Opportunity
• The_Consequences_of_Unequal_Opportunity_
• Strategies_to_Promote_Equal_Opportunity
• Footmotes

Why is Equal Opportunity in Education Important?

The future of King County’s social and economic well-being depends on all our children receiving a good education. In today’s economy, that means a high school diploma and at least one year of post high school education. People have healthier, more fulfilling lives when they have a quality education, which every child deserves.

Source: adapted from: US Census Bureau (2006)[1]

Currently, there are disparate opportunities for children of color with respect to education. Not only is this fundamentally unprincipled, but there are real social and economic consequences if this gap is not addressed. A dropout is more than 8 times as likely to be in jail or prison compared to a person with at least a high school diploma. Nearly 40% of inmates lack a high school diploma or the equivalent, according to the census data.^[2] Lifetime cost to the nation for each youth who drops out of school and later moves into a life of crime or addiction ranges from $1.7 to $2.3 million. To ensure equal access to a high school diploma, we know that all children need adequately financed schools, quality teachers, smaller class sizes, and engaging in out of school-time activities. But not all of our children have equal access to these resources. Washington State data indicate an achievement gap for students of color.^[3]

What are the Barriers to Equal Opportunity?

According to current data, we know that educational disparities are growing. It is often difficult to identify the foundations of inequities in policy and practice. Regardless, the community must begin to take steps towards reforming the current approach. We need to understand how embedded inequities impact students of color and result in disparate academic outcomes. Then we need to identify interventions that address the source of inequity to ensure that all our children have equal opportunity for success in school and life. The following segment includes identified inequities: school segregation, school financing and teacher quality, access to advanced curricula, curricula that reflects a multitude of experiences, and inequitable discipline, which are all barriers to equal opportunity in our current education system.

School Segregation

Many of our schools are still segregated. Since school placements are typically dependent on neighborhoods and geographic locale, and historically, housing has been segregated, schools tend to reflect the neighborhoods in which they are located. A variety of approaches have been attempted over the past several decades to increase racial diversity in public schools.^[4] A 2007 Supreme Court decision now restricts public school districts from using race to determine which schools students can attend, thereby “limiting integration programs across the nation.”^[5]  In Seattle, as in most large urban school districts, children of color are overrepresented in the public school system. Children of color make-up 59% of the population of Seattle public schools while only 45% of school age children living in Seattle are children of color. White children make up 41% of Seattle schools population and 55% of the general population of school age children and youth. In other areas of King County, children of color are overrepresented in public schools as well, to a greater extent in areas with larger populations of children of color. In most major US cities, public school populations are predominantly children of color. In King County, school districts with larger percentages of children of color often, but not always, have larger percentages of private school enrollments. Private schools enrollments are almost always disproportionately white.

School Financing and Teacher Quality

A 2004 study of school financing in Washington State found that 17 districts had below-average funding. In general, these 17 districts had above average rates of poor and/or minority students. These districts also had lower average levels of teacher experience and education than state average. Eight of these lowest funded districts are in King County: Federal Way, with the lowest per pupil funding in the state, Kent, Auburn, Renton, Snoqualmie Valley, Highline and Issaquah.^[6]

Access to Advanced Curricula

Advanced programs offer an opportunity for engaging students in a more intensive manner and may also increase college readiness. Students are usually nominated by teachers or administrators to participate in accelerated programs. In a recent study, Mickelson (2001) showed that in one urban school district, Black students are placed in lower educational tracks than otherwise identical White students.^[7] Even with controls for family background and prior achievement, among other characteristics, Black students are more likely to be found in lower tracks than White students, suggesting discriminatory actions by teachers and administrators.^[8]

The lack of access to advanced curricula for students of color is definitely evident at the local level. In the Seattle School district, recent APP (Accelerated Progress Program) data show that for the 2004-2005 school year, in the Garfield High School Grades 9-12 APP program, 72% of enrollees were white, 19% were Asian, and 4% were Latino, 3% were Black, and just 2% were Native American. Approximately the same trend is also reflected in grades 6-8, and grades 1-5 at other schools.

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Staff and Curricula that Reflect a Multitude of Experiences

The current school system predominately reflects white, middle-class culture. As of a 2002 report, over 90% of principals and teachers in the state of Washington were white.^[9] School materials also tend to represent a white, middle-class viewpoint, neglecting to reflect the scope of experiences of students and their families. The result is that students and families may feel devalued, causing conflict or resentment towards the education system.^[10] Instead of reaffirming children's awareness of self and others, school can potentially compromise learning potential by rejecting a range of languages and cultures.

