rondale HighSchool Academic disparities District Divided

racial segregation persists throughout schools across the U.S., split the district into two socioeconomically distinct regions, with larger portion of Black and Hispanic students. Furthermore, Black demically in the Mounds View district and across the U.S. In this racial segregation and discover what can be done about it.

vantages begin as early as preschool. Lower income families — which are often families of color — cannot invest as much money into child development programs. From a young age, these students do not receive the same opportunities to develop skills that will prepare them for success in grade school. This explains why Black, Hispanic and Native American kindergarten students continually rank below white students in their School Readiness, which is a metric that evaluates a child’s personal development, as well as their math, language had access to more resources and funding. For example, even though some inner-city school districts in Minnesota, such as the Minneapolis and St. Paul school districts, actually spend more per student today than suburban districts, they still fall behind in academic achievement.

The disparities between impoverished and wealthy school districts are evident in Minnesota. Seniors Ava Frey and Jessica Tran did a project for their AP Government class in mid-January comparing Wayzata High School, a wealthy, highly ranked school with a minority population of 34.8%, and North Community High School, an inner-city school with 97% minority students. When visiting these places after school, Frey noticed vast differences in their environments.

Frey explained in their project how she noticed North Community had run-down hallways, dirty staircases and ceiling tiles that were popping out. “They didn’t even have a practice room for dance, so a lot of the students were outside in the hall practicing cheer,” Frey said.

On the other hand, she said Wayzata had an extremely modern and spacious facility, with 20 practice rooms for music, dance studios with full-length mirrors and flex spaces similar to Mounds View’s.

These disparities worsen the learning experience of students at impoverished inner city schools. According to research conducted by Professor Richard Ingersoll at the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, teacher turnover rates are especially high in urban school districts because of poor working conditions, ineffective school leadership and lacking support from other educators. “As you have smaller and more lower income schools… there’s less incentive to work. If you go to a rundown school, there’s less incentive to learn,” Frey said.

However, even in suburban districts that have access to more resources, such as Mounds View, academic disparities persist between students of different races in the same school. According to ProPublica, a news service that determined miseducation in school districts in the U.S., Black students in the Mounds View District were 2.7 grades behind white students in 2017 based on differences in standardized testing proficiency.

Furthermore, at both Mounds View and Irondale, Black students make up a smaller percentage of advanced classes.

In 2017, 1.2% of all calculus students at Mounds View High School were Black, whereas they made up 3.9% of the total student body, according to the Civil Rights Data Collection. Similarly at Irondale, 4.9% of calculus students were Black, but they made up 18.9% of the student body.

The underrepresentation of Black students in the Mounds View District in advanced classes, and nationwide, could be attributed to differences in early childhood education, as well as income levels and access to opportunities. More specifically, students from low-income families, which are often minorities, do not have as many opportunities to attend academic enrichment programs or receive help from highly-educated parents, which is what often gets wealthy students ahead.

Studies from the National Bureau of Economic Research also finds that Black and Hispanic students are often subjected to the implicit biases of teachers, as they are often less willing to provide help to minority students or refer them to gifted programs and advanced classes.

Besides these disparities, attending segregated schools shields students from having diverse experiences. “You can’t grow as a person, you can’t develop an understanding of what other people go through. I think a lot of issues in society that we have happened because people’s perspective is too narrow on things, and I think we have to open up our eyes to the realities that other people experience,” said Matthew Scardigli, admin intern.

This lack of diversity is prevalent in teaching staff as well, even in integrated schools. When schools were desegregated, black educators were forced to leave their positions. Because of lower pay and workplace discrimination, they still remain a small percent of the education workforce. “We are still feeling this effect today where just 7% of teachers are Black and about 11% of principals are Black,” said Jenna Claflin, social studies teacher. In Mounds View schools, the percentage of teachers of color was around 4.7% in 2019, according to district data. The low percentage of non-white teachers often puts minority students at a disadvantage.

In the long-run, achievement gaps continue to negatively impact students. Minnesota has a high school graduation rate for Black students of 70%, one of the lowest in the nation, compared to a white student graduation rate of 89% according to the National Center for Education Statistics. This low rate means that Black students are less likely to attend college.

This causes them to resort to unskilled labor and earn lower incomes. “You’ll go look for jobs, whether that’s a minimum wage job, or you’ll resort to worse… and then the cycle will continue with the new generation, and it’s very dangerous. And so the equality and equity gaps are just continuing to grow,” Frey explained.

Even though these impacts are no secret, people continue to turn a blind eye to the issue of school segregation. “I just think it’s really hard to visualize something that you don’t see in your own community. It’s very rare that families will go beyond the very close suburbs that surround them,” Frey said. With this lack of recognition, there remains little motivation to solve these persistent academic disparities.