Patrick Finn Literacy black students school dropouts

Synopsis

Patrick Finn analyzes the school dropout frequencies with regard to cultural and community basis. According to the information contained in the book from the time of Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 until Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, Southern and Border States legally segregated their school systems by race.

Summary

Black schools received fewer resources and black children were taught almost exclusively by black teachers. Outside the South, migration, housing patterns, and actions by state and local leaders contributed to similar racial isolation in the schools. With the Brown decision, the Supreme Court deemed segregated schools “inherently unequal” and therefore unconstitutional. Over the next 30 years, federal courts ordered the implementation of desegregation plans for many of the largest school districts in the United States. It was the intent of these court orders to provide equal educational resources to blacks by eradicating segregation on the basis of race. (Patrick J Pp. 9) Indeed, the desegregation of the public schools was among the most significant innovations in the educational system of the post-World War II U.S. Nevertheless, there is little consensus on the effect of desegregation on integration's intended beneficiaries, black students. As discussed briefly above, the validity of the difference-in-differences estimates rests on the assumption that, in the absence of desegregation, trends in black dropout rates would not have differed systematically with the decade of integration.32 This section presents several tests of this assumption. Some evidence already presented suggests the assumption is reasonable. First, controlling for time-varying covariates that drive variation in dropout rates does not substantially affect the basic estimates. Second, trends in white dropout rates are identical among 60's, 70's and 80's desegregators. In fact, there is no trend in white dropout rates in the 1970's. The decline in dropout rates is a uniquely black phenomenon.

Background

Some of us feel as though it is not our responsibility to help other blacks when they are in need. Another major problem is the existence of racism. This negative attitude leads to many physical and psychological problems within the black community. Therefore, lack of unity within the black community and the effects of racism are two major factors when contribute to the slow progress of black people. Before the Civil Rights movement racism was so blatant that not knowing it existed would have been difficult. Presently, it is so subtle that some argue we cannot blame racism for our problems. Unfortunately, they are wrong. (Patrick J Pp. 10)

The effects of racism can be seen in the segregation of our neighborhoods and in our high unemployment rates. White people want to keep their contact with us to a minimum. In 1991, USA Today reported that the 1990 census 'concluded that 'the majority of the nation's 30 million black people are as segregated now as they were . . . in the '60s' ' (Smith 104). This proves that although some blacks' incomes have increased, they do not always live in neighborhoods they can afford because the ...