Opportunity Gaps: Challenges and Solutions

Opportunity Gaps: Our Ultimate Challenge

• Crystal, a Black ninth-grader, feels unsure about her future despite a teacher suggesting cosmetology and friends recommending video creation.
• Crystal's high school has a high counselor-to-student ratio of 1:600 and is considered a high-minority/high-poverty school
• 20% of Crystal's classmates met ninth-grade reading/literacy standards, 10% met math standards, 4% met writing standards, 3% met science standards.
• Few advanced courses are available, but students are recruited by the local community college
• The graduation rate is 72%, but graduates often lack necessary credits/skills for local jobs or university applications
• Black women graduating tend to work or attend community college, lacking scholarship opportunities for four-year institutions
• Crystal's limited career exploration and college information is common among her peers with potential
• Erin, a ninth-grader, attends a school 25 miles from Crystal's in a wealthier white suburban area, with a 1:275 counselor-to-student ratio
• Erin's school was considered a "blue ribbon school" last year because 50% of the senior class had taken two AP courses by graduation.
• Erin's aspirations are supported through internships and work experiences created by her teachers and counselors, but remains uncertain about the future like Crystal
• Students receive in-school tutoring and test-taking support, with many parents offering college application assistance starting in 10th grade
• 97% of Erin's ninth-grade class met reading standards and 96% met math standards
• Eleventh-graders had an average ACT score of 24.3, with 87% meeting state reading standards, 89% in math, 84% in writing and 89% in science
• The high school graduation rate was 98% last year. And 40% of last year's graduating class went to the local four-year public university.
• Erin (3.0 GPA) is on track to meet her life goals, whereas Crystal will likely face activities designed for survival rather than thriving
• Crystal's journey is characterized by roadblocks and mishaps, while Erin's is full of encouragement
• Crystal requires educators who believe in her, fortitude, resolve, support, faith, and good fortune
• The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these opportunity gaps for students like Crystal, leading to personal loss, disrupted support, and inadequate academic support
• Disparities between Crystal's and Erin's experiences represent opportunity gaps among different racial/income groups
• Educational injustice persists due to a failure to make bold changes in policies and practices, as well as our uneven belief system concerning which students matter

School Counselling and Education Disparities

• Most school counselors believe they are doing all they can to help students and are concerned about education disparities
• However, many lack training/knowledge of the root causes of racial injustices in education
• School counselors are rarely equipped to challenge teachers' low expectations of Black and Latinx students or advocate for policy changes to ensure access to college-track courses
• Counselor activities are needed to ensure students' success and ability to overcome obstacles
• School counselors need to change their framework to disrupt systems and policies that have failed students
• Dehumanizing names and refusal to use respectful language perpetuate ideas about which groups are inferior/superior
• The capitalization of Black and Brown is essential to address this, terms which will describe shared oppression/political interests of people of African descent, Latinx and Hispanic origins, Asian origins, and Indigenous populations
• Systemic racism has a long history in U.S. public education, from enslavement to overpolicing and continues with current standards and practices

A Closer Look at the Gaps

• The NAACP focused on dismantling racially segregated public schools in the 1930s
• Brown v. Board of Education (1954) was one of the most consequential legal judgments centering on school segregation, although it would take years and intense resistance before public schools desegregated
• Black children in redlined neighborhoods were barred from accessing schools in white neighborhoods
• Redlining was banned in 1968 by the Fair Housing Act, but redlined neighborhood schools still experience segregation via less taxpayer funding
• Two out of three Black, Latinx, and Native American students attend schools classified as "high minority," which are funded well below their suburban counterparts
• While Brown v. Board of Education was a landmark decision for education in the U.S., it was ultimately unsuccessful in fully integrating schools and creating equal education for all
• School counselors have been a part of the perpetuation of educational inequalities by supporting damaging student discipline systems, harboring low expectations, denying culture/history of oppressed populations, and denying opportunity to enter academic tracks that lead to postsecondary opportunities
• There is an urgent need for school counselors to act against racism although ASCA has professed a commitment to admonishing racism and bias in the profession
• ASCA's National Model recommends school counselors organize programming along four counselor behaviors define, manage, deliver, and assess
• The current ASCA National Model emphasizes accountability, school counselor competence, mindsets/behaviors for student success, and ethical standards
• Also included are guidelines for the delivery of counseling services and an emphasis on program evaluation/assessment
• The National Model, or the recognition attached to the model, does not require school counselors dismantle/disrupt systems of oppression such as structural racism
• Without a mandate, school counselors tweak programs but avoid overhauls of existing ones
• ASCA attempted to respond to racial injustice through offering additional resources/Standards in Practice statement, however, dismantling racist counselor practices is not explicit
• While mentioning racism in ASCA materials is important, the absence of an intentional focus on correcting long-standing racist policies and practices is disheartening

