Remember middle school? Hormones ran amuck as breast buds became B cups and all of your short male friends became taller than you.
But beyond the acne developments, crushed crushes and awkward conversations, middle school was a pretty important time for educational and social development. Middle school predicted who would succeed in high school (and beyond) and who would get out of the running. Remember that extremely smart yet socially awkward guy in your fourth grade class? Think about what happened to him in middle school. Where is he now?
So it is no surprise that a recent study revealed the huge impact of middle school on college preparedness. Fewer than two in ten eighth graders are ready for college level work by the time they graduate high school, according to the ACT, Inc., the organization responsible for the ACT college entrance exams (the alternative to SATs). The organization performed a study that analyzed about 216,000 high school graduates for the 2005 and 2006 school year. The study examined students’ performances in college preparatory ACT assessments (the EXPLORE in eighth grade, the PLAN for tenth grade, and the regular ACT for college admissions). Based on the study students who scored well on the eighth grade test scored well on the ACTs and were considered better able to handle a basic college curriculum. The study goes on to say that eighth grade achievement is even more important than class and racial characteristics in determining college readiness.
Hey Jersey residents, remember the GEPA (Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment) or the HSPA (High School Proficiency Assessment)? I am unable to find the 2001 GEPA scores for my middle school (when I graduated eighth grade) but the school’s scores were consistently lower than the rest of the state for the years 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. For instance, in 2007 only 40 percent of graduating eighth graders were proficient in language arts literacy, compared to the state average of 74 percent. Only 27 percent of students in 2007 passed the math section, compared to 68 percent in the state.
The eleventh grade HSPA scores in 2007 were just as bad. In 2007 only 62 percent of students were proficient in Language Arts Literacy compared to the state average of 85 percent. In math students were 20 percent proficient compared to the state average of 73 percent.
And don’t forget SAT scores. In 2005, back in the days when the highest SAT score was 1600, my high school’s average math score was 310. The average verbal score was 315.
While these statistics do not follow a specific group of students from middle school to high school (as the ACT study did), the scores still show that middle and high school scores are mirroring each other in awfulness. Obviously there is a vicious cycle going on. Middle school success depends on elementary school success; high school success depends on middle school success; college success depends on high school success. So if one of the links in this chain is broken or damaged, students are doomed to fail.
Although I did attend a state-failing school district, my grades in middle school were spectacular. And in high school I continued such academic success, becoming number 3 in my high school, scoring an above average score on the SATs and not flunking out of Syracuse University. But! I’m just one technical success story. Think of your pre-teen brothers and sisters who could easily fall into this trap!
So what to do? Encourage them to take the hardest classes their high schools have to offer. Turn off the television and make them focus on improving weak skills. Put them in academic boot camp! Just try to make them competitive for the real world—you name me a lucrative job besides drugs, basketball or rap that doesn’t require a college degree.
Wow two topics that are timeless and should interesting dialogue. I really enjoy listening to, dissecting and critically analyzing music. I am also an advocate for fortifying education at the elementary school level and challenging the system that leads to the downfall of many our urban youth.
ReplyDeleteI will start by giving my feedback on the education piece. I believe that the weak academic infrastructure in inner city schools is a multifaceted problem. I want to start off by saying that the recently appointed member of President elect Obama's cabinet (the secretary of education) said that education is the civil rights battle of this era. I concur. Lack of access to a decent education is a breech in the constitutional rights. If we were all created equal under state law then why doesn't everybody receive the same quality of education????
Facet 1. I will tell you why? This decade's schism between the more privileged and under privileged is more of an issue of classism. Malcolm X talked a little bit about it. The districts or schools with more money have more funding for better books (best quality and most recent), better teachers, more rigorous academic curriculums and smaller student/teacher ratio.
Facet 2. Parents need to do a better jobs of raising their kids. Some parents still do not fully comprehend the importance of education has on a child's future. Some neighborhoods that are poverty stricken have parents whose attitudes, habits, mindsets, and overall home environments are not conducive to fostering a wholesome environment for the child to grow socially and academically.
Facet 3. Inner city neighborhoods and society as a whole needs to stop placing so much emphasis on material goods. A parent will go the distance just to buy the new video game for their kid and not want to pay a registration fee or buy that new calculator that the child needs to perform on his math test.
Facet 4. We need to stop glorifying these archetypical images of athletes and rappers and focus on alternatives for the average urban youth. The media has a distorted portrayal of what the black male should be, as a result impressionable young blacks begin to emulate these stereotypical images.
Facet 5. We need more mentors that can relate to young people of color. These mentors would serve the pivotal role of guiding, motivating, and empowering the youth that haven't had a golden opportunity to " get out of the hood". Mentors would also be crucial for students reached higher education and are encountering challenges at the college level or even in their prospective professional fields!
