Social Class And Education : How Socioeconomic Status And Family Background Can Affect The Learning Outcomes Of Many Children

Regardless of social class most parents wish for their children to be happy, healthy, and successful; however, parents disagree on the best way to raise their children to be all of those things, which is when social class determines the parents’ child rearing method. Whether a child comes from a working class or middle class family affects the child’s development and socialization; and consequently the child’s future.

Social class is a large faction of people who have similar positions in an economic system. In an exemplary world, all students would have an equal shot at success, excellent schools, and educators that dedicate themselves and their time to achieving this goal. However, social class can significantly affect a student's success, highlighting the correlation between low socioeconomic statuses and academic problems. In all social groups, class plays a significant role in the attainment of children in education. Unfortunately, this has always been the case and the effects are just more evident today. Families from high social classes are more likely to obtain a greater level of education than those in low social classes. Members of upper social classes tend to be better educated and have higher incomes; therefore, they are better able to supply educational advantages to their children as well. Being in a financially disadvantaged can also affect a child’s performance during school.  It is important, therefore, to examine the way in which education is distributed through social class. Between societal pressures, expectations and parental negligence, children can be negatively impacted in their pursuit for future success through their education as exemplified through “College Pressures” and “The Sanctuary of School”.

“If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” Those words were the famous phrase spoke by Johnnie Cochran, one of the defense attorneys, in the case of “People of the State of California v. Orenthal James Simpson.” This eminent motto marked a key turning point in what is known as the most publicized criminal trial in American history. This case brought about many social issues in the country and the American Criminal Justice system. Of the many social topics raised by the case, a few that are most imperative are social class, education, and race.

In the Anthology, Rereading America, Jean Anyon and Jonathan Kozol challenge the reader to really think deeply into the cultural myths that society fills Americans with. In Anyons Article, From Social Class and The Hidden Curriculum, she discusses five different elementary schools all with different socioeconomic classes and talks about how each student is taught to fit the same types of jobs that their parents do so they remain on the same social class level. It can be justified that my educational experience was quite empowering throughout high school because of the good teachers who gave us a voice in the classroom, and brand new facilities which helped me feel comfortable at school.

Often times we seek motivation from those that are more successful than us. We put them on a pedestal and aspire to one day be a role model for younger generations after us. What we fail to acknowledge however is the time and hard work they put in before us. We overlook their journey and therefore miss details that could play a major impact on our path to success. Details such as their upbringing, social class, and education are things we should take a closer peek at when comparing their lives to ours. In her book Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life, Annette Lareau follows Caucasian and African American subjects from poor, working, and middle class families to understand the influence of socioeconomic class and race on adolescents raised in various households. After studying her subjects over the course of several years in their homes, schools, and extracurricular activities, she comes to conclude the greater influence socioeconomic class has on the skills acquired by children during their childhood.

In Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum, Anyon takes a gander at course work and understudy instructor collaboration in grade schools situated in groups with shifting levels of financial status, and she endeavors to discover proof of the distinctions in student work in schools in poorer communities versus those in wealthier groups, with an end goal to bolster the contention made by different types of knowledge that government funded schools in our general public give diverse sorts of information and distinctive instructive encounters to offspring of diverse social classes.

Is the rising poverty rate of America negatively affecting the education of high school students across the nation? Unemployment, parents’ level of education and a profound list that continues has shown to impact a child’s education. In 2013, “a majority of of children attending our K-12 public schools [came] from low-income families” (Suitts 35). Poverty-stricken students are more likely to receive poor grades than those living above the poverty line. What seems to be affecting the grades of these impoverished students? The constant need to support their family financially, physically, and emotionally. Teachers may be unaware that some students face these hardships throughout their daily lives. They need to understand that students of lower socioeconomic statuses may not prioritize homework over taking care of their family during a time of need. Teachers should be more aware to better serve and understand their students. There is crucial evidence that supports that socioeconomic status does affect the education of those living under the poverty line, but some researchers believe that it has no effect on students’ education at all. Teachers should be more aware how socioeconomic status affects the grades of high school students.

