How to Solve Systemic Racism

 Although racism has been largely banned in America since many decades now, it is still a reality faced by hundreds of thousands of colored people across the country. It is silent, and it may not be apparent at first, but careful observation of various social systems reveals the fact that is, unfortunately, a part of every aspect of our society. Boys and young men of color are denied many opportunities due to systemic racism, and there is very little that the oppressed individuals can do to help themselves.

Interconnection of the education system with other parts of society

Our society is held up by the contribution of various pillars apart from education, including health systems, criminal justice systems, housing system, employment system, and even the community. Educational institutions, over time, have become more and more sensitive towards boys and young men of color, and have become one of the primary drivers towards providing equal opportunity. However, leaving racialization untouched in all the other parts of the society does not provide enough of a foundation to allow these boys and young men to gain a foothold in the society.

The problems of race-neutral policies

The most basic attempt towards fighting racism is to put “race-neutral” policies in place, with the hopes that it will create a level playing field for all the people of this nation. However, by observing who has benefited the most from this kind of reforms, it becomes clear that “race-neutral” policies are not very helpful towards the colored youth. For instance, government programs such as Social Security, 30-year mortgages and the GI Bill contributed heavily towards the benefit of the white middle class, but were not very effective in supporting African Americans. Such policies have ignored the difference in starting points for people of color and the possibility of racial segregation within the system, leading to limited success in execution.

How a proper policy system should be developed

Instead of simply releasing a general policy for people of all races, it is important to acknowledge the fact that it needs to target communities of color so as to have the desired outcome. Presently, there are significant disparities in income, education, and healthcare amongst colored people and the whites in America, and this leads to problems like lower life expectancy, lower accumulated wealth and higher rates of incarceration. The policies that allow the prevalence of structural racism generally shows the following characteristics:

Consideration of legacy: Although this can be used to correct historical injustices, many policies that consider the legacy of a person has a high chance of allowing systemic racism. 

Segregation of risk and available resources: Distributing the available resources according to the associated risk, such as redlining, zoning policies, and so on.

Differential valuation of races: Propagation of certain histories that provide a lopsided view of colored people.

To reduce systemic racism, we need to involve colored people in the development of policies and target incentives towards colored boys and young men to help increase their civic participation. It also should address the disparities in the financial situation of people of color and reduce the barriers towards resources. With proper policy planning, racism can be removed from the systems that support our society.

Why We Need To Move Towards Standards-Based Learning

As of last year, there were an estimated 50 million students in the United States who were attending public elementary and secondary schools. Within the next few years, these children will be having full time jobs and contributing towards the growth of the nation. It is no secret that good education has an effect on progress of a people, which is why it is important to ensure that education systems are constantly evolving. In this spirit, the grading system that is employed by majority of the schools in the USA is observed to give rise to many problems, and it will have to be changed if we want the children of the future to be competent.

The present scenario

The present system makes a student sit through a class for an entire year and allows progression to a higher grade once they prove their proficiency at the end of the year. This kind of a system assumes that students have gained expertise in their subjects before they are made to sit through more advanced classes. But empirical evidence shows that students can progress to higher grades even when they are not competent enough to grasp advanced concepts.

The grading system has, for many years, been the subject of criticism as many people become acutely aware of the effect it has on children. One of the primary issues is that the grading system focuses on achieving marks, instead of learning the concept thoroughly. The intrinsic motivation for students in such a system is to get good grades, and this forces them to take lesser risks in their learning process, instead of exploring topics that lie beyond their current skill set.

The very approach to learning is corrupted when the message given by an educational institution is “grades matter more than learning”. As the students study a book with the intention of memorizing facts, their quality of understanding the essence of the text is diminished, and this effect is magnified as the students progress through higher levels of the education system.

Why improvement would not really help

Many people are of the opinion that an improvement in the education system is a necessity, but they may not be very open to completely doing away with the grading system. Several schools around the country try to augment the grading system by introducing innovative policies, yet these methods do not stand the test of time. The reason that superficial improvements to the grading system do not work is because it is psychologically flawed.

Experts of pedagogy agree that the learning process inherently motivates students, not because they stand to gain good grades, but because the subject matter interests them. The grading system, instead of acknowledging this quality, forces a structure of rewards and punishments in the hopes of spurring young minds to work harder. Studies conducted by educational psychologists reveal that simply focusing on the assessment process can undermine the quality of learning, as the students monitor their performance instead of trying to grasp the nuances of the subject matter.

How to move towards standards-based learning

The process of change towards standards-based learning is arduous and it will require the combined efforts of school administrators and teachers, if a school hopes to use such a system in the long run. To make a gradual move away from the grading system, a school administrator needs to first have extensive discussions with teachers, parents and even students about the effects of the present system. The main rebuttal people have against changing the grading system is that it becomes nearly impossible to collect data about a student's performance. But there are far better methods of assessing mastery which involves gathering information about the capability of students.

Once a considerable number of people are in support of the idea of moving away from the grading system, a school can start to eliminate the traditional system for the youngest students, so that the system can be continued as they progress through their education. Instead of completely eliminating grades, an educational institution may choose to reduce the focus on academic success to show students that learning is more important that scoring well.

Teachers will have a major role to play in the efforts of an educational institution, as they will need to adapt to new methods of assessment. There will also be considerable resistance from parents and students alike, who will argue that excellence needs to be documented with data. When faced with such situations, remember that the goal of a school is not to grade students competitively, but to increase knowledge within each student. With persistence and skill, it is possible to eliminate the grading system and move towards a competency based learning system in the long term.