1. (Un)equal Opportunities? Class, Race and Education in America
Elizabeth Steding – March 17, 2018

2. GoaLs/application Goals for today: In-Class applications:
sharing information and online resources
In-Class applications:
reading non-fictional texts
Interpreting charts and graphs
listening (podcasts)
cultural analysis/comparison (US/Germany)
NOTE: I use the term „student“ rather than „pupil“

3. Opening Question

4. Make a list. You have 2 minutes.
Opening Question
What do you associate with schools in America?
Make a list. You have 2 minutes.

5. How do schools in America (not) promote equality?
Focus Question
How do schools in America (not) promote equality?

6. Challenges to Equality
Racial Segregation
Housing Patterns
School Funding
Poverty
All of these issues are connected

7. Historical Segregation
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
„separate but equal“
Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
outlawed de jure racial segregation (but not de facto)
Resources:
Readers‘ Theater re-enactment of Brown
Brown Teaching Materials from NEA
(National Education Association)

8. School de/Segregation Today
What has happened in matters of school integration since Brown?
Is America making progress? Why does it matter?
Who is generally most affected by segregation?
Take a few minutes to discuss

9. School Integration
Overall, some progress was made after Brown vs. Board of Education, but since the 1980s, there have been discouraging downward trends.
Many busing programs (that allowed inner-city minority students to attend white suburban schools) were discontinued. Why?
Money
Sense that they had achieved their goals
Why busing didn‘t end school segregation (audio/text)

10. Black students in White schools in the South
Oklahoma City vs. Dowell – see:

11. Who are the students?

12. Minority Schools

13. School de/Segregation Today
„apartheid schools“ – less than 1% white
Nationwide: 15% of Black students and 14% of Latino students attended an apartheid school in 2012
In Chicago, 50% of Black students did
(apartheid school statistics)

14. School de/Segregation Today
Resources
Segregation Now (online investigative reporting)
-includes a map showing segregation over time (by state)
The Problem We All Live With (podcast – This American Life)
Part 1 –Normandy, Missouri (forced integration)
Part 2 – Hartford, Connecticut (active integration)
This American Life is a radio program that covers all kinds of topics. It is an hour long and generally includes 2-4 segments.
(Website has audio and transcripts)

15. Housing Patterns
Schools generally draw students from the local neighborhood
Housing Policies / Public Housing / Redlining
Housing Bias and Segregation (video)
Teaching students about redlining (slide presentation link)
Mapping Inequality (interactive maps, )
Housing patterns don‘t just lead to segregation, but to funding differences....

16. School Funding
Funding comes from the federal, state, and local governments (largely via property taxes)
How is funding appropriated in Germany? (percentages?)
How do you think it is appropriated in the US?
(2014): Bund 7%, Länder 72%, Gemeinden 21%

17. School Funding in the US
Federal: ca 10%
State: ca 45%
Local: ca 45%
The result is a wide range of funding levels. (interactive map)

18. Poverty Individual/Family poverty High-Poverty schools
More than 75% of students eligible for free or reduced-priced lunch
(reduced-price at 185% of poverty level, free lunch 130%)
Family of 4: poverty $24,600 ($2050/mo)
Reduced: $45,510 ($3793/mo)
Free: $31,980 ($2665/mo)
Disproportionally impacts minority students

19. Who attends high-poverty schools?
Low-poverty schools: less than 25% eligible for free and reduced-priced lunch

20. High-Poverty Schools High-poverty schools face many challenges:
At-risk students
Less-experienced teachers
Old/Dysfunctional buildings
Fewer „enrichment“ classes (AP, music, art)
Lower expectations

21. How Schools do foster opportunities and equality
All is not lost, however!
Some schools in high-poverty areas defy the odds
Dispelling the Myth (short school portraits)
ExtraOrdinary Districts (podcast)

22. Integrated Schools and academic achievement
For more information about the benefits of integrated schools for ALL students, see:
NAEP – National Assessment of Educational Progress SES – Socio-Economic Status

23. How Schools do foster opportunities and equality
More education generally equals higher wages, lower unemployment
More education = more opportunities

24. More Education = Higher Wages
If interested in historical info, see Table A3 ( ):

25. How Schools do foster opportunities and equality
More education generally equals higher wages
Title I – extra federal funding for schools with 40% or more low income students
Also: Free and Reduced Lunch program
Poverty does not „doom“ students to low achievement

26. Questions? Thoughts?
What information/ideas/statistics have caught your attention?
Which issue do you think would be of most interest to your students?

27. Thank you! Feel free to contact me with further questions
Elizabeth Steding
Luther College