User:Momoberk/Literacy in the United States

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History of inequity

In the 1900s, Black families began to spread across the United States to escape the brutality of the Jim Crow South. Segregation had rooted itself in U.S. society, including in American schools. The majority of southern youth of color were not able to receive secondary schooling until the 1920s. Brown v. Board of Education of 1954 ruled the concept of “separate but equal” unconstitutional, beginning the desegregation of schools. Even so, the effects of segregation are still visible today, as many K-12 schools are in areas that are predominately home to BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Color). These schools typically tend to be underfunded and lacking the resources to give their students the education they deserve. This historical injustice relates directly to why a majority of the elementary schools with struggling readers are in low income and/or minority areas today. Currently, studies show that socioeconomically disadvantaged students, including those with free/reduced lunch, score low reading levels. In addition, English language learners (ELL) and children of immigrants have high dropout rates and low scores on standardized tests. School districts provide the same materials for every student in the same grade levels, but each student learns at a different reading level and often is not able to engage with the text. Without distinguishing curriculum and standards, English language learners and children from low-income families fall behind their peers. Teachers spend a majority of their class time reading and supporting struggling readers, but teachers have not been able to do this all the time. Other than the educational risks of not working towards an equitable education, the ever-changing "economic and demographic landscapes" also demanded that there be a need for a "more robust policy [and] strategies" which would address the gaps in elementary education. Moreover, there was also an issue regarding the funding gap between the rich and poor schools. A report published during the Obama administration found that the funding gap grew to over 44 percent within ten years spanning from the early 2000s to 2012.Along with that, the Supreme Court's decision in San Antonio School District V. Rodriquez ruled that education is "not within the limited category of the rights recognized by the Constitution" and thus not protected by the Constitution.

Historical injustice and segregation in the United States has meant that most high poverty schools are composed of a minority-majority of BIPOC students. It has also allowed parents of color to be ridiculed and blamed for the failings of the school systems and of the government to teach children to read and write. One scholar comments on the city of Oaklands struggle with illiteracy, noting that it is not due to parental disinterest: “Low levels of parental and community participation in public schools is frequently interpreted as an indication of disinterest in education. Yet there is no evidence to support such an assumption.”

Solutions by non-profit tutoring programs

Non-governmental organizations have been described as the "missing link between the government and the poor": NGOs bridge the gap that the government leaves open for the less fortunate. While Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) in education were also not prevalent during the early 2000s, but with the declining standards of education, NGOs, which included both non-profits and for-profits emerged, which focused more on the "private engagement", the one-on-one teaching mode. "Private engagement [by tutoring programs] is not only altering the delivery of education but also participating in the reshaping of the politics of education" since the usage of material and mode of instruction does help mold the way a student views the world. Also, since the 1990s, and up until the early 21st century, there was a more significant concern regarding "the need for better articulation and specification of concepts," which were challenges that NGOs had to address. Though the work of NGOs in any field is to an extent independent of government intervention, however, there is some overlap and collaboration between them. NGOs within the education and literacy sectors are seen as supplemental to the already large governmental role in education. NGOs strengthen the overall reach that society can have on a child's education.