I love this! There is a big difference between correlation and causation. The statement in the article means do not make assumptions and do not be quick to judge because you never really know someone's true situation.

I agree with this statement. Extracurriculars offer another outlet for students to advance personally and academically is a new type of setting! Ability to enroll in extracurriculars is often determined by economic status.

This is quite true. It reminds me of an expression I have heard in the past which states that for the first 18 years of a child's life, there actions are a direct representation/mimicry of their parents that have raised them! This can include affluency, mannerisms, vernacular, etc...

It is important to remember that a large majority of individuals in these situations did not choose to put themselves there. They were born into rough circumstances that they did not have the capacity to change. Their devotion to their responsibilities that were hoisted onto them also prohibit moving up the ranks.

These sort of occurrences can detrimentally affect a young child. This is scarring. The normalization of violence in these communities poses serious risks for the future of these young individuals.

These academic and extracurricular activities are indicative of the wealth and privilege of the school. Not all schools are capable of having these sorts of things.

This statement is not preceded by whether or not the teacher wanted help in the classroom. I think that should have been made clear. If a teacher wants assistance, great! If the teacher does not want it because they need a bit of time to establish themselves, the parent to accept that (for a certain amount of time).

This poses the question, "Why is there an increase in the poor and wealthy, but none noted in the middle?". The article mentioned that there are few folks that fall in between poor and rich, but why is that in Orange County?

The way to unveil this hidden curriculum is to first ensure that educators know what it is! How can a student be taught something if there teachers do not even know what it is. Furthermore, not only is it important for educators to be aware, but also the parents (which the article mentions). Students need support systems that are knowledgeable.

Student-teacher relationship does actually play a role in determining a student's grades. When a teacher does not like a student or vice versa, the grades of the student tend to be lower. Is this actually because they are less smart???... I highly doubt it!

Conflicting mindsets is definitely the central theme here. The teacher is trying to maintain the authenticity of the text whereas the student is trying to utilize a modern, anti-racist mindset. To each, their own mindset is just, but understanding both perspectives is needed to come up with the best possible solution.

The support of this teacher is incredible! Something, as small as the validating words "you belong here" can make a whole world of difference to someone. This is a way to try and ease some of the adverse effects of classism, but is not a remedy!

This was a very powerful statement. We learn a lot in schools and in history that focus on reducing the occurrences of racism. However, when I think about it, I have never heard a training or lecture about school addressing how to counteract classism!

This is a very accurate reminder! The majority of the time, when student perform poorly in primary and secondary school, teachers often attribute that performance to lack of motivation or laziness. While this may be the case, there are other students who perform poorly whoa actually are trying their hardest. The lack of communication at this younger stage transfer to the university level. Competition in higher education is insanely high and is extremely unhealthy (a little is okay).

This is very interesting and is a new concept which I have not heard of before. This does make sense though. Parents with more education have broader ranges in their language abilities (likely), and when they communicate with their children, this comes to light.

Assistance and knowledge from parents/guardians is crucial! Even though many students are self-informed, having extra support from parental figures can provide more clarity in next steps for students.

This is very interesting, but people's view of self-depression can rapidly change based on a sudden positive or negative event in their life.

Extracurricular activities are typically taken for granted by students. Furthermore, for many wealthy families, act as extra periods of time to be relieved of the duty of having to care for their child. In reality, there is much more to extracurriculars than just fun programs. Well-developed extracurriculars should be structured that continue to nurture the individual's personal growth.

This part of the article was definitely hard to read. When basic necessities are limited or unavailable, it detrimentally impacts families. Moreover, these insufficiencies are capable of ruining a child's quality of education and life.

I am very glad that this sentence was included as it rules out parental neglect as a source of these discrepancies. These underlines the fact that success in education of the child is heavily impacted by socio-economic class as opposed to confounding variables such as parental incompetence/disregard.

This is very interesting since there is little formal education prior to Kindergarten. These results, however, could possible be attributed to lack of resources that certain families have access to that implicitly affect child development. This could be access to auditory devices that could could play music or read stories, both of which can affect the language development of young children.

This is a very important thing to note. Is this due to lack of funding? Additionally, not only is there a need for academic counselors, but there is a more dire need for well-trained, empathetic counselors who can do their students justice.

GPA is such an interesting thing. It is used as a way to provide a numerical value for the entire duration of course education in a school. GPA, in my opinion, should be re-evaluted since it fails to look at external factors in a student's circumstance.

This is super important observation. In many primary and secondary schools. the motivation of students plays a large role in their performance and academic placing. Is performance directly affected by the capital one holds in economic, social, and cultural classes? Or this a problem with the school structure itself? Or is it that students feel like the work needed from them is way too much just to get into a decent college? There is much more at play than background!

I have mixed opinions on the discussion about foreign language. In many middle schools, such as the one I attended, foreign language is not a priority or even taught. Now this may be also a case of educational discrepancies, but this seems to be more and more common in the modern day. Hence, many people in high schools enrolled in higher level foreign language are those who are advanced in the language.

School ranking should be taken with a grain of salt. Many of these ranking are based on factors that tend to isolate disparities, leaving them for families to find out about themselves. BHS is likely high ranking due to its proximity to UC Berkeley, its location, and results of the top portion of students.

This text shows that economic, social, and cultural capital is proportionate to privilege and potential for success. What is saddening is that the majority of the time, an individual does not have the capacity to change their capital in one, let alone all three strands.

