Income Inequality and Measuring Student Achievement - Essay Example

Controversy Income Inequality and Measuring Achievement Part INCOME INEQUALITY AND MEASURING STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT Introduction Research indicates that there is a strong correlation between income inequality and student achievement in school and their career life. From the inception of the US, the goals of education have been debated. Although opinions vary on what our educational goals should be, we still utilize a common way of assessing if a student is achieving these goals. The way we measure them currently is through test scores. All students, regardless, of their sex, ethnicity and socioeconomic status take the same test. Test scores are often used to place students in the next grade level, in a university of their choice or for employment purposes. The link between income inequality and student achievement proves there is an enormous gap in our education quality, which is continuing to grow. Ignoring this issue will only bring negative effects. In Arizona, the minority population is growing, and many stakeholders are concerned on how to accommodate these students. Some community members are concerned about their students all taking the same exams that they feel groups all students into one as if they are all equal. This educational goal, social mobility, would give each child an opportunity to succeed to the best of their ability (Antrop‐González, &De Jesús, 2006). Still, others feel that all students should take the same exams. This would show who is more qualified for opportunities beyond school. This opinion reflects on the goal of democratic equality, where educators prepare good citizens and select leaders throughout education. From a general perspective, one could say that both show equal treatment and education equality by distributing education equally throughout. If looked at more carefully we can start to see the differences. On the other hand, inequality entails treating all groups without discrimination in terms of the level of income, education level, gender, race, ethnic to mention just but a few. In addition, it involves ensuring people treat subject individuals with respect and dignity that they deserve without any form of discrimination (Valencia, 2005). Measuring students achievements and Income Inequality The study indicates income inequality exist among students. It is undisputable fact that the level of income among students has significant variations. Some students tend to come from reach families; other from middle income varies while others are from poor families. The income inequality tends to dictate the student’s achievement in school and their career. For instance, students who come from wealthy backgrounds tend have proper access to effective education. Their parents can afford to send them to good private school where they can obtain a good education. Students from wealthier families are more likely to have access to opportunities that will help them to achieve higher grades. The higher grades help them to get employment opportunities where they are highly paid. They tend to have higher achievements not only in their academic goals but also in their career and family lives as compared to students from low-income families (Murphy, 2009). On the other hand, research indicates that students from low-income families tend to face the challenge of accessing proper education. Most of the students from low-income families are to public schools where there are adequate learning materials. Majority of learners from families with low-income lack strong relationships with their teacher making it difficult to get proper education assistance. The reason is that, a teacher from most public schools may not be in a position to attend the large number of students in public schools individually. The impact is that the education received by students from low-income families in public schools is not efficient. In addition, students are unable to obtain higher grades in their national test/exams (Howard, 2008). The test is to all students irrespective of their social and economic backgrounds. Failure to achieve higher grades by students from low-income families is a direct determinant of their achievement. In most cases, students with poor grades may not be in a position to secure higher paying jobs. Numerous organization across the world are looking for students with higher grades who can solve their organization problems which in return denies students with low grades an opportunity to achieve their career success (Valencia, 2005). The difficulty in creating solutions for the gap between the income inequality and student achievement is that the opinions in the country are when coming up with educational goals. If our goal is to create good citizens and a few select leaders then we would need to keep giving students the same exams. It may help to determine which students stand out and have the potential to lead the nation. If our education goal is for everyone to succeed to their best ability than we need to make changes in the way we measure student achievement. Even without political changes, teachers and school leaders can still practice education equality in the classroom. Teachers can create individual goals for students so that they may perform at their ability level. Whatever your opinion on education is, we can all agree that there is an enormous gap in student achievement and income inequality (Berliner, 2013). As discussed earlier, the gap has continued to increase significantly over the years. For instance children that were born in 2001 and according to reports 25 years ago, the gap was between 30 to 40 percent - data gathered from the National Center for Statistics. Reardon (2011) indicated how the student’s achievement and income inequality gap might be. Reardon took into consideration the data a reports from various family groups. The groups involved were students from low-income families compared with those from higher income families relative to their achievement records. A standard deviation and variance applied in measuring whether there is a relationship between student’s achievement and income inequality and if there is the difference what was the variance. Among the core discoveries was that the student achievement variance remained constant for a given duration that allowed it easier to carry out the comparison. Among the elements measured was the average