How Race and Gender Influence Educational Achievement (Essay Sample)

How Race and/or Gender Influence Educational Achievement
Insert Student’s Name
Insert Institution’s Name
Introduction
Educational achievement is the extent to which in this case a student has achieved his or her academic goals. It is commonly measured by continuous assessment tests and main examinations. There are many factors, which influence educational achievement. This essay will focus on race and gender. The research question is therefore, how does a society’s stereotypical view of Hispanic population affect both Hispanic students and the school they attend as a whole? More so, how does this stereotypical image create pressures for both Hispanic students and teachers to underperform from their relative positions in the academic institution, thus creating a subtle racial inequality in education shaped by such stereotypes?
Research has shown that minority ethnic group students perform poorly in many schools. In the United States for example, Latinos perform rather poorly as compared to the non-Latinos. This has brought great concern as to how one race influence educational performance. In 1991 for example, about 61% of Latinos graduated high school as compared to the 81% of the other races. For Latinos to be able to improve their academic performance, factors causing their poor performance have to be discussed. There are several books explaining the great gap between the academic performance of Latinos and students of other ethnicities. However, the opinions mentioned in the books do not consider the opinions of Latino parents. Their opinion should be considered especially because it is their children underperforming academically. Again, what the teachers think might be the problem may be so different from what the parents think thus making the parent’s opinion essential. A relationship between parents and teachers is very essential because both parties can identify solutions for poor performances without considering what the parents and children assume.
Literature review
The Hispanic educational attainment clearly highlights the great differences in the level of educational attainment between Hispanic and non-Hispanic students. This difference was constant over the last two decades. A large number of non-Hispanic students continue graduating while the percentage of Hispanics remain almost remains the same. Since education is a significant factor in determining personal income, the economic inequality between the two groups of people is thus explained. In this literature, there are two main factors, which contribute to the differences in educational attainment level. These are family background and nativity. (Valencia, R. R., & Black, M.S. 2002). Family background falls under a category referred to as general predictions. Research shows that one can use parental education to predict the level of a child’s education. For instance, parents with high education levels will provide an environment that encourages education. Moreover, they earn incomes that can financially support their children’s education. Another factor is a child from single parent family, families with stepparents and families with many siblings. A child that has a single parent faces the challenge of less time with the parent and the income the parent earns is less. One with many siblings means the financial and parental resources have to be divided among the children hence end up being less for each child. (Walton, G. M., & Cohen, G. L. 2007) These factors are common among the Hispanic group of students compared to the non-Hispanic group. The number of school dropouts is higher among Hispanic students; this is due to foreign births, which apparently reduces the chances of them to graduate high school. This may seem ridiculous but thinking critically about it, one sees that a foreign birth inhibits a child from speaking and understanding the English language. As a result, education attainment is hindered since education is largely determined by language. The opposite is therefore true. This means Hispanic children born in the United States are able to attain higher levels of education compared to the children of the United States.
Stereotypes regarding a particular group of people affect the educational achievement of students explain Latina identity. The culture shock experience might be too much of a student thus affecting his or her academic performance negatively. This is especially true when they are isolated in their new environment. Their self-esteem is crushed to the point of affecting their schoolwork. The book further reports that this esteem issue has led to Latinos having low opinions of them hence end up being poor performers and are not graduating high school. There is a direct relationship between stereotypes and achievement. For example, a negative stereotype going around school about a certain small group of students might greatly affect their performance. Point in case is the Latino students. There are a handful of Latino students in some schools, discriminating or mistreating them based on the negative stereotypes may bruise their confidence. As a result, they will believe they cannot achieve anything academically thus affecting their academic performance.  Today, the low number of Latinos enrolling in high schools and colleges evidences the effects of such stereotypes. This effect is driven by the fact that they have low self-esteem and no self worth due to the stereotypes about their group. Latina women in universities explain a good instance of these stereotypes. They had to struggle with racist messages, which said that Latinos were not qualified to be students of the university. According to these messages, the universities are basically an environment for the whites and the intelligent. In addition, the number of Latinos in the university is so low hence encouraging the beliefs that universities are really for the whites. Further, in this study, it shows how minority groups of students are judged based on their attitude and values in relation to school work. Those students who believe their ethnicity is the foundation of who they truly are also feeling that education achievement is essential. (U.S. Department of Education 2011) This means that they had to have a positive outlook regarding their identity and in the end be respected by the rest of the students. Research shows that racism-awareness, connectedness and embedded achievement promote high academic achievement among the minority races. Racism-awareness is simply to expect racism in the academic setting. This is becoming aware that other people might not appreciate the minority. Connectedness is feeling connected to their own ethnic group thus nothing negative said or done can demoralize them. Once, the students appreciate these factors and put them into action, they will perform much better and have high grades. Research shows that this is true.
Generally, Latinos have a poor performance compared to members of other ethnic groups. The rates at which Latinos drop out of school is also the highest shows Perceptions of educational barriers affecting the academic achievement of the Latinos. They are very few in schools and those present in the schools performing poorly. (Waldinger, R., & Feliciano, C. 2004) One of the factors for poor academic achievement is acculturation. This is the process of adapting to a foreign culture after interacting with at least two cultures this resulting in a change of attitude, behavior, and identity. Acculturation can be split into generational status and language. (Valentine, S. 2001) Language is one of the major classroom barriers that Latino students face. It is because their mother language is Spanish and they are taught in English. Well, most of them immigrate to the United States when they are at different levels of their academic journey, which means they have to start by learning English first, which is usually a hard task for them. Generation status is divided into first, second and third generation. First generations are those who were born outside the United States but live there now, second generations are those born in the United States with at least one foreign parent and third generations are those who are born in the United States and their parents as well. The second-generation students perform much better than the other groups because of their levels of education. Adults of the first generation have to work extra hard to care for their families. The bottom-line is in order for the Latinos to improve their socioeconomic lives; their successive generations have to perform better academically.
In order for the academic performance of Latino students to improve, social workers, teachers, school administrators and other staff workers in school should work hand in hand to understand the various factors that cause under performance among this minority group and address them appropriately. Earlier, I pointed out that the second-generation children perform much better than the other generations. This may be because of the opportunities their parents present them with. This parent guide their children more than the other parents with regards to school activities like helping them with homework, parental motivation, and supervision of school work among others. Parents are encouraged to engage in these activities because they might have a positive effect on their children’s academic performance.
Conclusion
The literature reviews have highlighted the various aspects of racism and how it really affects foreign students. However, the full question is not really addressed in the reviews. The articles mainly focused on Latinos. In fact, a reader might assume Latinos represent the entire minority group in schools. That is why I followed the following research methodolog...