EXCLUSIVE: Minority students in middle schools being shut out of important academic resources
BY BEN CHAPMAN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sunday, March 27, 2016, 4:00 AM
Black
and Hispanic students, poor kids, English-language learners and children with
disabilities have missed out on a wide range of academic resources in city
middle schools, a new report shows.
An Independent Budget Office
report — based on an analysis of city Education Department data — shows Big
Apple junior high schools failed to provide those students with art and music
teachers, advanced courses and Regents exams that advocates say would help them
succeed in high school and beyond.
The statistics reveal an unfair
divide where wealthier students and white and Asian kids have access to greater
educational resources, said Alliance for Quality Education Advocacy Director
Zakiyah Ansari.
“What this is really about is
opportunity and allowing black and Latino children to succeed," Ansari
said. "We need to provide these students with the opportunities they need
to flourish."
The IBO study, obtained
exclusively by The News, compares student demographics and academic outcomes
for the academic year of 2012-2013, the most recent year for which the data was
available when the study was begun.
That year, just 18% of city
middle school students who qualified for free or reduced price lunches took
advanced courses such as Honors Social Studies or Honors English Language Arts,
compared to 33% of students who did not quality for lunch discounts.
Likewise, just 14% of black and Hispanic kids
took those advanced courses in city middle schools, compared to 24% of kids of
other ethnicities. Only 9% of English language learners and 8% of students with
disabilities took the advanced classes.
Similarly low percentages of kids from those
traditionally underserved demographic groups took advanced Regents exams in
subjects such as algebra or American history in city middle schools that year.
New York students must eventually pass Regents exams to graduate high school.
The report also showed that schools with
higher percentages of black and Hispanic students, or kids who qualified for
free or reduced price lunches, were less likely to have at least one full-time
art or music teacher.
City Education Department spokesman Will
Mantell said a number of efforts underway seek to address the issue, including a
plan to offer algebra classes to all eighth-grade students and another program
that has added full-time arts teachers to 94 middle schools since 2014.
“We will continue to invest in equity and
excellence across all our middle schools,” Mantell said.
Black
and Hispanic students, poor kids, English-language learners and children with
disabilities have missed out on a wide range of academic resources in city
middle schools, a new report shows.
An Independent Budget Office
report — based on an analysis of city Education Department data — shows Big
Apple junior high schools failed to provide those students with art and music
teachers, advanced courses and Regents exams that advocates say would help them
succeed in high school and beyond.
The statistics reveal an unfair
divide where wealthier students and white and Asian kids have access to greater
educational resources, said Alliance for Quality Education Advocacy Director
Zakiyah Ansari.
“What this is really about is
opportunity and allowing black and Latino children to succeed," Ansari
said. "We need to provide these students with the opportunities they need
to flourish."
The IBO study, obtained
exclusively by The News, compares student demographics and academic outcomes
for the academic year of 2012-2013, the most recent year for which the data was
available when the study was begun.
That year, just 18% of city
middle school students who qualified for free or reduced price lunches took
advanced courses such as Honors Social Studies or Honors English Language Arts,
compared to 33% of students who did not quality for lunch discounts.
Likewise, just 14% of black and Hispanic kids
took those advanced courses in city middle schools, compared to 24% of kids of
other ethnicities. Only 9% of English language learners and 8% of students with
disabilities took the advanced classes.
Similarly low percentages of kids from those
traditionally underserved demographic groups took advanced Regents exams in
subjects such as algebra or American history in city middle schools that year.
New York students must eventually pass Regents exams to graduate high school.
The report also showed that schools with
higher percentages of black and Hispanic students, or kids who qualified for
free or reduced price lunches, were less likely to have at least one full-time
art or music teacher.
City Education Department spokesman Will
Mantell said a number of efforts underway seek to address the issue, including a
plan to offer algebra classes to all eighth-grade students and another program
that has added full-time arts teachers to 94 middle schools since 2014.
“We will continue to invest in equity and
excellence across all our middle schools,” Mantell said.
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