Equitability and Adequacy: The State of Florida Denies Poor and Minority Students an Equitable and Adequate Education

Abstract

Decades after Brown versus the Board of Education, America has found itself waist high in another disaster. Today school children and their families are not as worried about the race of the child next to them in math class; however, they are more concerned about how their child's educational experience in a poverty stricken neighborhood compares to the educational experience of the child uptown in the affluent neighborhood.

All over the United States, school-aged children are experiencing the repercussions of a failed educational plan. Although each state is responsible for creating and implementing its own proposal, a common flaw is evident throughout almost all 50 states. The distribution of funds and resources varies unequally from district to district and from school to school -- specifically from wealthy and white districts to minority and poverty stricken districts. In effect, this unequal distribution hurts students' achievement, and ultimately their chances of success later in life. One of the states that has a problem with its educational plan is Florida. Students in high minority, low economic schools receive fewer dollars, less experienced and qualified teachers, and score lower on standardized tests when compared to students in low minority, high economic schools. The following study was created to show that poor and minority students are affected by several gaps that separate them from their affluent white peers. Those gaps are specifically the funding gap, the teacher quality gap, and the skill gap. This research will bring deserved attention to the unfair educational system of the state of Florida, and of the United States, that hinders the achievement of poor and minority students.

Notes

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Thesis Completion

2004

Degree

Bachelor of Social Work (B.S.W.)

College

College of Health and Public Affairs

Degree Program

Social Work

Format

Print

Identifier

DP0021868

Language

English

Access Status

Open Access

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Document Type

Honors in the Major Thesis

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