Planting Seeds, Growing Diversity

Article Author name(s): Vanessa Hua
Title of article: Planting Seeds, Growing Diversity
Title of journal: Teaching Tolerance
Volume of the journal: Spring 2011
Issue number of the journal: 39
Intended audience: Students, parents and teachers

http://www.tolerance.org/magazine/number-39-spring-2011/planting-seeds-growing-diversity

Key Points: Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) has long been dominated by white male students, and now is the time for women and students of color to make a breakthrough into the scientific curriculum of our schools. It’s not that there have not been notable minorities who have great contribution to the STEM fields, but rather their work has not been highlighted and added to curriculum, and it should be. The STEM fields are dominated 2 to 1 by male employees over female workers.

STEM teachers should aim to integrate lesser acknowledged scientists, preferably women and minorities, when discussing principle discoveries by the common, more popular researchers. Teachers say that my including the lesser known details of the field, stereotypes can be shattered and students can benefit from true discovery learning. Teachers must present STEM professions as passionate ones that break the mold from what students tend to think. For example, that engineering is not like being in a science club working with the “nerdy boys”, but rather than engineers are necessary to create almost everything, from toys to model homes. Using these examples, students can be prompted to relate the STEM fields to their own lives, and also ask parents to help students learn relevant STEM lessons outside of the classroom. For instance, one student’s mother discovered that although not a rocket scientist, she loved gardening; therefore she was a great asset to her daughter in the field of botany!

Relevance: Science teacher Alison Seymour summarizes the issue well, stating, “A diverse background brings diverse ideas. Thinking out of the box is a big part of science, which you won’t get if everyone is from the same background and education.

"Disintegration"

“Seeking Integration, Whatever the Path” by Michael Winerip
New York Times, February 27, 2011

Topic: Integration in the Wake County Public School System in North Carolina.

Summary: This school district has long been known for integration. Originally, this meant racial integration. After that was outlawed, the district went to integration based on socio-economics. Now there is a proposal from community leaders in the Chamber of Commerce to integrate schools based on achievement.

Intended audience: General public

Key Points:

• After race-based integration was outlawed in 2000, Wake County adopted socioeconomic integration.
• The integration plan was dismantled in 2009.
• New proposal (Mid-February 2011) suggests achievement based integration with a “70-30 mix – 70 percent of students who have scored proficient on state tests and 30 percent who are below grade level.”
• All the schools will be academically successful – Hurrah!
• Ultimately, the decision is up to the board; however, it has been received favorably by conservative and liberal members of the nine person board.

Relevance: This article was really interesting to me – what an innovative way to look at school integration! The article touches on issues of diversity that we have discussed student achievement, race, socioeconomics, and politics. I am interested to see how this idea plays out.

Note - Here is the clip from the Colbert Report mentioned in this article about the Wake County Schools issue:

Uncovering the Movement

Afi-Odelia E. Scruggs
Uncovering the Movement
Teaching Tolerance
Spring 2010
Issue 37

http://www.tolerance.org/magazine/number-37-spring-2010/uncovering-movement

Teaching students local history through relevant means, where students research their own history. Mississippi was central in the Civil Rights Movement so students should be expected to take active role in understanding history and recognizing its place in current society.

Vickie Malone’s high school students in Mississippi are breaking ground by not simply playing the student, but becoming researchers themselves and active members of the community. This is an important task students should take on considering that after a movement of integration, public schools are now going through new means of re-segregation.

Intended audience: Educators, students, parents, members of community

Students should do active research to figure out how past events are currently affecting their lives now. In the process, relationships are built with fellow peers and those in the community students meet through active research. As more and more questions are asked, students will strive to answer them, and along the way will create new and even more relevant questions that deepen understanding. The classroom must be a safe place for students to learn and inquire, and once that environment is set, students have control of the classroom and maneuver through discussion. Encourage students to speak frankly while remaining sensitive to others, never let a student leave class without their dignity, and always discuss any topic of offense so students don’t leave uncomfortable or put down.
In class we constantly discuss making teaching a relevant process for students to help inspire intrinsic motivation so they are able to take responsibility for their own learning and true understanding. The teacher focused on in this article does exactly that by asking the students to evaluate the hard questions (not asking just what happened, by why and how it’s still happening), and pound the pavement to reach out to local community members who can give then real insight into the local history of segregation.

