The Impact of Racial Discrimination on Academic Success

Our topic centers around an investigation of the impact that racial discrimination and oppression have on the academic success and learning experiences of subordinate racial groups of students in public schools. The focus of our topic is on high schoolers in the twenty-first century in the United States of America with a particular focus on subordinate racial groups and an intersectional analysis with subordinate gender groups.

We chose this particular topic because of our interest in the impact that racism and discrimination can have on education. At its core, this issue is directly connected to the effect that racial and gendered interactions at both socialized and institutionalized levels have on students’ abilities to learn. This institutional level of racism wholly correlates to key topics we have learned in class, including the cycle of socialization enforcements section. Additionally, marginalization and powerlessness, two of the five faces of oppression, that result from the systemic oppression of students in subordinate groups. They are marginalized in terms of the restrictiveness that this oppression enforces on their ability to receive as fair and as just of an education as privileged students do. They are powerless because these actions come from a systemic source of power that reinforces institutional socialization in schools. Current literature says that racial discrimination is negatively impacting the learning abilities of these students, the achievement gap between privileged and subordinate racial groups is widening, and black female students are being systematically disempowered. We’re taking a course entitled, “Social Diversity in Education,” so I think it’s safe to say that we all have a collective interest in the education of young people. Part of that means we want to take steps towards ensuring that all students succeed — and right now they aren’t. But we, the people in this room, can help fix that! 

To learn more about our topic, we first explored the statistics surrounding the impact of racial discrimination on the achievement gap, quality of learning, and systemic disempowerment. In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2015, the Schott Foundation for Public Education released a report that showed how systemic racial biases are present in many more scenarios than unjust police violence. These biases also extended to education by showing that the achievement gap between black, male and Latino students and white, male students is widening and it’s becoming harder for non-white students to attain the same level of academic success as privileged, white students are. According to this 2015 report of 2012-13 graduation rates, the achievement gap between white, male students and Latino students is fifteen percent. The gap between white, male students and black, male students is twenty-one percent, up two percent from three years before. For some states, like Nevada, just forty-four percent of Latino students graduate, compared to sixty-two percent of white, male students. In Nebraska, only fifty percent of black, male students graduated. That leaves a thirty-six percent achievement gap, which is just sobering. In Wisconsin, ninety-four percent of white, male students graduated while just fifty-nine percent of black, male students did. In New York City, just twenty-eight percent of black, male students graduated. Clearly, there is more than enough evidence to show that graduation rates are high, but only for some students. Why is that? Why are black students being left behind when high levels of academic success are not only possible, but are readily attainable? This is happening for a number of reasons. For one, the rates of discipline disproportionately harm black, male students. Fifteen percent of them receive suspensions that take them away from the place of learning, which is ten percent more than the amount of suspensions levied against white students. How can we expect these graduation rates to level out if the experiences of students in public schools is anything but fair and equal? In lower-income areas, the quality of education is also lesser. Students can only succeed when they are given the opportunity to do so. But even bigger than all of these reasons is the myth of meritocracy. Issues like proper classroom funding and proportionate disciplinary actions need to be fixed on a school by school basis, but they can only combat so much when the entire attitude towards academic success in public schools in society is warped. Discrimination in education in the United States is an issue that has been prevalent for decades, but never truly solved and it’s clearly still getting worse. Power manifests in the sense that many education traditionalists will see the disparity in graduation rates between Latino, black, male and white, male students as “the way it is.” Too often, poor academic achievement is blamed on the individual rather than the institution. If a student did not graduate, it’s his, or her, fault because they didn’t work hard enough, they’ll say. But the reality is that, with racial discrimination, many schools use power to set students up to fail.

As we can see, this chart examines the impact of racial discrimination on the learning environments of students who are African American, Latino, and Chinese American. This study was conducted with students at Neighborhood High School by Susan Rakosi Rosenbloom and it shows how students of these subordinate racial groups found that forms of racial discrimination were impressed upon them by both their peers and their adults in the academic environment. By compounding these forms of harassment and oppression with the institutional oppression that leads to children of color lacking the necessary academic resources, it is clear that racially subordinate groups of students have a lot more to deal with and worry about in schools than whether or not they’re getting good grades.

There are a plethora of studies that show how racism directly impacts the achievement gap in students. For example, a study by Emma Adam at Northwestern University showed that the racial discrimination, in forms of prejudices and stereotyping, were negatively impacting, mostly, black and Latino youths. The study concluded that unfair, race-based treatment resulted in lower grades and less motivation, which obviously directly leads to a wider gap in terms of academic success. However, this form of racial discrimination exists in more than just a social capacity; it also is evident biologically. The study showed that black and Latino youths, in response to perceived instances of racial discrimination, experienced far more stress hormones than white adolescents did. This shows that, in addition to the standard challenges presented by the rigor of public academics, students of color have been forced to overcome even more roadblocks. The lack of attaining academic success has nothing to do with hard work and merit. This is not a case of a meritocracy at work. This is a case of the deck being stacked against students while they receive the same methods of evaluation as privileged students do. This is also the case for black, female students. In a study by Nicole Joseph, Kara Viesca, and Margarita Bianco about how black, female adolescents experience racism in their educations, they further showed how gendered expectations and inherent discrimination and biases were negatively impacting the educations of these girls. Frequently, students of color who suffer from racial discrimination roadblocks are overlooked. According to this study, when black, female students are overlooked, it contributes to more than just the academic achievement gap. It also leads to them experiencing feelings of disempowerment because of the consistent subjection to popular stereotypes of what it means to be beautiful and to be feminine. These sentiments simply cause more stress within the subordinate group as the climate surrounding them is completely defined by stereotypes of gender and of race.

To combat these unnecessary stressors, we have to demand more of our academic institutions and the administrators and faculty members who are in charge of them. Those who have the power to make a difference in education should be called upon to help give opportunities to all students and not just those they view as victors of the meritocracy. It’s time to stop treating education like it’s a competition. We can be part of that change, too. UMass is not a public, K-12 school, but it does host a lot of aspiring educators. Eventually, many of us will be in a position to make change and it’s a responsibility we should not take lightly. Fortunately, many social justice organizations are taking up the fight, as well. One social justice organization that is close to my heart, mainly because I worked for it, is Breakthrough Collaborative. Breakthrough is an organization with a thorough knowledge of dropout and graduation rates among racially diverse students. Through this understanding, they aim to reduce the dropout rates by providing the necessary educational materials for students in K-12 schools. Ultimately, their goal is to keep kids in school, keep them engaged, and keep them learning. Among the numerous assets that are supported by Breakthrough are after school programs during the school year, SAT tutors, and college preparatory tools. It’s a crucial organization that is helping schools attain immense academic success by simply giving them opportunities and the resources they need so they can succeed and reach their full potentials that standard K-12 academic experiences might neglect in favor of “doing things the way they have always been done.” But it’s time to forget about the way it always has been and start thinking about the way it should be. By affording discriminated students the opportunities they need and decreasing stress so we can increase motivation, we can make a difference in academics and ensure that all students forge fruitful journeys of education.

Image Source: Big Education