The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

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Perceptions of School
Perceptions of school are examined in this section. Racial problems, grades,
college expectations and future goals are discussed with white, black, Hispanic and
Native American youth. Treatment by the teachers is evaluated in the self reports.
Although most of the youth in the self reports thought teachers treated blacks and
whites the same, more blacks thought they were treated differently (65 percent of the
whites said blacks and whites were always treated the same, while only 41 percent of the
blacks felt this way). Only 6 percent of the whites thought teachers never treat blacks and
whites the same, compared to 23 percent for the blacks. The rest (36 percent of the
blacks, 29 percent of the whites) said sometimes (Tables 7, 8).
The interviews conducted with the Woodbury county youth basically reflect the
same results as the self reports. However, it should be noted that the white youth either do
not go to school in areas where there is a high minority population or they are not
exposed to any problems with racial discrimination. Several of the youth stated that there
were only “two or three blacks” in their high school or that there were “no blacks” at all.
Given this information, it is difficult to speculate on racial problems in the schools. The
few that did say they were in school with blacks and other minorities felt that all students
were treated the same. The white youth had not witnessed different treatment towards
blacks. Whites believed that teachers were fair and gave equal treatment to all.
The Hispanic youth concur with the whites in their views of equal treatment in the
school. There was only once instance where a youth felt somewhat discriminated against