Desegregation because Integration Shows Proven Results

 

Nikole Hannh Jones

     The statistics that Ira Glass and Nikole Hannah Jones discuss at the start of their segment "The Problem We All Live With" are staggering.  At the "start of real desegregation the achievement gap between black and white students was about 40 points,"according to Jones.  Glass points out "on standardized reading tests in 1971, black 13 year olds tested 39 points worse than white kids.  That dropped to just 18 points by 1988 at the height of desegregation.  The improvement in math scores was close to that, though not quite as good".  This is proof that integration works.  Combining lots of different cultures can bring lots of sharing of ideas, customs, cultures, and explanations of beliefs, all of which provide learning experiences.  Students learn in a variety of ways, but one of the best for many students is working with a partner or small group.  Having a common goal leads to communication and cooperation.  Having different experiences will lead students to think about things in a way that makes sense to them.  Sharing their thoughts and ideas leads to learning and discovery a teacher cannot plan for.  

     The Separate but Equal was just an idea, it was never a reality although the newspaper is date 1954!  Even "the United States Department of Education has put out data in 2014  showing that black and Latina kids in segregated schools have the least qualified teachers, the least experienced teachers."  The data is filled with more outrageous statistics in every category.  Some examples: "Black children represent 19% of preschool enrollment, but 47% of preschool children receiving one or more out-of-school suspensions; in comparison, white children represent 41% of preschool enrollment, but 28% of preschool children receiving one or more out-of-school suspensions".  Another part showed "Racial disparities in suspensions are also apparent in K-12 schools: While 6% of all K-12 students received one or more out-of-school suspensions, the percentage is 18% for black boys; 10% for black girls; 5% for white boys; and 2% for white girls".  The school buildings, supplies, and availability of equipment and technology is also extremely unequal.  These poor segregated schools had no way to improve.  They could barely keep themselves running never mind fine ways to get better.  As Nikole Hannah Jones said, "In most of the thousands of poor, segregated school in America, that would be it.  Your zip code is the anchor that traps you".  Normandy is an example of how bad schools don't get better.  They were put on "provisional accreditation" which was to be a warning, yet they remained with this label for fifteen years, proving poverty ridden, segregated schools don't get any better. 
      I found the Normandy school district's failure and ultimate bankruptcy extremely upsetting and very sad.  Especially with how long the schools continually failed which inevitably means those children who passed through are they educated?  Will they be able to become productive members of society?  When they are finally forced by law to give student choice, they try to sabotage students ability to leave by providing transportation to a "white" school 30 miles away.  At that school, Francis Howell, the reaction was even more negative.  Accusations of violent behavior, implications that the "different areas" shouldn't be mixing and they shouldn't allow people "coming across on our side of the bridge".  Parents go as far to ask for metal detectors, suggest changing start times, and blamed the kids from Normandy for things that haven't even happened.  So although this was never a desegregation program it proved how successful desegregation could be.  Hannah Jones explains " In the schools where white families chose to stay, test scores for black transfer students rose.  They were more likely to graduate and to go to college.  After years of resistance, St. Louis had created the largest and most successful metro-wide desegregation program in the country".
     In the last part of the segment, when they discuss how Normandy continues to suffer and Elisa Crouch follows a Normandy senior honor student through his day.  Middle school level assignments in an AP class, four music classes but only three academic classes, and classes being taught by substitutes who are not certified were just some of her observations.  The statement "It's hard to imagine a bar lower than that".  I feel that Central Falls as a district is falling into a similar situation.  Our schools are struggling because of our transient population who live in poverty and our society continues to make it a struggle for them to survive.  In my daughters first year at U.R.I., she was matched up with a Central Falls graduate as a roommate who truly believed she was ready for college.  However, at the end of the first semester my daughter had earned 15 credits plus the 6 from taking AP classes in high school, so 21 credits.  Her roommate ended the semester with 3 college credits and could not understand why, when she had as many classes as my daughter.  Nobody at the high school and nobody at the college explained that all the 100 level classes were just preparing her for the classes that give credits.  She has four free years of college, but at this rate she won't be close to graduating, but she also won't be able to continue financially.  I feel that Central Falls set her up to fail.  We need to hold our students to high academic standards and do our best to provide the support to get them there.  We can't continue to lower the bar and cheat the standards, because it is having negative affects.  We are sending more students off to college in Central Falls but are they graduating and becoming successful adults?   

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