reading skills and family income among students from the two groups. As of 2008 at the 90th percentile, the income for one group was one hundred and sixty dollars while the remaining 10th percentile the income was seventeen thousand dollars and five hundred. The measurement indicates that there is a significant gap between students achievement income inequality between students from rich and humble backgrounds. Additionally, the gap in terms of student’s achievement and income inequality continued to increase significantly. For instance, the study indicated that the gap between students/children born in the year 2001 was at 75 percent. However, in 2001 the gap increased up to 90 percent. Such increase is a clear indication of how income inequality among students continues to escalate as time goes on (Reardon, 2011). Addressing income inequality The government, private institution and society should come together and establish how the inequality can be. The government should put in placed different measure addressed the problem of inequality that is affecting students achievements especially those who come from poor backgrounds. The government may create follow-up groups that will help in identifying students who are victim’s income inequality. Mentoring them and following up on their daily activities, as well as their progress in the different levels of their academic achievements (Elmore, 2000). Concerning the above, parents and society, in general, should find time to be with their children despite their tight working schedule. This is an efficient method of molding and mentoring their children behavior and growing cultures. Additionally, this also makes work easier for teachers in addressing the problems that are affecting their children to achieve the best results (Labaree, 1997). Discouraging discrimination is also another way addressing the inequality and enhances student’s achievements. The discrimination may be in terms gender, race or physical disabilities, and social status to mention just but a few. Rules that govern education equality especially in the public institution should be. Rules should apply to make sure that everyone would be treated and served equally according to their standards (Ladson-Billings, 2004). Religion should be lenient in some of its policies by adopting a modern perspective of the various dynamic and social issues. Injurious actions such as isolation and excommunication should be. Furthermore, rehabilitation centers could help to rehabilitate those enormously affected by the mention issues to ensure that students from all backgrounds seek assistance irrespective of their parents’ level of income (Selden, 2000). The government should also harmonize public and private schools to ensure that all students have equal competing chances. Private institution including financial institution like banks should help students from poor families to get the best education by sponsoring them. Through sponsoring students, such organization may help to reduce inequality problems and enhance student achieving. It may also be an act of corporate social responsibly (Larson & Murtadha, 2002).Part 2: summary Past studies depict that income inequality, which exists between students has significant influence on their performance (Labaree, 1997). Based on the summary findings, from past research, students from wealthy families have more opportunities as compared to those from middle class or poor families. These variations are part of the main influences of the students’ overall achievement and careers. Obviously, scholars from wealthy families acquire proper and efficient education with minimal challenges. The parents or guardians have the capability of admitting their children to private schools, which offer excellent education in terms of knowledge and skills. This increases the chances of such students attaining the highest grades in the final exams and gain entrance into the best universities. Studying at the big and established universities or colleges creates multiple employment opportunities with high salaries (Sean, 2011). Comparatively, students from low-income families experience many challenges in search of proper education because of the limited income among the parents. Definitely, with low income, parents are unable to take their children to excellent private schools hence most of them end up in public schools, which have sub-standard facilities and inadequate learning materials. The low-income aspect contributes to the limited interaction between students and teachers acting as a hindrance to proper education. The main cause of this is the constant increase in the number of students in public schools making it hard for individual evaluations or interactions for the teachers (Richard, 2009). These are among the direct and indirect influences on students from low-income families, particularly in public schools; naturally, it affects their overall performance for the national tests meant for all students. These examinations do not acknowledge the differences resulting from social and economic backgrounds, contrary to the equity and equality principles of education advocated by educators, institutions and the government. Evidently, poor grades from students in public schools because of the low income do not stand a chance against the well trained, resourceful and highly performing students from wealthy families anywhere, especially the job market (Greg, 2014). Even with sympathy and knowledge of their backgrounds, no organization would consider employing staff members with poor performance records; the high grades are the most prevalent in such situations because such students have full potential of performing even in the workplace. Income Inequality and Measuring Student Achievement in Local Context Over the years, analysts and Education Boards in the New Jersey show extended concern on the grades students attain in the national and international tests, relative to the local education system. Institutions in charge of education reformation raise this issue nationwide to show the significance of school policy alterations but with some school districts such as Edgemont Union Free School District in New York being highly ranked, New Jersey faces a greater challenge. Clark School District was among the few graded in New Jersey but never appeared in the 2014 rankings. However, the chief concern is the main causes of the poor performance in the tests