Minorities Lag Behind Whites in School
Advanced Classes are Predominantly White Students
Students have historically taken advanced classes to better themselves for college. Currently, middle schools are offering high school level classes for ambitious middle school students. While this a great opportunity for those capable of the challenge, most of the students who take these classes are white, even in school where the population is predominantly non-white.
Students Self-Segregate
Schools are not separating students into minority or white but the students are doing so by the classes they are selecting. In Florida, many are concerned that the advanced classes offered are becoming all white.
- Lee Middle School in Orlando is 29 percent white. However, 92 percent of middle school students taking geometry for high school credit are whites. 77 percent of those taking Earth-Space science are also white.
- At Maitland Middle School in Orlando, 40 percent of students are minority. Again, only 10 percent of students taking high school level Algebra I Honors and Earth-Space science are minorities.
- Geometry classes offered at four Seminole County middle schools have no black children taking any geometry classes offered.
- Milwee Middle School is 24 percent black but none of the 50 students taking geometry is black.
Parent Factor in Taking Advanced Classes
Kevin G. Welner, a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, believes that the parent factor plays a strong role in this disparity. White students are more likely to have college-educated parents that welcome the challenge of advanced classes. "Unless you believe that African-American and Latino kids are somehow, as a group, academically inferior to white kids, then you have to believe there are a lot of kids in those lower-track classes who have the potential for tremendous academic success." [1]
White parents are more likely to have a high school diploma and advanced degrees. They are more likely to encourage children to take more challenging classes because they themselves are more likely to have been successful in school.
Non-Successful Parents Less Likely to Enter a School
The education maze is threatening to many parents that were not successful in school. Just entering a school for a meeting or conferences may be intimidating and a reminder of past failures as a student.
Schools open doors for conferences and meetings with parents. But, those that are intimidated by the mere institution of education are not going to walk through the doors unless a personal invitation is extended. Perhaps more effort is needed to meet with parents one-on-one and to make frequent phone calls explaining the potential of minority students and working together to achieve that goal.
Breaking Away from Unsuccessful Educational Trends
The lack of success in the past and culture of many minority students is a roadblock to success. The more success minority students achieve, the more minority peers will take notice for a trickle up effect. The process of challenging minority students begins in elementary school and continues throughout the K-12 years. Past failures need not be failures of the future.
Source: Denise-Marie Balona, "Higher learning: More middle-schoolers leapfrog into advanced classes – but are minorities being left behind?," Orlando Sentinel, February 15, 2009.
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