•  
  •  
 
The Graduate Review

Abstract

Educational disparities in America’s elementary and secondary public education are illustrated by official statistics on school readiness in young children, per pupil expenditures, high school graduation rates, standardized test scores, advanced courses enrollment, high school dropout rates, school disciplinary actions, and college entrance and completion rates. The astounding disproportionate difference in achievement (or lack thereof) between Black and minority students compared to their White counterparts raises alarming concerns regarding two important aspects of public education: equal access and equal quality. This paper attempts to understand our society’s view of education throughout the nation’s history in order to analyze important public education policies. The resulting in-depth analysis seems to illustrate how these policies were either created to intentionally prevent equal access and quality in public education or that they fail to fix these problems once recognized. Furthermore, failures of policies with good intentions were mostly attributed to their inability to address underlying causes of educational disparities which include: institutional racism and poverty.

Note on the Author

MyHanh Barrette graduated in May 2017 from Bridgewater State University with a Master’s Degree in Social Work.

Rights Statement

Articles published in The Graduate Review are the property of the individual contributors and may not be reprinted, reformatted, repurposed or duplicated, without the contributor’s consent.

Download

Share

COinS