The Achievement Gap: Who's to Blame?
Students in GCC 3021 will start the semester with a review of what unequal schooling looks like in the United States. The course uses the history of Detroit to examine how underinvestment and discrimination positioned minoritized communities to receive an inadequate education. School structures—including resources, climate and discipline, academic tracks, and community engagement—will be explored.
Students will consider what it means to say that there are “achievement gaps” in our society’s schools. Mainstream assumptions and meanings will be questioned and criticized, and alternatives, such as the notion of an ‘education debt’, will be explored.