Another substantial effect of not supplying a diverse range of materials is that low-income children, and children of color, teachers unwittingly encourage a binary choice: to identify with family and friends and disavow the school, or embrace school culture and face emotional/social isolation. The result is that many young children opt for family and friends and become unwilling participants in school culture.^[11] In order to break down this barrier, schools and teachers must re-frame conventional curricula to include the realities and experiences of all people, regardless of the racial or economic make-up of the school or students.

Inequitable Discipline

Discipline, or fear of, undeniably influences a student’s experience and perception of the school system. Discipline affects student self-confidence, and the way an individual is treated by the school administrators, teachers, and fellow students. It has been documented that the manner in which children of color are disciplined is typically biased and inequitable compared to white students.^[12] At the local level, research indicates that in the Seattle Public School system, overall black students in secondary schools are 2.6 times more likely to be suspended or expelled than students of other races.^[13]

The Consequences of Unequal Opportunity

High School Completion

At both national and local levels, there is a wide disparity in the public high school graduation rates of white students and students of color.

Nationally, the graduation rate for white students was 78 percent, compared with 72 percent for Asian students, 55 percent for African-American students, and 53 percent for Hispanic students.^[14]

In King County, the graduation rate for white students is 82 percent, compared with 80 percent for all Asian and Pacific Islander students combined, 57 percent for African Americans, 56 percent for Hispanic students and 51 percent for Native American students.

Download Data Source King County Data: OSPI
 Source National Data: Leaving Boys Behind: Public High School Graduation Rates by Jay P. Greene and Marcus A. Winters Civic Report No. 48 April 2006 Manhattan Institute

College Admissions

There are marked differences in the rates, by racial and ethnic groups, for those going to college. A recent national report underscores this staggering difference: there are more than three times as many black people living in prison cells as in college dorms, and this is only slightly better for Hispanics, at 2.7 inmates.^[15] According to the article, a few of the reasons why black students do not reach college at the same rate as whites include reasons that this section has discussed. That is, “black students are more likely to attend segregated schools with high concentrations of poverty, less-qualified teachers, lower expectations and a less-demanding curriculum.”^[16] The following graph is a break-down of high school graduates going to college by race and ethnicity in 2004:

Source: WSU Social and Economic Services Research Center for the

Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Washington State Graduate Follow-Up Study,

High School Class of 2004

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Strategies to Promote Equal Opportunity

Equitable Funding

The National Conference of State Legislatures identifies three building blocks of an adequate school-finance system: articulating educational objectives for students; identifying and acknowledging the educational capacity needed to accomplish these objectives; and supporting that capacity with sufficient funding.^[17]

Programmatic Equity

Criteria for making decisions about educational placement can be standardized in order to minimize discrimination or stereotyping as a basis for decision-making.

Quality Teaching

Equity efforts must focus on the distribution of teacher qualifications throughout the schools in the district.^[18]  Teachers can be encouraged to engage students in a variety of teaching styles as a strategy to support a variety of learning styles.^[19]

Enhanced Cultural Competence

Schools must consider students' diversity to be an asset. Increasing faculty's cultural competence in working with children and families, including sensitivity to students' home cultures, languages, and the unique strengths and assets of each child, are all vital.^[20] Lesson plans, discussion, and reading materials should also reaffirm lifestyles and experiences of all children.

Addressing Unequal Discipline

Research and care taken at the local school level is one way to try to ensure racial equity with respect to how students are disciplined. Tracking and monitoring infractions by documenting parties involved, and the type of discipline given, are important first steps.

Promoting Family & Community Involvement

Research has shown that family involvement in a student’s learning has been instrumental in developing enthusiasm^.[21]Outreach programs that involve family and community partnerships and alliances are needed. Communities of color, including the students directly affected, should have a say in how to best close the achievement gap.

What efforts are underway locally to address education disparities?

Reinvesting In Youth

A recent study entitled “Educating All Our Children: A Comprehensive Plan for Reducing the Dropout Rate in King County ”^[22] suggests some local strategies for reducing education disparities, based on national research. More important, the research provides concrete steps to address disparities at the local level, re-affirming the merit of every child in King County. The following are goals and desired outcomes, taken from the plan, for the Reinvesting in Youth Steering Committee and other stakeholders in the community:

• Reduce dropout rates for all population groups
• Increase graduation rates for all population groups
• Connect more students to a post-secondary education
• Reconnect students lacking current contacts with school or jobs

Each of these preceding goals will positively impact youth of color. In addition, the ‘Reinvesting in Youth Challenge’ specifically aims to improve education outcomes for youth of color by increasing the graduation rates of African American, Hispanic, Native-American, and Limited English students to 85 percent by 2014, which would close the educational achievement gap, by race.

