Education Achievement Gap Research Paper

We live in a culture where success is increasingly defined by a paycheck and is seemingly as important to the parent as the child. Raising children to be “successful” is increasingly becoming an obsession for upper-middle-class-parents, who encourage certain activities and scores to provide their child with the best chances of attending elite schools. The article focuses on the inherent advantage upper-middle-class parents provide but fails to mention those who the parent’s action affects: their children.

Almost all the family incomes are over $100,000...The incomes in this school represent less than 1 percent of the families in the United States,” (256) compared to working-class families who earn incomes “at or below $12,000” (256). Anyon presents these examples to compare the backgrounds of each school and uses this as logos to persuasively reason her claim that quality of education is offered to people who can afford it. Public schools that working-class and middle-class families can afford do not offer the same education private schools that upper-class and capitalist families can afford. Wealthy children who are privileged get an advantage early on in their education career because they are able to afford better quality teachers and lessons. This varied quality of education found in curriculums is what creates the unequal divide between educated individuals in different social classes. An audience of scholars and teachers would be persuaded by this claim because Anyon’s data transparently shows the uneven distribution of resources and opportunity found in the social class schools.

How should society handle the perceived differences between races when it comes to education? The goal of both researchers is to narrow the academic gap between white and black students. Both authors attribute the gap between the academic scores of black and white students from opposite sides of racial identity. As Dr. Beverly Daniels Tatum, President of Spelman College and clinical psychologist has written an article entitled “Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” Her approach is from the perspective of the student and how they perceive their role and upper limits while maintaining their place in their peer group's expectations of their race. Dr. Diane Ravitch, a research professor of education at New York University, has written an article entitled "The Facts about the Achievement Gap.” Her approach is from the perspective of how schools and society implicitly or explicitly cast students into achievement tracks based on their race. Both approach the same idea about racial identity, but they have different solutions, such as peer groups, the school board, and who is right about the solution.

Are Black Americans Dumber than White Americans? Can it unequivocally be stated that European Americans hold more intelligence then African Americans? Are African Americans genetically wired to have a lesser mental capacity then European Americans? For a long time this was the explanation to a burning problem. African Americans score lower than White Americans on vocabulary, reading, and mathematics tests, as well as on tests that claim to measure scholastic aptitude and intelligence. “This gap appears before children enter kindergarten and it persists into adulthood. The typical American black still scores below 75 percent of American whites on most standardized

Income inequality plays a major role in the education disparity present in communities such as West Chelsea. The economic hardship several families experience affects the way a child grows up and the certain education they receive. As seen in Class Divide, more privileged children can attend schools such as The Avenues where they are given opportunities to grow and learn, while less privileged students are

The first public school in the United States opened in Boston in the year of 1821. By the end of the 19th century, public secondary schools began to outnumber private ones. Nevertheless, the education system started with many flaws. One of the biggest problems of the public educational system is that, although it gave the less advantaged an opportunity to learn, it did so in a segregated way. When we talk about the segregation of the past, everyone seems to agree that it was a real problem. However, when someone say the schools are still segregated today, many people (from advantaged social groups) would disagree. One thing to keep in mind is that, desegregation is not limited to having multiracial schools with students of color sitting next to white students. Desegregation goes beyond the school scope and family and community cultures also play an important role. To make things worse, the education system is having several problems on achieving its mission of preparing the youth to succeed personally and professionally. According to experts, the achievement gap shows how big those problems are. In order to understand why the achievement gap is related to today 's segregation, we need to understand what achievement gap is. The best definition of achievement gap, describes it as the difference in educational proficiency between students who come from high or middle class white families,

Amongst many social justice issues, educational inequity continues to dramatically affect the nation's youth in the long term. However, for some students the ability to access a quality primary education provided by public schools depends on the students socioeconomic bearing. The insufficient availability of essential resources, opportunities, and funding creates a hurdle to access a higher quality education. This reiterates that a higher education creates a step forward in the education system to close the achievement gap.

The racial achievement gap is a highly talked about issue within education in the United States. It refers to the differences in standardized test scores between black students and white students. Even though this issue is still prevalent today, it has improved greatly from the past. Ever since Brown v. Board of Education, where the supreme court ruled that it was unconstitutional for schools to be racially segregated, the racial achievement gap has become smaller. However, it still exists which has led many people to wonder why and design experiments to figure out what could be causing it. The racial achievement gap is a big issue because it shows that black students are falling behind in school which can lead to them not going to college or dropping out. It is also an issue because all students deserve to have an equal education and they should all have a chance to succeed in life. In order to fulfill equal education for everyone, the reasons for the achievement gap need to be found and fixed. Some people have already investigated independent variables that could impact the achievement gap such as personal faith, self-affirmation, and students schoolmates. However, not many experiments have been done to test the impact of unequal spending per pupil on the racial achievement gap. In this paper, an experiment will be designed to investigate the possible effects it has on the gap with a hypothesis that the unequal spending increases the achievement gap.

