Information Beans: Anna Jackson

Anna Jackson makes an imaginary circle in the air with her finger as she explains how she perceives the ups and downs of life.

“We feel great when we are at the top,” Jackson said as her finger slowly creeps downward, “but eventually things are going to be hard and we hit rock-bottom. Then we have to pick ourselves up again.”

Why was she saying this? It was part of her response to a problem that has plagued American education for decades: the academic achievement gap among African American, Latino, and American Indian students. Studies have shown for years that these students have shown significantly lower math, vocabulary, and reading scores than white students upon entering school.

“It’s not new, it’s existed for a long time,” Jackson said. “And it’s more than a gap; it’s a huge problem that is plaguing our education system.”

Jackson taught at Carbondale Community High School and has been teaching in Southern Illinois University’s English Department for 15 years. She is a stern woman who will point a firm finger at her students, but breaks into a smile that lights up a classroom. Her style is in no way threatening, but she demands respect.

Jackson’s small office is packed with shelves of teaching guides and multicultural books. She has everything from antique teapots to a Pittsburgh Steelers helmet. She also has many portraits of famous African American leaders and pictures of her family. In each of these pictures, Jackson is wearing traditional African garments with a modern spin.

She also has various teaching awards scattered about the room. She has been recognized at local, state, and national levels, most notably winning a National Educator’s Award from the Milken Family Foundation. Jackson was recognized for advocating multiculturalism in her teaching methods and encouraging students to read and study with their parents.

Jackson believes fixing the education gap has to start in the homes.

“Parents don’t read to their kids,” Jackson said. “I am prone to believe that a lack of exposure may be the cause.”

Environmental factors have been cited as the gap’s major problem, most reputably in the Hart-Risley 30-Million Word Gap Study. The study investigated children that came from professional, working class, and welfare families. The results found that 3-year-olds with professional parents had a vocabulary twice as large as children from families on welfare.

A similar study, conducted by Valerie E. Lee and David T. Burkam of the University of Michigan, showed kindergarten students in the highest socioeconomic group had cognitive scores 60 percent higher than those of the lowest group.

These kinds of studies lead many, including Jackson, to believe poor economic conditions are a major cause of the gap. According to studies, these conditions are jointly associated with race and ethnicity.

Jackson said that it has become a problem in Carbondale as well.

“Carbondale Community High School had 60 percent of its African American students fail the reading component of the state testing, and 70 percent failed math,” Jackson said.

This statistic was discovered by Voices of Illinois Children, an organization aimed at helping children lead better lives in Illinois. Jackson is a board member of VIC.

The organization studied schools throughout the state and concluded the lack of resources among financially inferior districts is leading to the academic gap.

In an article by The Southern, VIC revealed the results of their studies. Some districts, it noted, will spend up to $20,000 per student, while poorer districts can spend as low as $7,500 per student. Jackson believes these numbers reflect the resources children will get at their schools.

“Imagine your teacher tells you to turn to chapter five of your algebra book and it’s missing the first eight pages,” Jackson said with wide eyes and a hard stare. “Or imagine that you’re in chemistry class and you didn’t have the right equipment to do the experiment. Just think; use common sense.”

Jackson acknowledges economic conditions can only explain so much, and that some blame must go to the teachers themselves.

Throughout her teaching career, Jackson has seen teachers become consumed by the pressures of state testing and what their students should study.

“Teachers rush their assignments as opposed to actually teaching the students,” Jackson said.
“Soon you have to recognize that it has become a responsibility of the education system to fix the problem.”

Jackson also cites tracking as becoming a major problem in schools. Tracking, also known as ability grouping, is putting students together based on test scores.

“Kids get put in slower classes and can never get out,” Jackson said.

So with all of these problems looming, will the gap ever be filled?

“You’re not going to immediately close it off,” Jackson said. “You have to work every day.”

And that is what Jackson will do.