Discussion:

1. What is your impression of race/racism in the United States today? On your campus? Do you feel the two are similar or different?

2. What do you feel the institutions responsibility is to marginalized students? What should institutions do to address racial concerns or inequities?

3. In what ways do you feel programs are responsible for addressing the unique needs of minority students?

4.How does racial stereotyping influence classroom learning?

5. What are major elements of an inclusive model of andragogy that integrate multicultural awareness and issues?

6. What can be done to ensure that future professors are adequately prepared to teach diverse populations effectively?

Conclusion-Executive Summary

Understanding and responding to cultural diversity of students is an important step that will contribute to increased academic achievement amongst all students. It is important that we as professionals continue to support research and legislation regarding the achievement of african american and minority students so the achievement gap can begin to close. With education changing, I feel there will be a wider gap with the onslaught of online learning taking hold over our educational systems. Its our job to build a strong sense of community with our students, giving them status and recognition, increasing self esteem, having open and honest discussions regarding race and socio-economic backgrounds. As health professionals it is increasingly important to bridge the gap to all students so that they are comfortable in the delivery of care to all patients, or all races. By building a system of support that encourages recruitment and retention of students, you help add to the cultural mix that all students can learn from.

Race is a part of our society, but racism does not have to be. It was noted that adult learning theories do not address the unique cultural and historical issues that are found in varying cultures. As educators, think about what you will do to promote equitable education to all your students. What extra steps will you take to help higher achievement be a viable goal for all. In nursing we constantly speak on the elimination of racial and ethnic disparities, but studies show that education and health are linked, and the better the education of a society, the better the health of a society.

There is no "answer" to the problem. The problem doesn't begin in college. But as educators, health care professionals, and people living in society, it is our responsibility to help close these gaps. We must learn to be open to learning from one another. We must make the attempt to learn from and about one another. We must stop being so closed minded to the systemic oppression of marginalized societies in America and all over the world.

As you continue to learn, I pray that we each just take the time to get to know others that are different from ourselves. I pray that you incorporate different learning methods and styles so that all of your students can benefit. I also ask that you take time to talk to your students, and learn their background, learn about what they perceive as their barriers to learning and attempt to make the road "less" bumpy. Not everyone will succeed, but the reasons they don't succeed shouldn't be because they do not have instructors that support them, or institutions that recognize their needs.

I would like to end with a quote from the book "The Unchosen Me, Race, Gender and Identity Among Black Women in College by Rachelle Winkle-Wagner. In the book she states " How great a personal cost is too much to pay for a college degree? Some students, namely students of color, continue to pay a higher personal price. Even after they gain access and matriculate, they experience impositions on their identity in the predominately white environment. These identity impositions can provide insight into the way that race and gender are created in unequal ways.

Barriers to Learning

So what can we do:

First we need to identify the barriers that keep African Americans from entering college and pursuing higher education degrees.

Socio-Cultural Causes: One of the main factors associated with low student achievement is poverty. Students living in persistent poverty are more likely than other students to suffer from many conditions that impede their learning, including:poor health care (including inadequate prenatal care for their mothers);frequent changes in residence, requiring transferring to new schools repeatedly;lack of books and other educational resources in the home;parents with lower levels of education; and unstable family structure.

Cultural attitudes and racism also play a part in the achievement gap. Research suggests that some minority students perceive that the majority culture sees them as less capable and expects little of them. These students may not try in school, since they believe they won't succeed anyway. Some researchers believe minority students may maintain low levels of achievement purposely to avoid "acting white" and to gain the approval of their peers, while others see the problem as partly consisting of stereotype threat.

School-Related Causes:
Unfortunately, students who start out with disadvantages often encounter school conditions that only add to the problem. They are more likely to attend schools with inadequate funding staffed with teachers who are not as qualified to teach their subjects as they could be. In addition, especially in schools with high concentrations of poor and minority students, teachers often have low expectations of these students, leading them to have low expectations for themselves.

Cultural causes:If the student is within a different cultural learning environment than his own, feelings of “will I fit in?” and the need to be part of a group may supersede learning. According to Maslow’sHierarchy of Needs, the need to belong and feel loved supersedes the Need to Know stage.
source: http://www.achievementgap.info/causes.html

Those in higher education are charged with educating all citizens that come across its threshold. American educational institutions encompass every segment of the population to include age groups, interests, abilities, gender, and socioeconomic status (SES). Due to the diverse nature of schools, challenges arise. However, despite these challenges, educators must continue to forge ahead in the quest to produce productive citizens. The American education system is in a constant battle within itself, and this battle is being fought in the legislative halls and court rooms. State funded institutions as well as private continue to seek out funding to be able to operate.

