There are several determinant factors that lead to distinguish educational attainment among individuals belonging to different ethnicity or racial groups. It is important to understand that the relationship between educational attainment and ethnicity is quite strong and there are noticeable differences in high school and college performances based upon one’s ethnicity. It was previously known that ethnic minority students perform poorly but statistics show that some of them are able to out-perform white students who have clear ethnic advantage over them. It is wrong to categorize and say that difference in level of educational attainment is solely dependent upon an individual’s race or ethnicity because there are many variant factors that influence this level of attainment.
The data provided shows that white students experience ethnic advantages when it comes to education. This is the reason why the percentage of white students who are unable to complete their high school is very low, which is 11.1% and this rate is pretty low as compared to other minor ethnicities. When it comes to completion of high school, 30.7% of whites are able to attain this level of education and it is a bit low as compared to the percentage of Native Americans, 33.9%. Speaking about other minorities, the percentage of less than high school education among Latinos is 39.8% and that of African Americans is 20.6% followed by Asian Americans 14.8% that shows a lot of Latino origin students are unable to attain higher levels of education. On the other hand, if one analyses the data of percentage of students who attain high school education among ethnic minorities it would be revealed that this percentage is highest for African Americans and lowest for Asian Americans.
While comparing the data for college and higher education, it is revealed that Asian American students have the highest percentage of completing college and further education followed by the Whites and then students belonging to Latino ethnicity who have the lowest rate. The assumption that ethnic minority students would perform poorly because they belong to a minor group or their social class doesn’t allow them to educate properly is quite untrue. Because there are students who belong to minor ethnic groups but still they are able to maintain high standard of education despite of where they come from or what their social status is. It is relatively important to investigate the reasons for the differences in educational attainment among different ethnic or racial groups because it is very impractical to base differences solely on one’s skin colour as there are a lot of other determinant factors that lead to such differences.
Aspects Leading to Inequality of Educational Attainment
It has been argued that the level of educational attainment across different ethnicities can be based upon genetically inherited intelligence. Although, many sociologists believe that it is impossible to estimate intelligence on the basis of one’s race or ethnicity but still there are factors that influence an individual’s intelligence based on where they come from hereditarily. For example, it is observed that Asian Americans have inherited greater intelligence as compared to other ethnicities as they have larger number of students who successfully complete college or other higher levels of educations. Similarly, Latinos are said to be among the lowest ranked students when it comes to intelligence, but still there can be exceptions.
Ethnic minorities live all across the country but it estimated that some of them, especially Asian Americans and African Americans who are rated as ‘low’ when it comes to social class. Belonging to lower social class means an individual’s household is subject to receive income below the average or median income level and due to this difference many students experience the disadvantages of their social class. At the same time, many White students and Native Americans who also belong to lower social class, but still they are able to attain advantage over other ethnic minorities as they receive benefits and student loans from the government on easy and simple basis. Moreover, those students who belong to medium or upper class are able to take their class advantages and receive education of their choice. It can be the case where students who are from poor backgrounds may also experience poor diet which causes lack of energy, lack of concentration and ultimately diminishing intelligence. Many of them are forced to leave their high school or college education due to inability to bear the high costs associated with their education and many of them end up working odd jobs to fulfil their life’s basic needs.
Comparison of Sociological Theories – Functionalist and Conflict Theory
The functionalist theory emphasizes on universal education and how it is able to serve the society as a whole. The idea is to convey basic skills and knowledge to the masses. This theory identifies education as a tool for creating a friendly social atmosphere among individuals belonging to different racial and ethnic groups. The founder, Durkheim focused on providing ‘moral education’ to the whole society so that a more united social structure can be maintained by bringing people together from different cultures, race and ethnicities at one place. Functionalist theory comprises of transmission of core values, advocating liberty rights, identifying individual student’s self esteem, transmitting the importance of competition among students, social placement of students depending upon their merit and networking of students.
On the contrary, conflict theory treats education as a basis of maintaining inequality among different social classes. Conflict theory is a complete opposite of Functionalist theory as it aims to preserve the power of individuals or groups who are dominating the society. Although, the basic fundamentals of education are similar to that of Functionalist theory but despite that, Conflict theory continues to treat the minorities or individuals belonging to lower social class as lowest ranking when it comes to attaining good education. Moreover, instead of sorting schools and colleges on the basis of merit, Conflict theory aims at sorting educational institutions on the basis of racial or ethnic backgrounds.
It can be said that Functionalist theory aims at promoting socialism within a society to cut-off inequalities among different ethnic groups whereas Conflict theory focuses on maintaining capitalism while cutting-off minor ethnicities from the major ones. Both theories believe in applying the same procedure among different educational institutes but they differ in terms of providing education to whom. Functionalist theory supports social education whereas conflict theory promotes to maintain a distinction between students who are native and those who belong to minor ethnicities as well as lower social class.
Role of Major Social Institutions
The differences of educational attainment among different ethnicities and racial groups,
is dependent or more appropriately influenced by a number of major social institutions. One of such institution is family a student’s family life plays a major role in attainment of his or her education. In U.S., statistics show that Latinos and African Americans are at disadvantage due to their inconsistent or poor family life. Whereas, there are studies that suggest Asian parents tend to lay enormous amount of importance in educating their children to high standards. They encourage their children to complete high school and then attain higher education as well. Other than that, different family backgrounds also impose major or minor impacts on a student’s ability to get educated. For instance, a student who belongs to single parented family would find it a bit hard to attain best level of education.
Students belonging to distinguishing ethnicities follow different types of religions and sometimes their religious ideologies and views hinder in their educational achievements. For instance, there are many minorities, especially Asian Americans who follow the religion of Islam and they insist upon providing a segregated education system. This is the reason why many Muslim girls find it difficult to attain higher level of education as they are not allowed to study with males. Also, the political climate of the country, type of available educational facilities and economic background all influence and bring about distinctive differences between the level of educational achievements among different races and ethnicities.
Conclusion
No matter how good or perfect an education system and its policies are, there will always be a difference in achievement and attainment of education with respect to different ethnicities and racial groups. But still, there are ways to cut down those differences so that educational attainment level is maintained equal for everyone no matter what class or ethnicity they belong to. Although there are certain factors like; culture, religion. Family background and social class that thoroughly influence one’s educational achievements and these factors cannot be ignored but with the help of proper educational infrastructure these differences can be minimised at a maximum rate.
Therefore, the difference of educational attainment is different ethnic groups cannot be only based on their race. Because there are a lot of other determinant factors which influence the level of educational attainment among students belonging to separate ethnic groups. These factors are; social class, family background, religious beliefs, genetic influences, political background, economics, gender and age.
