African-Americans Are Failing In U.S. Education

In reaction to one of my post on things I like about being in the USA a friend of mine critized my positive assessment of the U.S. higher education system. I asked her to write a guest post for my blog giving me her perspective: an African-American one. I am very excited to present her article on growing up in the U.S. education system as an African American.

African-Americans Are Failing In U.S. Education

By Charissa Gardner

Growing up African-American in the United States is difficult. Nevertheless trying to receive a quality education in a school district that is distressed may jeopardize your success in life. I attended Cleveland Municipal School District (CMSD) public schools in Cleveland, Ohio (ranked the second poorest city in the USA in 2008) from 1984-1997 or kindergarten to 12th grade.

Through the years of my education the district would undergo many metamorphoses. At least six potential teacher strikes (one during my last year of high school). Student teacher ratio is another issue which is probably 30 to 1 in Elementary (kindergarten-5 grades), 37 to 1 Intermediate (6-8 grades) and 43 to 1 in Secondary School (9-12 grades). A ruling by the Ohio Supreme Court stating that how Ohio schools are funded, should be changed for the reason that it is not fair for all school districts across the state: attending school less because they could not afford to pay teachers for certain days, thus they just got extra time off and so did students.

Racial separation in Cleveland
People in the Cleveland area have racially separated themselves. Consequently, when the CMSD halted cross town bussing this resegregated schools in the district. Schools in the area were closed due to a shortfall which overcrowded already overcrowded schools. I remember in high school that hallways were so packed full of students you would be late going to class, so instead of a two minute bell in between classes it became a five minute bell. The facilities were and still are falling apart; they need new heating ventilation air-condition systems, roofs, plumbing, electrical work, and flooring (the district finally started rehabbing or building new schools about five years ago).

Several dilemmas
The education achievement gap between African-Americans and Anglo-Saxons in the United States transpired for a multitude of reasons. Since the 17th century there have been de facto and de jure racial segregation in the North and South to deter African-Americans from receiving proper schooling. During slavery Negroes who were caught trying to learn how to read could be whipped or killed. Blacks were also denied the right to attend traditional White colleges and universities. Desegregation was supposed to counteract the damage done through segregation. But what it actually did was allow African-American students to attend White schools. This did not revamp failing schools in poor Black neighborhoods or send Caucasian students to black schools. Several dilemmas faced by poor districts who educate the largest quantity of minorities at high school levels are:

1) Poverty and inadequate funding

• More than 60 percent of Black students attend schools where more than 50 percent of the school population is identified as living in poverty, compared to 18 percent of White students (Orefield and Lee 2005).

• A high-poverty, majority-minority high school is five times more likely to have weak promoting power i.e. promoting 50 percent or fewer freshmen to senior status within four years (Balfanz and Legters 2004).

• In 31 of 49 states, school districts with the highest minority enrollments get fewer resources than school districts with the lowest number of minorities enrolled. These 31 states educate six out of every ten minority children in America (Carey 2004).

• 31 percent of African American children live in poverty, compared with 9 percent of White children. (National Center for Education Statistics, September 2003)

2) Unqualified or under qualified teachers

• In high schools where at least 75 percent of the students are low-income, there are three times as many uncertified or out-of-field teachers teaching both English and science than in schools with wealthier populations (Wirt et al. 2004)

3) Graduation Rates and college preparedness

• In 2003, only 55 percent of Black students graduated from high school on time with a regular diploma compared to 78 percent of Whites (Greene and Winters 2006).

• Nearly half of the nation’s African-American students but only 11 percent of White students attend high schools in which graduation is not the norm (Balfanz and Legters 2004).

• In 2002, 23 percent of all Black students who started public high school left it prepared for college compared to 40 percent of Whites (Greene and Winters 2005).

Gaps still exist in education between Blacks and Whites
However, gaps still exist in education between Blacks and Whites in affluent neighborhoods where poverty and inferior education does not arise. A study conducted of African-American students in Shaker Heights, Ohio [near Cleveland] -- one of the top public school districts kindergarte to 12th grade in the USA -- by John Ogbu documented in his book "Black American Students in an Affluent Suburb", concluded that Blacks in America are:

“Involuntary minorities those who did not immigrate to a country by choice. They became minorities through enslavement, colonization or conquest, a status that continues to shape how they are treated by the dominant group and how they perceive and respond to that treatment. Involuntary minorities developed their identity in opposition to the majority group that had oppressed them. As a result, they are often suspicious of societal institutions run by the dominant group, including the schools, believing that the curriculum threatens and denigrates their heritage.”

I managed to survive the failing public education system and graduate from college. Nevertheless, fewer African-American students are graduating from high school and transition to college, especially males. Maybe other factors should also be considered when educating Black youth: stressors at home, emotional problems, single parent households, reared by a grandparent, no one available at school or home to assist them with homework, and poor nutrition. With these conundrums wreaking havoc on the mental psyche focusing on your education can be impossible.

Milestones in African-American education
African-Americans in the United States have endured innumerable strifes to decrease the disparities in education between them and their Caucasian counterparts. Here is a timeline of African-American education (Milestones in African-American education):

1837 Institute for Colored Youth founded by Richard Humphreys; later became Cheyney University.

1854 Ashmun Institute, the first school of higher learning for young Black men, founded by John Miller Dickey and his wife, Sarah Emlen Cresson; later (1866) renamed Lincoln University (Pa.) after President Abraham Lincoln.

1856 Wilberforce University, the first Black school of higher learning owned and operated by African-Americans, founded by the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Its president, Daniel A. Payne, became the first African-American University president in the country.

1869 Howard University's law school becomes the country's first Black law school.

1876 Meharry Medical College, the first Black medical school in the U.S., founded by the Freedman's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

1881 Spellman College, the first college for Black women in the U.S., founded by Sophia B. Packard and Harriet E. Giles.

1881 Booker T. Washington founds the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama. The school became one of the leading schools of higher learning for African-Americans, and stressed the practical application of knowledge. In 1896, George Washington Carver began teaching there as director of the department of agricultural research, gaining an international reputation for his agricultural advances.

1922 William Leo Hansberry teaches the first course in African civilization at an American university, at Howard University.

1944 Frederick Douglass Patterson establishes the United Negro College Fund to help support black colleges and black students.

1954 In the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, the Supreme Court rules unanimously that segregation in public schools in unconstitutional.

1957 President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends federal troops to ensure integration of the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. The Little Rock Nine were the first Black students to attend the school.

1960 Black and White students form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), dedicated to working against segregation and discrimination.

1962 James Meredith is the first Black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi; on the day he enters the university, he is escorted by U.S. marshals.

1963 Despite Governor George Wallace physically blocking their way, Vivian Malone and James Hood register for classes at the University of Alabama.

1968 San Francisco State University becomes the first four-year college to establish a Black studies department.

1969 The Ford Foundation gives $1 million to Morgan State University, Howard University, and Yale University to help prepare faculty members to teach courses in African-American studies.