Education: The Important Causes Of Inequality In America

Nicholas Kristof once said, “Inequality causes problems by creating fissures in societies, leaving those at the bottom feeling marginalized or disenfranchised.” Education in America today is seen as inefficient, divided, and flawed, but people still fight for education because it is an influential tool. Some may say “tracking” is effective for education and others may think “tracking” can lead to inequality. Some popular assumptions about why some students succeed and others do not is because the students who are privileged get a better education than the lower-class students. This is called tracking, a way of separating students into different low or high classes. Lower-class students get left behind and they don’t learn as much as those

In Conley’s reading, he briefly covers the differences between education for white people versus those of color. Conley stated,” …higher-class whites are usually overrepresented in academic tracks, and blacks, Hispanics, and lower-class students are overrepresented in noncollege tracks” (Conley 504). This shows that high-class whites are viewed with high tracks, whereas those of color are in low track classes. Being in low-classes makes them doubt their own abilities of what they can actually do. Colored people feel as if they are not able to succeed like whites can. There are pros and cons about tracking, some people may say that tracking shapes your academic confidence if you’re gifted, but in my opinion, tracking is ineffective because if someone is not as smart as others, they will be put in low tracking classes. This makes those students who are not as smart as the rest feel like they are not good enough or do not fit in. I have friends who can relate because they were put into special education classes growing up and they would compare themselves to others. They were basically in the low tracking classes while others who did better in their academics were in the high tracking classes. That made them feel as if they are not as good enough as their peers. I recommend schools to keep students together rather than separate them and

Putting students together will give everyone the opportunity to learn the same material, so not only will the high-class student learn about molecules and retain the information given, but also the low-class students would also. Everyone at school will get treated equally when it comes down to learning. Even when I went to high school I’ve noticed the differences in how the higher-level students got thought and the amount of work they were given. Whereas, when I would stop in a lower-level classroom I could automatically notice the difference in their learning. The lower level classes would go over material at a slower pace. Going at a slower pace is not a good thing because then they won’t get to all the material that has to be covered. They also got less work done in lower class levels. This is why having classes combined with low and high will improve the amount of work being done for both. Not only does it make it fair if they are thought together, but also lower level students won’t feel as if they are not smart enough to be in a higher-level class since they are all mixed in one room. I remember as I was reading, I saw in of the readings state how some parents don’t want their high-level children to be in classes with low-level students and I disagree students