Structural inequality has been identified as the
bias
Bias is a disproportionate weight ''in favor of'' or ''against'' an idea or thing, usually in a way that is closed-minded, prejudicial, or unfair. Biases can be innate or learned. People may develop biases for or against an individual, a group, ...
that is built into the structure of organizations, institutions, governments, or social networks.
Structural inequality
Structural inequality occurs when the fabric of organizations, institutions, governments or social networks contains an embedded bias which provides advantages for some members and marginalizes or produces disadvantages for other members. This can ...
occurs when the fabric of organizations, institutions, governments or social networks contains an embedded bias which provides advantages for some members and marginalizes or produces disadvantages for other members. This can involve property rights, status, or
unequal access to health care, housing, education and other physical or financial resources or opportunities. Structural inequality is believed to be an embedded part of the culture of the United States due to the history of slavery and the subsequent suppression of equal civil rights of minority races. Structural inequality has been encouraged and maintained in the society of the United States through structured institutions such as the public school system with the goal of maintaining the existing structure of wealth, employment opportunities, and social standing of the races by keeping minority students from high academic achievement in high school and college as well as in the workforce of the country. In the attempt to equalize allocation of state funding, policymakers evaluate the elements of disparity to determine an equalization of funding throughout school districts.p.(14)
Policymakers have to determine a formula based on per-pupil revenue and the student need.p.(8)
Critical race theory
Critical race theory (CRT) is a cross-disciplinary examination, by social and civil-rights scholars and activists, of how laws, social and political movements, and media shape, and are shaped by, social conceptions of race and ethnicity. Goa ...
is part of the ongoing oppression of
minorities in the public school system and the corporate workforce that limits academic and career success. The public school system maintains structural inequality through such practices as tracking of students,
standardized assessment tests, and a teaching force that does not represent the diversity of the student body.
Also see
social inequality
Social inequality occurs when resources in a given society are distributed unevenly, typically through norms of allocation, that engender specific patterns along lines of socially defined categories of persons. It posses and creates gender c ...
,
educational inequality
Educational inequality is the unequal distribution of academic resources, including but not limited to; school funding, qualified and experienced teachers, books, and technologies, to socially excluded communities. These communities tend to be his ...
,
racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
,
discrimination
Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...
, and
oppression
Oppression is malicious or unjust treatment or exercise of power, often under the guise of governmental authority or cultural opprobrium. Oppression may be overt or covert, depending on how it is practiced. Oppression refers to discrimination w ...
. Social inequality occurs when certain groups in a society do not have equal
social status
Social status is the level of social value a person is considered to possess. More specifically, it refers to the relative level of respect, honour, assumed competence, and deference accorded to people, groups, and organizations in a society. Stat ...
. Aspects of social status involve
property rights
The right to property, or the right to own property (cf. ownership) is often classified as a human right for natural persons regarding their possessions. A general recognition of a right to private property is found more rarely and is typically ...
,
voting rights
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...
,
freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...
and
freedom of assembly
Freedom of peaceful assembly, sometimes used interchangeably with the freedom of association, is the individual right or ability of people to come together and collectively express, promote, pursue, and defend their collective or shared ide ...
, access to
health care
Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...
, and
education
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...
as well as many other social commodities.
Education: student tracking
Education is the base for equality.
Specifically in the structuring of schools, the concept of
tracking
Tracking may refer to:
Science and technology Computing
* Tracking, in computer graphics, in match moving (insertion of graphics into footage)
* Tracking, composing music with music tracker software
* Eye tracking, measuring the position of t ...
is believed by some scholars to create a social disparity in providing students an equal education.
Schools have been found to have a unique acculturative process that helps to pattern self-perceptions and world views. Schools not only provide education but also a setting for students to develop into adults, form future
social status
Social status is the level of social value a person is considered to possess. More specifically, it refers to the relative level of respect, honour, assumed competence, and deference accorded to people, groups, and organizations in a society. Stat ...
and roles, and maintain social and organizational structures of society.
