Education System Remains Unfair Across the Board

Academic achievement among Latino/a students in the nation has remained stagnant over the years. The gap between Whites and Latino/a students has more than doubled in the past decade. Many of the Latino students perform poorly in school compared to other ethnic groups in the United States. This gap has continued to be prevalent in all learning levels for many years. As such, the inequality gap between the minority and majority groups in the US continues to widen as the minority are deprived of the employability skills leaving them underrepresented after graduation.

The cumulative challenges that Latino/a student’s face in the in their live contribute to their poor academic performance. In this essay I will argue that the reasons for weak academic performances among Latino/a students are due to lack of resources, lack of parent involvement, and high poverty levels.

It is the right of every child in America to access high quality education. As a nation that aims at promoting equality, it is important to understand that the education system remains unfair across the board.

Researchers in the line of the education field have studied the causes of the poor performance amongst the minority groups with similar results being recorded. According to Gandara, author of “The Potential and Promise of Latino Students,” stated that one of the fastest growing minority groups in the US is the Latino/a’s (4).

Despite their continued growth, the group faces major challenges that continually deter them from keeping up with the rest of the society.

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One of these problems manifests in the way they are treated as they attempt to access education. In her essay, “The Essentials of a good Education” by Diane Ravitch, argues that in “affluent communities today, such schools are the norm in the public sector, not just the private sector. They were once the norm in ordinary American public schools. Today, however, the No Child Left Behind law and the Race to the Top program have undermined this ideal curriculum and restricted it to only the most affluent communities” (107). The government and American society should aim at eliminating these causal factors to eliminate the education related disadvantages and promote equality across all groups of students.

One of the reasons why Latinos perform poorly in schools is due to the insufficient resources available in the school (Schneider et al. 179). According to reports collected from schools countrywide, schools that are located in low income areas receive low funds to cater for the expenses that the schools incurs in their operation (Semuels). The opposite is the case for schools that are located in high income neighborhoods. The children that live in the low-income neighborhoods, therefore, suffer the consequences of the insufficient fund allocation. Apparently, the minority groups make up the largest percentage of people living in these low-income neighborhoods. A common characteristic of these areas is that they usually have insufficient funds to buy textbooks and pay teachers. Therefore, while the schools in rich neighborhoods have variety and plenty of textbooks, those in poor neighborhoods have scarce textbooks, which cannot serve the students in entirety. This makes it difficult for the students to effectively study either in class or at home during their personal studies. Hence, the reasoning behind their education fall back compared to the whites.

The insufficient resources in the minority schools that affect the performance of students further include few teachers and few classrooms (Semuels). The low-income areas have a higher population density as compared to high-income neighborhoods. Therefore, each class in the schools dominated by Latinos have more students than the schools with white students. The teachers working in the low-income schools are overwhelmed by the work. With the few classrooms and the high population density, each teacher is charged with teaching classes that are over the recommended capacity. The congested classes make it difficult for the teachers to give the special attention that the Latino/a students may require to improve. It is important for teachers to identify the weak areas for each of their students so that they can know how to help them improve these areas while still building on their strengths, a chance these teachers do not get. Although the Latino students do not get the recommended attention, the white students in the high-income schools get all the attention and help they need to excel in their education, which contributes to the differences in performance. For instance, only about 18% of white children have low reading readiness rates compared to 42% for their Latino counterparts (Boschma and Brownstein).

The low performance rates are further caused by the lack of help from qualified guidance counselors (Semuels). The students in the low-income areas go through a lot of challenges while in school as well in their homes. Without proper help and counseling the students resort to engaging in bad behavior as a way of coping with the challenges. The rebellion and extreme cases of misbehavior pushes both the teachers and guidance counselors into quitting. Therefore, the schools end up with very few guidance counselors, who cannot effectively help all the students that need their help. The case is different in the schools located in good neighborhoods. The salaries received by the guidance counselors is enough motivation to keep them in the school. The students further hardly have any issues that require the help of the counselors. Without the help that they require, the Latino students can hardly meet their education goals and the vice versa is true for the white students. This difference thereby contributes to the big education gap between the two groups.

The poor academic performance of Latinos in high schools is further caused by high poverty levels in their neighborhoods (Boschma and Brownstein). The federal government has assigned the local government the responsibility of funding public schools. The amount of money that each school receives is dependent on the amount of taxes that were paid from that region or neighborhood (Semuels).