The civic achievement gap

Monday, September 08, 2008

The Civic Achievement Gap (blog 3 of 3) Current mood: confident

(This is the 3rd blog in a series, to get the full relevance you must go back and read 1 & 2) The civic achievement gap. That is what is happening to our education system. Social studies has been tossed aside in hopes to have more time to devote to math and reading, in hopes that everyone will pass the standardized tests. Do you know what social studies is? It is primarily an effort to teach students civics and how to be effective citizens. It helps students to see how they can make changes and help out communities and change the world. It helps students to know that they can make a difference and they can change things and they can do things to be successful in life. So what happens when we stop teaching it? We turn into a land of 'idiots', which comes full circle back to my first topic in blog 1. We have the next generation who don't have the civic knowledge that they need in order to be effective citizens, ones who don't help their community, ones who don't take part in politics to make changes to make thier world a better place.
And what is worse is now there is a civic achievement gap. In high-income schools in upper class neighborhoods, students tend to do better on standardized tests. This could be because they have a more stable homelife that allows them to focus more on their schoolwork, it could be because they have parents that are active in their education and give them support, it could be because they have better resources that allow them to get a better understanding in their schoolwork. Whatever the case, these students tend to do better. And of course, it seems that the majority of these students tend to be native-born white kids. It sucks, but it's true. So they get to have all subjects presented and taught, they get to have their social studies lessons as always, no time is taken away from them. They are given the opportunity to learn the civic knowledge they need to be effectvie citizens. They are given the tools to learn how to make a difference in their community, how to be successful and how to continue to be well-off in life. However, lower class and inner city schools tend to do poorly on standardized tests, just barely scraping by most of the time. Perhaps it is because they don't have caring, supportive parents involved in their education, maybe it is because they have to deal with parents that do drugs or abuse alcohol, maybe it is because they are stressed out and don't have the energy to devote to their education, maybe they don't have the resources to fully understand what they are learning. Whatever the case, they tend to do poorly. And most of these students tend to be non-white, and/or immigrant kids. So they get their scocial studies cut, they get little or not time devoted to social studies lessons, which results in this civic acheivement gap. These students do not have the civics knowledge they need to be effective citizens, and are not given the tools to show that they can make a difference and that they can have more in life than what they have. They are not shown how to better themselves and their community. So we have this gap where these suburban kids continue to be well-off and successful, and the inner city kids continue to be poor and helpless. This is horrible for our future. In so many ways.
There are some great articles out there about this, here are a couple links:
http://www.civicyouth.org/PopUps/WorkingPapers/WP51Levinson.pdf
http://www.neafoundation.org/programs/closingthegap.htm
but all you have to do is google 'civic acheivement gap' and you will find lots.
So if educators can see this problem, if parents can see this problem, if education majors can see this problems, if textbook writers can see this problem.... why isn't anything being done to fix it? Why are we creating a future where people don't know or care enough to take part in civics and politics in order to make a difference? Why are we letting students fall through the gaps? Why is it that the NCLB law was up for review and the lawmakers decided to postpone the decision and let it be the way it is and adress is after the presidential election? Why if we can see something isn't working, we don't fix it? And what are we, as parents, and as concerned citizens for our furture going to do about it? You have a voice. What are you going to do with it? Complain? Or take action? Are you just another 'idiot', or do you care enough about our society, about our children, about our future to do something to make a difference?