Is High School Responsible For Racial Difference In Dropout?

Is High School responsible for racial difference in dropout?

Introduction

Emile Durkheim argues that education is “the image and reflection of society” (Durkheim). It teaches people the right behavior and good manners which help develop their values and virtues. Education plays an important role as a part of a society which determines the class position and how people move in social mobility. Specifically, the value of high school education has significantly increased over the past few decades. Students with a high school diploma have higher chance of getting a job and more opportunities in job market comparing to those without it. Most Americans agree that high school education creates opportunities and open doors

The authors of “High Suspension School and Dropout Rates for Black and White Students” argue that suspension rates somehow influence dropout rates. What causes the students to dropout is the aggressive attitude and inappropriate behaviour. For example, in some school with small percentages of black students, they feel isolated in their school. Their self-protection awareness cause them to have aggressive attitude, so black students are more likely to drop out of school. Many schools that have high dropout rate also have a large minority population. For example, Oakland Technical High School is a public high school located in Oakland, which is ranked in the bottom 40% of school in California with 37.9% African American students, 19.0% of Hispanics and only 21.2% of White students. There is an obvious racial difference in dropout rate. African American students have the highest dropout rate which is 2.9% and 2.4% for Hispanic students,while White students attain only 0.9%. Not only the racial differences, among all these dropouts, male students attain higher chance of dropout than female. Students from ethnic minorities concern more about their peer status and their relationship with others than their grades. popular students should have lower risks of school dropout than their less-popular peers (Staff 446). Staff argues that White students feel like they have higher peer status so they may therefore enjoy school because it provides them opportunities to mingle with their friends. In contrast, black students or asian students are considered as less-popular peers. No matter it’s due to the racial bias or language barrier, these groups less likely to participate or talk get peer acceptance, teacher praise, and even respect from others. Although motivations are different, both black and white teachers are likely to single out black boys for punishment while ignoring similar