Counting by Race Can Throw Off Some Numbers

Susan Saulny
"Counting by Race Can Throw Off Some Numbers"
The New York Times
February 9,2011
URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/10/us/10count.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&hp
Topic: Discussion of how difficult it is to classify race in an increasingly mixed race society. There is also a "continued discussion" with other writers attached.

Summary: When it comes to keeping racial statistics, the nation is in transition, moving, often without uniformity, from the old “mark one box” limit to allowing citizens to check as many boxes as their backgrounds demand. Changes in how Americans are counted by race and ethnicity are meant to improve the precision with which the nation’s growing diversity is gauged. In the process, however, a measurement problem has emerged. Despite the federal government’s setting standards more than a decade ago, data on race and ethnicity are being collected and aggregated in an assortment of ways. The lack of uniformity is making comparison and analysis extremely difficult across fields and across time.

Intended audience: General Public

Key points: Contrary to the debate on Saturday, the classification of race by the US government is not being pressed by whites for discrimination, but by racial minorities who want to ensure funds for disadvantaged students are directed appropriately.

Relevance: Continues our discussion from the Race as an Illusion seminar.

Closing the Achievement Gap

“Closing the Achievement Gap Without Widening a Racial One” by Michael Winerip
New York Times, February 13, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/education/14winerip.html?ref=education

Topic: Profile of Harvard Professor, Ronald Ferguson, who is working to close the achievement gap.

Summary: Richard Ferguson travels around the country to measure causes of the achievement gap. His background, based in economics, leads him to use a lot of quantitative data. He also meets with students, faculty members, and parents, to explain how the achievement gap can be narrowed. Ferguson attributes the gap to two main causes. First, economics, second, “black parents are not as academically oriented in raising their children as whites.”

Intended audience: General Public

Key Points:

• The achievement gap is a real problem. For example, Ferguson calculated that in a variety of racially mixed suburbs, the average grade of black students was a C+ while white students averaged a B+
• Even in a “wealthy suburb, blacks are not as well-to-do; 79 percent are in the bottom 50 percent financially, while 73 percent of whites are in the top 50 percent.”
• “Black parents are not as academically oriented in raising their children as whites…by fifth grade, 60 percent to 70 percent of whites still read daily to their children, compared with 30 percent to 40 percent of blacks.”

Relevance: This article relates to educating a diverse community of learners, addressing teacher biases, and working to build bridges between parents, students, and educators. I am sure it will draw parallels to the RACE documentary series we will be watching on Saturday.

Analysis Finds Fewer Whites

“Among Nation’s Youngest, Analysis Finds Fewer Whites” by Sabrina Tavernise

New York Times, February 7^th, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/us/08census.html?ref=education

Topic: Percentage of minority students is increasing, according to a recent census study.

Summary: According to an analysis of the most recent census data, percentage of minority students enrolled in public education is increasing. Population growth, in general, has come less from the aging White population and more from Blacks, Asians, and Hispanics. The analysis showed that the number of minority students has increased dramatically from the last census of 2000. Demographer, William Frey, said, “We are on our way to having a majority of minority students in U.S. schools.” This is important as the article states that the “United States is lagging behind in educating minority students.”

Intended audience: General Public

Key Points:

· White students are now a minority in preschool and kindergarten in eight states.

· In preschool to graduate school, white students now account for 58.8% of enrollment.

· It is important to find an effective way to educate such a diverse population of students.

Relevance: This article ties into the importance of Pacific’s philosophy of promoting cultural competence. With minorities increasing all over the country, promoting diversity and being prepared to teach in a community filled with diverse learners so important!