This is a very disheartening example of just how racial prejudice can lead to discrepancies within the education system. A counselor should have the knowledge of class progression and be able to advise students into a more suitable path. If a counselor has concerns, then they should ask the student to explain their mindset of there confidence in a certain area rather than playing into their misinformation.

I like how the author decided to dissect different areas that are targeted into three areas: economic, social, and cultural. It is possible for a student to be targeted for one of the three, but if a students falls into the arbitrary categories that are man-made, the more divide in performance will be seen.

Looking at the phrasing of the questions by the interviewer to both students, the question asked to Chantelle (later in the article explained to be a poor African American student) is much more interrogative and harsh than what was asked Jennifer (an affluent White student). This is another very common theme seen all throughout media. There is a tendency for interviewers to berate or scrutinize individuals with "poorer" circumstances than those with more money or power.

This sentence suggests that socio-economic class plays a large role in school inequalities, and this is very true. However, this is not always the case. In some schools, affluent students may feel less motivated to do well, whereas lower income students may persevere more with their current state as a motivation factor to succeed. This is important to take into mind to further investigate why the students at BHS tend to tip the scale one way over the other.

As we learned in the previous article we read, many of these structures are determined by individual school districts. Although there are some state regulations which are followed, districts orchestrate the majority of the "structures". Something brought up which I also find super important is teacher assignment. The quality of teachers and the qualities they possess directly impact the productivity and results of the students in the class!

I wonder how much of this failure is a result of individual or community pressure put on the student. Regardless of class, many students face pressure put on them by family, and even themselves, to succeed in school. But the definition of succeeding in school has shifted for many. Success for students is now getting Straight As, whereas decades ago, it was just passing and graduating.

When I really think about this, it is very sad. There is so much chaos, debate, and hatred revolving different levels of class, even in education. What makes it sad is that at the end of the day, the ones that are being affected the most are the children. At young ages, when children first begin schooling, they are not thinking about the race, ethnicity, or socio-economic class of their classmates, they are innately more focused on learning the fundamental skills that are taught in the beginning years of school. It is not the schools that cause bigotry in the world, it is stereotypes of history that wrong so many!

This begins to answer the question I had earlier, and is honestly makes sense. Rather than having a federal or even state dictation as to what exactly each school needs to entail, the individual districts, in collaboration with the community members, are responsible for the assembly of an efficient school system. While there are state mandates that each school must follow, the district has a lot of control.

This is an excellent point. Success in education is not determined by access to education alone, but is heavily influenced by the environment in the school. When students have teachers and mentors that support and uplift them, students are much more likely to do well and to care. When students are treated like they are capable and are smart, students will naturally take on the challenge. This is a common issue that stil occurs though. It is likely that if you were to ask someone "Who is smarter, someone that went to Irvine High School, or someone that went to Pomona High School". the majority would say Irvine. This answer is purely based on stereotypes about the people that live in each city, but without and information about the students, this is an impossible question to answer!

This is a prime example of something that was mentioned earlier. The general principle of segregation not only was about separation based on skin color, but was also how the population of non-colored individuals wished to benefit themselves, and only themselves in education and success, rather than having a common opportunity for success.

I am not familiar with how the school systems are organized at the district level and how much control a district has over what and how they teach. This would be very interesting to find out in order to better understand why some districts wish to reject modern norms and remain with outdated and isolated structures.

The majority of the students in these populations do not achieve lower test scores or higher dropout rates because they are unintelligent or innately stupid. A big reason why this happens is because state and federal aid is reluctant to assist in these areas because of years of categorizing these communities as dangerous, burdens, and unable to be helped. This sort of standpoint is not only real, but is felt by these communities, lowering motivation.

It is necessary to note that these accomplishments did not happen solely because people thought that schooling needed to be better for kids to be able to obtain the American Dream. Many of the listed occurrences took generations to achieve, and acknowledgement of the many different contributions from others are owed for what education looks like today. Desegregation is possible because of the Civil Rights Movement. Children with disabilities receiving education is possible because of the 504 sit-in. The list goes on and on

This will always be a lifelong question/debate. Generally, people have to choose for themselves if what they are about to do is benefiting themself, the general community, both, or neither. That decision may be a bit harder since it is purely based on free will and judgement. However, when you have to make a decision for your own child, it is much easier to want to elect a strategy or path that benefits your child the most, regardless of circumstance or impact on the public.

As I mentioned in the beginning of this reading, the American Dream is not balanced. The general idea behind it sounds great, but in reality, there are way too many factors that tip the scale one way or another. The one mentioned here, and is likely one of the biggest factors, is generational wealth. This is greatly impacts a person's opportunity. The reading mentions public education as the paradigm place of learning, but many children of generational wealth never step foot in a public school. Many of these children are enrolled in private school, thought to better prepare students. This is not to say that all students at private school are from generational wealth, but an overwhelming majority of the students that constitute the private school populations are.

This is another very interesting statement. One thing to mention is that generally, the American Dream is associated with immigrants. This is not false, but the American Dream also is applicable natives. With that being said, the idea that the American Dream is a way to "make sure that everyone has an equal chance to succeed" may be the idea behind the American Dream, but it is certainly not the reality!

The American Dream, at least in my experience, has been thought of as a concept to solely boost individual success. Hence, this statement in the article is quite interesting how it actually represents an individual and collective impact. While it may implicitly benefit the overall population, the American Dream is explicitly a personal want to thrive in the boundaries of the US (in my experience of what I have observed in history and media).