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.

Students everywhere are suffering from the effects of not eating breakfast. On average, 30-45% of students have given up on eating breakfast ("Nutrition. Minnesota"). Consuming breakfast is an overlooked necessity in a student’s education. Students who do not consume breakfast are absent minded and less attentive during class (“Nutrition Influence”). In addition, students who do not consume breakfast are more likely to misbehave and distract fellow students from their education. However, student show a greater academic performance when they consume breakfast. Not consuming breakfast has devastating physical and mental effects on students.

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).

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.

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

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.

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

The negative effects of poverty have consistently led to disastrous outcomes for those who attend school in an effort to acquire a better education. These effects might be caused by the home life and financial instability. It could also be an effect on the school, which has suffered from financial instability. This can lead to an inability to give students the proper time and education that they deserve. Multiple groups are involved in efforts to assist children in poverty by having better school lives or healthier family lives in general. However, government funding can only do so much and in many cases, it is far from enough to help families living in poverty. Children from low-income families face increased risk factors throughout

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

“ Studies also suggest that and an increase in attention following breakfast, compared with no breakfast, showed that many kids are showing signs of increased on task behavior. Kids that attend free lunch programs with the US Department of Agriculture School Breakfast Program have higher scores in math, science and reading compared to those students that do not attend these programs.” University of Iowa. (2015, March 17). (Better breakfast, better grades. Science Daily. Retrieved November 1, 2015). Children who skip breakfast are found to skip school, experience behavioral problems, and have poor grades. It was also noted that children who experience hunger or may be living in poverty levels have shown to have lower math scores and are more likely to have to repeat a grade. Children that suffer from hunger will more than likely have behavioral, emotional and academic problems throughout school. These children may also experience being hyperactive and late to school on occasion. We should also mention that kids that are undernourished scored lower on cognitive tests than those that ate breakfast.

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

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).