Annotated Bibliography Reflection
Throughout my research process so far, I have learned a lot of new information about how children in low income areas and poor school districts do not have access to the same quality education that wealthier districts have. I found a lot of information specific to my community, St. Louis, Missouri, and the general issue as a whole throughout the country. I found the sources specific to St. Louis schools to be the most helpful to be used in my paper. I learned about past education reform attempts and where they went wrong, and how this mistake has even furthered the problem. For example, I always have thought charter schools were benefiting the education system, but instead that they are destroying public schooling systems and putting way more children at extreme disadvantages. Knowing that this reform approach failed in the past will help me better understand solutions that would be a better option to look into. After researching further, I think a solution I want to talk about would be adding and supporting more nonprofit organizations that would help disadvantaged students. I also found new information on how the funding of St. Louis city schools has declined in recent years compared to county districts and the rest of Missouri, and more about who is behind these decisions. One of my sources included data that will help my argument that students in these schools have a lower chance of success in higher education and employment simply based on their socioeconomic situation.
My current stance on this topic remains the same as before, however now with a different approach. I still believe it is unfair that low income students don’t have access to quality education. I hoped my solution could be just to change the funding system, however, that isn’t something easily done. Therefore, as we work towards the process of improving the funding system, we will need to come together as a community to help these children succeed. At first, I based a lot of my research into the money portion, when there are so many other problems I’ve found within the education system: systematic racism, underqualified teachers, unsupported children, lack of resources, property taxing, etc. This is when my topic somewhat shifted to how socioeconomics and race affect education in St. Louis. Researching how nonprofits have helped in the past, I think creating more and supporting them will be the best way to help schools in low income areas, as they benefit both students and teachers. This is why I added a valuable source that goes into how nonprofit organizations help shape schools and provides detailed information about many specific organizations. As of now, I have not removed any sources because I think each has valuable information; however, some may overlap content and not be used in my final essay. With the emotions and statistics in my credible sources, I will utilize ethos, logos, and pathos to help make strong arguments in my essay. There is definitely room for improvement that should be taking action in public education, and I hope to further explore solutions to accomplish this.
Annotations
“About.” Ready Readers, https://www.readyreaders.org/
our-story/.
Armon, William J. “The Paradox of Impoverished Missouri Schools: The School Districts in Missouri That Need More Often Get Less.” University of Missouri- St. Louis, 2016.
This resource is extremely credible. It is a dissertation from the University of Missouri, St. Louis, so it is both high quality research and relevant to my community. It is a long dissertation, but it provides a lot of relevant and current information that will be useful in my project, including topics on government funding, educational resources, academic achievement and performance, etc. It also includes the factors of race and poverty which are definitely a perspective on the issue that I will use in my paper. This source is especially useful because it is focused specifically on the community in which I am focusing on, while making comparisons to national education and state education.
Duncan, Greg J., et al. “Reforming Preschools and Schools.” Academic Pediatrics, vol. 16, no. 3, 4 June 2016, doi:10.1016/j.acap.2015.12.003.
This resource is a peer-reviewed academic journal article that focuses on strategies to improve the issue of underfunded schools. It is relevant to my topic and recent, with information to prove that all authors involved are credible. The article will be useful for my project because it demonstrates what has worked and hasn’t worked in education reform and makes comparisons to academic achievement between schools in poor areas and wealthier schools. Another key point the source makes is how necessary and quality resources have an effect on academic performance, which is a point I plan to make in my project. While it is not specific to the issue in my community, I think it is a credible source that can provide more general information and knowledge. This also gives me an opportunity to compare the problem in St. Louis to schools in other big cities around the country.
East St. Louis Senior High School: Students, Illinois Report Card, 2020, www.illinoisreportcard.com/School.aspx?
source=studentcharacteristics&Schoolid=500821890220043. Accessed 21 Sept 2021.
This source gave really interesting and specific information regarding the statistics of enrollment, absenteeism, drop outs, academic achievements, etc of a specific high school in East St. Louis. I think it will be a very useful source because you can compare this school and district’s scores to state averages and other specific schools in wealthier districts. The statistics and use of logos will really help make some points about how the poorer districts’ lack of quality education and resources does really have an impact on their futures. Because it is an entire website, there is no information on authors, but overall it seems like a credible government source that has recent data, and I am excited to explore the information.
Haider, Agha. “About Us.” Edu Collab, https://www.educollaborative.org/about.
MacEwan, Arthur. “Has Neoliberalism Underfunded Schools?” Dollars & Sense, no. 351, Nov. 2020, pp. 33–36. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/
login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ip&db=f5h&AN=147472370&site=eds-live&scope=site. Accessed 21 Sept 2021.
