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White, minority kids see school differently
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published May 31, 2006
WASHINGTON - Black and Hispanic students see school as a more rowdy, disrespectful and dangerous place than their white classmates do, a poll indicates. The findings suggest that many minority kids are struggling in the equivalent of a hostile work environment, according to Public Agenda, a nonpartisan opinion research group that tracks education trends. Minority children in public middle and high schools are more likely than white children to describe profanity, truancy, fighting, weapons and drug abuse as "very serious" problems. The black and Hispanic children - under pressure to close their test-score gaps with whites - also see more pervasive academic woes, such as lower standards, higher dropout rates and kids who advance even if they don't learn. "There is so much discussion about the achievement gap, and we talk about teachers and curriculum and testing and money," said Jean Johnson, Public Agenda's executive vice president and an author of the report. "We need to add something to that list - school climate. For these kids, it has become such a distracting atmosphere." About 30 percent of black students said teachers spend more time trying to keep order in class than teaching; 14 percent of white students said the same. More than half of black students said kids who lack respect for teachers and use bad language is a very serious problem, compared to less than one-third of white students. Hispanic students also reported worse social and academic conditions than white children, although the gaps were not as large as they were between blacks and whites. The findings are based on phone interviews with a random sample of 1,342 public school students in grades 6 through 12. The margin of error for the sample was 3 percentage points. The poll was paid for by the GE Foundation, the Nellie Mae Education Foundation and the Wallace Foundation.
[Last modified May 31, 2006, 05:22:21]
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