Power of School Counselors

• Black girls are subject to harsher discipline, low teacher expectations, and a lack of educational opportunities
• There are school counselors are needed to do beyond the ASCA National Model to help all students achieve and thrive?
• In this book, the emphasis on an antiracist approach to school counseling is offered as a complementary construct to social justice-focused school counseling
• Amid the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on communities of color and continued racial injustice in schools, taking stock of school counselors' roles in ensuring the development of antiracist schools is warranted
• 84% of teachers want to teach from an antiracist perspective but only 14% feel well-equipped
• Counselors also want to serve and nurture all students from an antiracist perspective, yet they have few resources for improving their practice
• This book offers an antiracist, socially just framework from which school counselors must work to fully see the humanity and potential of every student
• Counselors must assume the power that they have in schools, power that enables them to either dampen the dreams of students or help them to realize their dreams.
• For example, one former student have heard the following statements "My counselor said that I would never get into college... that's why I never applied. I wish I hadn't listened to her."
• It is evidenced that school counselors have an enormous amount of power that, if channeled in the right direction, would help ensure that all students succeed
• Lapan et al., 2012) has indicated that students who have greater access to school counselors and comprehensive school counseling programs are more likely to succeed academically and behaviorally in school, particularly for students in high-poverty schools
• Leon et al. (2011) found that school counseling interventions designed to be culturally and linguistically appropriate can make a significant difference in increasing academic outcomes of Latinx students
• Counselors are not the only people in a school who will make important decisions about students
• School counselors can act as an advocate for change, a social justice and antiracist strategist, and an equity leader
• This book will propose six key functions that will align with this strategic positioning

Opportunity Gaps vs Achievement Gaps

• Education disparities based on race and income continue to plague the U.S.
• There are a variety of measures, such as high school completion, college participation, Advanced Placement course enrollment, and standardized achievement tests, Black and Brown students and low-income students lower rates of academic attainment
• This gap has become more widely known as the "achievement gap" and denotes when groups of students with relatively equal ability don't achieve in school at the same levels
• Actually, the term achievement gap is laden with deficit perspectives, thus doesn't accurately reflect the basis
• Some educators see the achievement gap as a result of something that Black and Brown students and parents didn't do
• Larger structural issues, based on racist ideas, deny students and their parents access to opportunities that result in varying attainment and achievement levels
• Focus must be on correcting accessibility to opportunities-gifted education, college-prep coursework, extracurricular activities, counseling services, and information about jobs and scholarships.
• Rather than "fixing" racist ideas and instead providing the resources/opportunities for student success

A Closer Look at The Gaps

• Substantial social and economics costs are contributed by educational opportunity gaps across student group
• Low educational achievement is associated with health disparities, higher unemployment, lower earnings, higher crime rates, and a greater dependency on social services
• The U.S. will become minority white in 2045 meaning the racial diversity is growing
• Whites will comprise 49.7% of the population, compared to 24.6% for Hispanics, 13.1% for Blacks, 7.9% for Asians, 3.8% for multiracial populations, and .9% who identify as “other.” (Frey, 2018)
• Societal gaps are complex and parallel which contribute to them
• Income or wealth, housing gaps, criminal justice gaps, schools not attending to issues of racism/racial equity influence education systems
• Racial categories were developed to facilitate slavery and colonial expansion in the 15th century Racism has been about building structures of unequal resource and power on notions of human difference (i.e., skin color) Social justices in education refer to a commitment to challenging social, cultural, and economic inequalities imposed on individuals arising from racism and dynamics that create differential distribution of power, resources, and privilege.
• This book will focus on how education and logical goal decreases opportunity gaps

Further Analysis

• The U.S. educational system is one of the most unequal in the world

• Students receive dramatically different learning depending on their race, social status, and location

• Europe and Asian countries fund their schools more frequently and equally

• Resource disparities limit schools and predominately white schools tend to be much better funded and have all around better resources in comparison to schools that are predominately Black, Latinx, Hispanic, or Native American schools

• Poverty vs high-poverty for school districts

• Public schools are still being underfunded by nearly an annual $150 billion

• Harsh Discipline and over-surveillance is negatively impacting those schools Non- white, Black, and Latinx students are overwhelmingly affected. Called the "school to prison pipeline"

• Students are being pushed out of schools by punitive discipline, which then pushes them into the criminal justice system Teachers are negatively impacting learning due to lack to Cultural Responsiveness and Competence.

• Students are less equipped to nurture their academic and social/emotional development without the understanding needed

1. Teaching experience correlates positively with teachers career of a teacher

2. Students not only learn more, but also success is measured at a higher rate

3. Effectives rate increases when there is a supportive learning environment

4. Experienced teachers support greater learning and have to ability to support learning for their and other teachers There needs to be a balance within equity based initiatives. By enforcing polies it can promote success Equity requires schools treat students differently on cultural basis, economic class, gender, the decision for teachers can be a source of success. In short equity can force students to focus on their and other strength and potential, not their deficits

Racial Disparities

• Special education in schools create learning disparities

• Black students are highly impacted and have been known to show disabilities and behavioral disturbances

• This also has negative consequences with cognitive disability categories in compassion to white students.

• High school youth with Disabilities 75% black in comparison to 47% which is white

• American students get highly impacted in south and receive 3/4th of the states enrollments and are labeled as mentally retarded

• 60 percent in today school education for gifted schools comes from white students

• Black student are low in compassion

• These schools don't represent those talented or Intellectually advanced to be given education

The Gaps across the Educational continuum

• Not all mothers has the same opportunity to give birth successfully
• Death are high for black women compared women Child in poverty face struggles that effect later development
• Students already perform below average before enter kindergarden

Key Function of school counselling based on Social Justice and Anti-Racist approach

• Key includes

• Counselling and Intervention Planning

• Consultation

• Connecting school and communities

• Collecting and utilizing Data

• Challenging bads and racism

• Coordinating stress and support

Examine the disparities in educational opportunities for students like Crystal, highlighting the challenges faced by high-minority/high-poverty schools. Discuss the limited access to resources, advanced courses, and college preparation that hinder students' future prospects, and explore potential solutions.