Minority Learners Performance

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Article Synthesis
Opinion Support
Conclusion
Reference

Introduction

There has been a heated debate on whether the academic structure of a school has any effect on the performance of minority learners. Since many studies have been done to unravel the mystery behind this debate, this paper provides a critique of one of such studies, namely, Teachers Unions, Productivity, and Minority Student Achievement by Martin Milkman. Milkman (2007) investigates any performance variations among minority learners in unionized and nonunionized schools. In my opinion, minority students who attend unionized schools perform better academically in relation to the same category of students in nonunionized schools. This paper provides a critical analysis of the authors ideas to support this claim.

Article Synthesis

Teachers in unionized schools enjoy the benefits of collective bargaining, which motivates them to work harder. The articles ideas are mainly acquired from previous researches that focused on the performance of marginalized students in standardized tests relative to majority students. In fact, the author says, the tendency of minority students to score lower than majority students on standardized tests even when socio-economic status is held constant has troubled researchers (Milkman, 1997, p. 138). The author also holds the idea that minority students in unionized schools achieve better in mathematics, as opposed to their colleagues in nonunionized schools. This variation is clearly shown in the pre-math mean value of minority students in nonunionized schools. The value is relatively lower than that of unionized schools.

Minority students who attend unionized schools are in the company of students who perform better in mathematics tests. Besides, such learners have a better socio-economic condition in addition to positive attitude towards school and education compared to their colleagues in nonunionized schools. The encouraging learning environment that these minority students find themselves in offers them both an opportunity and challenge to perform better academically. The healthy competition that is cultivated in these schools amongst students has influenced positively the good academic performance that characterizes unionized schools. These schools have cultivated a culture that allows students to view education positively. This plan gives the minorities who form part of the student fraternity in these schools an excellent chance to attend higher level of education.

The collective bargaining that is availed to teachers by the unions, better performance of learners in standardized tests, and a general positivity towards higher education have motivated minority students to work harder in their education. Milkman (1997) reveals, On average, minorities attending union schools score higher in math achievement tests and are more likely to go to college than minority students attending non-union schools (p. 140). For instance, the difference in performance of minority students in unionized and nonunionized schools is evident in the number of mathematics classes. Teachers in unionized schools are motivated to work harder since they are held accountable for the performance of their students.

I agree with Milkman (2007) based on the information he gives in table 2 concerning students educational productivity. It is evident that positivity towards education in minority students in unionized schools is very high. The number of students who are interested in joining a higher institution of education is higher relative to the situation in nonunionized schools. The coefficient of college (+) marginalized students in unionized schools is 2.177 while that of the same class of learners from nonunionized schools is 1.243 (Milkman, 1997). I concur with the finding that minority students who attend unionized schools that have a higher population of majority students perform better. In fact, the high performance levels that are witnessed in unionized schools that have a higher percentage of majority students influence positively the academic efforts of minority students in the same schools. Hence, they (minorities) end up performing exemplarily well academically.

Opinion Support

The article supports my opinion by showing past researches, especially from 1970s, that confirmed that minority students performed poorly in standardized tests, irrespective of their socio-economic backgrounds. As a strategy to curb the problem, introduction of union/nonunionized schools was one of the solutions. Unionized schools were one way of ensuring that minority students of this period improved their performance. Attendance of minority students in schools that have a population of students from higher socio-economic backgrounds in addition to a positive attitude towards education has played a major role in improving their academic performance.

Collective bargaining from unions has offered teachers a platform to offer services to students as a way of boosting their performance, especially the minority learners. The passage also supports my opinion by showing that the number of unionized schools that are friendly to the handicapped minority students is greater relative to the situation in nonunionized schools. The article suggests that minority students have unique requirements and/or react differently to educational materials than majority students. Therefore, standardized tests should not be a measure of academic performance since minority students have special needs and/or respond differently to educational resources than majority students (Milkman, 1997. p. 138).

Conclusion

Marginalized learners in unionized academic institutions demonstrate excellent academic results in relation to their counterparts who attend nonunionized schools. The study has revealed that minority students who attend unionized schools, which have a higher student population of majority students who perform better in standardized tests and/or have a general positivity towards education because of their better socio-economic backgrounds, end up performing well academically. Teachers in unionized schools show personal interests in their students, and hence the improved general performance of minority students.

Reference

Milkman, M. (1997). Teachers Unions, Productivity, and Minority Student Achievement. Journal of Labor Research, 18(1), 137-150.

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Minority Learners Performance

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