A widespread issue for Americans, the achievement gap is a significant inequality that young minorities face. Directly correlated with the societal injustices of poverty and racism, often resulting in limited opportunities and socioeconomic stagnation, the achievement gap encompasses the disparity in education performance of students by race and income. As the basic values of a democratic government include justice and liberty, it is imperative that a democracy and democratic citizens provide equal opportunity for all, especially in the realm of education.

The achievement gap is defined as the disparity between the performance groups of students, especially groups defined by gender, race/ethnicity, ability and socio-economic status. The achievement gap can be observed through a variety of measures including standardized test scores, grade point averages, drop out rates, college enrollment and completion rates. The Black-White achievement gap is a critical issue in modern society’s education system. Although data surrounding the issue clearly indicates that the racial performance gap exists in areas of standardized tests, graduation rates, dropout rates, and enrollment in continuing education, the causative reasons for the gap are ambiguous—therefore presenting a significant challenge in

“The socioeconomic achievement gap in education refers to the inequality in academic achievement between groups of students. The achievement gap shows up in grades, standardized test scores, course selection, dropout rates, and college-completion rates, among other success measures” (Ansell, 2017). Typically, when discussing the achievement gap, educators are comparing the academic progress of African-American students or Hispanic students to the progress of white students. More-often-than-not the white students will have more educational achievements than their non-white colleagues (Ansell, 2017). The most widely accepted theory as to why students with higher socioeconomic status (SES) do better academically is high parental involvement, access to economic resources and access to highly qualified teachers (Huang, 2015. Pg.6). Students of low socioeconomic status often live in poverty. This means that the student may not have sufficient school supplies or even someone at home to help him with his homework. There are numerous children in the United States’ school systems that are failing due to the achievement gap. These students are at a disadvantage because the school systems and teachers do not notice or even care about their home life and how it comes into play in their education. It is important for our nation to not only understand the achievement gap but take steps toward correcting it.

The resources available to an urban, lower income school are to be equal to those available to a suburban, higher income school. Two schools in New York, one from a wealthy school district and one from a poor district, were given computers. The State provided the same number of computers to each school, therefore claiming to evenly supporting each school. However, the school with the poorer children had a larger number of students; the nicer school had twice the number of computers in proportion to the number of their students (Kozol 84). It seems that the biggest factor keeping the children of lower income homes behind is the school funding available. The poorer school district does not have the money to spend on the things a wealthier district may, but there is no real evidence that spending money makes much difference in the outcome of a child's education. In many cases, family and background have a greater influence on how well a child does in school (Kozol 176-77). Richard Kahlenberg, a member of the Century Foundation, says, "Research findings and common sense tell us that the people who make up a school—the students, parents, and teachers—matter more (Lewis 648)

is through socioeconomic status. According to Sean Reardon, a main outcome of the widening income gap for families has been a widening gap in achievement among children, which he refers to as the income achievement gap (Reardon, 2011). Therefore, the children of the poor remain at an educational disadvantage when their parents’ income becomes as much of a predictor of their educational achievements, as their parents’ educational obtainment. To emphasize the results of the income achievement gap, Reardon states, “As the children of the rich do better in school, and those who do better in school are more likely to become rich, we risk producing an even more unequal and economically polarized society” (Reardon, 2011, p. 111). For example, as standardized testing shifted towards standardized achievement testing to determine a student’s academic achievement, parental investment in their children’s cognitive development began to increase. Educational disparities occur when affluent families can very easily afford tutoring outside of the classroom for their children to perform highly, while children being raised in impoverished homes are at a disadvantage, and at a lower chance of doing well on these exams. This becomes problematic when SAT reading, math, and writing scores increase with income as exemplified by the disproportionately small amount of minority students in higher education (Brand lecture,

In American education, there is overwhelming evidence that there is an achievement gap between groups of students. In other words, there are measurable differences in the educations and test scores of different groups of students. Some gaps exist between groups or differing gender or socioeconomic status, but the largest gaps exist between groups of different races. America has always been a country with an influx of different cultures through immigration. In schools, these cultures still remain separated. The most noticeable separation is probably that of White and African American students. Although the achievement gap between White and Black students is easily seen there are other clear gaps in the education of Latino and Asian American

Throughout the semester the readings and activities that we have done shaped me to be the kind of teacher I want to be in the future. Teachers need to know the different kind of theories that teachers need to know for their classrooms. In order to understand and direct our educational practices, we need to reflect on our own beliefs and understandings. As a teacher we need to examine the role of race in order to learn the cause that affects the achievement gap in the U.S. schools today. In today’s world we see many student face this achievement gap because of family, communities, and most importantly, it all starts of with having a relationship with their teachers. As a teacher we need to show interest in our students’ life. If we are more engaged in our students’ home lives and interests, we are going to understand and achieve great relationships. I