This is a peer-reviewed article found from the Miami University Library that is both relevant and recent, as it was published within the past year. This article is different from my other sources because it reflects more on how the demand for school funding has grown over the time. It gives a lot of data about how teacher salaries have decreased and how this might affect a lower-earning teacher’s motivation to perform to the highest degree. This information can help support my solution on how nonprofits can help teachers in low income schools as well. It also touches on the difference of wealthy districts’ per-student spending vs poor districts, which can range up to $10,000. I think this article will provide me with some good information for my paper.
McFarland, Joel, et al. The Condition of Education 2019 (NCES 2019-144). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Educational Statistics, May 2019. nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/
2019144.pdf. Accessed 21 Sept 2021.
This source comes from the National Center for Education Statistics. It is the most recent federal report and covers a ton of relevant information. It separates statistics for schools by race, socioeconomic level, school type, finances, etc. and gives information on achievement, resources, funding, and many other factors that I will be discussing in my paper. It shows some good information about student success differences based on their families’ income and whether or not they could afford all of the necessary resources. I think this source, judged on credibility and content, will be one of my most useful sources in this project. There is an abundance of information; I just need to find the right statistics that are most relevant to my topic and use logos to create the strongest arguments.
Strauss, Valerie, and Jeff Bryant. “Analysis | The Sad Story of Public Education in St. Louis.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 7 Sept. 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/09/07/the-sad-story-of-public-education-in-st-louis/.
This source is a story on a news article, The Washington Post, but written about schools in St Louis. It seems to be a credible source considering its relevance, recency, and the author’s involvement in several educational funding movements. It demonstrates how the history and segregation of the city by race has impacted the quality of schools between rich and poor areas today. Along with the race statistics, it also shows how funding policies have changed and how St. Louis districts are funded way less than the rest of Missouri schools. Like another of my sources, this article also runs through the process of how past strategies for education reform only hurt school funding and made the education system worse. It covered a lot of new topics that I found very interesting and useful.
Teasley, Martell. “School Social Workers and Urban Education Reform with African American Children and Youth: Realities, Advocacy, and Strategies for Change.” School Community Journal, vol. 14, no. 2, Fall/Winter 2004, pp. 19–38. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=16302002&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
This resource is a peer reviewed academic journal that checks off many credibility boxes. Although it was published in 2004, I still think it has relevant information for my paper. For instance, it talks about all of the past approaches to education reform, which will help me further break down the solution: what will and won’t work. What is different in this source is that it is generalized to public education throughout the nation. The source also has a socioeconomic perspective to the topic, focusing on how the mediocre schools in urban areas mainly affect black children, which would definitely be worth mentioning in my paper. It is my only source that suggests improving education through training of school social workers. Well trained school social workers can really make a difference in their impact in schools and the academic success of children in low income schools.
“Top Education Nonprofit Organizations Helping SHAPE Schools, Students & Teachers.” Education Nonprofit Organizations Shape Schools Worldwide | American University, School of Education Online Programs, 20 Dec. 2019, soeonline.american.edu/blog/education-nonprofit-organizations.
This is a great resource that has a lot of information about nonprofit organizations, a potential solution of mine. The source seems reliable, being a .edu website with an extensive about page that explains their purpose. The source is recent and relevant to my solution, however, there is no author listed. They have an “about faculty” page that shows all of the authors of articles on this website are highly credible, so it is interesting that they don’t show who wrote the article. The source argues that nonprofits help shape schools, teachers, and students in low income areas, while also explaining their role and giving extensive examples of nonprofits and what they do. They use facts, numbers, and well researched data to support their arguments. This source is different from the rest of my sources, but will be a great addition to my paper providing information about my solution.
Ultican, Thomas. “St. Louis Public Education Theft Accelerates.” Tultican, 2 Jan. 2021, tultican.com/2020/12/30/st-louis-public-education-theft-accelerates/.
This blog is a recent study within the past year that is focussed on issues within schools in the St. Louis community. I think this is a great source for my paper because it provides very new and relevant information compared to my other sources. It gives insight to past and current government financial decisions and how they have affected these schools and students. The closing of underfunded and under-enrolled schools, meant to improve youth education in St. Louis, is actually only furthering achievement gaps and putting more kids at disadvantage. It gives a lot of facts and statistics, so I think it’s a credible and relevant source that will be of great use.
A Note From the Editor — Megan Schoetter
Lauren Tuhro’s Annotated Bibliography from Erin Goff-Mitchell’s ENG 111 class is a strong example for Rhethawk readers. In her entries, Tuhro clearly shows how her sources are current, relevant, and accurate, which boosts her ethos as a researcher. Tuhro also articulates how each source may contribute to her proposal argument, including details about the rhetorical strategies she will use. This is an excellent approach to prepare for drafting the proposal argument.