William Wells Brown
Elementary School is located in the center of the east end of Lexington and
doubles as a community center. This is a very poor area in Lexington, but the
elementary school was built in order to raise the value of the area, along with
new housing.
This
picture was taken on one of my visits to William Wells Brown. Here, Stephanie
is reading “Perfect Timing” to one of the kids, teaching him about one of the
world’s most famous jockey, who lived right in their neighborhood. You can see
that the student is very focused on the reading and engaged in the story. This
was interesting because I had always imagined that, since this elementary
school had low test score, the students did not want to learn and were very far
behind on core learning strategies. This was not the case. Shortly after this
picture was taken, we gave the student the option to stop reading and work on
other homework. To this, he replied that he already knew how to do the rest of
his homework and he would rather continue reading the book. Not only did he
continue to read the book, but this student picked up an extra copy of the
story and actually started reading aloud to Stephanie, rather than being read
to. This was a turning point for me. I had always assumed that these students
would not have the same level of focus or desire to learn as other students at
other elementary schools do, but these students have just as much of a drive to
learn as others, arguably more. One of the other students I spoke with at
William Wells Brown told me that he wanted to get really good grades so that he
could go to college and make a lot of money. These kids know where they stand
in society and they know what needs to be done in order for them to succeed,
which is something that I did not expect.
William
Wells Brown Elementary School has brightly colored wall and superior technology
just like any other elementary school. However, William Wells Brown has the
lowest test scores of all elementary schools in Kentucky. When I first heard of
William Wells Brown and its reputation, I envisioned a crumbling school near an
economically underdeveloped area, that was not the case. While William Wells
Brown is the primary elementary school for families in the "East End"
of Lexington, a notoriously poor area in Lexington, the school is held to the
same standards (financially, at least) as other elementary schools in
Lexington. I also found that, while the vast majority of the community still
needed work, the community surrounding the school was actually improving
financially and architecturally. The photo above was from my first visit to
William Wells Brown and I liked how it shows that the school looks like every
other school. There are plenty of nice looking cars in the parking lot, the
announcement sign is up to date, even the trees look taken care of. These are
all thing that I did not expect to find at the school because I had this
preconceived notion that their test scores were bad, so they must not have a
very nice school.
This picture was taken while en route to William Wells Brown
Elementary School. The community surrounding the elementary school can kind of
be in “rings.” The school can be considered the center of the rings. Working
our way from the center out, the next ring is a lower-middle class residential
area. And the last ring is low class, poor area. This ring is where the above
picture was taken and I find it particularly interesting to contrast that with
the previous picture.
The type of situation that William Wells Brown is dealing with,
in terms of test scores, is also happening on a national scale. William Trent‘s
article Why the Gap Between Black and
White Performance in School? observes the impact race has on test scores in
St. Louis. He finds that 7% of kindergarten test scores are impacted by race
alone (p. 321). He then further examines how other independent variables, such
as student background, prior test scores, and the poverty level of schools
affect these same test scores. When adding these factors, concludes that 35% of
test scores are affected (p.321) He then links the fact that most African American
students populate schools with high poverty (p. 324). The majority of students
at William Wells Brown are minority races and receive free and reduced lunch.
This document very much supports my argument for my documentary, so I intend to
use it to factually support my theories and observations
This article directly addresses race in schools and how the
problem should be solved. Kara S. Finnigan, Lesli C. Myers, Shaun Nelms and
Kevin McGowan suggest that elementary teachers must ingrain anti-racists
beliefs in children at a young age in order for the problem to go away. They
also give three ideas of what educational leaders should be doing to end
racism. They are as follows “They must address negative stereotypes. They must
ensure that educators have the knowledge and skills to create environments that
build on the strengths of all communities. Finally, they must reduce
institutional barriers” ( p. 1). I plan on using this article as a call to
action for those that watch my documentary. While this article addresses how
educational leaders should deal with racial differences, I believe the same can
be applied to society.
Bibliography
1. Trent, William T. "Why the gap between
black and white performance in school? A report on the effects of race
on.." Journal of Negro
Education 1997: 320-29. Academic Search Complete. Web.
29 Sept. 2015.
2. Finnigan, Kara S., et al. "Confronting Race, Racism And
Privilege."District Administration 51.9 (2015): 80. Academic Search Complete. Web.
29 Sept. 2015.
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