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The U.S. spends significantly more on education than other OECD countries. In 2010, the U.S. spent 39 percent more per full-time student for elementary and secondary education than the average for other countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Yet, more money spent doesn't translate to better educational outcomes. In fact, American education is rife with problems, starting with the gaping differences between white students and students of color: More than 60 years after Brown vs. Board of Education, school systems in the United States are separate and unequal. By 2022, the number of Hispanic students in public elementary and secondary schools is projected to grow 33 percent from the 2011 numbers. The number of multi-racial students is expected to grow 44 percent.

As the percentage of white students in our education shrinks and the percentage of students of color grow, the U.S. will be left with an education system that doesn't serve the majority of its children properly; the gaps in education will prove especially problematic.

Since the killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, by a white police officer, U.S. News examined the persistent gaps between black and white Americans, finding both the health and the justice system full of disparities.

As with those areas, many factors contribute to disparities in education. Lower wealth, lower health, lower parental education levels, more dealings with the justice system and other circumstances create a perfect storm that leaves blacks without the same educational opportunities as whites.

Educational expectations are lower for black children, according to Child Trends, a non-profit and non-partisan research center that tracks data about children. Black parents, most of whom are less educated than their white counterparts, don't expect their children to attain as much education as white parents expect. Lower expectations become self-fulfilling prophecies, contributing to lower expectations from the student, less-positive attitudes toward school, fewer out-of-school learning opportunities and less parent-child communication about school.

By age 2, disparities already show between black and white children. Fewer black children demonstrate proficiency in development skills such as receptive vocabulary, expressive vocabulary, matching, early counting, math, color knowledge, numbers and shapes. While 91 percent of white children aged 3 to 5 who weren't enrolled in kindergarten were read to by family members three or more times per week, 78 percent of black children were read to with the same frequency.

Black parents may have less access to materials, have less time because of job and family obligations or be less comfortable reading. While the average number of words read correctly per minute for white adults with basic reading skills was 102, for blacks it was 85. Children's books also may not be as interesting to black children (or their parents) because of the lack of diversity in them: While about half of children under 5 are non-white, characters in children's books are overwhelmingly white.

Formal schooling starts at about the same time for black and white students. Black children who are about 4 years of age are just as likely to be involved in center-based care, thanks in large part to Head Start programs. But black children are much more likely than white children to be enrolled in low-quality day care. High-quality care environments have been shown to provide a lasting impact on the child's education, which prompted government attention in President Obama's recent State of the Union address when he mentioned plans to bring high quality childcare to more American families.

Formal Schooling, Same Inequalities

Once formal schooling begins, inequalities continue. More than 140,000 students were held back in kindergarten in the 2011-2012 school year. Black students are more likely to be held back, despite mounting research showing that holding back children doesn't benefit them socially or academically and makes them more likely to drop out later on. Retention rates for students hit a high in ninth grade, when 34 percent of students held back are black. While 12 percent of black students are held back in ninth grade, just 4 percent of white students are, according to the U.S. Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection. When all grade levels are combined, black students are nearly three times more likely to be held back as their white peers. They're also more likely to drop out before earning a high school diploma.

As with retention, disparities in test scores start early, in kindergarten. Black students entering kindergarten for the first time score lower than their white counterparts in reading, mathematics, science, cognitive flexibility and approaches to learning - every category tested. The gaps persist throughout schooling, at fourth, eighth and 12th grades, according to a report from the Forum on Child and Family Statistics. On the SAT, black students had a mean score of 428 for critical reading and 428 for math, compared with mean scores for white students of 527 for critical reading and 536 for math.

The elephant in the room when talking about racial disparities in American schools is the school-to-prison pipeline, another disparity that begins early.

Disparities in discipline begin in preschool and continue through every level of schooling. While blacks make up 18 percent of students in preschool, they account for 42 percent of students with an out-of-school suspension and 48 percent of students with multiple out-of-school suspensions.

Black Americans are suspended and expelled at three times the rate of white students. They make up 16 percent of school enrollment, but account for 32 percent of students who receive in-school suspensions, 42 percent of students who receive multiple out-of-school suspensions and 34 percent of students who are expelled. Black students are arrested more and are referred to law enforcement more. The disparities in punishment even reach to black students with disabilities, who are more likely to receive out-of-school suspensions or to be subjected to mechanical restraint than their white peers.

