Ebony's Dawn A. Davis reacts to data showing that poor and minority children continue to face disadvantages in the classroom.
For example, the funding imbalance between high poverty versus low poverty states is $2,278 per student. In other words, rich schools get that much more per child. The situation in high minority versus low minority states is similar; the difference is $2,330 per student. The discrepancy within states is not as striking, but still troubling at $773 less per student in poor neighborhoods and $1,122 less per child in high minority districts.
Adding to the problem said the Education Trust executive, are choices or policies at the educator level. It seems that students in poor schools are expected to be underachievers and often “receive As for work that would earn Cs in affluent schools,” reported Cruz.
A vicious cycle is created for African American students as statistics show that these children, for example in grades 6 through 8, are more likely to be retained, or held back, than White students. It stands just above 40 percent for Black students versus 33 percent for White students. Just as glaring are the suspension rates for Black children against that of Whites: Blacks are three-and-a-half times more likely to be expelled from school.
Read Dawn A. Davis' entire piece at Ebony.com.
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