African American Education Analysis

In the 1930s, many white farm owners would pull black students out of school to work for them even if they did not need them. They did this because they did not think they deserved an education. Many students had to drop out of school to work for their family, because the family was not making enough money to live off of. Many of the African Americans that attended school never got past the fourth grade.

Mary Mcleod once said, “We have a powerful potential in our youth, and we must have the courage to change old ideas and practices so that we may direct their power toward good ends.” This quote comes from a woman whose true intentions were to establish, empower, equate, and implement black education. These were the goals of women educators during the civil rights movement which was during the years of Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow laws were racially segregated laws in the United States ranging from the years of 1876 to 1965, which is nearly 100 years. “America designed a Jim Crow system of education to deny access for to quality education to Negroes.” (Lovett 2005). Education for blacks during this time period was very limited and restricted African

Education has been a major influence on government policy and social standards concerning American youth. With hard work and education, one can better themselves and open up more opportunities for financial and social success. Waiting for Superman directed by Oscar winner, Davis Guggenheim, counters that the current education system is failing students by limiting their upward mobility, particularly among minority and low income groups. The documentary advocates for a radical change in the modern education system, modeled after charter school curriculums. Even though these successful schools produce great students many children, majority African American and Hispanic, are being left behind. In Maya Angelou’s

In Jonathan Kozol’s “Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid” he explains that the difference between the low class schools and the urban class schools inequality by the lack of importance, the low funds, and the segregation. Kozol admits that no effort is put into the minority public schools that are isolated and deeply segregated. “At a middle school named for Dr. King in Boston, black and Hispanic children make up 98 percent of the enrollment”(Kozol 349). The schools that are named after Civil Rights leaders shows no proof of what these people were trying to succeed. Kozol comments on the extremely low funds in these minority schools. In one school he illustrates how dirty and grimy the schools are. “I had made repeated

Throughout American history, few groups if any have experienced the social and economic inequality African Americans have experienced. Since the 1890’s, they’ve accomplished a lot like gaining the right to vote, getting segregation abolished, etc. Many of these changes were spurred on by activists of the Civil Rights Movement. These activists were people like Oliver Brown who is the reason Brown v. Board of Education occurred, college students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University who started the Greensboro sit-in, and everyone who participated in the peaceful protest in Selma, Alabama. In each case, activists made a positive impact; Oliver Brown’s case made people see that segregated schools are unjust, the students

How much of American history do you know? Black history is a part of America’s history, but why is it not deeply taught in schools? In schools we often talk about white American leaders or wars America has won, but not much history of other cultures in America. We may hear a little information about certain minority leaders who fought for a change, but not much facts. If today’s youth aren’t being taught about the thing’s their ancestors have gone through and all the things that has happened and why, many will grow up ignorant. Dr. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Jackie Robinson, these are only a few people mentioned in class, but what about Claudette Colvin who nine months before Rosa Parks, decided not to get off the bus and was taken to jail, or Emmett Till who was 14 and brutally beaten and killed for whistling at a white woman. These are only a few who are not mentioned in our history books or classrooms.

Modern day classrooms were unheard and unseen of more than 50 years ago. If we were to travel back to the past and step foot in classrooms of that time, one theme would run throughout. More than 50 years ago, classrooms were segregated and spoke volumes about the oppression of the colored population. Before the Civil Rights Movement of 1964 and during slavery, classrooms were split up based on color and were limited resources depending on the color of their skin. (Graglia, 2014) Educating colored people wasn’t as important and in some states illegal. Many colored marched with pride for freedom over and over again. This was until May 17, 1954, when the famous case, “Brown v. Board of Education unanimously ruled “separate but equal” public schools for colored people and “white people” and that went against the constitution (Stallion, 2013). This case directly dealt directly with segregation between those of black color and those of white color. It allowed more students to study, work, and learn about each other together. As time went on, this also impacted students to keep studying and motivated students to earn higher education (Stallion, 2013). Assisting to the desegregation between colored people and “white” people, were many great public speakers. One man gave the famous, “I have a dream” speech and risked assassination (Tuck, 2014).

As Nelson Mandela once said, "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Donovan Livingston, a graduate at Harvard Graduate School of Education, has similar views on education. His passionate and inspiring speech called “Lift Off” was given at HGSE’s Commencement Ceremony on May 25, 2016. The speech discusses the importance of education as well as the obstacles and injustices students, especially those of color, have experienced throughout history in getting an education. Livingston’s graduating classmates who are becoming teachers, as well as teachers and educators in general, are the audience of his speech. He directly speaks about past teachers and experiences with education he's had, and his hopes for future teachers.

The way a person speaks is a direct link to a person’s culture and the environment which he or she was raised in. A person’s language, skin color as well as economic status influences the way he or she is perceived by others. Lisa Delpit and eleven other educators provide different viewpoints on how language from students of different cultures, ethnicity, and even economic status can be misinterpreted due to slang and dialect or nonstandard English by the teachers as well as his or her own peers.

In the United States, there exists a gap in equality for different demographics of students. The factors contributing to educational disadvantages include socioeconomic struggles, gender of students, language or culture, and particularly for the scope of this paper, race. Racial inequality in education is predominant in black students and is perpetuated further by educators. A theory that explains this could be the “hidden curriculum” theory which conditions students to believe that their cultural backgrounds must be silenced to resemble the model white student. Studies show that training educators in cultural sensitivity and establishing trust between students and teachers allows students from varying cultural backgrounds to improve in classroom settings.

In the black community the education field for the youth is vital. Education is one of the few ways out of poverty, prison, and the only way to attain sustainable success, but not if its unequal for a child to receive or the different penalty that go along with being in school as black schoolboy/girl. A lot of favorite athletes and even top rappers was channel in the school-prison pipeline such as Curtis James Jackson, III was a piece of data in the concept. Curtis James Jackson, III, better known by his

Americans, when they think of Civil Rights probably think of the Civil Rights Movement. During the civil rights era African Americans fought to be treated as equals by fighting segregated schools, for their voting rights, and for their basic right that every American has today. To say that education is our civil rights movement of today is inaccurate. Antonio Alvarez’s narrative “Out Of My Hands” focuses on a financially struggling family, but proving that they can succeed. David L. Kirp’s article “The Secret to Fixing Bad Schools” reinforces the idea that even though a community might be poor, that doesn’t have to reflect the quality of education students receive. Horace Mann, known as the godfather of American public education, expresses

In February of 2007 Heather Andrea Williams published a novel titled Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom. In chapter six, Williams specifically focuses on African-American’s teaching in freed people’s schools. Williams makes the claim that African-American’s entered the classroom as teachers, but not without some battles to overcome.

Clearly, performance on MAEP is not flat. The gains in reading have been slow, steady, and significant. The gains in mathematics in both tested grades have been remarkable for whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Asians.

NAEP is the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The NAEP is a test administered to high school seniors which are chosen nationwide to assess what they have learned throughout their education so far. The NAEP is given in order to see how all states and cities are doing academically. It compares each state with one another. NAEP educates people on state progress and is used to further improve our schooling systems here in the United States. Results of the NAEP are used to make future decisions about our education system here in the states. The Nation’s Report Card is a way to track each states educational progress. It’s a ninety minute exam that involves core subjects like math, reading, science, writing, economics, U.S. history and