More than 2 million black students attend schools where 90 percent of the student body is made up of minority students. Dozens of school districts have current desegregation orders. Minority students represent 57 percent of the population in " dropout factories " - schools where the senior class has 60 percent or fewer students who entered as freshmen - but only 30 percent of the population in all schools.

On average, schools serving more minority populations have less-experienced, lower-paid teachers who are less likely to be certified. A report from the Center for American Progress found that a 10 percentage point increase in students of color at a school is associated with a decrease in per-pupil spending of $75.

Disparities in course offerings mean students of color have fewer opportunities to challenge themselves with more difficult courses - the type of courses needed to prepare for a four-year college degree or for a high-paying career in STEM.

In seventh and eighth grades, blacks make up 16 percent of students, but account for 10 percent of students taking Algebra 1 and 9 percent of students passing the course. While nearly one in five white students took Calculus in high school, one in 15 black students did. Fewer black students have access to a full range of high school math and science courses - algebra I, geometry, algebra II, calculus, biology, chemistry and physics. They are under-represented in gifted and talented programs. Black students take fewer Advanced Placement classes than white students and score lower on AP tests.

While black students disproportionately attend schools with higher minority populations, the teachers, principals and administrators who interact with the students are a different story. When the U.S. Department of Education collected data in the 2007-2008 school year, 80 percent of principals in public schools were white. Meanwhile, only 6.2 percent of high school public school teachers across all subject areas are black - the highest percentage is for health and physical education, where 9.2 percent of teachers are black.

Different Schools, Different Neighborhoods

Part of the difference in educational outcomes likely stems from the different environments black and white children live in during their school years. Black children are far more likely to live in households that are low-income, extremely poor, food-insecure, or receiving longterm welfare support. Black children are less likely than white or Hispanic children to live in households where at least one parent has secure employment, and black children have the greatest rate of any race for families with children living in homeless shelters. Nearly 25 percent of black parents report their children live in unsafe neighborhoods, compared with 7 percent of white parents.

Black children are also more likely to have emotionally traumatic experiences impacting their childhood, such as abuse or neglect, the death of a parent or witnessing domestic violence. The child maltreatment rate (which signifies abuse or neglect of a child) was 14.2 per 1,000 black children and 8 per 1,000 for white children. More black high school students say they have been raped. Black youth at all age levels are more likely to be victims of violent crimes.

When a child doesn't know where her next meal is coming from, when she is dealing with the loss of a parent or living in a household rife with substance abuse or neglect, it seems obvious that these home circumstances would impact her ability to concentrate at school. When a child is living in poverty, it's easy to understand how lack of money for school supplies or lack of Internet or computer access would impede his ability to complete homework.

But it's more than that. These factors - a mix of race, poverty and family structures - are associated with a plethora of other problems: lower math and reading achievement, behavioral problems, grade retention, obesity, risky sexual behavior, greater risk of illness, greater risk of interpersonal or self-directed violence. The list is endless and the issues continue through adulthood, creating a cycle that proves difficult to escape for many. For those that do, however, disparities don't end with college enrollment.

Fewer black students graduate from high school (16 percent of blacks drop out compared with 8 percent of whites), meaning fewer are eligible for college enrollment from the beginning. Yet, disparities continue to snowball at every level.

Of individuals aged 16 to 24 completing high school or earning GED certificates in the last year, 56 percent of black students enrolled in a two or four-year college compared with 66 percent of whites. Fewer black students make it from enrollment to graduation and, for the ones that do, graduating takes longer. For the class starting at a four-year college in 2006, only 20 percent of black students graduated in four years versus more than 40 percent of white students. Within six years, 40 percent of blacks finished, but 60 percent of whites did.

Spending more time in college for the same amount of education means accruing more debt. While 90 percent of black students receive a federal, non-federal or PLUS loan by their fourth year in college, 65 percent of white students do. Even worse, for the majority of enrolled black students who don't finish college after six years, they may have to pay back federal aid and likely won't see the benefits of student loans. On average, black students have a slightly higher aid package than white students. Historically black colleges and universities are also more susceptible to economic dips because they have much smaller endowments than other, older schools. According to Essence, "If the endowments of all 105 HBCUs were added up, they'd still amount to less than 10 percent of Harvard University's endowment, which at upward of $30 billion is the wealthiest of any college in the world."

