The San Mateo Union High School District is dealing with discrimination issues. The issue is that Chinese students are discriminated against and put into low performing schools. This discrimination issue was also talked about by Jonathan Kozol about the city of New York. In this city, kids of color were overwhelmingly found in “special” classes that were designed for those who needed extra help. White students were put in either proficient or advanced classes for the “gifted”. This observation has to do with my topic of bad teachers because these bad teachers are usually found in the lower special classes where the color kids are.

At another school, 100 percent of students qualify for free or reduced lunch. Desert Trails Elementary school also has a population that is 62 percent Hispanic and 27 percent black. This poverty stricken school is indirectly talked about by Jonathan Kozol in his chapter about East St. Louis. In the East St. Louis area school would get cancelled because of sewage problems and the students (mostly black) would play in grass that was growing from sewage waste. The issue of poverty is seen in both the Desert Trails Elementary example and the example Kozol gives. At both schools the test scores were low and therefore the school was labeled as low-performance. Poverty connects to the topic of bad teachers because the district can’t afford to pay more for good teachers.

Another finding that I was able to find was a chart of 2 schools being compared. The first school was located in Beverly Hills and the other (much poorer) school was located in the nearby city of Alerta. The table showed different areas like the economics of the students but also showed what kind of classes the students were taking. In the Beverly Hills high school many AP courses were offered and the percentage of students who passed those tests was very high. However, in the high school in Alerta, few AP courses were offered and only 1 in 3 students actually passed the test. Jonathan Kozol explains this in his book as well. He talks about schools that offer advanced classes for the “gifted” and how students in those classes are given more opportunities and are treated differently. Those gifted students are prioritized. This variation in classes is connected to bad teachers because the good teachers are put into AP classes because they are usually more qualified.