Addressing Social Bias in Public Education

, 1998) includes a comment on school- district differentials in expenditures for public education in Maryland. Whereas urban and outlandish districts were found to have spent about $4,500 per student, suburban districts in the state spent $6,000-$7,500. The figures be in come in 2.

Figure 2. Annual Per-Pupil Expenditures in Maryland in the 1990s (in thousands) arising: Secada, et al., 1998.

The Maryland figures are provided as an example that is not uncharacteristic of the national district-by-district picture. What makes them relevant to this research is that they support opinions of social separatrix in a whole range of attributes of public-school systems. As a group, suburban schools are situated in economically countenance places, tend to have majority-white students, and are generally well funded, spell urban schools are situated in economically disadvantaged, tatterdemalion inner cities, tend to have student populations comprising people of color, and are ill maintained, receiving significantly less financing than their suburban counterparts.

rase though it is a commonplace of American history of the fifties and 1960s that the Supreme Court decision Brown v. mature of Education mandated the desegregation of public schools, and even though much(prenominal) measures as court-ordered busing of students and the creation of special-subject-emphasis magnet schools have been implemented to even up racial imbalance, there is still a visible racial divide be

Frey, W. H. (1979). Central-city white race: Racial and non-racial causes. American Sociological Review, 44, 425-48.

Embedding cultural sensitivity into political platform content or teaching methods has been seen as a mood of increasing academic success among disadvantaged urban schools. Bowers (2000) cites "culturally relevant teaching," or methods that incorporate an understanding of students' backgrounds, that has improved the conceptual skills of urban students in such subjects as math and history.

In that regard, Danzer (2001) recommends incorporating study of the urban center where a sschool whitethorn be located as a culturally relevant social-studies project, on the theory that engaging students in matters of local interest may provide them with useful knowledge that may also emergence their "sense of belonging, of community, of stewardship, and of life itself."

Unequal access to resources, from books to computers to facilities, is seen by Kozol (1991) as the main difference between urban and suburban schools. scotch bias fosters social bias, in Kozol's view; abundant resources insinuate a rich curriculum, and lack of resources can starve a curriculum. That is why Kozol calls for school-budget reforms that distribute cash payouts to school districts on a more equal basis.

Kozol, J. (1991). Savage inequalities. New York: Crown.

The kernel of funding available for pupils at a given school district affects the ability of the school to attract quality teachers and pay them competitively. It affects whether students at a school have access to computers and/or the Internet. It affects the amount and quality of curriculum materials. It also affects curriculum content, which goes directly to the field of study of social bias. Morris continues:

Multimedia and the Interent are features of computer use in classrooms and may add variety to curriculum content. However, there is a "digital divide" between urban (poorer) and suburban (wealthier) schools, as indicated in the chart (
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