Brown v Board of Education Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Brown v Board of Education - Research Paper Example Thus, public schools could achieve only limited success in integration of white and black students in desegregated schools. A study involving six communities and schools reveals that educators tried to convince the middle class white parents and students for desegregation so as to prevent them from moving out which would make the public schools economically unviable. At the same time, black students were often asked to leave their community schools by offering them bus facilities and such actions resulted in the closure of those black schools. (Wells, Holmes and Revilla). The policy makers tried to bring about color blindness in toto. It was to some extent achieved as stated by the authors â€Å"†¦.when several of the districts and schools we studied had seen a great deal of racial tension and even â€Å"rioting†. By the late 70s, a degree of clam had returned; not talking about race seemed the best way to â€Å"keep the peace† and â€Å"to keep the lid on things † (Wells, Holmes and Revilla 13). Major Claim   A Prejudice and unequal treatment Although schools were desegregated and students of color and whites started attending the same public schools, the administration put the black students in separate class rooms within the same schools. Their needs were often ignored (Wells, Holmes and Revilla). African Americans are over represented in special education The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)3 provides for free public education to students with disabilities. This special education efforts call for initiatives on the part of schools to have appropriate procedures to ensure that a child referred for special education is actually a child with... The paper tells that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) provides for free public education to students with disabilities. This special education efforts call for initiatives on the part of schools to have appropriate procedures to ensure that a child referred for special education is actually a child with disability requiring special education. It is often the case that wrong cases of children are referred for special education. It is especially the case with African American students in many districts of the country. This results in a disproportionate representation of group membership for special education. Overrepresentation in special education is said to occur when the membership of a particular group, say African Americans is found to be larger than the percentage of that group in the overall educational system or within a given disability group. Such a variance is a cause for concern (Council For Exceptional Children and Black School Education). It has been contended that disproportionate representation of African American students in special education results due to inadequate/wrong allocation of educational resources, wrongful curriculum and pedagogy, and insufficient teacher preparation. The White privilege and racism is charged with referring disproportionate number of African American students for special education categories such as mental retardation and learning disabilities. Such students once labeled as such tend to show results in achievement gains and come out of special education at rates much higher than those of their counterparts in White students with disabilities.

Isotopes in archeology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Isotopes in archeology - Essay Example Isotopes are classified into two groups, stable or unstable isotopes, stable isotopes are considered such because of the non-dynamic nature of their proton neutron relationship they do not disintegrate or decay, while unstable isotopes, on the other hand, are known as radioactive isotopes. They are characterized by an unstable proton-neutron combination, in the process of decaying; they emit various types of radiation such as gamma, beta, and alpha, depending on the creation process, ranging from Cosmogenic, to radioactive isotopes. Both classes of isotopes have a wide range of uses in various disciplines such as medicine, agriculture, and geology just to mention a few. This paper focuses on the uses of isotopes in archeology and examines the various uses of isotopes in archeological research, their advantages disadvantages, and alternative techniques. Radio carbon dating One of the most essential functions or radioisotopes is in the determination of the age of archeological especial ly the remains of once living organism which could have died thousands of years ago. This has been used to back up written and historical data in a range of disciplines such as history, evolution and religion. ... The archeologists hence measure the ratio of carbon in the organisms and compare it to the radioactivity of carbon 14 left in the organism (Van der Merwe, 1982). In this way, scientists have been able to determine, and with considerable success, the ages of many plants and animal matter that have been excavated in archeological sites. The main advantage of carbon 14 dating is that is economical, and when done properly after considering all the factors involved, it can produce results that are very accurate. However, it has got some limitations in that if the subject being aged has been in existence for over 50,000 years, it begins to lose accuracy since the carbon isotopes become too small for effective measurement. Besides, environmental changes due to natural or man-made courses such as atomic bombs and nuclear testing has varied the amounts of carbon in the atmosphere making it difficult to come up with accurate results (Van der Merwe, 1982). A new method is, however, being develo ped AMS (accelerator mass spectrometry) to counterman these short comings since it can derive more accurate dates from smaller samples of carbon for radio carbon dating. Determination of Geological location Using Strontium (Sr), which is an isotope found in human bones, archeologists can determine the geographical history of humans i.e. where past civilizations have been, their migration and settlement pasts and patterns can be deduced form these isotopes (Bentley, 2006). The strontium isotopes are ideal for this since they act like geochemical signatures, the body takes up the isotopes from the soil through the consumption of plant or animals which have consumed the same plants. The strontium hence embeds itself into the local food chain and substitutes some of calcium in the