Tracking is an educational term that indicates where students will be placed during their secondary school years.
/sup> "Depending on how early students are separated into these tracks, determines the difficulty in changing from one track to another" (Grob, 2003, p. 202).
Tracking
Tracking may refer to:
Science and technology Computing
* Tracking, in computer graphics, in match moving (insertion of graphics into footage)
* Tracking, composing music with music tracker software
* Eye tracking, measuring the position of t ...
or sorting categorizes students into different groups based on standardized test
A standardized test is a test that is administered and scored in a consistent, or "standard", manner. Standardized tests are designed in such a way that the questions and interpretations are consistent and are administered and scored in a predete ...
scores. These groups or tracks are vocational, general, and academic. Students are sorted into groups that will determine educational and vocational outcomes for the future. The sorting that occurs in the educational system parallels the hierarchical social and economic structures in society. Thus, students are viewed and treated differently according to their individual track. Each track has a designed curriculum that is meant to fit the unique educational and social needs of each sorted group. Consequently, the information taught as well as the expectations of the teachers differ based on the track resulting in the creation of dissimilar classroom cultures.
Access to college
Not only the classes that students take, but the school they are enrolled in has been shown to have an effect on their educational success and social mobility
Social mobility is the movement of individuals, families, households or other categories of people within or between social strata in a society. It is a change in social status relative to one's current social location within a given society ...
, especially ability to graduate from college. Simply being enrolled in a school with less access to resources, or in an area with a high concentration of racial minorities, makes one much less likely to gain access to prestigious four-year colleges. For example, there are far fewer first time freshmen within the University of California
The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...
(UC) system who graduate from schools where the majority population is an underrepresented racial minority group. Students from these schools comprise only 22.1% of the first time freshmen within the UC system, whereas students from majority white schools make up 65.3% of the first time freshman population. At more prestigious schools, like UC Berkeley, the division is even more pronounced. Only 15.2% of first time freshmen who attend the university came from schools with a high percentage of underrepresented minorities.
Issues of structural inequality are probably also at fault for the low numbers of students from underserved backgrounds graduating from college. Out of the entire population of low-income youth in the US, only 13% receive a bachelor's degree by the time they are 28. Students from racial minorities are similarly disadvantaged. Hispanic students are half as likely to attend college than white students and black students are 25% less likely. Despite increased attention and educational reform, this gap has increased in the past 30 years.
The costs required to attend college also contribute to the structural inequality in education. The higher educational system in the United States relies on public funding to support the universities. However, even with the public funding, policymakers have voiced their desire to have universities become less dependent on government funding and to compete for other sources of funding. The result of this could sway many students from low-income backgrounds from attending higher institutions due to the inability of paying to attend. In a 2013 study by the National Center for Educational Statistics, only 49% of students from low-income families that graduated from high school immediately enrolled into college.[Kena, G., Musu-Gillette, L., Robinson, J., Wang, X., Rathbun, A., Zhang, J., Wilkinson-Flicker, S., Barmer, A., and Dunlop Velez, E. (2015). The Condition of Education 2015 (NCES 2015-144). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC. Retrieved November 16, 2016 from http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/] In comparison, students from high-income families had an 80%immediate college enrollment rate. Furthermore, in another 2013 report, over 58% of low-income families were minorities. In the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation supported survey, researchers discovered that 6 in 10 students that dropped out was due to the inability to pay for the cost of attending themselves and without help from their families.
Access to technology
Gaps in the availability of technology, the digital divide
The digital divide is the unequal access to digital technology, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, and the internet. The digital divide creates a division and inequality around access to information and resources. In the Information Age in ...
