Falling Through the Cracks: Black Girls and Education
Falling through the Cracks: Black Girls and Education Shawn Arango Ricks Winston-Salem State University The needs of Black girls are often overlooked by teachers, administrators, and policy makers. This oversight has contributed to a lack of educational programming and policies that address the impact of the intersection of racism and sexism on the educational experiences of Black girls, with some attention to the achievement gap. Policies simply focusing on race or gender ignore the unique positionality in which Black girls live and learn. Compounding this discussion is the recent focus on post- racialism in America. This article addresses this neglect, and suggests a framework to assist teachers and administrators in bridging this gap in educational programming and policies. Keywords: Black girls, achievement gap, racism, sexism, post-racialism Black males and females are at risk for many types of school failure such as poor test scores, high dropout rates, achievement gap, low grades, high suspension rates, however, promises of educational reform are on the forefront. The federal government is increasing its focus in this area with initiatives such as Race to the Top, My Brother’s Keeper, and a sweeping reform of No Child Left Behind (Koebler, 2012; The White House, 2014); and philanthropists are supporting educational initiatives (e.g., Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 2012; Perez-Pena, 2010). Although well-intentioned, oftentimes these initiatives ignore the complexity of systemic and interlocking forces at work in education, which can sometimes lead to a band-aid approach. Band-aid approaches neglect the individual and combined impact of variables such as race, racism, sexism, and gendered racism on educational experiences and outcomes of underrepresented groups.
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