The Achievement Gap: Urban Vs. Suburban Schools

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The Achievement Gap: Urban vs. Suburban Schools The public school systems goal in the United States is to provide every child with equal education. Unfortunately somewhere along the lines the education system in our country has failed to provide this equal education to many of our children, especially minority. It isn’t that the education is not there, but many other things such as urban parents, teachers, and the urban society itself affect a child’s education. When looking at the mandatory test scores of minority inner city students, specifically African American students, they are significantly lower than White American suburban students, hence the achievement gap. When the achievement gap is mentioned most people automatically think of the difference in grades, standardized-test scores, dropout rates, and college-completion rates between White Americans vs. African American students, but it goes much deeper than that. When determining the gap one must look at many other factors other than race, such as the child's economic status, where they live and the schools they attend, as well as how much parental involvement there is. When the achievement gap is mentioned the instant thought of White vs. Black students comes to mind. Black students scoring lower than White students, but this can be looked at from many different angles. When we think back in history the first ones allowed to have an education were wealthy white males. As time passed and new laws were put in place women along with African Americans were also given the chance to an education. But of course Black children did not receive the same education as White students. In Death at an Early Age by Jonathan Kozol, he describes the conditions of African American schools as horrible, where children were mistreated. The teachers did not receive the materials they
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