There is a Racial Disparity in Advanced Courses
In the case of Brown vs. Board of Education, the US Supreme Court ruled that it was not legal to keep public schools segregated by race. This was a significant success for minority students, but they still have a long way to go (“...Look…”). In 2015, the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights released data that included a statistic stating that 40% of the enrollment for schools that had gifted programs was Black and Latino students, but only 26% of those students were in the gifted programs (Hsieh). Gary Orfield wrote on a similar topic that “We have become a nation that accepts...unequal [classrooms]” (Orfield). A lot of racial minority student are separated into different classes with a lower standard of education, even if they should be in a more advanced course (Darling-Hammond). Racial disparity in advanced courses in high schools today is caused by students of color not being in gifted programs earlier in their education; being one of the only students of their race can make racial minority students feel isolated and uncomfortable and the disparity limits opportunities for them in their future.
The racial disparity in advanced
…show more content…
Tracking, a method used by schools to place students in classes with others of similar ability, follows students through their education. If a student was in gifted programs early in their education, tracking would put them in higher classes later. Karolyn Tyson wrote “Tracking has made it possible to have desegregation without integration” (Tyson 6). That means that tracking keeps students of color separate from white students even if they are in the same school. As told in the first paragraph, the disparity can be traced to gifted programs in early education. Students are less likely to be in honors or AP classes if they are not labeled gifted when they are younger (Tyson