Facet 6. We need to unite and fight a system that is trying to keep us oppressed. If we see one of our brothers or sisters in our community no matter their ethnicity or socio-economic status, help them out. Whether its a small tutoring session or words of encouragement. You would be surprised; the little things go a long way!
Facet 7. Until we unite, self help is the way to go. We must start focusing on education and less about what is on our feet ( jordans)!!!!!!!Read more books and watch less MTV.
Just a remark to agree with most of what you said but also bring up the fact that educational deficiencies are not so easily "tackled." Also a point on forgetting this "unite and fight" view that hurt so many minorities.
ReplyDeleteI’ll address it using your academic structuring:
Facet 1. – Better privileged and under privileged isn’t that easily defined. It’s not a matter of privilege, it’s a matter of income. Some, yes have had life easy and have had “old money” or passed through life because of their skin color, but what about the ones who worked hard to achieve their money. For example my family lived in a studio apartment in Washington heights getting a execrable education form the public schools due to the small tax pull from the surrounding residents (small incomes). Now my sisters is a doctor, lives in Scarsdale and pays higher taxes for her kids to have a better education. She would be damned if she paid HIGHER taxes for other kids to get an education where her students should get a better education than she did. She worked hard for it! Your reply would probably be everyone is entitled to an equal education. Wrong. First, not everyone is equal; motivation, determination, and intelligence are characteristics that change some into being Doctors and some to flip my burger. Now I DO think everyone should start out with the equal tools to “win” in life. Problem is if you were to spread taxes from rich and poor to be equal school funding, rich parents will take their kids out of public school and put them in Private schools, which would then STOP their tax contribution to the education system, and we know where that would leave us. Schools are not the end all be all of education for students who will succeed. My sister and I both went to underperforming public schools. She’s a Doctor; I’m in law/mba school working on my 3rd and 4th graduate degrees. The education system that we were in “sucked” without a doubt, but it isn’t so easily solved as more funding. The questions is from where and HOW. Better books? Elementary material by far is the most stable course material of all education levels. It probably needs the least amount of “new Books” unlike college courses that change their materials every semester, when some new nuance is discovered. The questions is where and how, and better teachers, from where? Our colleges are spitting out dumber and dumber graduates who have no idea what to do with their lives. I cringe when a nowhere headed student says, I think I’ll be a teacher I’m good with kids? I learned from teachers who were not just “good” with kids but “good” teachers. There is a difference. You want better teachers, forget just needing a masters for being a teacher, but some type of strict requirements for teaching ability and of course a stringent course load and req’s for the students as well.
Facet 2. Parents – Yes blame always fall on the parents. I won’t disagree, but you have to remember this is a vicious cycle. How will a child who had an uneducated parent who didn’t care or didn’t know how to care about their child’s education prepare that child to be a parent? That child will grow to be a parent who will not understand their future child’s educational worth. And environments in the home are not so easily controlled when you have different people (mother and father at the LEAST) living under one roof. Parents are to blame without question, but sometimes you have to far reach back to their parents and their parents, etc. This isn’t an easily solved answer either, especially in lower income neighborhoods. And remember parents can only do so much where the environment in the neighborhoods also affects the children themselves. My parents were nothing like the certain parts of the Bronx, but you better be sure the neighborhoods taught me things my parents didn’t, almost got me in trouble several times in fact.
Facet 3. Material goods. Interesting topic. Material goods are an American thing at the very least if not a HUMAN thing. Look at the past we’ve always been defined by material things. What we can build, grow, achieve and own. Inner-city culture puts emphasis on money, jewelry, kicks and gear. Now I do agree with a parent wasting money on a game and not being able to afford a calculator, but emphasis on material goods is hinging more on the income pool of the family rather than the importance. My family’s importance on money has made me focus on one thing in life: MONEY and how to best get it and keep it. So far so good. Material goods is a product of the music and fashion industry that children are exposed to early on, maybe a better control of what you’re kids are exposed to would stop this strong materialism over stuff and more importance to educational needs. But then again the X factor comes into play; the other environments the children are in. That factor being the neighborhoods, and the fellow kids at school who might expose them to these material “needs.”
