Report Example on Educational Inequality: A Discussion on Differentiation in U.S. Schools

Introduction

The education system is seen to be different for different social classes and races in the United States since 1954, where racial segregation was made illegal in schools. During the research, I found out that this is evident in schools across the states. In this paper, I am going to discuss the differentiation in the school system.

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Social Inequality

Children are enrolled in a different school all over the country, hoping to get the best from each school. However, this does not seem to be the case as schools are differentiated depending on social classes. Schools can get categorized into affluent professional, working-class, elite executive, and middle-class schools.

Schools for the working-class use mechanical procedures in teaching and involve routine behavior and less decision-making. Teachers tell the children rules to follow, and the children copy them as notes which are to be studied. The children's work is evaluated based on whether they followed the steps and not whether they are right or wrong. The income of the majority of families in these schools is $12,000 or below (Anyon 67-92).

In the middle-class schools, the teaching method is different for the goal is getting the correct answer. For a good grade, one needs to accrue the right answers. The directions used to get to the right answer often involve some figuring choice and decision making. The responses cannot be made up and must be given in the correct order. Most families in these schools are $13,000 to $25,000, with a few higher.

The affluent professional school, the work is carried out independently and involves creative activity. The children's job entails individual thought. The teaching procedure seeks to expand and illustrate the child's idea and choice of a suitable method and material to solve a particular problem. Relatively few rules are usually used criteria or limits on the activity; on the other hand, it promotes individualism. Most of the families’ income is between $40,000 and $80,000.

In the elite executive schools, one's analytical. Intellectual power is what their focus. The goal is to intellectualize rules by which elements may fit together in a system and then using them to fix the problem—almost all families in this school's income range from $100,000 to $500,000.

Conclusion

The segregation of schools is seen in in big cities. For instance, in a neighborhood in Seattle where almost 50 percent of the families living in the area were Caucasian, but 95 percent of students at a school community were African American, Hispanic, Native American, or Asian (Jonathan 580). The white people in the area take their children to a 'predominantly white school.' In the YouTube video, the protest was fuelled by students' need for better education; the students believed that there was more to be done.The different types of education offered by various schools across the country have a significant impact on colleges, careers, and the lives of the different children who receive it. The different schools equip children with different skills, which may be an advantage that some may have over others in the career market. The racial segregation affects the children and divides them based on race. Racial segregation affects children because it divides them from a young age; therefore, they grow up knowing they should not interact with persons from other races.

Work sited

Kozol, Jonathan. "Still separate, still unequal." Harper's Magazine, 311.1864 (2005): 41.

Anyon, Jean. "Social class and the hidden curriculum of work." Journal of education (1980): 67-92.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY6cytReBm8