About Me -- Idara Akpan

Greetings, all.

My name is Idara Akpan, and I was raised very close to the city of College Park, in Hyattsville, Maryland. I actually attended the closest high school to College Park which is Northwestern High School (yup, the one you pass on Adelphi Road if you're going to Target or the movie theaters). I come from a family of eight which includes my dad, my mom, four sisters, and a brother. My family is from Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, and our traditional language is Ibibio. This explains why I have a unique name which means joy in the Ibibio language.

This is my fourth year at the University of Maryland with a major in Special Education. My major is a combined bachelors in science and master's in education program. My greatest passion is to work in a field where I can better understand and help improve education equality, education curriculum and education policies. That is why I am so excited to be going to Chicago this Spring Break with ASB. Last year I had the opportunity to go to Gaston, North Carolina with Alternative Breaks where we volunteered at a school and learned more about the issues concerning rural education.

The article I chose, City Students Improve Test Scores, But Still Lag Significantly, comes from the HuffingtonPost Education section. I find this article especially helpful to read before our trip to Chicago because it discusses both the gains and setbacks faced by students from America's largest cities. Overall students in major cities have shown improvement in test scores, however, their results are still a great deal behind other students in the nation. Researchers are still looking to answer the question as to why larger cities face such a setback. It seems to be that because every city is different from the other, they must be treated as such; therefore, using the same researched-based strategies for one city's schools will not work for the other. For example, DC public schools have performed exceptionally well in the last few years but even though Boston had the same implementations and great teacher evaluations, they did not show much improvement.

I cannot wait to visit Chicago and get a hands on experience volunteering in an urban city school so I can see for myself how information is presented to them and how they interpret it. I also want to witness what effects living in a city with a large population can have on a students achievement in school.