equality in education outcomes is essential for ensuring equal opportunities for american children
Post on 07-Aug-2015
60 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
Rich - Page 1 of 7
Equality in Education Outcomes is Essential for Ensuring Equal Opportunities for
American Children
Jordan Rich, B.S., Dept. of Bioengineering, University of Utah
Access to higher education is a topic that often receives considerable attention in
legislative sessions and the media. A common argument is that schools are underfunded. In
response to the “schools are underfunded” argument, President Barack Obama when addressing
education in the United States said, “I’m going to insist that we’ve got decent funding, enough
teachers, and computers in the classroom, but unless you turn off the television set and get over a
certain anti-intellectualism that I think pervades some low-income communities, our children are
not going to achieve [1].” While Obama indicates that low-income parents shelter much of the
blame for the impeded access to higher education in low-income communities, a less addressed
aspect of the “schools are underfunded” argument is that low-income communities receive far
less resources to educate its children than wealthier communities [2]. One could say that low-
income communities require more resources to educate its children than wealthier communities
because of longstanding inequalities between the social classes. Furthermore, one could also say
that as a result of the underfunding of schools in low-income communities, its children are often
restricted from attaining higher education and forced to enter lower paying occupations.
Although the exact causes have not been ascertained, it is clear that there is a cycle of poverty in
low-income communities. The cycle of poverty appears to be caused to a large extent by parental
influence and impeded access to higher education. This paper looks at how parental influence
and access to higher education affects a child’s mobility in social status and proposes a causal
connection between the disparities in funding of low-income versus wealthier community
schools and the maintenance of the poverty cycle.
A starting point to a discussion about social status is to discuss resources, the basis for
Rich - Page 2 of 7
attaining things within the world. A look at social structures across the diverse ethnic and
cultural groups in the world demonstrates a wide variability in individual access to resources. Of
importance is that an individual’s ability to procure resources severely affects an individual’s
lifestyle, such as an individual’s occupation, mate selection, and home life. The ability of an
individual to attain resources has been studied by sociologists and psychologists for centuries
and ultimately resulted in the development of a scientific model known as socioeconomic status
(SES). SES, in its most general form, is a grouping of people who are similar in levels of
education, income, occupational status, and housing [3]. The development of the multifaceted-
variable model of SES has led to research into the relationship between SES and various social
problems.
An important social problem related to SES is an individual’s access to higher education.
On the subject of SES and higher education, William Sewell, a prominent sociologist, stated that,
“higher education confers increased chances for income, power, and prestige on people who are
fortunate to obtain [higher education],” and that, “the allocation of social position is increasingly
dependent on higher education [4].” Sewell further provides that access to higher education is
important because, “entrance into an ever enlarging range of valued occupations is restricted to
those whose educational attainments beyond secondary school are presumed to have given them
the habits of thought, attitudes, and special skills that these occupations require [4].” A major
problem is that children from lower-SES homes are less likely to go to college and if they do, are
much less likely to graduate with a degree than those from higher-SES homes [4]. This is a big
problem because equal opportunity for all is a common theme in the modern world however,
“life chances [cannot] be equal until opportunities for advanced education are equal [4].” The
presumed existence of inequality between children from differing SES homes raises questions of
Rich - Page 3 of 7
what other forces are contributors. Presuming that life chances are unequal between those born
into lower and higher SES homes, a good question to ask is whether there exists other common
aspects among the various ethnic and cultural groups that affects an individual’s attained SES.
A line of investigation into common aspects affecting SES among the various ethnic and
cultural groups demonstrated that one aspect of life that varied with SES was childrearing [3]. A
study that investigated the relationship between maternal childrearing goals and maternal SES
demonstrated a strong difference between mothers grouped in the middle and business classes
[3]. Results of the study indicate that middle class mothers ranked child obedience as their most
important childrearing goal, whereas business class mothers ranked independence as equal to
obedience in importance [3]. As a result of the study, it was suggested that, “[p]arents from
different socioeconomic strata rear their children differently, partly in response to the different
circumstances in which they live, and partly because they themselves are different sorts of
people with different ways of interacting with the world [3].”