The disparities highlighted in this article, as well as many others, illustrate the severity of the unequal educational landscape. While more than one-third of whites held a bachelor's degree or higher in 2013, 19 percent of blacks did, according to the Census Bureau. But even if the educational landscape was equal, there would likely still be problems. A recent study found the unemployment rate for black college graduates was much higher than the rate for white graduates. Studies on labor market discrimination have shown that even when black and white candidates have the same qualifications, the black candidate is less likely to be called back for an interview.

Tags: race, Ferguson, Missouri, Michael Brown, education, STEM education, education reform, K-12 education, early childhood education, Department of Education, teachers, inequality

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U.S. Education: Still Separate and Unequal

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The data show schools are still separate and unequal.

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Segregation in the US educational system nowadays 

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Segregation in the US educational system nowadays 

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Interesting infographics to use

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The U.S. student body is more diverse than ever before. Nevertheless, public schools remain highly segregated along racial, ethnic and socioeconomic lines.

That's according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). More than a third of students (about 18.5 million of them) attended a predominantly same-race/ethnicity school during the 2020-21 school year, the report finds. And 14% of students attended schools where almost all of the student body was of a single race/ethnicity.

The report is a follow up to a 2016 GAO investigation on racial disparity in K-12 schools. That initial report painted a slightly worse picture, but findings from the new report are still concerning, says Jackie Nowicki, the director of K-12 education at the GAO and lead author of the report.

"There is clearly still racial division in schools," says Nowicki. She adds that schools with large proportions of Hispanic, Black and American Indian/Alaska Native students - minority groups with higher rates of poverty than white and Asian American students - are also increasing. "What that means is you have large portions of minority children not only attending essentially segregated schools, but schools that have less resources available to them."

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"There are layers of factors here," she says. "They paint a rather dire picture of the state of schooling for a segment of the school-age population that federal laws were designed to protect."

School segregation happens across the country

Segregation has historically been associated with the Jim Crow laws of the South. But the report finds that, in the 2020-21 school year, the highest percentage of schools serving a predominantly single-race/ethnicity student population - whether mostly white, mostly Hispanic or mostly Black etc. - were in the Northeast and the Midwest.

School segregation has "always been a whole-country issue," says U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., who heads the House education and labor committee. He commissioned both the 2016 and 2022 reports. "The details of the strategies may be different, but during the '60s and '70s, when the desegregation cases were at their height, cases were all over the country."

The GAO analysis also found school segregation across all school types, including traditional public schools, charter schools and magnet schools. Across all charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately run, more than a third were predominantly same-race/ethnicity, serving mostly Black and Hispanic students.

There's history behind the report's findings

Nowicki and her team at the GAO say they were not surprised by any of the report's findings. They point to historical practices, like redlining, that created racially segregated neighborhoods.

And because 70% of U.S. students attend their neighborhood public schools, Nowicki says, racially segregated neighborhoods have historically made for racially segregated schools.

"There are historical reasons why neighborhoods look the way they look," she explains. "And some portion of that is because of the way our country chose to encourage or limit where people could live."

Though the 1968 Fair Housing Act outlawed housing discrimination on the basis of race, the GAO says that in some states, current legislation reinforces racially isolated communities.

"Our analysis showed that predominantly same-race/ethnicity schools of different races/ethnicities exist in close proximity to one another within districts, but most commonly exist among neighboring districts," the report says.

School district secessions have made segregation worse

One cause for the lack of significant improvement, according to the GAO, is a practice known as district secession, where schools break away from an existing district - often citing a need for more local control - and form their own new district. The result, the report finds, is that segregation deepens.

"In the 10 years that we looked at district secessions, we found that, overwhelmingly, those new districts were generally whiter, wealthier than the remaining districts," Nowicki says.

