In the article
As Test Scores Jump, Raleigh Credits Integration by Income
, The author contributes the jump in the students grade due to their policy of how they place the students.
The notion of students attending magnet schools, and blending students with say, a lower income background with students that have middle to high income. According to the results and the scores on tests, it seems to be doing the job. The logic behind that is that students within the middle class are more engaged in their learning environment compared to the lower class students which have a positive effect on the lower class students and cause them to follow their example. It also does a job of blending kids with different backgrounds together, it fills up newly built schools, and spreads out children in a manner with positive benefits.
However, it results for some children having to endure drives to the school, that is not necessarily the choice of the parents. The inconvenience of that alone is a deal breaker for some. In other instances the parents are pleased with the results. So far this method still stands, but there is the risk of it not being like this in the future. Although its evident that this is increasing the grades of the students significantly.
In
Housing Policy is School Policy a commentary by David Rusk, he states his thoughts on housing policy and how it is reflected on education. Thats what he means by saying that housing policy is school policy, one is completely related to the other. If a student is living is an important factor to their academic success If a student is in an area with high poverty, then there is a good chance that the school that he is going to is going to be a local school, a high poverty school. That student has a higher rate of failing, despite all the aid that is given to that facility of education. Rusk explains, that there are Red Zone schools and then they’re are Green Zone schools. Green Zone schools are schools that have children
integrated with different socioeconomic status, which by a result have different races and such. A Red Zone school is where a school that is in a high poverty area, receives a lot of aid and help for it’s struggling student. The aid is irrelevant because time and time again, it has been shown that students learn better by their environment and peers compared to any outside source. Rusk even goes to explain in fair detail about our own president whose school background consists of him not going to a school that was in a lower standing despite it being closer to him, he went out to a better school that was further away. This decision by his grandparents obviously had a positive effect on his education. Yet, nobody seems to really be working on the connection between housing and education on a large scale. It seems that the
Red zone approach is the more favorable of the two because it’s quicker and more convenient. Rusk mentions the idea of taking families of lower socioeconomic status and giving them aid to relocate and move to a school with low poverty levels and integrate them within it. While it would be nice, there is too much time and effort for that to actually take motion. He then proceeds to explain the positive effects of social integration using various figures that include programs such as FARM in his simulations to support what he’s saying.
Our public leaders would be wise to bring to light the important relationship between housing and education. In short housing policy is relevant to a childs education, this has been apparent for many years. Taking the time to change it and adjust the problems with that would have a significant increase in the education and their success. Socioeconomic and racial segregation are obvious hindrances in a child's learning. We as a society are still segregated socioeconomically, which