and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development recently conducted a research to prove the income factor influences the students’ performance in a substantial way (Larry, 2013). The focus of OECD was the Program for International Student Assessment to show the variance in performance and the depth of the issue in the United States as compared to other countries. Initially, the main cause of the disparities was the race where black and Hispanic students performed as the poorest. However, over time, this changed and the main influence is the income gap, which causing the disparities in performance than race today. Definitely, every state and county has students performing poorly because of their position in the social class. In New Jersey, this is more prevalent because summary findings from the research show most of the students performing poorly come from families with relatively low income (Adebayo, 2012). On the hand, the wealthy students are better performers with better grades and above average test scores creating an urge to analyze the issue more. Additionally, the United States’ statistics show that the income gap does not influence achievement in class but also in extracurricular practices. Students from poor and middle-class families are reluctant to playing sports, campaigning for leadership positions among other activities that require extra contributions from the normal teaching (US Department of Education, 2013). On the other hand, students from wealthy families have increased graduation rates, university enrollment and completion because of their increased engagement in extracurricular activities. Concurrently, this is an important issue because the significance variation in counties such as Hudson and Cape May of New Jersey continues to increase every year causing more bottom and middle class students to perform poorly in the tests while the top class students increase their achievements and acquire higher grades in tests. Renowned educational institutions from highly ranked school districts in states such as Wyoming emphasize on the importance of the addressing the issue through research and reports on the rich-poor gaps in achievement and overall participation (Sean, 2013). Based on past outcomes, failure to address this particular controversy would result to increased disparities between school districts, counties and states. In New Jersey, it could be the main influence of societal divisions experienced in the 19th and 20th Century when there lacked equity among the social classes (Labaree, 1997). Definitely, this could affect overall development and excellence on all platforms with the wealthy and poor attending different school districts. On the other hand, addressing the issue could create a firm foundation for efficient learning and equal opportunities in education and employment platforms; moreover, other states and school districts could adopt these solutions helping counter the problem on a national level. Stakeholders Perspectives Education Boards - The most important (i.e., powerful) stakeholders are the education boards. The impact of income inequality is apparent to the education boards through the multiple studies, performance rankings and research on the influence of income in students’ performance. They acknowledge this issue and have made changes in the past to enhance equity and equality among students without the income inequality becoming a determining factor. However, the issue is still prevalent and the education boards believe the main challenges of addressing the controversy is its foundation requiring the overall approach to focus on each student (Richard, 2009). Moreover, the district schools in New Jersey have different practices, which the administrations are in control of hence determine the facilities offered in every school. Finally, before research on income inequality, the education boards’ focus was on disparities resulting from race, which took significant time to combat. Comparatively, income inequality lacks standard approaches to counter and the only way to find a solution will be after organization and comprehensive understanding between all stakeholders. Educators - Teachers continue to express their dismay over the poor performance among students for low and middle class families. At its initial prevalence, some of educators were skeptic about the influence of income inequality hence did not give much concern on the controversy. However, after significant studies and ample knowledge in the field the educators have made efforts to attract the attention of other stakeholders and depict the sensitivity of income equality. Typically, educators believe equity and equality entail giving every student equivalent chances and access to education in form of knowledge, skills and other performance determinants. Nonetheless, even with significant efforts to address the controversy the poor-rich gap continues to influence the students’ achievement, especially on national and international examinations (Martin, 2013). Public districts schools such as Absecon (attended by students from low-income families) and private schools such as Mahwah Township (students from wealthy families) have vast variations in the way they teach, amount of resources, attention given to each student among other obvious reasons. This makes the controversy hard to address for the educators, especially because of the number of students in public schools and the limited resources. Students – Definitely, students are the most affected by the controversy, especially those in public district schools. The private schools’ students or the wealthy show no concern on the matter because their performance is splendid and have excellent opportunities on all platforms. The public school students feel they compete in races they cannot win by taking the same tests with comrades from private schools that have everything and experience very few challenges while acquiring knowledge (Martin, 2013). Definitely, the students can do very little about their situation but they feel the education boards and the government bodies of education are overlooking the significance of the matter. Parents- Similar to their children, the parents, as potentially powerful stakeholder group, have not made their feelings known and their input is not part of any research or study on income inequality. However, this is a possible future opportunity for action; particularly even the low-income parents become bold to accept their