“Leave No Child Behind” Policy
...stem based on race, class, gender and religion in determining who succeeds and who fails. Members in the lower tracks are primarily African American and Latino students, not to mention immigrants, maintaining inequality, unequal funding to schools and unequal access to education. Additionally, standardized testing in schools is a major concern since it reinforces discrimination upon class and race. By using these tests, conflict theorists argue that they protect the status quo benefiting the upper and middle classes. For instance, according to the order theory parents apart of the upper class, majority are white, spend their wealth on quality education for their children as well as tutors. Students given this one on one treatment are able to focus on their weaknesses in order to improve their grades and testing scores. In contrast, a conflict theorist would argue that a student from the lower class, mainly Hispanic, Asian and African American, cannot obtain that same treatment because they cannot afford it. As a result, the upper class students get the higher scores reinforcing inequalities. In addition, the upper class students are the ones with the pleasant learning environments, textbooks and teachers that help contribute to a positive learning environment. Whereas, lower class students are not as fortunate and do not acquire the same opportunities as the upper class. Another issue is the practice of social promotion, teachers just passing students who indeed should fail in order to keep the schools image. Furthermore, some teachers just teach to the test, missing out the important subjects students must learn. Finally, school violence is a vital issue in public education. School violence includes the bullying against homosexual teens, immigrants, various races, harassment against females as well as males and shootings. It is estimated that 135,000 guns are brought into school campuses each day, and the shooters are all young white males. For example, two white males committed the shootings at Columbine...