media report analysis 1
Author’s Name
Charter Schools propping up the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Lauren Camera
In essence, the source under review is Lauren Camera’s article oncharter schools. The name of the article is “Charter schoolspropping up the school-to-prison pipeline”. According to thearticle, charter schools have a much higher suspension rate comparedto non-charter schools. Research shows that some of the charterschools records a 70% rate, which is significantly high. In addition,black students represent the larger percentage of the suspendedstudents, which makes white students less vulnerable to this dynamic.The article also mentions that students with disabilities are twiceas likely to face suspension compared to students withoutdisabilities (Camera, 2016).
Notably, the article forms its report on charter schools. Hence, thesocial context of the report occurs in the educationinstitution/culture. The report bases its findings on the researchperformed on 5,250 schools with regard to the level of suspensionsexperienced during the period of 2011-2012. The article is importantbecause it creates public awareness of the inequity in the chartereducational system and the effects it has on the country as a whole.As such, it affects millions of students who rely in charter schoolsto attain an education.
The report is linked to a social problem given that it highlights asocial issue, which is disrupting the overall growth of the minoritycommunities such as black students and students living withdisabilities. These two social groups often face discrimination byvarious social institutions making it difficult for them to progress.One of the alarming findings highlights that the issue has beenongoing and the disparity level has increased from 6.4% to 16.4 %.Hence, the article is vital in tackling issues that affect socialgrowth and welfare for marginalized communities (Camera, 2016).
Ideally, the sociological perspective studies the connection betweenvarious structures in society and their connection to paradigm inhuman nature. Notably, there are three sociological perspectives,which discuss different issues in a given society namely: Symbolic,Functionalism, and Conflict theory. The article uses functionalism,which is the analysis of the relationship between different sectorsof the society, and how they relate to human behavior. Given that thereport bases its research on the disparities between suspension ratesof black and white students in charter schools and students withdisabilities and students without disabilities, the sociologicalperspective is functionalism (Camera, 2016).
Education is one of the institutions in a society, which establishesthe welfare of each individual and a community as a whole. Therefore,all individuals should have an effective education, which can enhancetheir growth in society. However, charter schools are not fulfillingthis requirement seeing as they are marginalizing black students andstudents with disabilities. Moreover, hash disciplinary measures aretaken on the discussed groups. This creates a dynamic wherebychildren in charter schools do not receive the same level ofeducational compared to children in non-charter schools. Furthermore,minorities in the charter schools face the highest rates ofsuspension. Lastly, this indicates that the legal system does notmonitor significant issues such as the admissions, learning outcomes,and suspensions in such schools (Camera, 2016).
In conclusion, the sociological framing of the issue compares withcommon explanations in the media and layer persons in that they bothexplain the social issue of using harsh disciplinary measures onstudents. In addition, they both indicate the high rate ofsuspensions, which arise from the discipline. In comparison, thesocial framing displays primary data, information, and statisticsconcerning the issue at hand. Whereas, the media relies on popularculture, literature reviews, and interviews to relay the sameinformation.
References
Camera, L. (2016). Charter Schools Propping up the School toPrison Pipeline: Charter Schools are Four Times more Likely toSuspend Black Students than their White Peers. Retrieved from.
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-03-17/study-charter-schools-suspend-more-black-students-disabled-students