In my opinion, there are several ways that we as educators and future educators can become involved and proactive in closing the achievement gap. Colleges should increase the work of recruitment and RETENTION! Once you get them into college, there is a need to see that every student matriculate through til the end. Learning methods, including grading should be flexible to allow for different learning styles and methods. Most of the work, as I am finding, must be done before adults reach the higher education level. The majority of the work needs to be done at the elementary and high school levels to prepare students for continuing education.

To address the achievement gap that exists in higher education, it is critically necessary to evaluate what reforms are being implemented in the classroom. Too often “educational reforms” are implemented with no real time to evaluate its effectiveness. Before abandoning these types of reforms, legislatures have to be willing to properly assess the efficiency of these reforms. Legislatures also need to realize that data sets for prescribed goals have some natural tensions associated with them. For this reason, the legislation needs to focus the state’s attention to maintaining student improvement on an individual basis and the rate of individual improvement. Provide universities with flexible funding, allowing the institution to dictate program-offering and personnel needs, thereby allowing them to develop and implement responses to educational needs of the the students. Allocate resources to education providers (universities, government agencies, health care organizations, etc) based on the cost of that provider’s particular needs and mission rather than on its proximity to valuable properties. Eliminate structures that cause duplications of expenses, and create structures that allow for cost sharing and cost reduction.

Video Links on Acheivement Gap among Students

David Harris


Minding the Gap


Educators Discuss the Achievement Gap

Introduction

Diversity in Education: How do we close the achievement gap in learning among African Americans.

It is my belief that cultural values/beliefs of caring and respect have shaped my learning and thus will also shape the way I perform my duties as a nurse and health educator in my community. Who I perceive I am and my role is important as I act as an advocate for my community. While I am one person, in order to be effective, adult education is necessary for continued preparation of African Americans for careers, whether it be nursing, or any other career field. Institutions continue to grapple with issues related to African American and other minority group preparation for and access to higher education. These efforts include attempts to address problems in recruitment, college entry, retention, and graduation success.
I found several books I will use to address this topic as well as several articles.

When the authors of the majority of the texts I used for this research talk about achievement gaps, they are speaking of interrelated gaps, those between male and female, high, middle or low socio economic classes, african american and white, and rural, suburban and urban groups.

One of the first books I read in college was a Book entitled "the Miseducation of the Negro" by Carter G. Woodson. Although published more than six decades ago, the impact of these poignant words by Dr. Carter G. Woodson in The Miseducation of the Negro has continued to resonate throughout the minds and hearts of Black people around the globe. It enlightens each reader on controversial issues such as reverse discrimination, reparation and affirmative action. Years after desegregation, and the civil rights movement, African Americans are still falling behind the learning curve. There are many reasons why, socio-economic, biased testing, unfair admissions, and a host of other reasons researcher point to. According to Dr. Woodson, because the mind has been subjected to control, the idea of inferiority has become a permanent resident, accepting of discrimination to the point where it seems natural.

As a whole, I believe, just as in health care, we have to find a level of cultural competence as we teach others. We have to be willing to learn from each other, willing to seek out the information that will help us perform better at our jobs, and use the strategies that will help close gaps in education.

Why Is Diversity in Education Important

I think it's important to note that much of what happens to students is in the preparation they receive before attempting higher education. In order to relate to our students, we have to in some way be able to understand the backgrounds from which they come. My teaching experience is very limited, but I was chosen for my position based on race, my ability to relate and understand my students, and my comfort level with the material I was teaching.

For many adults, transitioning from the high school to college environment, there is a level of comfort that is not necessarily there. I was fortunate to be exposed to college and dorm life through a Program called Upward Bound. In this program, we lived on the college campus all summer long in dorms. We went to classes, we ate at the college cafeteria, we interacted with other college students. But for many, if they make it to college, they may be in an environment where for the first time they are the only African American in class.



Diversity in Higher Education

Characteristics of African American Learners

The basic models of learning, development, and program planning in adult education have often been developed with little concern for the unique needs of African Americans (Colin 1994). Current theories of adult learning have also been criticized for their lack of cultural understanding and the role that race, economics, and gender play in the learning transaction. For example, Flannery (1995) argues that three of the main theories of adult education--andragogy, self-directed learning, and perspective transformation--focus heavily on the individual and do not recognize the value of groups. She observes that some racial and ethnic groups, such as African Americans, place greater emphasis on "communal values." Flannery explains, "communal values include knowledge which is valued, how learning occurs, [and] communication patterns of working together for the good of the community" (pp. 153-154). Flannery contends that adult learning theories must be mindful of the influence of social, historical, and economic roles in adult education and "must acknowledge that people and cultures vary in how they learn" (p. 156). Theories "must become inclusive and give voice to all people and groups, allowing missing voices (women, working-class persons, persons of color) to narrate their diverse stories of how and where they learn, and about their values of learning" (p. 156). In our own text, Bell's (1994) research with African Americans found that African Americans support a "holistic relational style".


