How Inequality in Wealth Reflects Educational Achievement in the US - Literature review Example

How Inequality in Wealth Reflects Educational Achievement in the U.S. According to different a wide range of factors thatinfluence the performance of individuals determines achievements in education. This discussion primarily focuses on George Farkas’ review, “The black-white test score gap”, Christopher Jencks’s, “Does Inequality matter”, and Grace Kao and Jennifer Thompson’s, “Racial and Ethnic Stratification in Educational Achievement and Attainment”, on how inequality in wealth reflects educational achievement in the United States. In his review, Jenks argues wealth determines academic prosperity while Kao and Thompson present a number of factors that come together to influence the degree of an individual’s academic achievement. Inequality is a broad subject that can be related to different themes across varying agendas, but in this paper, this term is going to be used in reference to how wealth influences educational achievements in the United States. The education standards in the U.S. can be defined along many demographic parameters, but according to reviews by authors who are going to be considered, in this paper, the most prominent factors that affect education attainment in the United States is race, ethnicity, social economic background and citizenship status. This paper compares and contrasts the three authors’ different views, and opinions on what contributes to the disparaging gaps witnessed and evidenced by various researches and studies carried out to establish the cause of this disparity. Different authors have diverse views on the real causes of disparity. Therefore, this paper is going to use the authors’ different perspectives to improve the understanding of how inequality affects academic achievement in the U.S. Wealth in most societies across the globe is measured using material possessions like money, property and net worth. Wealth translates into status or class in society of which in today’s modern world, there exists the upper class or the rich, the middle class and lower class or the poor. These three levels significantly influence an individual’s way of life from what they eat, wear and their residential area. It also determines their lifestyle, which it can be comfortable, simple or difficult depending on how much money they have. In today’s world, money is everything even to those who do not believe in its power finds it being a necessary concession to their survival. The modern society is significantly controlled by parameters that are gauged on the level of education that an individual has achieved. This implies that the more educational qualifications that one has, the more their chances of success in life increase and vice versa. According to Jenks, educational achievement is determined by an individual’s wealth status. He brings out the notion that a higher social status, which is mostly brought about by having a lot of money guarantees a better and more successful educational attainment (Morgan, 2005). He attributes this to the fact that wealth enables students gain access to better educational facilities and materials where there are more qualified instructors. He further argues that students who come from financially stable backgrounds have better chances of going to better colleges than those who come from poor families. According to Jenks, rich students get the opportunity to go to 4-year colleges, which are more prestigious and fit the class of the rich compared to poor students who are more likely to attend 2-year community colleges because they are less prestigious and affordable. Unlike Jencks, Farkas considers race to be the most influential factor in determining success in education because the black-white test score gap affects the way the white people bring up their children, which is also different from the way black people bring up their children. He attributes this difference to the dissimilarity witnessed by the two race’s performance in academics. His review elicits the notion that white people are superior to black people even in controlled settings. He says that for black people to be at par with white people, they will have to change and improve the way their children are brought up, and the preschool preparation they give to children must be aimed at encouraging them to learn new words, forms and shapes and promote mathematical ability. According to Farkas, there is always bias among the teachers, but even when this is controlled, black students still seem to lag behind white children. These two authors have significant divergent perceptions about what influences academic achievement. However, Farkas’ reasoning seems more bias than Jencks’ because he claims whites are generally inclined towards greater academic performance than blacks are. He bases his arguments on the difference in parenting methods of which, in his conclusion does not seem to explain the test gap, which exists between white and black children even after the parentage factor has been accounted for in an evaluation. Unlike Farkas, Jenks’ views have a bit of substance because it is true that, with wealth, all the best educational facilities are at an individual’s disposal while a person who has limited financial resources cannot access the same materials as a rich person would. This can explain the gap that exists between the rich and the poor in terms of education achievement without basing it on racial or ethnic parameters. Financial prosperity is to a small extent, influenced by an individual’s race or ethnicity, but it is not the most crucial factor because other parameters like talent, skill, hard work and educational qualification play significant roles in shaping a person’s financial status or well being (Morgan, 2005). Kao and Thompson in their review, racial and ethnic stratification in educational attainment and achievement, offer the most dynamic, and plausible explanations that influence the attainment and achievement in education. They forward the motion that race, ethnicity and citizenship status have significant roles to play in a child’s educational progress just as Farkas suggests in his review. However, their argument is more dynamic, and it considers a number of other parameters that combine to give a clearer picture of situations and events that lead to disparities between different races and ethnicities (Morgan, 2005). This is contrary to Farkas’ perception who describes race superiority difference without explaining or giving his opinion on the causes of these disparities, apart from race, which he fails to give a credible argument that supports his notion. On the other hand, Kao and Thompson break up their support for the race argument into ethnicity, race and immigrant status or type of citizenship. When comparing blacks and whites, they claim that there is no significant difference between the two races or even all the races if they are all given the same situations and conditions. They also bring up the issue of culture as a determining factor because there are some cultures like those of Asians, which place emphasis on education and the prestige it bestows an individual in their society. The manner in which a society portrays education has a significant impact on its members and how they perceive education. The social economic status (SES) of parents is also a key influence on academic attainment and achievement as suggested by Jencks, but in Kao and Thompson’s review, race, ethnicity and citizenship status have some bearing on SES of parents (Morgan, 2005). According to Kao and Thompson, black people have a history of discrimination. These anger and frustration are then transferred from parents to their children who, in turn, manifest it in school by intentionally failing to perform well academically since they associate excelling in academics with white people, and those blacks who do excel in school are accused of imitating white’s lifestyle. All of this is attributed to stereotyping that goes on in society. On the other hand, Kao and Thompson accredit the disparity in performance between Hispanics from South and Central America to parentage and immigrant status. There exists a variation in ambition and aspiration among U.S. born immigrants and those born out of the U.S. Those born outside the US have greater academic ambitions and perform better than those who are born in the U.S. (Morgan, 2005). Farkas, Kao and Thompson all agree that parentage is a factor that influences educational achievement, but Kao and Thompson’s theory is not dependent on race, but on the academic qualifications of the parents. They illustrate this through a study that there exists a difference in the development of a child’s vocabulary depending on the parent’s profession or social status, which in Farkas’ argument, is determined by race. This agrees with Jencks’ notion of wealth being an all-determining factor, but in their case, the SES parameter also comes into play, which to some extent is predisposed to race and ethnicity. The SES of parents predisposes children to bias or unbiased situations that eventual contribute to child’s overall achievements in education (Morgan, 2005). Asian immigrants, in Kao and Thompson’s review, seem to be best performers with respect to academic achievement and attainment. This is because their population has the highest proportion of at least one parent possessing a college degree, which indicates that a parent’s educational status has a significant impact on their children’s aspirations of wanting to be like their parents who recognize as their role models and motivators (Morgan, 2005). Comparing these numbers with those of Hispanics, both immigrant and native there is a significant difference between these groups because, in the Hispanic community, less than 50% of both or one parents hold a college degree (Morgan, 2005). This shows that most Hispanic children require motivation to aspire for higher educational standards, and this has to come from outside their homes. In conclusion, educational attainment and achievements is affected by a myriad of factors, but no single parameter can be attributed to determine or influence the disparities that exist in the educational sector solely. Race, ethnicity and citizenship status all come together to create phenomenon that affects how educational standards are implemented and realized. The greatest factors that govern academic prosperity all depend upon an individual’s perception about academics. Reference Morgan S. L. (2005). On The Edge Of Commitment: Educational Attainment And Race In The United States. Studies in Social Sciences. Illustrated Annoted Edition. Stanford University Press, 2005. Read More