The United States of America is comprised of billions of individuals from various backgrounds. Immigrating from a multitude of countries, cities, and continents, the U.S. is the most diverse country in the world. With the historic livelihood of the United States having a melting pot motto, comes a variety of cultural practices displayed on a daily basis. From life in the one's home, how one communicates, to what one eats, drinks, or wears, culture is displayed in many fashions and affects each individual constantly. Depending on the culture of each individual, along with many other factors, the pathway to America's definition of success is no longer plausible. In the matters of American success, this looks like reaching higher education in order to become a great CEO, lawyer, politician, doctor and so on and so forth. Looking into the educational atmosphere, culture is rarely mentioned. How then can one reach this idea of success if the main aspect of an individual getting there is shadowed under the control of the elite?.
For people not in this elite realm, education is a feat in and of itself. Often seen, there is an achievement gap dividing the educational achievement between majority White America and people of color. The achievement gap according to Gloria Ladson-Billings, "refers to the disparities in standardized test scores between Black and White, Latinoa/o and White, and recent immigrant and White students" (Ladson-Billings, 2006, p.1). As the achievement gap continues to steadily stay the same, those Black, Latina/o, and recent immigrant students are already lagging behind in the race to the top of the achievement ladder. .
In education, the achievement gap is seen as having life due to a multitude of factors. In this paper, I aim to discuss how the absence of addressing culture in the school system further defers the closing of the achievement gap. As the demographics in the United States are becoming more diverse, class and culture in the classrooms needs to be addressed in correlation to curriculum and teaching methods.
