Career Academies By: Brennan Quinn
Career Academies are being placed in the struggling neighborhoods of Chicago to give lower income students the chance to rise above the impoverished environment. All five of the Chicago Career Academies are under performing the rest of Chicago Public high schools. Four of the five schools are on academic probation, a warning to the school that if it does not improve soon, “school closing may be the best option,” (CPS). With scores as low as four percent on the PSAE standardized test and student attendance as low as 75 percent, these Career Academies are failing. Because the children from working class families are learning the functions of working class jobs, the poverty cycle continues. Career Academies compromise excellence and equity in education by making classes centered largely around low income vocations.
Dr. Jean Anyon, a professor and an educational scientist, ran an experiment in the late 1970s of elementary schools in America. She traveled to four different schools with four different economic backgrounds. She wanted to find out the differences in teaching between America’s poor schools, and America’s rich ones. The lower class schools, also known as the working class schools, were run like factories. Teachers did not teach their students how to use their minds analytically for problem solving, but instead taught them how to follow orders and procedures, giving students work that required “very little decision making or choice,” (Anyon 2). This style of teaching sets the working class students’ careers, limiting their opportunities. If students are taught primarily to follow orders, the educational system prepares them for working class jobs, such as custodians or other vacations consisting of manual labor work.
Similarly to the working class schools in Jean Anyon’s study, Career Academies lack critical thinking, as shown by the overwhelmingly low test scores. The Career Academies are failing to provide valuable resources to pull their students out of poverty. Instead, they are continuing the poverty cycle in Chicago, allowing the gap between the elite private schools and the prestigious Selective Enrollment high schools within the same neighborhoods to grow. To solve unsuccessful attempts helping students to prosper economically in their futures, Career Academies need reform. Rather than focusing on teaching students skills typically executed in low-paying, Career Academies should focus on developing their student’s habits and minds to prepare them “to reach their highest social and academic potential in preparation for College and Career success,” (CPS).
Works Cited:
Dr. Jean Anyon, a professor and an educational scientist, ran an experiment in the late 1970s of elementary schools in America. She traveled to four different schools with four different economic backgrounds. She wanted to find out the differences in teaching between America’s poor schools, and America’s rich ones. The lower class schools, also known as the working class schools, were run like factories. Teachers did not teach their students how to use their minds analytically for problem solving, but instead taught them how to follow orders and procedures, giving students work that required “very little decision making or choice,” (Anyon 2). This style of teaching sets the working class students’ careers, limiting their opportunities. If students are taught primarily to follow orders, the educational system prepares them for working class jobs, such as custodians or other vacations consisting of manual labor work.
Similarly to the working class schools in Jean Anyon’s study, Career Academies lack critical thinking, as shown by the overwhelmingly low test scores. The Career Academies are failing to provide valuable resources to pull their students out of poverty. Instead, they are continuing the poverty cycle in Chicago, allowing the gap between the elite private schools and the prestigious Selective Enrollment high schools within the same neighborhoods to grow. To solve unsuccessful attempts helping students to prosper economically in their futures, Career Academies need reform. Rather than focusing on teaching students skills typically executed in low-paying, Career Academies should focus on developing their student’s habits and minds to prepare them “to reach their highest social and academic potential in preparation for College and Career success,” (CPS).
Works Cited:
- Anyon, Jean, Dr. "Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work." Redirecting.Journal of Education, 1980. Web. 03 Mar. 2014. <http://generative.edb.utexas.edu/classes/2011CISpring/CIreadings/06Anyon1980.pdf>.
- "Austin Business And Entrepreneurship." CPS. CPS, Web. 03 Mar. 2014. <http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fschoolinfo.cps.edu%
- "CPS Performance Policy FAQs." Chicago Public Schools. CPS, Sept. 2010. Web. 3 Mar. 2014.
- "Find a School." CPS. CPS, Web. 03 Mar. 2014. <http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fcps.edu%2FSchools%2FFind_a_school%2FPages%2 FSchoolsearchresults.aspx%3FType%3D4%26Filter%3DCPSSchoolGrade%3DHigh%2520school%3BCPSSchoolType%3DCareer%2520academy&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNFquTjAwa7P8kGkMC3BDiJdGlfiKg>.