Perspectives of "Gaps" in Education and the Issue of Civil Rights
Troy Arnel Crayton, Ph.D.
Social Policy Analysis, Race Analysis, Social Research, and Strategy
Daniel Losen and others' (2015) most recent report titled Are We Closing the Discipline Gap? (https://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/resources/projects/center-for-civil-rights-remedies/school-to-prison-folder/federal-reports/are-we-closing-the-school-discipline-gap/losen-are-we-closing-school-discipline-gap-2015.pdf) provides some great insight into answering this question. The report includes the quote, "If we ignore the discipline gap, we will be unable to close the achievement gap" (Losen & et.al, 2015). Indeed, this statement provokes deeper consideration. For example, Are civil rights challenges predominantly unseen? Are civil rights challenges hidden? Shankar Vedantam (2010) in his work titled The Hidden Brain explored and found that our actions are based on unconscious biases that direct our actions. In other words, biases for which we are consciously unaware guide how we act. Could such a human process have something to do with how students are "disciplined"?
The question may make one think of the subject as "the discipline gap plays into the achievement gap." When one thinks of "gap" the author thinks of "difference." So, "the difference in discipline plays into the difference in achievement." The author happens to agree, however, it seems that, if Vedantam (2010) is correct, the common term "difference" (i.e. challenge) establishes a need for action which in turn means that biases play into how the challenge is addressed to resolve the issues of discipline and achievement. One is trying to say that the issues have two sides in the case of the schoolhouse, the student and the adult (teacher, administrator, etc). Typically, its the adult that establishes the cause and process toward resolving the issue. Therefore, a cause, or reason for the difference - if you will, is either the students', the adults', or some combination of the two. According to Losen (2015), race plays into the equation. If race plays into the decision-making process for addressing the issues, then the decision-maker - the adult, does so based from unconscious factors. Crudely put, the issue is the students' fault, the adults' fault, or some combination of the two. And it is submitted the approach and perspective used play roles in resolving the difference or not.
If discipline or achievement is strictly the students' fault, then the perspective may have not considered the decision-makers' biases sufficiently. Thus, the decision-makers may not have considered where fault may lay within themselves or some combination of the two. One calls this the opportunity gap. In other words, if discipline is an action inflicted upon certain students disproportionately, then the "gap" is a matter of opportunity provided for students. Have the students' lived experience and culture adequately been considered?
The "opportunity gap" should be a part of the calculus of educating students more equally, should play into the challenge of equalizing achievement. Said yet another way, to address achievement equally, the challenge should be seen from the perspective of how education is being provided rather than what students do not bring to the institution of education. "What" based on the unconsciously conjured bases for action? "What" as a matter of students' civil rights?
Great article. Of course there is an achievement gap if the entire "game" has not been designed to be one of equality and fairness. The key to closing the "gap" is to inform and acknowledge collectively the racial inequities created and sustained in America, heal, and act in love, kindness and equality to examine our "systems" (healthcare, business, government, education) with an equitable racal lens to promote equality rather than the exact opposite. We can no longer pretend the monstrosities of America's beginnings and its actions would never have any long lasting symptoms that lead to the diseased state we live in today. Where and what you believe tells where one falls on the spectrum of cultural consciousness and determines your actions, so it is beneficial to examine those who directly pour into our children. It's the whole fixing the fish vs the lake syndrome often used in racal equity circles and most recently shared at a seminar I attended that explained this very well.
School Principal at School City of Hammond
9 年Very good conversation! Too many allowances break down the ability to discipline and set high expectations. Double edge sword.
Social Policy Analysis, Race Analysis, Social Research, and Strategy
9 年Indeed, Rev. Ramey, and thank you as it presents further context for the discussion. I believe you reference "Black American Students in An Affluent Suburb: A Study of Academic Engagement" (Ogbu, 2003), excellent work. Another is his posthumously published work "Minority Status, Oppositional Culture, & Schooling. - Sociocultural, Poitical, and Historical Studies in Education" (2008). In this work, for example, Dr. Ogbu (2008) states that "My research and studies by others have shown that oppositional collective identity and oppositional cultural frames of reference influence minority students' school performance" (p.4). My submission alludes to the position that Dr Ogbu (2003; 2008) presents here - in the classroom. In sum, when I speak of education being considered more equally from a position of facilitating "opportunity," I am suggesting that one, when facilitating educational engagement in the classroom, must be conscious about "cultural frames" that are biased and a social contract that exacerbates a "collective identity" that each are "oppositional" to that which students bring to the learning table. Teachers must be disposed to understand these positions yet also facilitate growth in learning. In fact, as Ogbu (1998) explains through his cultural-ecological theory, teachers, for example, should be disposed "(consider) the broad societal and school factors as well as the dynamics within the minority's communities [which] refers to the way people (in the case of minoritiea) see their weld and behave in it" (p.158). To not do so is to be susceptible to a manifestation of deficit thought (e.g. Edwards, 2007; Edwards & et.al, 1998; Valencia, 2010).
KJV Bible Teacher (Retired) at The Gang Line
9 年Suggest that you read the late Dr. John Ogbu's work in Shaker Heights, Ohio about Black Student Achievement. His book is also a classic, on Amazon. I've got both of the works. Bottom line...until the home is unified with the motivating of students to be successful, the problems will remain. Teachers have been 'programmed' not to discipline properly, out of fear and an apathetic administrative structure that has school corporations making money off of suspended/expelled/LD students.
Social Policy Analysis, Race Analysis, Social Research, and Strategy
9 年Thank you for your response, Karem. Although not exhaustive, I ask that you reread the initiating submissions.