Low Income Student Achievement

Carol S. Dweck's article “Brainology – Transforming Student's Motivation to Learn” offers insights about student's mentality at school and why some students are better off than others. The article claims directly that students generally have two mindsets when it comes to learning; one is “fixed mindset,” a negative trait, and the other is “growth mindset,” a positive trait. Both of these traits contradict each other in terms of meaning. These two mindsets impact students on whether or not they will be successful on their academic road. In “Brainology – Transforming Student's Motivation to Learn,” Dweck explains how these two traits influence the outcome of having one of these two mindsets through

If the education system relies most of their funding from taxes, where do they end up getting the rest of the money. The government and administration grant more money to wealthier areas than low -income areas. Wealthier communities are granted more money because they have a higher percentage of funding coming from property taxes. This leaves the low-income students at a disadvantage. People living in low income areas mainly rent and don’t own their own property. As a result of not having a house or owning property, they have little property taxes. If low -income students are not given enough money for funding a school, the students are suffering. With the lack of money causes students to miss out on college prep classes such as AP classes and Honors classes. These classes are pivotal to the students that want to pursue higher education and a road to success. For example students in the low-income areas are given a poor education. They are not given the resources, or quality teachers in order to achieve success. According to George Miller House Education and the Workforce committee, many students are not educationally ready to graduate and attend higher education (Minority 1). This is another reason why low income students should be provided the same classes as a middle class or a wealthier community. In a study, 2 million students in 7,300 schools had no access to all calculus classes, a staple in many high – achieving high schools (Minority 2). Low-income

Basically, individuals with a fixed mindset often feel measured by a failure, sometimes permanently. Unfortunately, failed attempts are viewed as a label rather than an opportunity to plan a new path of succes. On the other hand, an individual with a growth mindset views a failed attempt as an opportunity to take action, to confront obstacles, to keep up with their schoolwork, and/or to better manage and organize their time. Growth mindset individuals believe that qualities can be developed, expanded, and eventually result in a successful outcome. A second lesson learned is the power of labels and the stereotype of ability; this lesson is undoubtedly one of the most enlightening. Dweck discovered in one of her studies that, “... ability praise often pushed students right into a fixed mindset, and they showed all the signs of it too. When we gave them a choice, they rejected a challenging new task that they could learn from. They didn’t want to do anything that could expose their flaws and call into question their talent” (72). One’s mindset determines their reaction to labels and stereotypes. An individual with a fixed mindset will settle for a positive label and chose stagnation and permanent inferiority rather than risk losing the label; whereas,

Students from low-income and first generation backgrounds often struggle in different academic subjects. Subsequently, students have lower expectations for themselves when it comes to academic achievement. The majority of first generation students come from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Seeing that, families work countless hours in factories and other places where they are underpaid because of the lack of educational opportunity they experienced themselves. According to Blackwell and Pinder (2014) in the United States higher education is becoming the outlet to different avenues of opportunity whether it is through social mobility or economic progress. While screening out possible topics of interest for a research proposal, one of the challenges I encountered in my field experience was the lack of college access education and funding for the families in the urban high schools. The first generation student family typically is unaware of the college process because the student’s parents have not attended an institution of higher education. Therefore, the students cannot count on their knowledge of the process. Eventually, when students reach the financial aid process it becomes difficult because parents usually cannot afford full tuition expenses and at the same time do not understand the process. In these situations, schools with a college going culture can prepare staff to provide extra support to students by developing professional training in college access, mentorship

Poverty leads to insufficient opportunities, especially in college education. For instance, according to U.S. Department of Education, students who do not enter college or drop out of their classes are “predominantly persons from low-income families.” In support of this argument, the article states that “only 21 percent of those with family income of less than $25,000 were highly qualified for admission at a four-year institution” compared to the 56 percent of students with family income above $75,000. Therefore, students with bad economic conditions struggle with attending university even after entering it. The problem is that the African Americans race gets the harshest disadvantage from their poor economic conditions. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services publishes that almost 40 percent of African Americans under 18 are below the national poverty line, which is three-times higher than their white counterparts. This explicitly proves that unequal economic conditions are the main reason for inequality in education; African Americans are the most disadvantaged. Furthermore, the correlation between poor economic conditions and a lack of education among African Americans creates a chain of inequality. The poor economic backgrounds of African Americans obstruct their children from attending colleges and subsequently, the lack of higher education makes

The issue that surrounds low-income students and college success is that the rich kids are holding them back. The students who have low income are not graduating at the rate of the rich kids who can afford school. The rich kids tend to get a better knowledge in school because of their money. The poor students are not given the equal education as the rich, so the poor is really not prepared for the next step. Some of these low income students who work hard and do well in high school sometimes make it in college. Low- income students should be given the right to graduate at a higher rate, it will give the poor a boost to continue to work hard and make it to college.