situation and fight for their children as the main victims of the controversy. Connection to Purpose of Schooling Income inequality has always been a topic of discussion in most fields; however, in education the controversy has not been extensively prevalent until recently. All the same, its significance in the field relates with deeply held beliefs and disagreements about the fundamental purposes of schooling as indicated by history. Evidently, the performance of students from wealthy families in New Jersey has improved over the past three decades, especially in the national examinations. In the 1970s, students from wealthy families had almost similar standards with the middle class students hence the gap was minimal. However, low social class students were the most disadvantaged with multiple disparities between them and other classes (Sean, 2013). Today, the top class students perform extensively better than the other social classes. Relatively, affluence has also augmented over the years, which might contribute to the disparity in educational success. However, the growth in the income gap does not entirely cause the growth in performance gap because the test score from all social classes continue to increase. Moreover, the understanding and acquisition of knowledge is faster and efficient at an early age as compared to the 1970s. Definitely, the issues raised by the stakeholders have a rational basis and most of them aim at addressing the controversy. However, the education boards’ idea of miscommunication between the stakeholders reflects on the disagreements between most of these groups, which has been prevalent over the years (Andreas, 2014). For instance, educators might consult the education boards about the tests, who will not take the issue with the required significance. The flaws in the interactions emanate from the beliefs that educators are always looking for ways to benefit through the name of students. Typically, most of the stakeholder groups especially the education boards and the parents misconstrue the fundamental purposes of schooling and in most cases, the overlook their significance. Lastly, the parents cannot react to the controversy or fight for their children because of the belief the educators or other stakeholders will not take their complaints or claim seriously as a reiteration of the past. Decisively, most of the issues acting as hindrances to addressing the income inequity controversy deviate from the fundamental principles of schooling. Connection to Equal Educational Opportunity Definitely, the rich-poor gap relative to education continues to widen and children from wealthy families have more hope of succeeding than the middle and bottom class students. Mainly, the key issues experienced by the stakeholder groups contribute to this, particularly because they act as hindrances to addressing the main issue (UNESCO, 2012). The education boards acknowledge income inequality is a key issue promoting inequity and barricading excellence as part of the fundamental purposes of education. The issue of limited resources in public schools definitely advocates for equal opportunity among students. On the other hand, the national and international tests negatively influence the debate on equality hence the education boards and educational bodies should consider income inequality as a facilitator of education inequality (Berliner, 2013). The educators indicate the disparities in resources, levels of training and access to knowledge as the main facilitators of the education inequality. The students in public schools also support the educators because of their limited opportunities emanating from their positions in schools and the statures of their families. Roles of the Educators The educators, though not direct subjects of the income inequality play significant roles in educating and it is always a bad look when students consistently perform poorly in the tests. However, some of the issues hindering the addressing of the controversy reflect on the educators’ and school leaders’ roles (Andreas, 2014). The education boards point out the lack of sufficient knowledge on the matter due to limited communication. Clearly, the educators and school leaders have not put the necessary attention on the issue and the education boards have reciprocated the same. The educators are the most convenient position to point out the challenges experienced by the students and follow up the matters across those in power i.e. government education bodies etc. Potential Roles of Educators The educators might not be in a position to implement approaches for countering the controversy but could suggest ways or publish reports with ideas that could act as solutions. This would be an effectual way to play out their role in promoting equal education opportunity and counter the education boards’ issue on lacking a comprehensive solution. Moreover, the Annual General Meetings in schools could be excellent platforms for the educators to communicate to the parents about the income inequality controversy affecting their children. In fact, even during student appraisals, the educators can instigate the frequent interactions between the students and parents on such matters. This could facilitate the parents finding time to spend with them despite the tight schedules- an efficient method of molding and mentoring their children behavior and growing cultures (Shields, 2010). Additionally, it makes work easier for teachers in addressing the problems that are affecting their children to achieve the best results. Resolutely, the teachers could also counsel the students on ways to deal with the disparities, discernment or even discrimination from students in wealth families and at the same time, discourage such behavior. References Adebayo, A. (2012) Poverty, Income Inequality and Student Achievement: Issues of Great Important as an Economist, Retrieved from https://nikeadebayo.wordpress.com/poverty-income-inequality-student-achievement/ Andreas, A. (2014). Educational Opportunities and the Role of Institutions: Center for European Economic Research, ZEW, Retrieved from http://ftp.zew.de/pub/zew-docs/dp/dp0544.pdf Antrop‐González, R., & De Jesús, A. (2006). Toward a theory of critical care in urban small school reform: examining structures and pedagogies of caring in two Latino community‐based schools 1. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 19(4), 409-433. 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