Hard as is it to believe, segregation in schools is still a very real truth, based on a recent study by the Civil Rights project of UCLA. Considering charter schools were created to offer an enhanced education option with more independent study paths to our children, to see any of them supporting this repressive tendency is highly disturbing.
A study done of California charter schools with Llatino/a and bBlack students in attendance showed that the ethnic students were likely to be grouped with other students of the same race throughout the school day. Considering the fight for Civil Rights to remove this kind of separation within the student body, the results of the study are a troubling look into the lack of progress our schools have made in removing race from the school reality.
Said Gary Orfield, co-founder of the Civil Rights project, “We are seeing a lot of charters as segregated as schools in the old South that were the target of the civil-rights movement.”
The apparent trend in California charter schools leans towards a significantly higher attendance of white students compared to ethnic minorities. Within the student body, the Latino/a and Black students are often grouped together. There needs to be a closer examination of our charter school system across the United States to ensure that similar trends aren’t being propagated.
Education reform can only be successful when all of the old tendencies and patterns are eradicated and a unified goal of the very best education resources are made available to all of our children, in public, private or charter schools, no matter their ethnicity or economic background.
Posted By: Paul Adams
Saturday, February 20th 2010 at 4:06PM
You can also
click
here to view all posts by this author...