At one point in our educational history, there was a great debate amongst the ideology of WEB Duboise and Booker T Washington as to the need of education. Self-help and adult education are part of the African American cultural heritage, as exemplified by such men as Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois. But much debate arose in the different methods by which each man proposed the education of African Americans should take place. Booker T. Washington believed that African Americans needed first to take care of their survival and safety needs and then worry about the more complex needs of belonging, self-esteem, and self-actualization. The humanistic efforts of adult educators like Booker T. placed the personal needs of the learners first; learning for personal change was a secondary but essential characteristic of adult education. Washington advocated self-help within the race and engaged African Americans to pursue "industrial" education, which he felt would allow them to be more independent. Denton (1993) asserts that today's adult education programs are in fact modeled after Washington's principles and his contribution to the field of adult education. Denton describes how Booker T. Washington's philosophy of adult education led the way for the mainstream white American writer Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
W. E. B. DuBois believed in self-help for African Americans and understood the social dynamics that race played in America for blacks. DuBois was concerned with the activism that African Americans needed in order to gain social and political freedoms. DuBois proposed a group classified as the Talented Tenth. Du Bois used the term "the talented tenth" to describe the likelihood of one in ten black men becoming leaders of their race in the world, through methods such as continuing their education, writing books, or becoming directly involved in change. He strongly believed that blacks needed a classical education to be able to reach their potential, rather than the industrial education promoted by such people as Washington. DuBois's self-help philosophy is therefore more aggressive than Booker T.'s. As with the work of Booker T., DuBois's book, The Souls of Black Folks (1903), can be regarded as one of the early books on self-help education in America because it promotes survival skills acquired through education.

The Stats: This excerpt was taken from the Dissertation of D'Andra Mull, M.A.

STILL….THEY RISE: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF

RESILIENCE IN FIRST GENERATION AFRICAN AMERICAN COLLEGE

STUDENTS

"Statistics from The Condition of Education 2005, assembled by the U.S. Department of Education, substantiate the discrepancies that exist in the educational attainment of African American students when compared to White students. The divide between African American and White students in pursuit of higher education continues to exist in the United States. Sadly, the percentage of African American students who go on to educational pursuits beyond secondary school falls far behind that of their White peers (http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2005094); in 1994, the numbers were evident of the gap between Black and White students in college aims: 49.6% of African American students versus 69.2% of White students finished one or more years of college, during the same duration of time. In that same year, 16.2% of Black students versus 29.7% of White students completed four or more years of colleges, although neither group is necessarily indicative of the total percentage earning an undergraduate degree (http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/nativetrends/index.asp) However, the statistics shown only two years later, and up to 2005 serve to illuminate the great divide in degrees completed between the groups: in 1996, African American represented a mere 7.9%, while White students comprised 77.8% of bachelor’s degree recipients. In 2002, African American students comprised 9% compared to74.2% of White students completing similar academic programs (http://nces.ed.gov/das/epubs/2003165/path.asp). In 2005, the number of African American students completing bachelor’s degrees when compared to White students contribute to illustrate a great disparity, as African Americans comprised only 10.6%, while and Whites made up 75.1% of all baccalaureate degree recipients, (http:// nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=72). Notably, the problem between academic degree attainment between African American and White students lends grounds for the researcher’s notion that the current trend of educational achievement of Black students is a cause for concern, and moreover, an issue that educators must address if they truly seek to educate all students, and help reverse the trend of high attrition in higher education pursuits." (source:http://etd.ohiolink.edu/send-pdf.cgi/Mull%20DAndra%20I.pdf?acc_num=osu1180467362)

References:

Bell, Y.R. (1994) A Culturally sensitive analysis of Black Learning Style. Journal of Black Psychology, 20(1), 47-61

Colin, S. A. J., III. "Adult and Continuing Education Graduate Programs. Prescriptions for the Future." NEW DIRECTIONS FOR ADULT AND CONTINUING EDUCATION no. 61 (Spring 1994): 53-62.

Denton, V. L. BOOKER T. WASHINGTON AND THE ADULT EDUCATION MOVEMENT. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1993.

Flannery, D. D. "Adult Education and the Politics of the Theoretical Text." In CRITICAL MULTICULTURALISM: UNCOMMON VOICES IN A COMMON STRUGGLE, edited by B. Kanpol and P. McLaren. Westport, CT: Bergin and Garvey 1995.