, are gradually decreasing as more people purchase home computers and the ratio of students to computers within schools continues to decreases. However, inequities in access to technology still exist due to the lack of teacher training and, subsequently, confidence in use of technologic tools; the diverse needs of students; and administrative pressures to increase test scores. These inequities are noticeably different between high need (HN) and low need (LN) populations. In a survey of teachers participating in an e-Learning
Educational technology (commonly abbreviated as edutech, or edtech) is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and Education sciences, educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, edt ...
for Educators online professional development workshop, Chapman finds that HN schools need increased access and teacher training in technology resources. Though results vary in their level of significance, teachers of non-HN schools report more confidence in having adequate technical abilities to simply participate in the workshop; later surveys showed that teachers of HN schools report that "they use, or will use, technology in the classroom more after the workshop" less likely that that of teachers of non-HN schools. Additionally, teachers from HN schools report less access to technology as well as lower technical skills and abilities (p. 246). Even when teachers in low-SES schools had confidence in their technical skills, other they faced other obstacles, including larger numbers of English language learners and at-risk students, larger numbers of students with limited computer experience, and greater pressure to increase test scores and adhere to policy mandates.
Other structural inequalities in access to technology exist in differences in the ratio of students to computers within public schools. Correlations show that as the number of minorities enrolled in a school increase so, too, does the ratio of students to computers, 4.0:1 in schools with 50% or more minority enrollment versus 3.1 in schools with 6% or less minority enrollment (as cited in Warschauer, 2010, p. 188-189). Within school structures, low-socioeconomic status
Socioeconomic status (SES) is an economic and sociological combined total measure of a person's work experience and of an individual's or family's economic access to resources and social position in relation to others. When analyzing a family's ...
(SES) schools tended to have less stable teaching staff, administrative staff, and IT support staff, which contributed to teachers being less likely to incorporate technology in their curriculum for lack of support.
Disabilities
The challenge of the new millennium will include a realignment in focus to include "the curriculum as disabled, rather than students, their insights in translating principles of universal design, which originated in architecture, to education commensurate with advances characterized as a major paradigm shift."
According to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), children with disabilities have the right to a free appropriate public education in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE). The LRE means that children with disabilities must be educated in regular classrooms with their non-disabled peers with the appropriate supports and services.
An individual with a disability is also protected under American with Disabilities Act (ADA) which is defined as any person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. Assistive technology which supports individuals with disabilities covering a wide range of areas from cognitive to physical limitations, plays an important role.
School finance
School finance is another area where social injustice
Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, Equal opportunity, opportunities, and Social privilege, privileges within a society. In Western Civilization, Western and Culture of Asia, Asian cultures, the concept of social ...
and inequality
Inequality may refer to:
Economics
* Attention inequality, unequal distribution of attention across users, groups of people, issues in etc. in attention economy
* Economic inequality, difference in economic well-being between population groups
* ...
might exist. Districts in wealthier areas typically receive more Average Daily Attendance (ADA) funds for total (e.g. restricted and unrestricted) expenditures per pupil than socio-economically disadvantaged districts, therefore, a wealthier school district will receive more funding than a socio-economically disadvantaged school district. "Most U.S. schools are underfunded. Schools in low wealth states and districts are especially hard hit, with inadequate instructional materials, little technology, unsafe buildings, and less-qualified teachers" (p. 31) The method in which funds are distributed or allocated within a school district can also be of concern. De facto segregation can occur in districts or educational organizations that passively promote racial segregation. Epstein (2006) stated the "Two years after the victorious Supreme Court decision against segregation, Oakland's"... "school board increased Oakland's segregation by spending $40 million from a bond election to build..." a "... High School, and then establishing a ten-mile long, two-mile wide attendance boundary, which effectively excluded almost every black and Latino student in the city" (p. 28).
History of state funding in U.S education
Since the early 19th Century policymakers have developed a plethora of educational programs, each with its own particular structural inequality. The mechanisms involved in the allocation of state funding have changed significantly over time. In the past, public schools were primarily funded by property taxes. Funding was supplemented by other state sources. In the early 19th century, policymakers recognized districts relying on property tax could lead to significant disparities in the amount of funding per student.
