Achievement Gap in African Americans in US

Achievement gap is real in US between African Americans and White Americans. I had an opportunity to follow Dr. James H. Cone, and his lectures on Black Theology of Liberation and The Cross and The Lynching Tree. I was fascinated by his words as he discussed the inequalities that exist in US amongst the black people and white people. In one of his lectures, he stated that colorblindness approach in US has no merits.

Instead, it prolongs the issues that resides in the hearts of the people. The more it prolongs, more feelings of rage reside amongst people, and it can only be solved, if America discusses the history. Although, the black people won civil rights and rights of liberty, but a wide gap exists in the context of socio-economic statuses between the two groups.

Before civil rights, white people had access to education, more public and private schools, which led them to their upward mobility in the society. Whereas, the black people, in the era of segregation and Jim Crow Laws, had fewer public schools, poor teaching staff and faculties, which led to the vicious cycle of low earning faction in US.

Therefore, we see that, majority of black people are tend to have less education or graduates than their white counterparts. A wide and evident achievement gap exists, and that is, because white people had a jumpstart in the US, whereas, black people joined quite later in the race.

Now, a brief history of US education has been discussed, it is imperative to discuss how education plays in an important role through a sociological perspective. Sociology deals with the human interactions, and tries to define human behavior therein. In education sector, people make relationships of friends and peers, where their minds are developed and readied to perform for the welfare of society.

Furthermore, in society, the educated people have more job prospects and opportunities, that help people to acquire a socio-economic standing, helping them to jump into a higher class. Moreover, an educated family tends to have educated generation. Hence, education is crucial for people to maintain a rich socio-economic standing in the society, to enjoy the civil liberties to the fullest.

This leads to the answer that education should be more accessible. Although, US has a well-established education system, in comparison to the whole world, where every person can acquire education at their ease. The country, where I migrated from, had age restrictions and people, who were left behind were left behind, whereas in US, there is not timeframe.

However, the achievement gap that I discussed prior in this paper still exist, and to cover that, government and NGOs should focus on people in the at-risk neighborhoods. More surveys and data should be collected. I was impressed by the data visualization provided in the module 3 by Dr. Melanie Gast, and she pointed out particular problems amongst bilinguals and black people.

Faculty racial equality in education system is important. As 70% of teachers were white at Hillside high, hence, more white people had higher education. Furthermore, for bilingual students, specific curriculum should be maintained in all education systems, that they have equal opportunities to be successful as native speakers. More funds should be allocated for at-risk youth, to ease up their financial situation, so they could better focus on education.

I really believe that education is the sole way to reduce inequality. As I have discussed that more education leads to higher socio-economic standing in the society. If all races in America have equal number of educated personnel, all races would then be more-or-less equal. Because, education is the only way to get more resources to thrive in the society.

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