Reading, writing, math, science, and other skills learned in school are instrumental for a child to have in order to be successful both in higher education and in life. Many factors contribute to a student’s acquisition of these skills such as their learning environment, preschool education, mental and emotional development, parental involvement, and dedication to learning. The issue that many young children are facing, however, is that all of these factors can be greatly influenced by the Socioeconomic Status (SES) of their family. Unfortunately, up until recently it was virtually unknown how teachers could help these “at risk” children, which caused an increase in the likelihood of children dropping out of school or repeating a grade. However, it is now becoming clear that there are ways that educators can help ensure children have successful academic careers and lead better lives.
Support from parents has proven to be of extreme importance in the literacy success of a child. This often begins with the simple ritual of “bedtime stories” in the home. Studies show that children who are read to as infants perform better in literacy later in life. From a young age, children begin to understand the workings of the written word if they are exposed to it frequently. Babies who are nowhere near having the mental capacity to read and comprehend a book are still able to “follow along” when their parents or caregivers read to them. These children understand that each segment of writing represents a word and they are even able to recognize when a text is upside-down because they are accustomed to the appearance of writing. This puts the child significantly ahead when the time comes to learn to read.
Unfortunately for many children who com...
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...nomic Backgrounds. Deakin, Australia: Deakin University.
Howard, T., Dresser, S., & Dunklee, D. (2009). Poverty is not a Learning Disability. Poverty Is NOT a Learning Disability:Equalizing Opportunities for Low SES Students (p. 20). Thousand Oaks: Corwin.
Lee, V. E., & Burkam, D. T. (2002). Inequality at the starting gate: social background differences in achievement as children begin school. Washington, D.C.: Economic Policy Institute.
New, R. S., & Cochran, M. (2007). Socioeconomic Status. Early childhood education: an international encyclopedia (p. 749). Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers.
Rose, M. (1989). Lives on the boundary: the struggles and achievements of America's underprepared. New York: Free Press.
Stigler, J. W., & Hiebert, J. (1999). The teaching gap: best ideas from the world's teachers for improving education in the classroom. New York: Free Press.
America’s children have found increasing difficulty with school. The curriculum in schools is claiming to be harder in higher levels, but the lack of focus and direction in the younger grades has made for decreased grade levels and lower mastery in several basic areas such as math, writing, and reading skills. Standardized test scores are at an all time low, as increasing amounts of children progress through the educational system having not at...
Mike Rose’s Lives on the Boundary is an Educational Autobiography. The book begins at the beginning of his life and we follow him up into his adult years. The book focuses on the “struggles and achievements of America’s educationally underprepared” .
Besides race, the scholar also reveals how childhoods are unequal based on social class. Drawing from the American society, there are several social classes. For each class, there are unique pathways of lives followed and these usually influence both the educational and work outcomes. To ...
Meyers, M.K. & Gornick, J.C. (2003). Public or private responsibility? Early childhood education and care, inequality, and the welfare state. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 34, 379-411.
Allhusen, V., Belsky, J., Booth-LaForce, C., Bradley, R., Brownell, C. A., Burchinal, M., & ... Weinraub, M. (2005). Duration and Developmental Timing of Poverty and Children's Cognitive and Social Development from Birth Through Third Grade. Child Development, 76(4), 795-810. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2005.00878.x
School funding is systemically unequal, partially because the majority of school funding comes from the school district’s local property taxes, positioning the poorest communities at the bottom rung of the education playing field. A student’s socioeconomic status often defines her success in a classroom for a number of reasons. Students who live below the poverty line have less motivation to succeed, and their parents are less inclined to participate in their child’s education, often because the parents cannot provide support for their children. Although it’s logical that school districts from poorer communities cannot collect as much funding as the richer communities, persons stuck in these low-income communities often pay higher taxes, and still their school dis...
Low-SES children frequently live in highly stressful and disadvantaged school environments characterized by multiple risk factors for the development of psychosocial adjustment problems, including high rates of poverty, exposure to violence, and drug use (Jones & Forehand, 2003). There are alot of different programs that can be used for these students, for example mentoring programs in which school personnel provide social support for low-SES students, it has been shown that mentoring can increase positive attitudes toward school and a ce positive behavior changes of students (Richman, Rosenfield, & Bowen, 1998). Counselors should use different interventions and programs to help these students become more involved in school.
The authors describe the differences between relative and absolute poverty and how poverty correlates with education. When thinking of education and poverty, educators need to consider that not all students will have access to the technology that you would like them to. While this is true, poverty can be more than economical. It also includes, poor nutrition and health, poor home conditions, unstable home life, and prejudices. A lack of education can lead to this poverty, and a student’s parents’ views on education can affect how their child values theirs. Poverty can also lead gifted students to not reach their full potential, for impoverished students do not always have the same opportunities as their peers. Less poverty, often times,
Tests measuring students’ achievement demonstrate that particular groups of students score far below students of other groups. Records indicate that the discrepancy in the academic dominance of certain groups over other groups is strongly associated with socio-economic status, with lower achieving students typically hailing from increased poverty-stricken backgrounds. While poverty is exclusive to no one particular ethnicity, it exists in disproportionately high rates among Hispanic and Black communities and their students. The root of this gap in educational achievement has been shown to be multi-faceted, with origins undoubtedly dating back centuries (EdSource, 2003).
For years, people have been trying to figure out ways to equalize the divergent academic achievement rates between rich and poor children. A study published by the Kaiser Family Foundation in 2010 found that, since the late 90’s when they first started monitoring over 2,000 children, media
National Center for Children in Poverty. Early childhood education. n.d. - n.d. - n.d. Retrieved 08 2010, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Early_childhood_education&oldid=377988928. Erikson’s Stages of Development. a.
Gamoran, Adam. "American Schooling and Educational Inequality: A Forecast for the 21st Century." American Sociological Assocation. JSTOR, 2001. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.
Living in poverty exposes children to disadvantages that influence many aspects in their life that are linked to their ability to do well in school. In the United States of America there are an estimated 16.4 million children under the age of 18 living in poverty (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). “The longer a child lives in poverty, the lower the educational attainment” (Kerbo, 2012). Children who are raised in low-income households are at risk of failing out before graduating high school (Black & Engle, 2008). U.S. children living in poverty face obstacles that interfere with their educational achievement. Recognizing the problems of living in poverty can help people reduce the consequences that prevent children from reaching their educational potential.
Richmond, Paulette Natasha. "Wealth and Achievement Gaps: An Examination of Virginia Middle Schools." Ph.D. Old Dominion University, 2007. Print. United States – Virginia.
Socioeconomic status can be defined in terms of family wealth and assets as well as educational background. For this reason, many comparisons can be made between socioeconomic status and education. Furthermore, academic achievement and the level of education reached by an individual, is determined by socioeconomic status. Research has shown that environmental circumstances and family issues greatly influence a child's future because the impact of the socioeconomic status depends on the level to which an individual becomes successful in life. Research also shows that family conditions can impact a child’s education and their quality of life. For example, being raised in a high-economic culture increases the chances that a child will attend