Baltimore Sun: De Facto Segregation Persists in Integrated Schools

As schools become more diverse, a lingering problem persists that inadvertently creates de facto segregation in the classroom. In a Baltimore Sun article, "Within integrated schools, de facto segregation persists", educators in a Howard County, Maryland school district have discovered that black students are less likely to be enrolled in honors and Advanced Placement (AP) courses than their white peers. This sort of racialized tracking ensures that white students have greater access to educational resources and guidance counseling, increasing their chances of attending an elite college or university. school tracking is a controversial issue because it involves separating students by academic ability into groups for certain classes and curriculum within a school. Black students are disproportionately selected into regular (a.k.a. non-college-preparatory) and special education courses, which sends the message that they are not college material. Furthermore, black students miss out on gifted and talented programs, which provide many opportunities for cultural and social capital (particularly around their more affluent peers). De facto segregation in the classroom is not equal educational opportunity. Educators and policymakers must understand that enrolling more white and black students in the same school does not always lead to integrated classrooms.

School tracking can have disastrous effects on student learning and can lead to a poverty of learning particularly among black students. Click here (Education Week) and here (ASCD) for more information about tracking.

Howard County is the most integrated school district in the region, according to the Maryland Equity Project of the University of Maryland. Children of different races — especially those who are black and white — are more likely to sit next to each other in Howard than almost anywhere else in the state.

But within that diversity, school leaders have uncovered a de facto system of segregation.

Enrollment data obtained by The Baltimore Sun through a public records request shows that the district's advanced classes — honors, gifted and talented, and AP — are disproportionately white, while the regular and remedial classes are disproportionately black.

I also highly recommend these scholarly articles if school tracking in K-12 education is of strong interest to readers:

• Prudence Carter (2016), Educational Equality Is a Multifaceted Issue: Why We Must Understand the School’s Sociocultural Context for Student Achievement
• Jennifer Hochschild (2003), Social Class in Public Schools

Judge's family apologizes 160 years after Dred Scott decision

The famous landmark case, Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857), declared that people of African descent, whether free or enslaved, were not American citizens and, therefore, had no legal standing to sue in federal court. The decision also ruled the Missouri Compromise as unconstitutional and thus prevented African Americans from pursuing freedom in states or territories where slavery had been abolished. The Dred Scott decision sparked heated discussions over the future expansion of slavery, the rise of Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party, and eventually a civil war that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. Slavery was finally abolished first under the Emancipation Proclamation (1862) and the Thirteenth Amendment (1865), which overturned the Dred Scott decision.

According to the Atlanta Black Star, descendants of the Scott and Taney families will gather together at the Taney statue for a historic apology and to speak against its removal. They hope to inspire reconciliation with a proposal to erect statues of Dred Scott and Frederick Douglass standing in positions of dialogue with Chief Justice Taney, along with an educational display on the Dred Scott decision and its aftermath.

Most historians today agree that this ruling, or more accurately abomination, was one of the worst decisions ever decided in the Supreme Court's history. I hope that this formal apology is a first step to a greater discussion around truth and reconciliation regarding America's past with slavery. Americans need to make amends with its past over the issue of slavery. In addition to Georgetown, more prominent elite institutions such as Columbia and Harvard have begun to investigate its ties with slavery. Most importantly, we must not forget our history--even the painful facts--because future generations need to learn from the mistakes of the past.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) – A family member of the chief justice who presided over the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott decision has apologized to the family of the slave who tried to sue for his freedom.

On Monday, the 160-year anniversary of the decision, Charles Taney IV of Greenwich, Connecticut, stood a few feet from a statue of his great-great-grand-uncle Roger Brooke Taney outside the Maryland State House and apologized for the decision, in which Roger Taney wrote that African-Americans could not have rights of their own and were inferior to white people. Roger Taney lived in Maryland.

"You can't hide from the words that Taney wrote," Taney said. "You can't run, you can't hide, you can't look away. You have to face them."

Social Work Month 2017: Social Workers Stand Up

The 2017 theme for Social Work Month is "Social Workers Stand Up."

From the National Association of Social Workers:

Social workers stand up for millions of people every day. These include people who are experiencing devastating illnesses and mental health crises, our veterans, children, families and communities. Yet many people still misunderstand who social workers are and the invaluable contributions they bring to society.

This year we will commemorate Social Work Month with a “Social Workers Stand Up!” campaign. This campaign will educate the public about the contributions of social workers and give social workers and their allies tools they can use to elevate the profession.

The 2017 theme for World Social Work Day is "Promoting Community and Environmental Stability."