Assess the view that social class differences in educational achievement are the result of school processes such as labeling. (20 marks)

Based on income and occupation, socioeconomic status refers to family’s social and economic status compared to others in society. Many researchers have found out that students from different socioeconomic status would have the disparity of academic performance. And the gap in academic achievement caused by socioeconomic status exists in every state in the USA. In addition, over the past 40 years, the family income inequality has increased, together with the increasing gaps in academic achievement. (Duncan, 2014) Moreover, as socioeconomic status affects the educational outcome, students who drop out of school are more likely to cause social deviance like juvenile delinquency. By examining dropout rate and language processing speed, it becomes evident that lower SES students tend to have worse academic achievement than higher SES students.

Ability grouping helps students to prepare for high school and or college, because when a student gets in high school they have to take so many different classes in school, and if they were in accelerated classes as a kid they would do a better job in high school. For example, if a student was in an accelerated class when they were in elementary school then they would of been challenged in that class and would make it to a higher level class in high school. Also, if a student excels in high school, then they would have a better

That a student’s social class origin impacts on their learning outcomes is self-evident across much of the developed world, with entrenched disparities in academic achievement that are inversely correlated with family income (Snook, 2009:3, Argy, 2007:para 3, Reay, 2006:289, Nash, 2003:179-180).

The last of the scholarly articles is Anyon and her findings about literacy put the previous mentioned author’s ideas into a real life situation. Her argument claimed that teachers teach differently to students with different economic and social background. The researchers investigated five different schools: working class, middle class, affluent professional and exclusive elite schools. I loved everything about this article. It introduced a new idea to me and how the school systems around the country runs. I could personally connect to the middle class and elite school. Speaking to most of my peers, they to agree that they made a personal connection to a school.

Becker (1971) based on interviews with 60 Chicago high school teachers it was found that they judged pupils according to how closely they fitted the image of the ideal pupil. Pupils work conduct and appearances were key factors influencing teachers’ judgements, those from Middle Class backgrounds were closer to the ideal pupil than Working Class. In relation to this Keddies study reflected how Labelling can be applied not just to pupils but also to the knowledge they are taught. Classes are streamed by ability and Keddy found that although teachers believed they were teaching all pupils in the same way, the higher streams were given more abstract, theoretical and high status knowledge. The less able streams were given descriptive common sense knowledge which created differences in educational attainment.

According to Farley, cultural deprivation was considered, by some, the reason for poor performance in school in families of minority, poor, and working class (p. 402). According to this functionalist theory based idea, it was believed that minorities has under developed skills and inferior work habits as those in other groups. A study done by Coleman, found that those with less items such as televisions, automobiles, vacuum cleaners, and other items had lower learning abilities. This is also in connection with poor familial support, parental interest in their child's education, availability of books, newspapers, and other educational opportunities within the home causes student to be less ready to learn in a school environment. Coleman found underachievement to be a direct correlation to children with poor self-image, disinterest in school, and not being able to control the environment around them (or believing in good luck, not hard work) (p. 402). It is believed that changing the student's attitude towards learning would ready them, enhance, and provide a better learning experience. Coleman's believes this can be achieved, in part, by desegregation of schools so disadvantaged students could attend school with advantaged students, which tend to have better attitudes towards learning and disadvantaged students would inherently become better, more positive learners. Being able to prepare the child is part of this idea as well, which includes being ready to learn. This

Socioeconomic status has long been thought to correlate with a student’s academic achievement; numerous studies and research have been conducted in order to analyze this topic. Socioeconomic status (SES) is mostly defined by scientists as an individual’s income, occupation, education, and prestige in society. These elements often go together, so SES is frequently measured as a combination of an individual’s income and years of education because these are most easily quantified (Slavin, Robert E. pp. 71.) It has often been discussed by researchers, the correlation between SES and academic achievement, however, this study, by the Department of Psychology of the University of Minnesota, addresses the degree to which SES can be considered an environmental influence on academic achievement. In a previous meta-analysis, Dr. Karl R. White, from Utah State University, found that when measured at the individual level, the correlation between SES and academic achievement was low. While measured at a larger level, for example through the school or neighborhood, the correlation was found to be higher (Johnson, Wendy, et al. pp.1) This begs the question: do hereditary factors play as significant a role as environmental factors do in the case of SES and academic achievement?