The year 2014 marks
the fiftieth anniversary of the Civil Rights Act signed into law by President
Lyndon Johnson. This law and the subsequent Voting Rights Act were both
watershed events in the struggle for equality in the United States.
Unfortunately, this notion of equality has not yet trickled down to America’s
public education system. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently commented
that “it is clear that the United States has a great distance to go to meet our
goal of providing opportunities for every student to succeed.”
Recent studies have indicated that black and Latino students
do not have equal access to courses like Algebra II or chemistry. The situation
is bleaker when you consider the lack of opportunities for these students to enroll in
Advanced Placement courses.
The situation is not much better when it comes to minority
students being taught by experienced and fully certified classroom teachers. Often the
most veteran teachers get the best classes and the best prepared students while
the novice teachers get the less motivated and less academically prepared students.
Discipline policies as well have been called into
question by the Obama administration noting
the disparity in school suspension rates between schools that are predominantly
black and those that are mostly white.
While the emphasis on STEM and Common Core has been taking
center stage in the education dialogue, the opportunity for all students to get
an equal education, promised by the Brown vs. Topeka Supreme Court decision
must not be overlooked.
c. 2014 J. Margolis
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