Unit 4: Essay #3: Expanding the Conversation

• Due Sunday by 11:59pm
• Points 100
• Submitting a file upload
• File Types doc, docx, and pdf
• Available Feb 3 at 12am – Feb 23 at 11:59pm 21 days

For Essay #3, expand Essay #2, by doing the following:

• Conduct library research to find at least two additional outside sources that add to the “conversation” you defined in last unit’s essay. These sources should provide additional context to your argument, and help you make your claims in a more effective manner.
• Decide how to include these new sources into a new version of Essay #2.
• Perform any other revisions or re-structuring to Essay #2 help strengthen your argument. Use your instructor’s feedback to help guide your revisions.
• Create a bullet list of the changes you made in revising Essay #2 to create Essay #3. Include this list either as a second file or an additional page. Failure to submit this required information will result in a grade deduction from essay #3.

As you expand Essay #2 to meet these new goals, you should expand, edit, restructure, and delete, in order to make a clear, effective argument. This unit’s essay should not merely be Essay #2 with a few new paragraphs tacked on, but should be a re-envisioned piece of writing. Remember to continue to appeal to specific audience you identified last week.

Guidelines for Essay #3

Length/Due Date: approximately 1,000 words, due Sunday by 11:59 p.m. Central Standard Time (CST).

Style/Format: This, as all essays in EN106, should be formatted according to MLA guidelines. As a reminder, the following document formatting guidelines are required:

• Use 12 point, Times New Roman font, double-spaced.
• Use 1-inch margins top, bottom, and sides.
• Although no cover page is needed, you should include your name, my name, the course number/title, and date at the upper left-hand corner of the manuscript.

Research & Documentation: Because you will rely on the work of others to make your argument, this essay must include formal references to not only the assigned readings but also the sources you locate via research. Use your skills of quotation, paraphrase, and summary to incorporate these other writers’ perspectives, and be sure to provide in-text citations using MLA formatting.

File format: Please submit your essay as a , x, or .rtf file. These formats are available in most word processors, including Google Docs and Open Office, and will ensure that your instructor is able to comment on your work.

Works Cited: Because you will be referring to textbook essays, please create an appropriate works cited page. See the appropriate chapter of Easy Writer for directions on how to create an entry for a work in an anthology. (Hint: Look at p. 219 for MLA.) You may also draw upon history textbook(s) or other sources, which will also need to be cited according to the guidelines presented in Easy Writer.

Titles: Include a descriptive title at the beginning of your essay that tips your readers off to your thesis. Do not format your title with quotation marks, boldface, underlining or italics. Quotation marks or underlining are only appropriate if the title borrows words from another source.

Deadline: Submit your final draft essay no later than 11:59 p.m. CT on Sunday at the end of this unit.

Use of essays for future courses: Please understand that your essay may be used— anonymously—as a sample for future EN106 students and instructors unless you expressly request that it not be used. Your work, of  course, will only be used for educational purposes.

Assessment: See the Grading and Assessment content item under Course Information.

Why Is This Assignment Important?

Completing this assignment will teach you two important skills: revision, and source selection. Effective academic writers possess both skills, and practice those skills in nearly every piece of writing they create.

If you have taken EN105 at Park University, or a similar first year writing course at another institution, you have probably learned and practiced several revision strategies. Effective revision means asking yourself questions about your writing, including:

• What is my central message, focus, or thesis? Is this message consistent throughout the essay?
• What kinds of supporting details or information do I include to help develop my focus?
• What background knowledge or basic factual information will my readers need in order to understand my argument?
• What sorts of questions are my readers likely to ask about the subject? Have I anticipated and answered those questions?
• In what order do I present information? Should the essay be re-structured to help readers understand my points?

Successful revision often means putting yourself in the reader’s position. How is a reader likely to respond to the essay? This unit’s peer review assignment will help you see your own writing as a reader might see it, and respond accordingly with revision.

The second goal of this assignment is to help you practice selecting sources. As the Lecture in this unit makes clear, research means answering questions. So, before you even think about finding sources, you will need to make a list of 1-3 research questions you will focus on. By participating in this unit’s Discussion, you will develop these research questions. Then, you will use Park library resources to answer those questions. Remember, learning to select sources efficiently takes time. Do not expect to master this skill this unit, or even in this course. But remember, that practice will help “make it stick” — so think of this essay as an opportunity to improve your source selection skills.