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Six of the 36 district secessions identified in the report happened in Memphis, Tenn., which experienced a historic district merger several years ago. Memphis City Schools, which served a majority non-white student body, dissolved in 2011 due to financial instability. It then merged with the neighboring district, Shelby County Schools, which served a wealthier, majority white population.

Joris Ray was a Memphis City Schools administrator at the time of the merger. He recalls that residents of Shelby County were not satisfied with the new consolidated district. They successfully splintered off into six separate districts.

As a result, the GAO report says, racial and socioeconomic segregation has grown in and around Memphis. All of the newly formed districts are whiter and wealthier than the one they left, which is now called Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

"This brings negative implications for our students overall," says Ray, who has led Memphis-Shelby County Schools since 2019. "Research has shown that students in more diverse schools have lower levels of prejudice and stereotypes and are more prepared for top employers to hire an increasingly diverse workforce."

The GAO report finds that this pattern - of municipalities removing themselves from a larger district to form their own, smaller school district - almost always creates more racial and socioeconomic segregation. Overall, new districts tend to have larger shares of white and Asian American students, and lower shares of Black and Hispanic students, the report finds. New districts also have significantly fewer students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a common measure of poverty.

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The U.S. student population is more diverse, but schools are still highly segregated

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A new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office finds that public schools remain highly segregated along racial, ethnic and socioeconomic lines. One reason: school district secession.

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Two Texas teens who were targeted by a school district for refusing to cut their locs have gained the support of the U.S. Department of Justice in their ongoing legal battle.

At the start of 2019-2020 school year, De'Andre Arnold and Kaden Bradford were both students in the Barbers Hill Independent School District when they were told the length of their hair did not adhere to the district's hair policy. As a result, the teens were told to cut their hair in order to continue attending classes at Barbers Hill High School. Both, backed by the support of their mothers, refused to do so and were punished with in-school suspensions.

The district's hair length policy states:

"Male students' hair will not extend, at any time, below the eyebrows, or below the ear lobes. Male students' hair must not extend below the top of a t-shirt collar or be gathered or worn in a style that would allow the hair to extend below the top of a t-shirt collar, below the eyebrows, or below the ear lobes when let down."

Kaden's mother, Cindy, says her son has worn his hair in locs since sixth grade. She said the prior year his hair length became a concern at school but he was told that if he could keep his hair pulled back he would not be in violation of the policy.

De'Andre, who is Kaden's cousin, similarly wore his hair styled upwards, but it didn't make him exempt from the district's efforts to control how he wore his hair. "They said De'Andre's hair can't touch the collar, ears or in the face. It never really did. He's always had it up," his mother, Sandy, told local Houston station KRIV.

But by December 2019 the policy had been updated, restricting hair length when it was not styled upwards. While De'Andre was able to complete his coursework, he was told he would not be allowed to participate in the May graduation ceremony due to his unwillingness to cut his hair. The cousins transferred to a nearby district to finish the school year.

Both mothers sued the district "alleging that the District's hair length restrictions, which apply solely to male students, constitute sex discrimination under the Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972."

The district responded by filing a motion to have the case dismissed on the premise that the mothers' claims of sex and race discrimination were unfounded. The DOJ disagrees. In a statement of interest filed July 23, the DOJ states, "Had De'Andre and K.B. been female, their hair would not have run afoul of the District's hair length policy. But because they are male, the District disciplined them for noncompliance."

They further added that the school district is misguided in assuming that neither Sandy or Cindy has the "standing to assert a Title IX retaliation claim." The DOJ hopes the district's effort to have the case dismissed denied. If it is, this would mark the second small victory in De'Andre and Kaden's battle. Last summer a Texas federal judge blocked Barbers Hill High School from enforcing the controversial hair policy, leading Kaden, who is now a senior, to transfer back to Barbers Hill.

In August of last year, Janai Nelson, NAACP Legal Defense Fund associate director-counsel, shares a similar sentiment. "[Bradford does not have to] endure an unjust and educationally-damaging in-school suspension simply for having uncut locs, which are an immutable part of his Black identity and cultural heritage."

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DOJ Defends Teens from 'Unlawful Discrimination' After Texas School District Demands They Cut Their Locs

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Two Texas teens who were targeted by a school district for refusing to cut their locs have gained the support of the U.S. Department of Justice in their ongoing legal battle.

