The Brutal Facts
Anyone who is education at the present time knows how state standards are becoming more and more rigorous. Each year teachers are expected to create miracles with their students. School such as B.L. Garza Middle School is one school who has to face a mayor issue concerning students immigrating from Mexico. Garza M.S. is about 30 miles from the border of Mexico and is becoming more and more populated with students who are crossing the border due to the horrible problems within the Mexican border. One student who would prefer to stay anonymous mentions that "life in Mexico is like living in a prison where there are only certain places that you can visit and at certain times (annoymous, 2013)." As the issue of having more students enroll to the district, teachers are asked to take on the challenge of educating these students with very limited resources. Mr. Gorena (2013) principal of B.L Garza M.S., mentioned in Wednesday's meeting that all the staff within his school is striving to become leaders. Garza mentions that as education takes on the 21st century...
In Subtractive Schooling: US-Mexican Youth and the Politics of Caring, Angela Valenzuela investigates immigrant and Mexican American experiences in education. Valenzuela mentions differences in high schools between U.S born youth and immigrants such as how immigrants she interviewed seemed to achieve in school as they feel privileged to achieve secondary education. However, she found that her study provided evidence of student failure due to schools subtracting resources from these youths. Both are plagued by stereotypes of lacking intellectual and linguistic traits along with the fear of losing their culture. As a Mexican American with many family members who immigrated to the U.S to pursue a higher education, I have experience with Valenzuela’s
In order to understand Mike Rose, and his book Lives on the Boundary, you must first understand where Mike is coming from and examine his past. Mike was born to a first generation immigrant family, originally from Italy. He spent his early childhood in the mid-west and then in his latter childhood, parents not knowing any better, in East Los Angeles. Mike’s father suffered from arteriosclerosis. Neither Mike’s mother nor his father had completed high school and no one in his family had ever attended college. This is the setting, background, and characters of Mike’s tale of “struggles and achievements of America’s educationally underprepared” . Through this book Mike constantly is emphasizing three main themes. First, the importance of an educational mentor; later in this treatise we will examine several of Mike’s mentors. Second, social injustices in the American education system; specifically the lack of funding and bureaucracy’s affect on the public educational system. Third and lastly, specific teaching methods that Mike has used to reach out to kids on the boundary.
Imagine seeing 10,000 of your classmates walking out of your school because they wanted a better education - a better way of life. In the 1960s’ Chicano students were being “pushed out”(Esparza) of school or being pushed towards vocational programs. East L.A was home to schools were “one out of every four Chicano’s completed high school”(Esparza). Instructors and the school board alike did not have an interest in helping Chicanos finish school to become someone other than a laborer and was expected of them to keep being a laborer. In “Taking Back the Schools”, Sal Castro a high school counselor claims, “I think the bottom line is the lack of concern of the teachers towards the kids and whether the kids were really getting an education or not...the reality set in that the teachers weren’t really concern for the kids.”(Esparza).
In the article, “How to Incorporate Immigration Studies into High School Curriculum”, Dan-el Padilla Peralta argues that by educating high school students on immigration, they will be able to reform policies on it in the future.
... past decade has not only affected teachers and valuable elective programs, but mostly importantly the education of today’s youth. The Georgia school districts have exhausted almost every way to make up for the billions of dollars of lost state financial support and they have reached the tipping point. Since over 9,000 teachers have lost their jobs, students are being forced into already bulging classes where they do not receive the kind of individual attention needed in order to boost student achievement. If Georgia leaders expect student achievements to improve, they must invest the necessary economic resources needed to achieve this goal. At the end of the day, one of the most important things in life is a good education, so we need to start putting more money into the K-12 school funding and help build back what years of austerity cuts have nearly destroyed.
The city of Denver and the challenges confronting its elected leaders, are no different than any other large city, one of the most problematic of which, includes enhancing the quality of public schools for ethnic minority students from lower socio-economic neighborhoods. Katherine Boo’s, “Expectations”, provides a narrative centered on Superintendent Michael Bennett and the implementation of his ambitious strategy to raise high school graduation standards throughout the Denver public school system. Bennett’s plan to achieve this lofty goal illustrates the “four tides,” or philosophies, of administrative reform: liberation management by allowing students from underperforming schools to attend any high quality public school of their choice; (2) a war on waste through the closure of Manual High School; (3) a watchful eye with computer tracking to ensure student accountability; and (4) scientific management with increased and meticulous academic standards.
Across America, young people are being short changed due to a broken education system. Bliss is just one example of the shared frustration felt by students. In an interview, Jeff said one of his key points is the fact that it's not just about his education, it's about our education. "If we embrace this, I feel as if we can make a serious change and a positive change. But if we just want to ignore and push this to the side then I expect to see the same problems again and again." Though he was not punished for his actions by the district, Bliss reveals that after dropping out of school and returning the next year, he takes his education very seriously and expects his teachers to do the same (Collins). “You got to take this job serious, this is the future of this nation… this is my country’s future and my education,” said Jeff. A video of the outburst, taken by another student, has since gone viral on various social media outlets causing a buzz throughout the educational system. Bliss expressed his own opinion about the changes he wants to see implemented by saying, “I want to see a teacher stand up and interact with the students, get involved, discuss, talk, question and dig deep into the subject,” in the interview (Klein).