Poverty is on the rise all around the world especially across the United States. This is a problem that is affecting many aspects of life for both the victim and the people around them. Students living in poverty have to tolerate many unfortunate circumstances on a daily basis which can have a significant effect on their growth, development, and educational experience. Students from low socioeconomic backgrounds can still have the same success as the average student, but it takes a little extra effort and a leap of faith. Although it may be challenging for students from low socioeconomic backgrounds to achieve success in school and the real world, it is not impossible.

Australian higher education establishments aim to enhance the learning experiences of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. The goal is to increase access to and participation of all groups in the community.

The results from this study show that students from low income households have a significantly lower chance of receiving a bachelor degree than those coming from higher income households, which one could probably assume. Even the students that preformed at the top of their class in eighth grade, but lived in low income households had less than thirty-three percent chance of completing college (Roy). This astonishing fact proves that even the highest achieving students still do not have a guarantee of receiving a college education, if their parents have no way to afford it. Another study, conducted by the National Student Clearninghouse Research Center, tracked two million, three hundred thousand people from high school into college to track their performance while in college based on where they attended college. They found that low income students from lower income high schools tended to wait a couple years before enrolling in college while high income students attending higher income high schools enrolled in college the fall semester after graduating high school. Out of these participants, twenty-two thousand, one hundred eight students continued their education into college, and eighty-one percent of these college students successfully completed at least their second year of schooling (Sparks ).

The achievement gap that exists in my school is a socioeconomic one (J. Perkins, personal communication, October 24, 2016). Data for Woodville High School shows an achievement gap for low-income students (J. Perkins, personal communication, October 24, 2016). Additionally, this achievement gap is wider for low-income, first-generation students. ACT Aspire Reading data shows that only 25% of students at the poverty level met or exceeded the content standards. ACT Aspire Math data shows that only 21% of students at the poverty level met or exceeded content standards. The total minority population of the school is 6%, and the largest minority group is Native American (Cherokee). Based on the available data, the target population to combat the achievement gap is the high poverty students. 64% of the school’s total student population is considered economically disadvantaged (Woodville High School). These students qualify for free or reduced lunch. The latest data show that there is a 20.4% gap between economically disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students in math and reading (Woodville High School).

Although educational programs have been introduced to address the achievement gap in low-income and urban communities, the educational outputs of these areas remain below the national average (Tierney & Jun, 2001; Ng, Wendell & Lombardi, 2012). For example, the percentage of adults with a bachelor’s degree in Camden city

Employing a growth mindset will allow students to achieve bigger goals and overcome challenges with greater ease. Regardless of which direction a person chooses to take, they will require common skills such as collaboration, responsibility, honesty, or preparation. The purpose of school is to aid students in developing and improving important aspects of their characters, so that they can become well-rounded, productive individuals. In order to successfully navigate through my academic experience, I hope to keep a growth mindset which will allow me to take on new experiences and overcome obstacles. By keeping my options open and having a willingness to always learn from difficulties and mistakes, there will be more benefits in store for me. Nowadays, a great deal of students view their education as brutal competition where their grades are the only thing that matter. Those who struggle or make mistakes are regarded as unintelligent and as a result, students shun challenging situations to avoid the risk of failing. Keeping this kind of mindset in turn restricts and reduces the creativity and enthusiasm students have for learning. To nurture eager and resilient learners, we should be accepting of failure, and consider the learning and working differences each student

The problem in many low-income schools today is discipline. It is not always that students are the cause the problem, but the surrounding environment. When the environment outside the school is violent, disadvantaged, and/or impoverished the coping mechanisms of the residents are not always good. Every so often these coping mechanisms make their way into the schools system. Many times teachers are not trained on how to deal with these issues. They also do not feel supported by their school administration. Low-income schools teacher turnover rate tends to be high and increases through the years. In many of these low income schools parental involvement is low and safety concerns are often high. Teachers are frequently left to look for resources

Throughout the course, we discussed two mindsets that students portray in how they approach learning. The first is a growth mindset where a child recognizes that intelligence can be continuously developed as long as you're willing to embrace challenges, learn from criticism, and see effort as a part of mastering a task. In contrast, some students exhibit a fixed mindset where a child believes that there is a threshold for intelligence. This is evidenced by a tendency for that

Economic circumstances has an influence on multiple areas that affect infant development. Income related difference in parenting appear early in the infants life; for instance, on average low income mothers are less affeffectionate, less responsive to infants’ distress signals, and they are more likely to have harsh parenting styles. Children from a low income have fewer stimulating experiences and learning materials than children from higher income households. This leads to apparent differences that during the first years and often last into adulthood. One of those differences are that the children from low income are more likely to have increased behavioral problems and lower cognitive scores. Furthermore, children from a high income family usually experience psychological stress because the parents pressure the child to overachieve. The financial situation can also affect if the infant is able to get the nutrition intake that is needed, and if the infant is unable to get the right nutrition that will lead to other areas of development being affected.Financial situations