The Racial Equity Gap in Education and How it Affects Families and Kids Across the County

Introduction

In North Carolina we have precisely 100 counties. Across these counties we fall within Wake. In all of Wake county 117 of the 194 schools in total are elementary schools. My main focus for my civics engagement was the Southeast Raleigh Elementary School in which I had already been working with. Southeast Raleigh Elementary School is a community-responsive school focused on academics, opportunities, and the Southeast Raleigh Community through their partnership with the Southeast Raleigh Promise and the YMCA. This means that they value and actively partner with the community and their families to address the holistic needs of their SERES students in order to ensure their academic and overall success, which will ultimately and positively contribute to the revitalization in Southeast Raleigh. While this is the overall mission of the school, when I first began my partnership with them through my employment with the Southeast Raleigh Youth Changemakers, their current reading level was only at about 2% proficiency. There are many factors that play into this including lack of funds, support, and overall overwhelmedness due to circumstance and living in poverty - as it is one of the hardest things to overcome especially without the right resources . The North Carolina reading requirements deems one reading proficient if they have passed the third grade end of grade assessment with an achievement score of three or higher as that means the student has "demonstrated reading proficiency appropriate for third-grade students, which satisfies the requirements of the Read to Achieve legislation." These requirements do not, however, focus on the development of social skills, emotional learning, self awareness, a general love for learning (reading included) and any real development during their K-2 years - all skills that will benefit youth in their futures, not only life, but in the education system, and that is a problem. Civic engagement is defined as working to make a difference in the civic life of one's community and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values and motivation to make that difference. It means promoting the quality of life in a community, through both political and non-political processes. It is a form of political activism, environmentalism, and community as well as national service. To me, civics engagement is establishing what a community or individual needs, and then finding ways to not only meet those needs through meeting them where they are, but also doing the best you can to establish resources and connections within that individual or community as a preventive measure for issues of the same nature in the future, regardless of whether or not you are a part of this community or have a personal relationship with said individual. Something doesn't have to directly affect you, for you to care enough to do the right thing. Civics engagement relates to the work I have done and will continue to do with the Black and Brown youth of Southeast Raleigh as it pertains to the acts of engaging in the Southeast Raleigh community to create real change that will last a lifetime in its youth. The lack of resources within the community that this school is a part of is a product of the inner workings of systemic racism- a form of racism deeply rooted in the systems and laws of not only organizations, but this entire country. That however is a discussion for another project. There is direct correlation between the resources schools have, and the demographic of the students who attend said schools as well as the location of those schools. Many communities with a history so deep and rooted in the systems of this country like redlining and communities that are threatened by food deserts, such as this one, do greatly lack the resources they need to thrive and flourish. These communities have surrounding schools that are affected by this and SERES is no exception to that. Many who reside within the Southeast Raleigh area lack these resources as well, especially those that require heightened pay for standard or below services, and the education their children receive is affected by this as well, again many factors.