User:Jessica C918/Choose an Article

Topics I would like to work on:


 * 1) Educational inequality
 * 2) This article identifies and explains factors related to educational inequality, such as family background, gender, race, immigration status, and geographic location. The author cites empirical data and studies demonstrating the impacts of those factors on educational inequality. I do wonder whether the article more describes educational inequity, rather than inequality. The author describes inequality as an uneven distribution of resources. However, they also describe situations where all students have access to the same programming, but systemic barriers still impact their performance. The article also discusses unequal placement and access to special education between white students and students of color, all of which relate to the overall topic. However, I believe the subtopic should be more specific, such as "Over-representation of Students of Color in Special Education." The article also discusses the history of educational oppression; however, this subtopic would be better placed first, as it moves from history to current factors, etc. Most of the content is written neutrally. However, the section "state conflicts" seems a bit confusing, and seems to indicate frustration towards states with more ineffective systems of education. The author describes some school education systems as "fragile states." All sources are cited, and most are from reputable sources. Some sources are from more conservative institutes, but it is mostly a balanced review. The article does cover historic inequality that disadvantages marginalized communities around the world.
 * 3) Achievement gaps in the United States
 * 4) The introductory section is relevant to the topic, and begins with the history of study on achievement gaps via a U.S. Department of Education report. The last paragraph referencing the National Assessment of Educational Progress data is not cited. The author details racial achievement gap, and has significantly more content on the gender achievement gap. There also seems to be a lack of citations, particularly for the data on international achievement gaps. The writer does discuss Annette Lareau's literature on achievement of natural growth versus concerted cultivation and its impact on achievement, but does not discuss it in terms of race, but rather class, in the section on racial achievement gaps. There should be a lot more data on the racial achievement gap in this article. The data on gender achievement gaps has significantly more citations, but the data is outdated (2002-2007). There is a pretty robust description of contributing factors to gender achievement gaps. The section on LGBTQ+ youth highlights a population largely excluded from achievement gap dialogue, and aligns well with Wikipedia's mission of created more content on underrepresented groups. The section on Immigrant and Native-Born Gap also lacks material, and could be more in-depth. The citations are mostly from reputable sources,  except one article is from the Washington Examiner, which tends to be biased towards conservative politics. Overall, this article could use significantly more development in its contents surrounding racial achievement gaps. Additionally, there should be scholarship on the opportunity gap, which tends to be the preferred term in education surrounding a lack of equity for marginalized students in classrooms.
 * 5) Desegregation busing
 * 6) This article begins with an engaging introduction, describing how integration busing become more popular in the United States following Brown v. Board of Education and Swann. They also describe backlash in the introduction, which motivates readers to continue reading to learn more. The content on history leading up to "Legal rulings" lacks appropriate citations. The article lacks significant content relating to the civil rights movement, and needs additional context for busing. There is significant content related to busing in select cities, which is relevant to the subject. There could also be more information on Re-segregation and backlash against busing. The article cites reputable sources. It also points to further reading, which is needed to develop the topic. Overall, the content does focus on marginalized communities; however, it could be expanded.