Dive Brief:
- An analysis of the Evanston, IL school system finds white students performing significantly above national averages and black students performing below them — and it’s not just a story of family income, because wealthy black and white students in Evanston still have achievement gaps.
- Bloomberg reports far fewer Latinos and black students than whites take Advanced Placement classes in Evanston, white students are less likely to be disciplined for behavior infractions, and that — even while the impressive diversity among the student body can be described as a “utopia” for some students — blacks and Latinos still get short shrift.
- While Evanston spends about $22,000 per high school student, PBS Newshour reports the United States ranks 12th among developed nations for the amount it spends per student over the course of their K-12 education ($139,000), even though U.S. students sit in class longer than almost anywhere else.
Dive Insight:
The U.S. education system has always privileged wealthy, white students over the rest of their peers. The problem now is that our society does not have room for uneducated adults. No longer can people survive with poor educational backgrounds by getting relatively well-paying jobs in factories. The equity problems so many schools do not seem to be able to overcome are a threat to the U.S. economy, and that’s a major reason why powerful businesspeople and policymakers have championed education reform.
At the school level, frank conversations about internalized bias and targeted training to help teachers overcome unconscious — or conscious — stereotyping can help improve some of the more stubborn trends in discipline and placement in advanced classes. Still, it cannot be ignored that schools can only do so much to overcome external challenges. They, however, provide a unique opportunity to serve as a home base for wrap-around services that community partners provide, addressing problems presented by poverty and neighborhood violence, among others.