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Ellen Pleads for Student’s Return to School After Dress Code Controversy

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Controversial school district hair policy: Students react

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Controversial school district hair policy: Students react

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Controversial school district hair policy

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MONT BELVIEU, Texas -- A judge has ruled that a Texas school district's hair policy is discriminatory after two Black students were suspended earlier in the year over the length of their dreadlocks.

The decision came late Monday night from a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

"Today's momentous decision enjoining enforcement of BHISD's discriminatory dress and grooming policy makes a huge difference for our client, who may now return to class and extracurricular activities after being unfairly deprived of an equal education for many months," said Janai Nelson, associate director-counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF).

The policy was at the center of controversy after Barbers Hill High School student DeAndre Arnold was suspended for his hair style in January 2020, with district officials saying it wasn't about race and that dreadlocks are allowed, just not at his length.

"There is no dress code policy that prohibits any cornrow or any other method of wearing of the hair," superintendent Greg Poole said at the time. "Our policy limits the length. It's been that way for 30 years."

Arnold wasn't allowed to return to school or attend his graduation ceremony unless he cut his hair, his family said.

Arnold, who was a senior at the school, had dreadlocks for years and said it was part of his identity and culture. Arnold's family is from Trinidad, and he said the men in his family often grow their dreadlocks to below their waist.

The ACLU of Texas said his cousin Kaden Bradford was in the middle of his sophomore year when the dress and grooming policy was revised to prohibit male students from wearing long hair. Bradford was also suspended by school officials and enrolled in a different school.

Both students filed grievances on Jan. 27, followed by a lawsuit, contending that the policy was not fairly enforced against them.

But following Monday night's ruling, Nelson, who is also advocating for Bradford, says the teen will now be able to return to class for his junior year of high school and extracurricular activities.

"The court's granting of our request means that K.B. no longer has to endure an unjust and educationally-damaging in-school suspension simply for having uncut locs, which are an immutable part of his Black identity and cultural heritage," said Nelson, who filed the request on Bradford's behalf.

The judge's decision comes nearly a month after the school district board voted not to change its hair code policy.

"I'm very excited there were people at Barbers Hill that I've grown up with and that I've missed very much missed throughout this entire process. So, I'm really glad that I can get back and get to see them again. Our main goal has always been to change the policy to where it wouldn't discriminate against different racial groups," said Bradford. "I'm ready to go back to school and focus on getting good grades and deciding what college I want to attend."

Arnold's fight over how he wore his hair has also received national attention, with the student inspiring anti-discrimination legislation in Texas. Arnold was also invited to attend the Oscars this past February by filmmaker Matthew A. Cherry, who won the Academy Award for best animated short film for his documentary, "Hair Love."

You can read a copy of the judge's decision by following this link on the NAACP's LDF website.
The video above is from a previous story.
'Accidental Activist': One-on-one interview with DeAndre Arnold before the Oscars #DeAndresJourney: Texas HS student shows off his dreads on the red carpet Texas teen who was told his dreadlocks violated school dress code invited to Oscars
Texas high school student suspended over dreadlocks, family says
Teen told his dreadlocks violated school dress code inspires Texas anti-discrimination bill
In the previous video above, DeAndre Arnold talked to ABC13's Chauncy Glover about his journey.

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After 2 Black students were suspended, court rules hair policy is discriminatory

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MONT BELVIEU, Texas -- A judge has ruled that a Texas school district's hair policy is discriminatory after two Black students were suspended earlier in the year over the length of their dreadlocks. The decision came late Monday night from a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

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On May 22 2020, Everett De’Andre Arnold, Sandy Arnold, and Cindy Bradford (on behalf of her minor son K.B.) filed a lawsuitagainst the Barbers Hill Independent School District (BHISD), its Board of Trustees, and additional individual defendants challenging its discriminatory hair policy. Mr. Arnold and K.B. were informed by BHISD earlier this year that they must either cut their natural locs or no longer participate in regular classes and school activities, including Mr. Arnold’s graduation ceremony. The plaintiffs are represented by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) and pro bono co-counsel Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP (Akin Gump).

Source : https://www.naacpldf.org/case-issue/arnold-family-v-barbers-hill-independent-school-district/