Summary Of Why Does The Gap Persist? By Paul E. Barton

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.

Cause 1: What causes the poor academic performance in children due to food insecurity is that they do not eat breakfast. The saying breakfast is the most important meal of the day is not just folk lore or a buzz phrase. The article by Sheila Terry and Kimberly Kerry, “Classroom Breakfast: Helping Maryland Students Make the Grade” published in the March 2000 issue of the Maryland State Department of Education, reports that “over a two-year period, classroom breakfast schools showed a 22% improvement in that score, [MSPAP test], compared to a 13% improvement for control schools

the term receivement gap is useful because it focuses attention on educational inputs-what the students receive on their educational journey, instead of outputs-their performance on a standardized test. This refocusing also moves attention away from the students as the source of these disparities, and toward the larger structure and forces that play a role in their education and development (p. 417). Venzant-Chambers (2009) asserted the issue of the Black and White achievement gap must be viewed through other lenses opposed to the single view of Black students cannot perform as well as White students. Venzant-Chambers (2009) offered other avenues by which to examine the achievement gap such as school tracking, examining the

There clearly is a problem right now in American schools. The gap in educational outcomes between students of different races and ethnicities is fairly substantial. Although there could be numerous explanations of why this inconsistency exists, I have chosen to focus on one issue stemming from an economic obstacle.

In the literature, the gap is sometimes called an opportunity gap and sometimes it is called an achievement gap. The opportunity gap refers to the undeniable difference that exists between the opportunities for minorities versus their white counterparts. There seem to be several factors that influence this gap. A study by Oakes, Rogers, Silver, Horng, & Goode, (2004), observed that modern day schools in some California cities do not even meet the criteria for the landmark case Plessy vs Ferguson (Oakes et al., 2004). These schools are still segregated and there is an extreme disproportion of funds between the schools that service mainly minorities and those that service mainly whites. The schools that have a white majority usually tend to receive funding from local community members or the parents of the students that attend. While the schools that are made up of minority students, usually tend to be underfunded and the conditions inside the schools are not always the best (Oakes et al., 2004).

Nutrition plays a significant role in children’s functioning. Children who grow up in low-income homes are more likely to eat foods with a lower nutritional value, which can even affect them while still in the womb. Children coming to school in the morning already hungry will distract their minds from learning and their brains will not be able to function. It is proven that poor nutrition at breakfast affects gray matter mass in children’s brains (Taki, 2010). Skipping breakfast negatively affects students’ academic achievement by increasing absenteeism, as well as hurting their cognition abilities. Students will have more trouble

Most of the students come from low income families, which may play a factor as to why these students are not performing well academically. According to Carol Carter, a student success expert reason for the lack of success for low income students are lack of exposure, language barriers, lack of stability, and lack of role models (2013).

Many children do not have the opportunity to eat breakfast on a regular basis because of working parents, long commutes, or the inability of families to provide enough food. Studies have shown that children whose nutritional needs are met have fewer attendance and discipline problems, and their ability to learn is enhanced.

The achievement gaps between students from different ethnic and racial background have gain attention to the educators. Some people believe that our current school system is the main causation of the gap, and simply changing the education system

An article by Healthy Schools Campaign reports that “. . . improved nutrition in schools leads to increased focus and attention, improved test scores and better classroom behavior” (“School Food Policy,” 2015, p. 1). The impact of a meal can be negative or positive on the student. Children around the globe go to school and usually are met with a meal for breakfast and lunch. In America alone, “Some 32 million students eat school meals every day; for many low income students, up to half of their daily intake is from school meals” (Tom Datz, “Harvard T.H. Chan”, 2014, p. 2). This shows that the

Poor children who don't eat a nourishing breakfast will not be able to pay attention in class and so they may become fidgety and may disrupt the class. Poverty often drastically affects children’s success in school. These students are at a disadvantage

Martin Luther King Junior Laboratory Middle School is a magnet school in Evanston that was made to serve children of all different nationalities and socioeconomic statuses. Evanston is seen as one of the more affluent suburbs of Illinois. It is a safe area with many great amenities for residents to enjoy. There are children that come from affluent backgrounds, children whose parents both work to support their families, and children whose parents’ employment statuses are unknown to me. One-third of the King Lab student population is eligible to receive free or reduced lunches. This lets us know that one-third of students would go through the school day on empty stomachs if this option wasn’t available. One could only think that if there is this many students that are eligible for free or reduced lunch, the same amount of children may be coming to school with empty stomachs in the morning as well. Since breakfast is the most important meal

Students living in poverty face undesirable living conditions and chaos outside of the classroom that affects their performance in the classroom.  Children living in poverty often live in unsafe neighborhoods, overcrowded homes, or substandard homes that could be detrimental to their overall health.  Students need the security of safe and secure living conditions so that they can succeed in other areas of their life.

Having a low income can have a toll on student’s education. Families who live in poverty are more likely to be involved in drugs, abuse, or become homeless all of which can cause a child to drop out of school (Rumberger, para4). One may wonder, how does a family dealing with these things cause a student to drop out? Well if a family has a low income they are most likely not going to be able to afford many things a child needs for school, such as supplies or books. As for a student dealing with abuse or a family involved in drugs it can be hard to focus on anything else when those things are going on at home. Not only can family poverty play a role in student drop outs but living in a community of poverty can also play a major role on the matter. These communities are dealing with the same things low

A study done by Anne S. Ask et al.’s (2006) was done to see how serving breakfast in schools affected students’ “normal breakfast pattern,” and how their body mass index was changed. Fifty-four tenth grade students in a lower secondary school was the population of the controlled study. There were two different classes where one was offered free school breakfast for four months, and the students in the other class were the controls of the experiment. The importance of a well-balanced, healthy diet was stressed on both classes. Both classes were even introduced to a program that allowed them to evaluate their dietary intake (Ask et al., 2006). After only one week of this study, students from the class who received free breakfast everyday was settled into a “normal breakfast pattern.” On the flip side, students who were apart of the class being used as the control, ate more at lunch time, and the body mass index of both genders in the control group increased. In this study, eating breakfast did not improve school performance, but did allow adolescents to enjoy being at school more (Ask et al., 2006).