The Achievement Gap between the Rich and the Poor - Essay Example

The Achievement Gap between the Rich and the Poor According to Reardon, since the 1966 Coleman report was the first report to famously highlight the existing relationship between student achievement and the family socioeconomic status. Family socioeconomic characteristics have been noted to continue being among some of the stronger student achievement predictors. However, although there is a relatively large amount of research that has continually sought to try and better understand this relationship, there is still some relatively strong debate and disagreement pertaining to the actual mechanisms and causes of this relationship (19). Reardon points out that most of the scholarly research that has been conducted on the socioeconomic achievement gradient has mostly been focused on attempts to try and understand mechanisms via which some of the factors like parental educational attainment, investments, school quality, family structure parental preferences, choices and neighborhood conditions eventually contribute to the existing differences in children’s educational and academic success. However, there is relatively little that is currently known pertaining to the various socioeconomic achievement gaps over relatively lengthy time periods (19). In answer to the question of whether the achievement gap between children living in low and high – income families has widened in a similar fashion to the manner in which income inequality has over the years precipitated a rise a widening in the gap between low and high income families, Reardon (20), provides the definite answer of indeed there has been a widening in this gap and goes on to further point out that this achievement gap between children from low and high-income families is seen to be larger by an estimated 40 percent among children that happen to be born in 2001 as compared to those that were born about twenty-five years earlier. This position is further strengthened by Tavernise (2012) who points out that although education has for historically been considered to be a relatively great equalizer across the American Society, due to its innate capability of adequately uplifting some of the less advantaged students by contributing towards the improvement of their chances for success as adults: There have been a number of recently published scholarly articles whose research suggest that the existing achievement gap between poor and rich children is gradually widening in a rather troubling development that is critically threatening to eventually dilute education’s potent leveling effects. Tavernise (2012), highlights that it is well-known that children that happen to come from the more affluent families eventually tend to do better in school. However, despite this fact, Tavernise argues that the income divide has continued to receive relatively far less attention from the various government officials and policy makers as compared to the attention that gaps in student accomplishment by race continues to receive. This stance is seen to be supported by Ladd and Fiske (2011) ,who are keen to point out that although there exists no serious disputes to the fact that students from the more disadvantaged households generally tend to perform relatively less poor at school as compared to their peers who happen to be hailing from some of the more advantaged households, it is quite concerning that as opposed to policy makers attempting to address this situation, they have mistakenly continued to reason that as they are evidently quite unable to effectively change the backgrounds of students, they should effectively try and focus on those things which they find themselves able to effectively control. Current Government Policies Attempting to Narrow Achievement Gaps Several policies such as the No child Left Behind policy that was initially implemented by George W Bush, as part of the country’s educational law is an example of a policy where the law makers were seen to attempt to try and essentially focus on what they could be able to easily control. However, one of the marked characteristics of this policy is that it ended up setting a raft of what have variously been described as being unrealistically high – and evidently ultimately self – defeating – expectations aimed at all the different schools in the country. Following in the same trend, the policies instigated by President Obama have seen to mainly concentrate on attempts at trying to make the schools to become more efficient via employing a number of tools such as the judging of the performance of teachers by their students general performance in their test scores and the encouraging of competition between the different schools via promotion and eventual creation of charter schools. Ladd and Fiske point out that in relation to these moves, the lesson that easily comes to one’s mind is that of the proverbial story of the drunk man who happened to be busy looking for his keys under the lamppost (2011). Designing Interventions to Help Narrow Achievement Gaps Outside of Schools According to Ladd and Fiske (2011), recent times have seen the emergence of a relatively large body of research that has served to show just how poor nutrition and health have actively contributed to the inhibition of child learning and development. The research has also served to help in pointing out just how high-quality preschool and early childhood education can be designed so as to properly enhance these aspects. Ladd and Fiske are keen to point out that as a result of the large volume of research, we now already understand the importance of early exposure by children to rich language has to their future cognition development. The research has also greatly aided in the establishment of the fact that low-income students often tend to experience greater degrees of learning loss while they are on their summer breaks as compared to some of their more privileged peers who tend to enjoy travels and a number of other enriching activities during these breaks. As a result of the numerous challenges that are seen to face the challenge of effectively tackling poverty itself, it is advisable that policy-makers in the education sector try to formulate policies that will serve to provide various students with the necessary experiences and social support that are seen to more commonly be enjoyed by the middle-class students (Ladd & Fiske 2011). Successful Implementation of Policies Narrowing Achievement Gaps Outside Schools There have been a number of different and quite successful programs that have implemented over the years to help in the effective tackling of the issues pertaining to the narrowing of achievement gaps. These include the East Durham Children’s Initiative in North Carolina. That has attempted to try and replicate the successes achieved by Geoffrey Canada in the Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ) which is commonly touted as being perhaps the most ambitious social experiment designed to try and effectually alleviate poverty during our time. The Harlem Children’s Zone is seen to be an area in Harlem, New York that essentially covers a zone of about 97-blocks. The zone is designed to try and combine a diverse web of community services that help to provide children with a supportive and positive social environment outside schools from the time they are born until their eventual college graduation, with the no excuses charter schools program. Will and Fryer, point out that the program has resulted in the provision of improved life trajectories to the children as evidenced by the suggested 7.9 to 10.2 percent possible increase in earnings and the 10.2 to 15.4 positive decrease in the children’s probability in having a health disability as well as a 2.3to 3.1 percent decrease in the student’s probability of committing either a violent or property crime (26). Success has also been achieved by Syracuse N.Y. Say Yes to Education program that seeks to further enhance access to summer camps and afterschool programs while placing social workers in schools. The Omaha Building Bright Futures program is seen to help in sponsoring school-based health centers that serve to offer a variety of enrichment and mentoring services to children while the Boston based Citizen Schools which works by recruiting volunteers form across seen states and engage them in sharing their various skills and interests with some of the middle-school students. It should be noted that while the Obama administration, Promise Neighborhoods program is quite a welcome step and is seen to try and support initiatives and programs such as these, it is nevertheless critically underfunded and it is necessary for more funds to be availed to the program so as to help increase its effectiveness by enabling it to be able to provide more support to these programs. Conclusion Depending on how interventions outside schools serve to stimulate a child’s early life conditions, it is possible to design policies that will effectively narrow the current somewhat unacceptably large achievement gaps between not only children coming from the poor and well-off families but also those seen to exist across the various races. While the current government policies aiming to focus on ensuring that children have access to the best quality school, teachers and principals that are governed by high standard policies and practices; it is also critically important for policy makers to formulate a number of key policies providing disadvantaged children with, appropriately suitable environments, financial support and access to these good schools so as to attain the key objective of narrowing the achievement gaps. Works Cited Dobbie, Will and Roland G. Fryer (2011). "Are High-Quality Schools Enough to Increase Achievement among the Poor? Evidence from the Harlem Children's Zone." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 3(3), pp. 158–87. Ladd and Fiske (2011). “Class Matters. Why don’t we admit it?” New York Times. December 11, 2011. Reardon, Sean F. (2011). “The Widening Academic Achievement Gap between Rich and Poor: New Evidence and Possible Explanations.” In G. Duncan and R.J. Murnane, eds., Wither Opportunity? Rising Inequality, Schools, and Children’s Life Chances (Russell Sage Foundation), pp. 91-115 Tavernise, Sabrina (2012). “Education Gap Grows Between Rich and Poor, Studies Say.” New York Times. Read More