Rising income and wealth inequality has eroded economic opportunity in America. The potential of education to overcome adversity and our collective belief in a fluid social structure continue to be hailed as evidence that everyone has access to a path out of poverty. Yet recent research findings make clear that our faith in the American Dream stands on very shaky ground. Indeed, it seems that our education system may be compounding, rather than countering, the disadvantages faced by millions of low-income children.
A recent New York Times article highlights the impact of growing economic stratification on achievement gaps in American schools. Citing the Russell Sage compendium Whither Opportunity?, the article explains how the overall increase in income inequality since the 1960s has had detrimental effects on the school performance and college completion rates of low-income students compared with their wealthier peers. This is backed by OECD and Pew Chartable Trusts findings that U.S. society is not only less mobile than most Americans believe, but less so than most of our Western counterparts.
Importantly, their research finds that student achievement in the United States is more closely linked to parental education and to socioeconomic status than is true in most European countries. Bestselling author Daniel Pink makes the point, too, in a recent blog post noting the tight correlation between family income and SAT scores.
While the heightened attention paid to education policy, exemplified by federal policies such as No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, is a positive signal that the public and policymakers are eager to address the problems at hand, many of the "reforms" miss the mark. Yes, education is a way out of poverty -- but poverty is also a hindrance to education.
As such, addressing in-school factors in a vacuum -- with no consideration of the problems facing the wider community -- cannot do enough to improve educational outcomes or to narrow the achievement gap between low-income students and their wealthier peers. This makes sense: English-language-learners with non-English-speaking parents are more likely to struggle academically than those whose parents can help them read in English or complete homework assignments, regardless of the quality of their teachers. Children whose parents cannot afford to enroll them in preschool during critical early years or in afterschool and summer programs face added barriers to educational attainment. A student whose physical health is compromised by food insecurity or who is stressed from living in a violent or degraded environment is set back academically in ways that even great teachers cannot fully counter. As Jean Anyon has noted, trying to reform inner-city schools without improving conditions in their cities is like cleaning the air on one side of a screen door.
This reality should serve as a clarion call for policymakers looking to make a difference in American education. Researchers and educators have identified an array of initiatives that can alleviate poverty-related gaps and successfully improve low-income students' educational outcomes. First and foremost are measures to increase family income and well-being through improved employment outcomes and public benefits. Quality preschool programs, school-based health clinics, nutritional support programs, and afterschool and summer enrichment have all been shown to narrow income-based achievement gaps.
School reformers must embrace and incorporate into their efforts policies to attack poverty directly. This adds to the challenges they face, but it is truly essential -- and certainly not impossible. Doing so will ensure that education is truly a path towards prosperity and an antidote to rising economic inequality.
Ami Fields-Meyer: A Weapon of Distraction and Numbness: Fighting Computers in Classrooms
Ivonne DÃaz-Claisse: The Time to Inspire Our Youth is Now
Bernard Starr: Free College Is the Answer to Our Higher Education Crisis
Why not invest in the three things that have been proven to produce positive, long-lasting results: quality pre-school, mandatory full-day Kindergarten, and class sizes of 20 or less. Just rolling out these programs should produce some positive results relatively quickly (since we seem to need some immediate gratification in results). One last thing. Education should be non-partisan - no political parties should have any more say than another. In the interests of all the people, all the people must be educated to participate in this noble experiment.
As educators, we need to recognize this problem and we must find a way to close the gaps or risk becoming an obsolete institution.
This is NOT true now. The children of the educated parents are placed in enriched environments from infancy, read to and played with intensively, and managed in relatively enriched and demanding environments from childhood throughout highschool. Indeed, going off to selective colleges is just continuing the managed environment these kids have been raised in and prepared for.
While it doesn't take on all kids, the intensive preparation shows. It is rather like the preparation for the magisterial exams used in classical China. Outside of well run boarding schools I don't see how any government program is going to level this field.
And yes, I am preparing my kids as efficiently as I can. My daughter, who will turn 15 in June, will be going to college (engineering and/or medicine) rather than going to 11th grade. With any luck, her younger brother will do so as well in a few years.