Perhaps explaining this phenomenon, The Motley Monk would surmise, is that achievement on the part of the nation's Black youth has been rising, especially as suburbs have grown increasingly desegregated and Black youth are attending better schools. That's good news for Black youth in that they are becoming better prepared for college, one of the best indicators of future success.
Concurrently, achievement on the part of White youth has been declining, as White youth appear to be focusing less on academic achievement and more on other areas of interest. That could be bad news for White youth as they may be pursuing a pathway that will decrease the odds of future success. Time till tell.
But, as good as this news of the closing of the race gap is, the New York Times reports some bad news: The achievement gap between children of high-income families and low-income families has grown significantly during the same years.
The New York Times article cites studies indicating that:
- The gap in standardized test scores between affluent and low-income students has grown by ~40% since the 1960s.
- The imbalance between rich and poor children in college completion has grown by ~50% since the late 1980s.
Why this increase?
Much of it apparently has to do with financial resources:
- Before age 6, children of the wealthy spend 1.3k more hours in places other than their homes, their day care centers, or schools than do low-income children.
- By the time high-income children start school, they have spent about 400 hours more than poor children in literacy activities.
- Wealthy parents spend 9 times as much money/child as do low-income parents.
What are the demographic facts about those children of low-income parents?
Children Under 18 Living in Poverty, 2010 | ||
| Category |
Number (in thousands)
|
Percent
|
| All children under 18 |
16, 401
|
22.0
|
| White only, non-Hispanic |
5,002
|
12.4
|
| Black |
4,817
|
38.2
|
| Hispanic |
6,110
|
35.0
|
| Asian |
547
|
13.6
|
As these 2010 census data indicate, 22% of the nation's children live in poverty. If the research is accurate, they will have a more difficult time achieving academically and to the degree that academic achievement correlates with future income, 1-in-5 of the nation's children will have a challenging, if not difficult future.
More important may be the increase in the nation's Hispanic population and its poverty rate, suggesting that the income gap may be widening for Hispanics and these children will have an especially challenging, if not difficult future.
Let the discussion begin...
To read the New York Times article, click on the following link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/10/education/education-gap-grows-between-rich-and-poor-studies-show.html?_r=2&ref=todayspaper
400 hours on literacy activities should not be impacted by affluence. What it stands for is parental care and interaction with your child. It does not take money to read a book -- I started reading to my children as infants - lying on the floor and holding books above us to show them pictures and tell stories. Books and literacy programs are available free at libraries year-round.
ReplyDeleteI did not read the attached NYT article, however the performance of low-income children may more likely be a societal problem. How old where their parents when they were born, and what significance is placed on the value of education by their parents. Often, low-income children have parents who have dropped out of school, and are often just kids themselves when they have children. There are resources out there (especially!) for low-income children if their parents, or teachers, care enough to look for and promote opportunties for them.
I am also not overly impressed by time spent in daycare. So, low-income parents who actually parent their own children and expose them to appropriate learning opportunities most likely have the high-performing low-income children in the standardized tests. Money is not always the answer, but love and support for your child are!
The research is clear: the traditional, nuclear family provides the best predictor of educational achievement. While there is some discrepancy about whether that is true across racial and economic lines, there is plenty of evidence that parental support, encouragement, and challenge to children is, generally speaking, absolutely essential for academic achievement.
ReplyDeleteAnd it makes sense: Whether rich or poor or White, Black, Hispanic, or Asian, a child whose parents value education and expect their child to do the same is more likely to achieve academically than one whose parents don't. Where there is modeling---for example, parents who read---the effect appears to be stronger.
It all comes down to a fundamental principle of Catholic education: "The parent is the child's first and best teacher." In this sense, teachers support parents in their endeavors, they don't replace parents.