Fix the Gap: Establishing Relationships to Close the Minority Achievement Gap in Los Angeles

Problem Statement

Currently, a minority achievement gap exists affecting African American and Latino students in the city of Los Angeles. A way to address the minority achievement gap is by replicating the successful and replicable factors the Harlem Children’s Zone practices. The minority achievement gap exists through the perpetuation of systemic racism, which exists by drawing lines between neighborhoods concentrated with a population of a different race or income, as explained below. As there is a strong association between low socioeconomic status and race, the achievement gap is a representation of the damage systemic racism produces.

Statistics of the minority achievement gap are overwhelming. The Teacher’s College of Columbia University concluded, for example, that by the age of three, children of professionals have vocabularies that are approximately 50% greater than those of working class children. African Americans and Latinos’ reading and math skills at the end of high school are equivalent to the skills of white students in the eighth grade. Furthermore, have a 50% chance and Hispanics a 33% chance of earning a bachelor’s degree by age 29 compared to Caucasians (Columbia University).

In Los Angeles, families with higher socioeconomic status live in richer neighborhoods surrounded with better schools. Additionally, less representation of minority populations exists. On the other hand, lower income families do not have access to high quality teachers and schools. These differences between resources create a discrepancy of academic success.  Certain minorities, such as Latinos and African Americans, do not have the same academic success as their white counterparts. Low standardized test scores and performance in academics show that there is a gap between race and academic prosperity. High-income families have access to certain schools with high quality teachers and safer environments. However, the real discrepancy lies in the existence of a mutual relationship between families and the school. For example, white students and families have a relationship between the school and parents. There is a correlation between community and school relationships and communication, “as it happens, white students are often in a position to show the quickest improvement when schools do better, because they tend to have more support at home in the form of educated parents with the financial resources to provide them with enrichment opportunities.”

Harlem Children’s Zone

A school model that defies the statistics burdening the demographic is the Harlem Children’s Zone. The HCZ lies in Central Harlem in New York City where 50% of the population lives below the poverty line, less than 25% of adults have a high school diploma, and less than 20% of current children in the elementary schools read at grade level (The Bridgespan Group). The Harlem Children’s Zone boasts successful achievements. The HCZ’s elementary, middle, and high schools, named Promise Academies, creates a hard working environment where the children thrive. By the eighth grade, a Promise Academy student was in the 74^th percentile in scores while the average student scored in the 53^rd percentile (Harlem Children’s Zone Development Office).

Addressing the minority achievement gap in Los Angeles

The minority achievement gap at schools in Los Angeles needs to be immediately addressed. Without taking action on solving this issue, this allows generations to fall into the cycle of poverty. Minorities have a higher tendency of dropping out or college, but schools need to address this issue. Additionally, certain neighborhoods such as Compton, Echo Park, and Boyle Heights in Los Angeles face a larger minority achievement gap and have a larger concentration of African Americans and Latinos.

Charter schools and the Harlem Children’s Zone possess flaws, but also encompass lessons the Los Angeles Unified School District can apply to their school system. Due to the controversial nature of charter schools such as relying too much on private funding and studies failing to prove if charter schools produce better scores or students, it is not in the best interest to allocate funds toward more charter schools. Nevertheless, the structure of charter schools and HCZ can be replicated to a certain extent.