The "opportunity gap" in US public education -- and how to close it | Anindya Kundu

Reviewer: Intan Andini

Selepas lulus kuliah, saya bekerja sebagai peneliti akademis

di suatu pusat penahanan remaja terbesar di negeri ini.

My first job out of college was as an academic researcher

Tiap hari saya mengemudi ke kantor

di West Side, Chicago,

melewati pos pemeriksaan keamanan,

at one of the largest juvenile detention centers in the country.

lalu menyusuri lorong bata coklat menuju ruang bawah tanah

And every day I would drive to this building

on the West Side of Chicago,

untuk mengamati proses kedatangan.

go through the security checkpoint

Anak-anak yang masuk berusia sekitar 10 sampai 16 tahun,

and walk down these brown, brick hallways as I made my way down to the basement

biasanya berkulit hitam atau coklat,

kebanyakan dari area miskin Selatan dan Barat Chicago.

to observe the intake process.

The kids coming in were about 10 to 16 years old,

Mereka harusnya sudah kelas 5 sampai 10,

usually always black and brown,

tapi justru dibawa ke sini berminggu-minggu

most likely from the same impoverished South and West Sides of Chicago.

menunggu diadili atas tindak kejahatan.

They should've been in fifth to tenth grade,

Beberapa kembali ke pusat tahanan itu 14 kali sebelum berusia 15 tahun.

but instead they were here for weeks on end

Dan saat saya duduk di sisi lain cermin dari mereka,

awaiting trial for various crimes.

Some of them came back to the facility 14 times before their 15th birthday.

idealistis dengan gelar perguruan tinggi,

saya bertanya-tanya:

Kenapa sekolah tak mencegah ini terjadi?

And as I sat there on the other side of the glass from them,

idealistic with a college degree,

Sudah 10 tahun berlalu,

I wondered to myself:

dan saya masih memikirkan bagaimana anak-anak sampai ke universitas

Why didn't schools do something more to prevent this from happening?

sementara yang lain di pusat penahanan,

tanpa lagi memikirkan kemampuan sekolah memecahkan masalah ini.

It's been about 10 years since then,

and I still think about how some kids get tracked towards college

Saya mempelajari bahwa masalah-masalah ini begitu terstruktur,

and others towards detention,

but I no longer think about schools' abilities to solve these things.

di mana sistem pendidikan kita mengekalkan kesenjangan sosial.

You see, I've learned that so much of this problem is systemic

Memperburuk yang seharusnya diperbaiki.

that often our school system perpetuates the social divide.

Segila dan kontroversialnya

berkata sistem perawatan kesehatan kita bukanlah pencegahan

It makes worse what it's supposed to fix.

melainkan sumber uang yang menjaga kita tetap sakit ...

Ups.

That's as crazy or controversial

(Tawa)

as saying that our health care system isn't preventative

Saya sungguh percaya anak-anak bisa meraih hal besar

but somehow profits off of keeping us sick ...

terlepas rintangan yang mereka hadapi.

Faktanya, riset saya membuktikan itu.

oops.

(Laughter)

Tapi jika kita serius ingin membantu anak-anak itu

I truly do believe though that kids can achieve great things

despite the odds against them,

mendapat pencapaian dan berhasil,

and in fact, my own research shows that.

kita harus menyadari kesenjangan kita dalam pencapaian siswa

But if we're serious about helping more kids from across the board

bukanlah soal prestasi, melainkan kesempatan.

to achieve and make it in this world,

we're going to have to realize that our gaps in student outcomes

Laporan EdBuild 2019 menunjukkan

distrik bermayoritas kulit putih menerima 23 milyar dolar lebih

are not so much about achievement as much as they are about opportunity.

untuk dana tahunan dibanding distrik non-kulit putih,

A 2019 EdBuild report showed

meski jumlah siswanya sama.

that majority-white districts receive about 23 billion dollars more

Sekolah dengan sumber dana rendah fasilitasnya kurang memadai,

in annual funding than nonwhite districts,

ketinggalan teknologi,

dan gaji gurunya lebih kecil.

even though they serve about the same number of students.

Di sini, di New York,

Lower resource schools are dealing with lower quality equipment,

sekolah-sekolah itulah yang mau menerima

satu dari 10 siswa sekolah dasar

obsolete technology

yang malam ini tidur di penampungan tuna wisma.

and paying teachers way less.

Here in New York,

those are also the schools most likely to serve

Siswa, orang tua, dan guru menghadapi banyak hal.

the one in 10 elementary school students

Mereka juga kerap disalahkan.

who will most likely have to sleep in a homeless shelter tonight.

The student, parent and teacher are dealing with a lot.