Remember that the Park “

Library Material

” Canvas course is required reading for this week, and will help you navigate Park’s library resources effectively.

Roderick Hooks

4

Roderick Hooks

EN 106

2/6/2020

Inequality in American Schools

Puritans of Massachusetts established the first public school and decided that these schools will get funds from property-tax receipts. Initially, the system of using property tax to fund local school was performing equally. In her article, XXX argues that education is unequal in the United States because students from poor district perform at levels several grades below those from the richer district. This is because of inequality in the money supplies to schools to fund public schools. Public schools are financed by different states depending on their contribution to tax collection. Most of the poor districts contribute low property tax because properties are less valued and only poor people stay in those districts. Because of this, public utilities such as schools lack adequate resources to support learning. The standard measure for economic hardship does not present the magnitude of the learning gap between poorest and richest students. The federal government and education sector in the United States needs to formulate policies that support the implementation of equal acts.

Public education became mandatory at the end of the 19th century and the responsibility for educating students was given to states rather than the national government. States gave more money for schools, even for schools that relied on property tax. However, regional disparities that arose due to increased urbanization lead to inequalities in schools. Areas with less valued properties or poor families had less money available for schools. As a result, schools in poor districts had fewer resources to support education. In the early 20th century, states started to provide grants to all districts to ensure equitable funding. Nonetheless, wealthier districts increased property values making the state subsidies to increased, hence, causing more education disparities. Advocates and activists have filed claims to push for equality in the American education system. Most of these efforts failed due to opposition in the Congress, the audience for this essay is to inform the federal government and local government that poor districts where most of the disadvantages students come from need more money to finance their education.

States should design a formula that will allow districts to share revenues for education to be more equitable. My argument is that states should give poor district enough money for disadvantaged students to have the ability to perform as wealthier students. Students in wealthier district have access to school psychologists, personal laptops, up-to-date exercise books, and counsellors. High-poverty areas do not access these resources. These areas have more students who need extra help, yet they have fewer tutors, guidance counsellors, and psychologists (Semuels, p1). They also have poorly paid teachers, bigger classes size, and poor facilities. This situation is experienced because local cities and towns operate most schools in America; these schools receive funding from local property taxes. Poor districts and areas raise less money compared to wealthy places such as Greenwich and Darien, which have homes worth millions of dollars. Researchers affirm that the education system is unconstitutional because of inadequate funding and unequal distribution of resources.

Although the government contributes between eight to nine per cent of schools nationally, the funding is not enough. Government contributes mostly through programs such as free and reduced lunch programs as well as Head Start. Students in all school have the right to receive education as stated in the No Child Left behind Act and the Every Student Succeeds Act. The economic hardship standard measures used by the education system do not present the correct statistics on disparities in achievement gaps. As Dynarski quotes, “the problem is much worse than these statistics show” (Dynarski, p2). She argues that schools, districts, and federal government use the unpolished standard measurement for economic hardship. The free and reduced lunch offered to disadvantaged students is among the issues that need to get addressed. A researcher at the University of Michigan found that economic hardship measures understate the achievement gap after analyzing the data found in Michigan Consortium for Education Research. For example, Dynarski quotes that, “about half of eighth-grade students in public schools get free and reduced-price lunch” (Dynarski, p8). However, they perform at levels several grades below their classmates in wealthy areas. I affirm with Dynarski opinion that years that students are eligible for subsidized meals to intensify the depth of disadvantage.

Due to lack of resources, disadvantaged students receive poor education. Teachers are also frustrated and demotivated to conduct their duties forcing them to leave. For example, public schools in poor areas have more students and lack enough computers to perform computer projects and they are forced to share. More so, students are highly suspended from poor schools because teachers and guidance counsellors have no time to deal with these cases as compared to wealthier areas. Poor districts do not offer electives, art classes, field trips, and gifted and talented programs as offered in wealthier areas (Semuels, p8). Public schools in poorer areas have a large class size, older schools, and some schools have poor depilated facilities. Moreover, absenteeism is experienced mostly in poor districts due to poor facilities and lack of resources. These factors contribute to poor performance in school for disadvantaged students. As I conclude, the federal and states governments should increase their expenditure on education to ensure equitable schooling. Delegating the responsibility of education funding to local cities and towns will contribute to more disparities.  

Work Cited

Dynarski, Susan. “Why American schools are even more unequal than we thought.” New York Times (2016).

Semuels, Alana. “Good school, rich school; bad school, poor school.” The Atlantic (2016).