There is a big disparity between urban and suburban secondary education in public schools. Many critics of this inequality are arguing that urban schools are not receiving the same attention as schools that are in suburban areas or wealthier parts of country. Urban schools are facing a large crisis on there hands, these schools are not meeting the required criteria in educating and graduating their students. So, why is there a huge inequality between urban and suburban secondary public schools? Much of the debate falls around school funding and how much schools are given to operate. Many urban schools are not being given enough money to educate its students, pay its teachers, buy new books, and afford technology that could be used in the classroom in order to educate its students. Though funding plays an important role in education another issue that urban schools are facing is prejudice from teacher towards minority and lower income students; students who fit description are often thought of as worthless because either they are receiving low test scores, can not speak English well, create trouble in the classroom or they are simply thought of as futile. While minorities fall under prejudice, illegal immigrant students are being attacked because they are attending public schools at the expense of tax payers. Illegal immigrants are being blamed for much of reasons that schools are finding themselves in the red when it comes to school funding; simply illegal immigrants are breaking the piggy bank and leaving schools in the hole as the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) puts it. In retrospect what ultimately is happening is that students in urban secondary public schools whom...
United States. ERIC Development Team. Latino High School Leaving: Some Practical Solutions. By Harriett D Romo. Charleston: ERIC, 1998. Print.
As the South Carolina State Superintendent of Instruction, Contreras (2002) says that sharing the factors that play a vital role in meeting the needs of immigrant students will be most effective in providing information to the senior-level staff. To help develop a statewide policy I would assign the teaching and learning senior staff member the responsibility of overseeing that immigrant students have equal access to a good education and that funding be provided for teachers to teach. This also includes providing a differentiated curriculum to teach the immigrant students. The finance and ad...
Immigration played a large part in public education. With so many children immigrating to America for an education, schools were being packed with students. However, many of these students were not going to school and instead were working in
Education is an integral part of society, school helps children learn social norms as well as teach them how to be successful adults. The school systems in United States, however are failing their students. In the world as a whole, the United States is quickly falling behind other countries in important math and reading scores. The United States ranked thirtieth in math on a global scale and twentieth in literacy. This is even more true in more urban, lower socio-economic areas in the United States. These schools have lower test scores and high dropout rates. In Trenton Central High School West, there was an 83% proficiency in literacy and only 49% of the students were proficient in math. Many of these students come from minority backgrounds and are often from low income families. There are many issues surrounding these urban schools. There is a severe lack of proper funding in these districts, and much of the money they do receive is sanctioned for non-crucial things. Schools also need a certain level of individualization with their students, and in many urban classes, this simply does not happen. While there are many factors affecting the low performance of urban schools, the lack of proper funding and distribution of funds, the cultural divide between teachers and students in urban districts, along with the lack of individualization in urban classrooms are crucial reasons to explain the poor performance in these districts. Through a process of teacher lead budget committees and further teacher education, urban schools can be transformed and be better equipped to prepare their students for the global stage.
It is argued that there are 4 elements critical to the effectiveness of the instructional process: 1. the learner, 2. the teacher, 3. the home, and 4. the academic programs and the physical facilities at the school. These are interdependent and interactive and must function in unison for effective teaching to take place. The teacher's primary responsibility is to help the learner grow intellectually, physically, emotionally, and socially. Therefore, teachers should be competent, dedicated, and committed to the profession of teaching and to the service of the students. Teachers should have adequate academic and professional preparation and the requisite traits of character. Teachers should be respected, appreciated, and sumptuously remunerated to enable them to devote themselves with total concentration to the task of teaching. A home where education is valued contributes in immeasurable ways to the quality of learning of the child. Finally, the school should have innovative, creative, differentiated, and challenging academic programs."</cite> For example, if the schools physical facilities aren't in a good, safe condition, the learner will have a hard time learning because his mind will be on his own personal safety and well being. A lot of the inner city schools in the United States are older than the teachers that teach in them. Some schools are so overc...
The decade of the 1980s saw numerous calls for widespread school reform, with changes recommended in teacher education, graduation requirements, school structure, and accountability measures. With the advent of the 1990s, school reform finally to...
The stories and resilience I’ve seen and heard remind of the importance of civic engagement and leadership. I recognize that without the support of mentors such as Mr. Bravo, I would not be writing these words today. At age 22, I have returned to the community that shaped the individual I am today. My way of giving back for the opportunities I have had in life is by serving as a resource, mentor, and tutor to the youth in my community. I work closely with 11 at risk eight grade students at Carver Middle School, a school in South Los Angeles. My purpose in serving in this community is because my students deserve a quality education that will allow them to develop the skills to be civically engaged citizens. Therefore, building brave spaces for my students is crucial to me; because, I am aware of the importance of social and emotional support of one’s personal and professional development. I want my students to know that they matter and that they are not