Di Atlanta, kita tahu para guru depresi

demi membantu siswa mereka menyontek pada tes standar

Sometimes places are misplacing the blame back on them.

yang akan memengaruhi pendanaan mereka.

In Atlanta, we saw that teachers felt desperate enough

Karenanya, 8 guru dipenjara pada 2015

to have to help their students cheat on standardized tests

beberapa dihukum mencapai 20 tahun,

that would impact their funding.

lebih berat dari pembunuhan tingkat dua di banyak negara lain.

Eight of them went to jail for that in 2015

Nyatanya di tempat seperti Tulsa,

with some sentences as high as 20 years,

gaji guru sangat rendah

which is more than what many states give for second-degree murder.

sampai-sampai mereka harus ke pantri makanan

atau dapur umum untuk bisa makan.

The thing is though, in places like Tulsa,

Sistem sama juga menghukum orang tua yang menggunakan alamat kerabat mereka

teachers' pay has been so bad

that these people have had to go to food pantries

demi mengirim anak mereka ke sekolah yang lebih baik,

or soup kitchens just to feed themselves.

tapi entah berapa lama pihak berwenang menutup mata

The same system will criminalize a parent who will use a relative's address

terhadap mereka yang bisa menyuap

kampus-kampus perguruan tinggi yang elit dan bagus.

to send their child to a better school,

but for who knows how long authorities have turned a blind eye

Banyak yang terasa berat dikatakan --

to those who can bribe their way

dan berat didengar --

onto the most elite and beautiful college campuses.

karena tak banyak pembicaraan tentang ekonomi yang mencairkan suasana --

And a lot of this feels pretty heavy to be saying --

benar, kan?

and maybe to be hearing --

Saya tunjukkan berapa biaya

and since there's nothing quite like economics talk to lighten the mood --

jika kita gagal membuka potensi siswa kita.

Penelitian McKinsey menunjukkan jika pada 1998 kita berhasil

that's right, right?

Let me tell you about some of the costs

menutup kesenjangan pencapaian siswa yang telah lama ada

when we fail to tap into our students' potential.

antara siswa dari latar belakang etis berbeda

A McKinsey study showed that if in 1998

atau siswa dengan level pemasukan berbeda,

we could've closed our long-standing student achievement gaps

pada 2008, GDP kita --

keuntungan ekonomi kita yang belum dimanfaatkan --

between students of different ethnic backgrounds

akan naik mencapai lebih dari 500 milyar dolar.

or students of different income levels,

by 2008, our GDP --

Kesenjangan yang sama itu pada 2008,

antara siswa-siswa di AS dan seluruh dunia

our untapped economic gains --

could have gone up by more than 500 billion dollars.

telah melemahkan ekonomi kita

Those same gaps in 2008,

hingga 2,3 trilyun dolar output ekonomi.

between our students here in the US and those across the world,

Tapi di luar ekonomi, angka dan jumlah,

may have deprived our economy

of up to 2.3 trillion dollars of economic output.

ada alasan yang lebih sederhana dan penting,

alasan sederhana untuk memperbaiki sistem kita.

Ia adalah demokrasi yang sesungguhnya,

But beyond economics, numbers and figures,

yang kita bangga memilikinya --

I think there's a simpler reason that this matters,

dan kadang seharusnya begitu --

a simpler reason for fixing our system.

seharusnya masa depan anak tidak ditentukan

It's that in a true democracy,

oleh keadaan lahir mereka.

like the one we pride ourselves on having --

Sistem pendidikan umum tak seharusnya menciptakan lebih banyak kekurangan.

and sometimes rightfully so --

a child's future should not be predetermined

by the circumstances of their birth.

Sebagian kita mungkin merasa

A public education system should not create a wider bottom and more narrow top.

masalah-masalah ini jauh dari rumah kita,

tapi jika kita mau membuka mata,

merekalah keran bocor di dapur kita,

Some of us can sometimes think

pemanas rusak di ruang masuk kita,

that these things aren't that close to home,

kerusakan-kerusakan rumah yang selalu kita tunda perbaiki,

but they are if we broaden our view,

because a leaky faucet in our kitchen,

mengurangi nilai seluruh properti kita.

broken radiator in our hallway,

Dibanding mengabaikan solusi seperti privatisasi

those parts of the house that we always say we're going to get to next week,

atau gerakan sekolah swasta gratis untuk atasi masalah kita,

they're devaluing our whole property.

mengapa tak kita perhatikan pendidikan umum,

Instead of constantly looking away to solutions like privatization

cobalah lebih bangga dengannya

or the charter school movement to solve our problems,

dan menggunakannya untuk memperbaiki masalah-masalah sosial kita.

why don't we take a deeper look at public education,

Mengapa tak kita klaim kembali janji pendidikan umum

try to take more pride in it

and maybe use it to solve some of our social problems.

dan mengingatnya sebagai tanggung jawab bersama terbesar kita?

