The Most Critical Educational Problem Impacting Urban America - Term Paper Example

Poverty leads to social disorganization, which is reflected by formal and informal institutional breakdown. This makes it impossible for adults to direct and oversee the activities and conduct of children as well as observe their social development. Students from these African communities score significantly lower in literacy assessment tests compared to their white counterparts of the same level probably due to their unfortunate circumstances. High unemployment levels also make prioritization of provision of basic necessities over education with students lacking the resources and finances to continue with their education to their desired levels.

Poverty leads to high rates of school dropout due to crime, drug abuse, teenage pregnancies, sexual molestation, and bullying and poor education standards in schools. Furthermore, many poor African American families lack good role models. This is especially prevalent for girls who lack influential women role models in the education fraternity with very few African women in administrative positions in the education sector. This denies them the support of their accomplished women from the same background, who can understand their situation and can readily offer them the necessary support.

In America, public schools are mandated to provide education for every child, but they have failed to meet the wants of the various diverse urban students in America due to overstretched resources and ineffective education strategies. African American students score significantly lower grades than students from other racial communities on reading achievements (Jacobson et al. 37). These poor performances may be caused by family and social backgrounds, and the nature and quality of education predominantly black communities are exposed to (Flowers, 425).

It is common for African American students to be denied full access to literacy based learning opportunities due to poor student attitude and behavior limiting their participation in educational programs that instructs on more advanced literacy instruction (Gilmore 114). This is chiefly due to poor student attitudes and behavior, which predominantly makes them fail their assessment tests making it hard for them to advance in education despite possessing high intellectual capacity. Poverty and social disorganization may also have caused poor early language development in African American that directly affects later reading achievements (Craig, Conner & Washington 43), which does not increase significantly for these students in high and middle school levels (Harris 82).

Poor early language development may be caused by the poor environment majority of urban African American students live in, which characteristically have limited infrastructure and social services. They also receive poor care and upbringing from infancy as their parents have limited time for them due to overriding economic demands for their families. With limited accomplished academicians and professionals in their neighborhoods, African American children develop low interest and motivation to study, and most are focused in schemes that bring money quickly such as crime and drug peddling.

Poverty is a critical problem affecting education in urban America. Concentrated poverty in any specific region leads