Success factors for minority students in educational settings

¶ … Minority Students

The Color of Success: Race and High-Achieving Urban Youth

The book "The Color of Success: Race and High-Achieving Urban Youth" looks at the idea through the perspectives and voices of specific students. The book examines the why and how behind the academic success that some minorities manage to achieve, despite the fact that the opportunities many of them have are not strong. The individuals that lend their 'voices' to the book are a mixture of race and ethnicity, and they include Latino, Vietnamese, and African-American students from urban high schools. By using these individuals, the author was able to provide an analysis that was both comparative and revealing, while also providing a great deal of insight into how the schools in urban areas are able to create environments that are safe and where children can learn everything that they need to succeed in life. These children can set goals, have expectations, and use pathways that they have been taught to work their way toward the success that they are looking for in the future.

There are several specific areas that the book addresses and several specific things that it does in order to show how important and significant this issue can be. There is much inequality in the schools today and the current practices that are seen in the educational system throughout the country only seem to reinforce that inequality. It is important that this be changed as much as possible to allow all youth to have a fair chance at success, instead of just those youth that come from the more affluent areas of the country or of specific towns. Some of the issues that the book's author addresses include:

Examining the success stories that are seen in some urban schools, instead of simply examining the failures as most books and articles into the subject do.

Exploring the various social processes that are working to enable some of the youth that are in the racial minority to escape much of the unequal and unfair structuring that is seen in urban schools and therefore perform well beyond the expectations that are generally seen.

Focusing on the reactions and the interpretations that the youth have regarding the process of schooling in order to show that it is possible for schools to empower their youth and prove to these young people that social mobility and success is possible even for those that were born into poverty and other difficulties.

Too often, individuals are reminded of the "Hollywood" way of success, where one teacher takes a group of 'nothing' kids and makes them into successes. While this may be poignant and touching, it does not really depict the truth of the matter. In the book, however, Conchas (2006) is much more realistic in his approach to the issue of multiculturalism and how individuals can succeed regardless of where they come from. This is an important and valuable lesson that is all too often not taught to urban children today, and therefore many of them go through their whole lives believing that they are not capable of anything more than they already know or already have.

One of the most important issues that Conchas (2006) discusses in the book is that the teaching and leading of students is an important job, and must be taken very seriously by all involved in the process. It is because of this that what the students learn is of the utmost importance, and the student leader must be held ultimately accountable for this learning. The student leader's morality and ethics are a concern in this situation. Since student leaders are administrators and principals, they must uphold good moral codes, not only for their students, but for their teachers as well. A principal with loose morals and low values will teach the same to the students, and forever impress upon them that there are people in this world that see this behavior as acceptable. Not all students will choose to follow that example, but some might, and they are the ones that will have difficulty in the future (Nosich, 2001).

Others could argue that students are smarter than that, and that they would not choose to follow someone with these values. This may be true in some circumstances, but many students will blindly follow their leader, and they see people such as the principal as a leader for the entire school. Many students of different backgrounds are also unsure of what is acceptable (Denevi, 2003). This is why student leaders must be morally and ethically sound - to avoid showing students inappropriate behaviors that they do not need to learn. Naturally, an administrator is not the only person that students will learn behaviors from, and therefore they cannot fairly be held accountable for everything students do. However, careful scrutiny of the interaction between the leader and the students will be indicative of whether there is a morality problem or an ethical dilemma occurring there (Regent, 1998).

There is also the matter of respect. Students often learn the most from those that they respect. Young people are very impressionable, and they often have a great deal of respect for leaders. Those leaders lose respect (and consequently lose power) if they cannot relate to the students. The accountability of student leaders is of utmost importance, and care should be taken to choose leaders that are morally and ethically grounded in the beliefs that society would want passed on to its children. They are not only shaping the opinions of teachers and parents, but they are shaping the opinions of young people who will grow and become the future of this country. When urban youth are struggling, they definitely need strong student leaders that can teach them right from wrong, show them the path to success, and help them get started down the right path, which is why leadership is so very important in this way. This is one of the issues that the book shows very strongly.

Another concern that is brought out in the book and that is very important is the issue of tracking. Tracking is designed to make sure that students are placed in math and science classes that fit their abilities. As students arrive in school, they are often tested for their abilities in various subjects. Where they place at this point in their lives often reflects the classes that they take in elementary and middle school and also the classes that they take in high school. Sometimes, students get misplaced, and because of this they either do not do well in their classes because the classes are too difficult, or they do exceptionally well in a class that is much easier then they should be taking. Because of this, students have had trouble getting into the colleges that they desire. Sometimes, this is because they have not taken classes that were difficult enough. Other times, it is because they have poorer scores in math or other areas that are important to the colleges (Hughes, 1994).

Sometimes this comes from being placed in classes that are actually beyond their abilities. Very often, however, students are placed in classes that are below their abilities, and this is very much the case with urban schools and minority children, as it evidenced in Conchas (2006) book. This does not reflect well on their school transcripts, because they often need to have taken higher classes in middle and high school to get into many of the colleges that they would be interested in, and many of them do not even believe that they could get into college. There is also some evidence of a prejudicial nature. Some researchers suggest that minority students with higher abilities are being placed into low-level classrooms based on race, not ability (Tracking, 1994). Others insist that this is not the case and that segregation based on race is actually being reduced by the tracking system (Holmes & Ahr, 1994).

Even though the classes these students take often reflect good grades, the difficulty of the class is taken into consideration when the colleges look at the grades that the students are receiving. Colleges also look at scores on standardized tests, and students who are taking low level or remedial classes and making good grades in it often are not able to perform up to their grade level on standardized tests. This reflects poorly on the students, when actually it should reflect on the tracking and the school system (Shah, 1999).

It is also true that some students will get poor grades even in an easy class because they are not being challenged. They are bored, and therefore they do not do much in the class and they do not learn the concepts that they need to because they do not find them interesting. Some studies have shown that students who do not seem to be doing well based on tracking can actually do the work in the more difficult classes if they are simply given the opportunities and encouragement (Matthews, 1998). This encouragement and the ability to have opportunities are at the heart of what Conchas (2006) is trying to say.

There are many individuals who are for the tracking system, and many who are against it. They all have their reasons, and while most of them are good ones, both sides cannot always be correct. One case raised in favor of tracking is based on the research information that students who are low achievers or have low abilities often benefit from being in a class where other individuals are of the same ability level. While some opponents argue that this does not allow children who are doing poorly to have meaningful interaction with those that are doing well, the research findings state that children who are doing poorly often improve when they are placed in classes that are designed for remedial students. In other words, they need to be involved in a classroom environment where the instructor will work with them and help them learn (Gorman, 2003).