AchievementAchievement
D
uring her
pre-pandemic
years at Pali,
Parys Hamil-
ton, a Black senior, began her
day around 5 a.m. She walked
from her dad’s house in Ingle-
wood to the bus stop, where
she started her two-bus-and-
one-train commute to school.
With classes from 7:50 a.m. to 2
p.m. and extra curricular activ-
ities after that, Hamilton typi-
cally returned home at 6 p.m..
Virtual learning changed ev-
erything, and not for the better.
Her new schedule is al-
most unrecognizable as she
spends her day attending
Zoom classes and completing
assignments online while of-
ten, simultaneously, watchingher younger siblings or work-
ing the front desk of her dad’s
store. As a result of these ob-
stacles and the startling tran-
sition to an entirely unfamiliar
learning format, Hamilton
has been struggling academ-
ically more than ever before.
According to the Jus-
tice Union, Hamilton’s ex-
perience is not uncommon.
No credit rates in math
increased 34 percent from fall
2019 to fall 2020 among Black
and Latinx students, accord-
ing to the Justice Union’s aca-
demic achievement gap study.
The Justice Union is a col-
lection of student representa-
tives from all of Pali’s student
unions, such as Black Student
Union, Human Rights Watch,and Latinx Student Union.
The group’s research un-
earthed a disproportionate
number of Black and Latinx
students failing courses overall,
especially in ninth grade. Ac-
cording to the data, the number
of Black ninth grade students
earning a D or no credit acrossall academic subjects surged
since the pandemic began.
Hamilton said her biggest
challenge has been with com-
pleting her math coursework.
She was initially taking geom-
etry in 11th grade, however,
with the switch to eLearning in
March of 2020, she said that “itIllustration by Philip VenkovThe number of Black
ninth grade students
earning a D or no credit
across all academic
subjects surged since
the pandemic began.
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