Why don't we try to reclaim the promise of public education

Untungnya beberapa komunitas melakukannya.

Para guru beraksi pada musim semi 2019 di Denver dan LA --

and remember that it's our greatest collective responsibility?

Luckily some of our communities are doing just that.

mereka berhasil karena dukungan masyarakat

The huge teacher strikes in the spring of 2019 in Denver and LA --

untuk hal kecil seperti ukuran kelas,

dan meminta lebih banyak konselor di sekolah

they were successful because of community support

ditambah gaji guru.

Dan kadang bagi siswa,

for things like smaller class sizes

inovasi adalah keberanian menerapkan akal sehat.

and getting things into schools like more counselors

in addition to teacher pay.

Di Baltimore bertahun lalu,

mereka adakan program sarapan dan makan siang gratis,

And sometimes for the student,

innovation is just daring to implement common sense.

menghilangkan stigma kemiskinan dan kelaparan

bagi para siswa

In Baltimore a few years ago,

tapi meningkatkan pencapaian kehadiran bagi banyak yang lain.

they enacted a free breakfast and lunch program,

Dan di Memphis,

taking away the stigma of poverty and hunger

universitas menerima siswa menengah setempat yang bersemangat,

for some students

but increasing achievement in attendance for many others.

dan memberi mereka beasiswa untuk mengajar di pusat kota

tanpa beban hutang biaya kuliah.

And in Memphis,

the university is recruiting local, passionate high school students

Utara dari sini di The Bronx,

baru-baru ini saya meneliti kemitraan tengah dibangun

and giving them scholarships to go teach in the inner city

antar sekolah menengah, komunitas kampus, dan bisnis lokal

without the burden of college debt.

yang adakan magang di bidang keuangan, perawatan kesehatan, dan teknologi

And north of here in The Bronx,

I recently researched these partnerships being built

between high schools, community colleges and local businesses

bagi siswa tanpa koneksi "kelas atas"

untuk meraih keterampilan penting

who are creating internships in finance, health care and technology

dan berkontribusi bagi komunitas tempat asal mereka.

for students without "silver spoon" connections

Hari ini saya tak perlu punya pertanyaan sama tentang pendidikan yang

to gain important skills

and contribute to the communities that they come from.

saya punya dulu saat masih idealistis, barangkali lulusan universitas naif

So today I don't necessarily have the same questions about education

yang bekerja di pusat penahanan remaja.

Ini bukan: Bisakan sekolah menyelamatkan lebih banyak siswa kita?

that I did when I was an idealistic, perhaps naïve college grad

Karena saya pikir kita harus menjawabnya --

working in a detention center basement.

ya, mereka bisa, jika pertama-tama kita selamatkan sekolah kita dulu.

It's not: Can schools save more of our students?

Kita bisa mulai dengan memperhatikan pendidikan anak-anak orang lain ...

Because I think we have the answer to that --

and it's yes they can, if we save our schools first.

Saya berkata sebagai seseorang yang belum punya anak,

We can start by caring about the education of other people's children ...

tapi mengharapkan masa depan lebih baik saat saya menjadi orang tua.

Menumbuhkan bakat sebanyak mungkin,

And I'm saying that as someone who doesn't have kids yet

menarik sebanyak mungkin anak perempuan dari seluruh bidang

but wants to worry a little bit less about the future when I do.

ilmu pengetahuan dan teknik,

sebanyak kita menarik anak-anak laki-laki menjadi guru --

Cultivating as much talent as possible,

getting as many girls as we can from all over

itulah investasi untuk masa depan kita.

into science and engineering,

Para siswa kita ibarat sumber daya yang berharga,

as many boys as we can into teaching --

dan saat kita menganggapnya begitu,

those are investments for our future.

Para guru ibarat penambang emas dan berlian modern kita,

Our students are like our most valuable resource,

berharap membuat para siswa bersinar.

Mari menyumbang suara kita,

and when you put it that way,

hak pilih dan dukungan kita

our teachers are like our modern-day diamond and gold miners,

untuk memberi mereka sumber daya yang mereka butuhkan

hoping to help make them shine.

tak hanya untuk bertahan

Let's contribute our voices,

tapi semoga berhasil,

our votes and our support

memungkinkan kita semua melakukannya juga.

to giving them the resources that they will need

Terima kasih.

not just to survive

(Tepuk tangan dan sorakan)

but hopefully thrive,

allowing all of us to do so as well.

Thank you.

(Applause and cheers)