Facet 4. – I couldn’t agree more. I wouldn’t blame the media so much. The media feeds into your tv tube images of Whites primarily then blacks then Hispanics. MTV feeds you rockers then rappers then reggeatoneros last. While I can’t quote (lazy) where the link is to this you can easily google it. The media feeds you your music. The issue is not the MEDIA so much but your own athletes & rappers affect on the community. DMX's long rap sheet makes it cool to be a “gangster” for an example of all rappers making thug life cool. Latino rappers and reggeatonero’s do a worse job of glorifying sex and being a thug as well. The ACTUAL stars not just the media need to do something about their own image. Not an easily solved problem when you ask yourself- Would I buy a Christian themed rap album or Reggeaton album. Personally I love Reggeaton, and I’ve heard Christian themed Reggeaton and I gagged. But that’s just me, once again solution to media and stars? We know what the end result we want, but the route is not so easily discoverable.
Facet 5. – First – this "golden opportunity" words needs to be carved out of someone’s vocab – it should be “a gamble” opportunity that even for the 6’4 basketball high school star should still be embedded in his head. This is still a gamble. Here’s a possible solution, high grades or you can’t play sports. Higher income public schools require B averages to play sports, and inner city schools pass you as long as you’re good at sports. This current trend feeds the image that this is the way to get through life. Please there’s a small number of athletes compared to the rest of the population. You want better schools, this should be part of the solution, setting new standards on student-athletes. Mentor’s are amazing, no disagreement. I have a black & Latino Mentor at my current school, one is a student and one is a corporate lawyer, and them being from my neighborhood and relating with my studies and work is amazing. I never had that in undergraduate and grad school, I think I would of done so much better in my 60% white Stony Brook education if I had some mentors. Take it back further to high school and grade-school when your mind is more impressionable; imagine how well kids would do. THIS is something once again we as a people should do if we got organized. Key word: Organized. Easier said than done.
Facet 6. – Ok this unite and fight crap? No one is trying to keep you down. There is not a grand conspiracy of keeping blacks or Hispanics for that matter DOWN. There is though a mission for any Person(s) to stay rich and stop others from becoming rich. If Hispanics were the majority and were in power, you damn well know we’d keep the whites or blacks down. If Blacks were in power, they'd do the same. I hate to say it's true but these are the facts of human life. In Puerto Rico, the “whites” are jibaro’s from the mountains, outcasts and kept poor, same with the blacks in other areas. Call it racism, call it discrimination, call it HUMANS BEIG HUMAN. Humans will always fight with each other regarding two different types of people. The Have’s and the Have-not’s. Haves will fight to keep what they have, and the have-not’s will fight to have what the Have’s have. Read it, it does make sense.
But a caveat: Everything you said about the small things to help others will go a long way. Stop feeding this unite against a system though, because it will feed racism into your own people that in turn will affect how you work with those in power. You might not want to seem like a threat until maybe you are in power, or you will never receive help!
Facet 7. Um yea I basically agree. But once again it’s a long hard, self-help to each other, road it is. You want your people to do well, focus on succeeding yourself and then giving back. Donate your time to yourself and to success, when you have enough minorities in powerful or at least economically safe positions can you turn around and help your people even more.
I think that was a good response, oozing with different perspectives on the same topic. I think sometimes one facet overlaps or strongly influences another. For example you had really good parents that had a progressive mentality, thus allowed you to resist negative influences from your surrounding inner city environment. You and me are an anomaly. Very few people in these urban communities nevermind the world have your determination and drive. Your parents also instilled in your important values that are crucial for obtaining a good education and succeeding at life. They also probably embedded the idea in your head that you can aspire to be whatever you want to be. I definitely get your point that education is what you make of it, but when the infrastructure of the system is weak, it is hard to overcome these mental hurdles. It takes a strong willed kid, good parents, and a lot of faith in order to reach higher education coming from our communities. But there is a minor population that are able to overcome these education insufficiencies. My mom is a teacher in and elementary public school in the Bronx and and has an inside to the DOE.
ReplyDeleteA couple of stats. I went to school in Syracuse. There is a 70 percent public high school dropout rate 70 PERCENT. In the suburban schools there is 95% percent highschool graduation and college attendance rate. There is definitely a disparity here. Which our government is doing nothing about.
If everybody had a Jewish mentality we would be in a better place. They have endured hardships, have coalesced, and overcame numerous obstacles. But we are not there yet mentally or pyschologically. We cannot just blame the system but I have Jewish acquaintances and they have beaten the system through hard work and unity. We all know this country has an insidious culture of racism. If the city really cared about public school education they would give money to the school that have gateway programs that help the kids in the public school system to get into better schools that have more opportunities and resources and have a high graduation rates.
The standardized test system is flawed. I concur on the vicious cycle. Most kids will follow their parents' trends. Generally speaking In " da hood" there are not good ones. Their curriculum is focused on helping kids pass these tests that don't have any actual relevance in terms of what will help them in their future. They do not teach kids how to think on their own which is a pivotal component to elementary school education.