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The response should be at least three well-developed paragraphs. Please include at least one citation from an outside reading to support your analysis. Do not forget to use APA 7 formatting for citations.
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Question 1
In 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that racial segregation laws were constitutional so long as the segregated facilities were equal in quality – a doctrine that became known as “separate but equal.” Thurgood Marshall chose to go after the root of the evil – the segregation itself – and Brown V. Board became the law of the land in 1954 determining that separate but equal has no place with “separate educational facilities being inherently unequal.”
Fast forward 64 years. Today, our schools look like Brown v Board of Education never happened. In addition, zero tolerance policies have added to the burdens already placed on certain bodies, leading to what is now being referred to as the “cradle to prison pipeline.”
Desegregation had provided the ONLY major results regarding the pernicious achievement gap in our nation’s history. During the 1980s – the achievement gap between white students and Black students was cut in HALF. Once equal opportunity was offered across the board – to better classes, better teachers, better facilities – schools began to produce the results that have not been replicated before or since. “Black Americans who attended schools integrated by court order were more likely to graduate, go on to college, and earn a degree than Black Americans who attended segregated schools. They made more money – five years of integrated schooling increased the earnings of Black adults by 15 percent” (Segregation Now). It was also found that integration improved the lot of all Americans – white students did just as well in integrated schools – but after being a part of an integrated environment – whites were more likely to live in integrated neighborhoods and to send their own children to racially diverse schools.
What do these statements mean to you – as a student, as a future educator, as a current educator, as a parent or future parent? What does it imply for the building of classroom communities and the ways we engage in curriculum and educational planning? If we are truly better when we learn together – when our classrooms reflect the beautiful diversity that is America – then what has happened to divide us so? Who is to blame and who can change it? How can we change it within our classroom communities?