Thus, policymakers began to analyze the elements of disparity and sought means to address it, numbers of teachers, quality of facilities and materials. To address disparity some states implemented Flat Grants, which typically allocate funding based on the number of teachers. However, this often magnified the disparity, since wealthy communities would have fewer students per teacher.
In their attempt to reduce disparity policymakers in 1920 designed what they call the Foundation Program. The stated purpose was to equalize per-pupil revenue across districts. The goal was achieved by setting a target per-pupil revenue level, and the state supplying funding to equalize revenue in underserved districts. Some analyst characterized the program as a hoax because its structure allowed wealthier districts to exceed the target per-pupil revenue level.
Also in order to aid persons with categories of issues, policymakers designed Categorical Programs. The purpose of these programs are to target disparity in poor districts, which do not take into account district wealth. Overtime, policymakers began to allocate funding that takes into consideration pupil needs along with the wealth of the district.
Healthcare
An identified inequality that negatively affects health and wellness among minority races is highly correlated with income, wealth, social capital, and, indirectly, education. Researchers have been able to identify significant gaps that exist in mortality rates of African Americans and Caucasian Americans. There has not been significant changes in the major factors of income, wealth, social capital/psycho-social environment, and socioeconomic status, that positively impact the existing inequality. Studies have noted significant correlations between these factors and major health issues. For example, poor socioeconomic status is strongly correlated with cardiovascular disease.
Social inequalities
When discussing the issue of structural inequality we must also consider how hegemonic social structures can support institutional and technological inequalities. In the realm of education studies have suggested that the level of educational attainment for a parent will influence the levels of educational attainment for said parents child. The level of education which one receives also tends to be correlated with social capital, income, and criminal activity as well. These findings suggest that by simply being the child of someone who is well educated places the child in an advantageous position. This in turn means that the children of new migrants and other groups who have historically been less educated and have significantly less resources at their disposal will be less likely to achieve higher levels of education. Because education plays a role in income, social capital, criminal activity and even the educational attainment of others it becomes possible that a positive feedback loop where the lack of education will perpetuate itself throughout a social class or group.
The outcomes can be highly problematic at the K-12 level as well. Looking back to school funding we see that when the majority of funding has to come from local school districts and this leads to poorer districts being less adequately funded than wealthier districts. This means that the children who attend these schools which will struggle to provide a quality education with fewer students per teacher, less access to technology and tend to be unable to prepare students for selecting and attending college or university. When these students who were unprepared to attend higher education fail to do so they are less likely to encourage their own children to pursue higher education and more likely to be poorer. Then these individuals will live in traditionally poorer neighborhoods, thus sending their children to underfunded schools ill-prepared to gear students towards higher education and further perpetuate a cycle of poor districts and disadvantaged social groups.
Historical
The structural inequality of tracking in the educational system is the foundation of the inequalities instituted in other social and organizational structures. Tracking is a term in the educational vernacular that determines where students will be placed during their secondary school years. Traditionally, the most tracked subjects are math and English. Students are categorized into different groups based on their standardized test scores. Tracking is justified by the following four assumptions:
# Students learn better in an academically equal group.
# Positive self-attitudes are developed in homogenous groups, especially for slower students that do not have a high rate of ability differences.
# Fair and accurate group placement is appropriate for future learning based on individual past performance and ability.
# Homogenous groups ease the teaching process.
Race
Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to:
* Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species
* Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...
