Changing Attitudes: Congressional Rhetoric, Race, and Educational Inequalities

Public education in the United States has undergone numerous changes with the onset of No Child Left Behind. Through an analysis of Congressional rhetoric regarding public school in the context of racial equality, three terms emerge as reoccurring concepts that drive discussions on contemporary educational conversations: narrowing the gap, disadvantaged students, and accountability. Jennifer Richert has designed this study to determine whether the way politicians in U.S. Congress use these terms have racial undertones that ultimately work to maintain a culture of minority oppression. This study opens with an introduction describing her personal interest, followed with an extensive literature review regarding educational inequality. It then moves into an analysis of the three key terms: narrowing the gap, disadvantaged students, and accountability through the lens of Critical Race Theory. Richert calls on a nation to self-reflect and to re-examine the future of education in the context of race.