This research examines evidence of social bias between urban and suburban school curricula. The research will set forth the context in which discourse of social bias in public education has emerged in recent years and then discuss how such bias has been identified in studies of various kinds of schools, with a view toward suggesting possible methods by which the problem of bias may be addressed.
Issues of social bias between urban and suburban schools are bound up with the vexed history of racially segregated schools, government-mandated school integration, the economic decline of the inner cities, the growth of suburbs, and so-called white flight from cities to suburbs. The issues are highly charged, highly politicized, and far from resolved. One factor contributing to the politicization of public education is that of unfair funding patterns. At first glance, that does not seem to be a valid issue, as Figure 1 suggests.
Figure 1. Current expenditure per pupil in average daily attendance in public elementary and secondary schools: 1970–71 to 2000–01.
Source: U.S. Department of Education, 2002.
According to the US Department of Education, the per-pupil expenditure in American public schools between 1970 and 2001 has risen by 700% in current dollars and nearly doubled in 2001 dollars. That is reflected in Figure 1.Such expenditures may seem impressive, but the aggregate figures do not capture the differences in per-pupil spending in different school districts. A report on the alarming dropout rate among Hispanics (Secada, et al., 1998) includes a comment on school-district differentials in expenditures for public education in Maryland. Whereas urban and rural districts were found to have spent about $4,500 per student, suburban districts in the state spent $6,000-$7,500. The figures are in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Annual Per-Pupil Expenditures in Maryland in the 1990s (in thousands) Source: Secada, et al., 1998.
The Mary...