Minorities and Education

Introduction and Statement of Purpose

It has long been understood that the American public school system has not succeeded in providing truly equal educational opportunities for all students (Oakes, 2005). Most likely to be underserved or poorly served by this system are the children of the poor, members of minority groups, and students with special needs. Of particular interest to educational reformers are the achievement differentials observed when students from racial, ethnic, and linguistic minority groups are compared to middle class white students (Bowles & Gintis, 1976). A large body of research has supported the assertion that for a variety of reasons, American public school students belonging to minority groups are at risk for academic failure, dropout, lower achievement levels, and a host of other problems that are associated with later difficulties in maintaining employment or achieving social mobility (Sireci, DeLeon, & Washington, 2002).

Most American public school systems have been engaged in reform and restructuring efforts designed to ameliorate this situation and to generally improve learning and other outcomes that are exhibited by at-risk students and even entire communities (Jencks, Smith, Acland, Bane, Cohen, Gintis, Heynes, & Michelson, 1972). Nevertheless, these reform efforts have not fully succeeded in creating the kind of level academic playing field that is so desperately needed to i

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ill areas such as reading. Indeed, Noble (2004) suggests that the Revised Bloom Taxonomy, considered in conjunction with MI, offers teachers in virtually all subject areas an excellent opportunity to create unique learning opportunities for diverse student populations with unique learning needs and skills. The use of these particular theoretical and philosophical approaches allows teachers to broaden their curriculum, cater to student diversity, and assist students in becoming successful learners. Differentiating curriculum is therefore a key feature of MI theory that also responds well to Bloom's taxonomy of thinking and problem solving skills. What is particularly compelling about MI in the view of Rubado (2002) is that it permits teachers to empower their students to become much more participative in learning. MI challenges the idea that intelligence is fixed and further challenges the belief that there are only a limited number of strategies likely to succeed in developing intelligence. Rubado (2002) is correct in the assertion that MI theory significantly broadens the opportunities that are available to teachers for creating meaningful learning opportunities. Recognizing that minority group students may be depe
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 5708
Approximate Pages = 23 (250 words per page)

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