, ethnicity
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
, and socio-economic class
A social class is a grouping of people into a set of hierarchical social categories, the most common being the upper, middle and lower classes. Membership in a social class can for example be dependent on education, wealth, occupation, inco ...
limits exposure to advanced academic knowledge thus limiting advanced educational opportunities. A disproportionate number of minority students are placed in low track courses. The content of low track courses are markedly different. Low and average track students typically have limited exposure to "high-status" academic material, thus, the possibility of academic achievement and subsequent success is significantly limited. The tracking phenomenon in schools tends to perpetuate prejudices, misconceptions, and inequalities of the poor and minority people in society. Schools provide both an education and a setting for students to develop into adults, form future societal roles, and maintain social and organizational structures of society. Tracking in the public educational system parallels the hierarchical social and economic structures in society. Schools have a unique acculturative process that helps to pattern self-perceptions and world views. The expectations of the teachers and information taught differ based on tracks. Thus, dissimilar classroom cultures, different dissemination of knowledge, and unequal education opportunities are created.
The cycle of academic tracking and oppression of minority races is dependent on the use of standardized testing. IQ tests are frequently the foundation that determines an individual's group placement. However, accuracy of IQ tests has been found by research to be flawed. Tests, by design, only indicate a student's placement along a high to low continuum and not their actual achievement. The tests have also been found to be culturally biased, therefore, language and experience differences affects test outcomes with lower-class and minority children consistently having lower scores. This leads to inaccurate judgements of students' abilities.
Standardized tests were developed by eugenicists to determine who would best fill societal roles and professions. Tests were originally designed to verify the intellectuals of British society. This original intent unconsciously began the sorting dynamic. Tests were used to assist societies to fill important roles. In America, standardized tests were designed to sort students based on responses to test questions that were and are racially biased. These tests do not factor in the experiential and cultural knowledge or general ability of the students. Students are placed in vocational, general, or academic tracks based on test scores. Students' futures are determined by tracks and they are viewed and treated differently according to their individual track. Tracks are hierarchical in nature and create, consciously for some and unconsciously for others, the damaging effects of labeling students as fast or slow; bright or special education; average or below average.
Corporate America has an interest in maintaining the use of standardized tests in public school systems thus protecting their potential future workforce that will be derived from the high-tracked, successful high income students by eliminating, through poor academic achievement, a disproportionate number of minority students. Also, standardized testing is big business. Although it is often argued that standardized testing is an economical method to evaluate students, the real cost is staggering, estimated at $20 billion annually in indirect and direct costs, an amount that does not factor in the social and emotional costs.
Standardized tests remain a frequently used and expected evaluative method for a variety of reasons. The American culture is interested in intelligence and potential. Standardized testing also provides an economic advantage to some stakeholders, such as prestigious universities, that use standardized test numbers as part of their marketing plan. Finally, standardized testing maintains the status quo of the established social system.
Teacher and counselor judgements have been shown to be just as inaccurate as standardized tests. Teachers and counselors may have a large number of students for which they are responsible for analyzing and making recommendations. Research has found that factors such as appearance, language, behavior, grooming, as well as academic potential, are all considered in the analysis and decision on group placement. This leads to a disproportionate number of lower and minority children placed unfairly into lower track groups.
Teacher diversity is limited by policies that create often-unattainable requirements for bilingual instructors. For example, bilingual instructors may be unable to pass basic educational skills tests because of the inability to write rapidly enough to complete the essay portions of the tests. Limiting resources, in the form of providing primarily English speaking teachers, for bilingual or English as a second language student, limits the learning simply by restricting dissemination of knowledge. Restructuring the educational system, as well as, encouraging prospective bilingual teachers are two of the ways to ensure diversity among the teaching workforce, increase the distribution of knowledge, and increase the potential and continued academic success of minority students.
Possible solutions to tracking and standardized testing:
*Legal action against standardized test based on discrimination against poor and minority students based on precedent set in the state of Massachusetts.
*Curricula designed as age, culture, and language appropriate.
*Recruit and train a diverse and highly skilled, culturally competent teaching force.
*Elimination of norm-referenced testing.
*Community constructed and culture appropriate assessment tests..
*Explore critical race theory within the educational system to identify how race and racism is a part of the structural inequality of the public school system.
*Create alternative teacher education certification programs that allow teachers to work while earning credentials.
References
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Digital divide
Social inequality