Leo O Tupulaga (LOTS or Voices of Samoa)

In 2001, families in the Samoan community came together out of concern for their students. Samoan/Pacific Islander student statistics were not reported separately and were included in the Asian categories. The Samoan community came together and worked on obtaining school data high school by high school on Samoan students. The picture was dismal. The results were far worse than the community imagined. Families began to meet and strategize and eventually formed an ethnic specific Parent-Teacher-Student Association (PTSA).

Through a process that honored their language, traditions and ways of supporting their families, they began to collectively address this issue. They realized that it was imperative that families come together frequently. Paramount to the process was the strengthening of relationships, it was also important to educate the community around the issue in ways that could be heard and that would motivate people to action. Many community gatherings recognized graduating Pacific Islander High School seniors.  After three years of organizing, the graduation rate for Samoan students increased in 2004.

Seattle Public Schools

At the local level, the Seattle School District has a Five Year Plan to address under-representation of low income students of color and students who are bilingual in advanced learning programs. To support the plan, the district added additional testing steps for students who qualify for free and reduced lunch and students who are bilingual. This is an active attempt to provide broader opportunities to students who are typically less targeted for accelerated programs. Providing additional testing steps for underrepresented students is one way the district strives to respond to the Washington Administrative Code (WAC) on nondiscrimination with respect to testing students, and is a positive step towards increasing access to advanced curricula.

To reduce disproportionalities in discipline, Seattle schools will be provided with developmentally appropriate standards of practice for behavioral interventions and progressive discipline.^[23] Their plan also involves hiring a part-time attorney to provide legal analysis, interagency coordination, training and protocol development to reduce school aggression, violence, truancy, and disproportionalities in discipline. They hope to strengthen the relationships with the Department of Youth Services, the King County Prosecutor’s Office, and King County Juvenile Court, among other groups to work together.

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[1] adapted from: US Census Bureau (2006)  press release reported in Innerworkings.blogspot.com.  Downloaded 11/26/06 from http://okinnerworkings.blogspot.com/2006/10/new-data-on-lifetime-earnings-by.html

[2] Stephen Ohlemacherthe, Associated Press, Seattle Post-Intelligencer September 26, 2007
[3] Shannon, Sue. (2002). ‘Addressing the Achievement Gap: A Challenge for Washington State
Educators’ OSPI
[4] Associated Press, MSNBC., (December 2006). http://www.msnbc.com/id/16036037/
[5] Barnes, Robert. June 2007 ‘Divided Court Limits Use of Race by School Districts’
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/28/AR2007062800896_pf.html
[6] Billinghurst, Barbara A. (2004) “Washingtion State School Finances: Does Every Child Count?”
Washington State PTA.
[7] Mickelson, Roslyn Arlin. 2001. “Subverting Swann: First- and Second-Generation Segregation in the
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.” American Educational Research Journal 38: 215-52.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Shannon, Sue. (2002). ‘Addressing the Achievement Gap: A Challenge for Washington State
Educators’ OSPI
[10] Bowman, Barbara T. (2004) “Cultural Diversity and Academic Achievement” North Central Regional
and Educational Laboratory, Urban Education Program.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Sadowski, Michael. (2001). “Closing the Gap One School at a Time” Harvard Education Letter.
[13] Denn, Rebekah. (2002) March 15, 2002. “Blacks are Disciplined at far higher rates than other students”
Special Report- An Uneven Hand: The Racial Discipline Gap in Seattle Schools.
[14] Leaving Boys Behind: Public High School Graduation Rates by Jay P. Greene and Marcus A. Winters
Civic Report No. 48 April 2006 Manhattan Institute
[15] Stephen Ohlemacherthe, Associated Press, Seattle Post-Intelligencer September 26, 2007
[16] Ibid.
[17] Hadderman, Margaret. 1999. “Equity and Adequacy in School Finance.” Eric Digest, 129 (August) Cited in Race Matters, AECF
[18] Skria, Linda et. Al, 2002. Educational Equity Profiles. Cited in Race Matters, AECF
[19] NEA: National Education Association ‘ Strategies for Closing Achievement Gaps: Steps You Can Take in Your School or District.’. www.nea.org/achievement/strategies.html?mode=print
[20] Ibid.
[21] Northwest Regional Educational Library. 2001. www.nwrel.org/cnorse/infoline/may97/article5.html
[22] Ashley, Nancy, March 2007. link?
[23] http://www.seattleschools.org/area/sshs/policies.xml