Cross Culture Issues in Education 
ES499/SOC 599 Spring Break Course

It Starts From the Ground Up
By Elizabeth Dowrie
and
James Newson

     We began the hellish five day ethnic studies/sociology course with our minds shut!  The course was seen as our door to graduation and eligibility.  This perception radically changed after the first day in Portland.  We learned that in order to become "20 as 1" (in the words of James), we needed to break down the barriers of our social structure and get to know the person behind the exterior face.  This task was accomplished through games and activities which involved nonverbal communication as the key.  After being locked in a room with 23 total strangers for 14 hours, we dissimulated back to our cheap hotel equivalent rooms for the night.
     Monday was the first day of true facilitation and debriefing.  We learned from the stakeholders of the Portland school district that schools located in lower socio-economic areas currently provide their students with a less challenging and demanding curriculum than those attending schools in the affluent neighborhoods, which began a reoccurring theme of the issue of money (or lack there of) in Oregon public schools. 
     Throughout the week's interviews we were forced to open our eyes and minds to the current state of the Oregon public schools in regards to the education of Latino and African American students.  We discovered common factors contributing to these two minority groups dropout rates, which was constantly reiterated by different stakeholders during the five days.  Some of the main factors included curriculum based on an eurocentric view, inefficient bilingual education curriculum, lack of monetary funding, and a lack of communication within the triangle (parents, school faculaty/adminstrators, and legislators
     The most prevalent theme throughout the five days was the idea that the intervention or the prevention of dropouts begins at the beginning,
in the elementary school years.  We need to make changes and improve on what is already in place in our elementary schools to allow all our children the chance to succeed in school.
     What started out as the hellish spring break five day course turned out to be like heaven (or rather a fair equivalent).  We evolved from 20 individuals into 1 group working towards a solution to decrease the high dropout rates of high school Latinos and African Americans in Oregon.

 
Here are some additional website links to gain further information regarding the education of Oregon's youth.
  • Education week provides readers with the latest happenings in the field of education today and in the past.
  • Educational law website provides current educational laws and reforms happening in our nation.
  • Stand For Children is an organization in Oregon committed to building a voice strong enough to give all children an opportunity to grow up healthy, educated and safe.
  • Tubman middle school is one example in Oregon of SEI's success to helping inner-city youth at a young age (SEI has many in-school programs at the elementary level).

To Contact Us:
James Newson
newson@hotmail.com
Elizabeth Dowrie
dowriee@ucs.orst.edu