In an attempt to further elucidate the relationship between childrearing and SES, researchers
turned their gaze toward understanding the aspects of parenting that affect child development
outcomes. Contemporary researchers have identified three important aspects of parenting that
affect child development outcomes: beliefs, styles, and goals [3]. These three aspects of
parenting determine behaviors parents produce in interactions with their children, the kinds of
home environments that parents create for children, and the connections outside the home that
parents both enable and permit. Prior to discussing the relationship between parental influence
and an individual’s access to higher education, it is first necessary to define the three aspects of
parenting in more detail.
The first aspect of parenting, parental beliefs, include how parents expect child
Rich - Page 4 of 7
development to progress and what parents believe is their role in the process. Of particular
interest are the beliefs parents have about important milestones in their children’s development.
It has been observed that in general, lower-SES parents believe that they have less control over
the outcome of their children’s development than higher-SES parents [3]. As a result, higher-
SES parents tend to expect earlier mastery of skills that are valued by mainstream culture than do
lower-SES parents. The greater expectation of earlier development in higher-SES homes
ultimately leads to adolescents and young adults that are further along in their development than
the same from lower-SES homes.
While the expectations that parents place on their children are important to a child’s
overall development, the manner in which the parent interacts with the child, parental style, is
just as important. Parenting style includes both the attitudes about children that parents
communicate to their children and the emotional climate in which those attitudes are expressed.
Authoritative and authoritarian parenting styles have been identified as the optimal normative
parenting styles for the development of well-functioning adults [3]. Authoritative parents have
been identified as being high on both demandingness and responsiveness to their children
whereas authoritarian parents are high on demandingness and low on responsiveness [3].
Authoritarian parents behave like kings of the household, with a clear-cut definition of authority,
whereas authoritative parents have more equalitarian relationships with their children. Research
has demonstrated that, “the parenting styles considered to be most optimal for child development
are very sensitive to both SES and ethnicity,” and that, “authoritarian and authoritative parental
patterns have been associated most often with SES-related differences [5].” Studies demonstrate
that, “parenting styles in higher-SES homes have been described as democratic and child
centered, in contrast to the authoritarian and parent-centered style that characterize[s] lower-SES
Rich - Page 5 of 7
homes [3].” Furthermore, studies demonstrate that parents with higher education levels tend to
be higher in authoritative parenting [3].
Beliefs and styles of parents are important however the driving forces of parent-child
interactions are goals. Goals are the outcomes for which parents direct their efforts. Goals
translate from parental beliefs and describe characteristics that parents want their child to exhibit.
It has been observed in many studies across various ethnic and cultural groups that lower-SES
parents value conformity in their children whereas higher-SES parents want their children to be
self-directed [3]. As a result of this observation, Melvin Kohn, a parental sociology researcher,
proposed that, “the SES-associated differences in parent-child relationships stem from
differences in parents’ childrearing values that in turn, stem from differences in parents’
occupational conditions [6].” Kohn further argued that, “blue-collar jobs fostered authoritarian
childrearing because these jobs require obedience and conformity whereas white-collar
occupations fostered authoritative parenting because those occupations require initiative and
independent thinking [6].”
Occupation level is frequently determined by education and education is most commonly
affected by a child’s ability to communicate. Parental SES level affects verbal and written
communication skills as well as a child’s reading ability, all very important skills for attaining
higher education opportunities [7]. Knowledge of vocabulary is directly related to reading and
communication skills, with less knowledge of vocabulary severely limiting those skills [7]. A
study of the rate of vocabulary growth in children from professional, working class, or welfare-
recipient families demonstrated that professionals tended to talk to their children more, which in
turn, caused their children to gain vocabulary at a quicker rate [7]. Moreover, sociolinguists have
suggested that, “families from different socioeconomic strata use language differently and their
Rich - Page 6 of 7
children acquire different communicative abilities as a result [3].” An example of how language
and communication has been found to be utilized differently is that higher-SES parents are far
more likely than lower-SES parents to employ psychological techniques to discipline their
children, such as using reasoning and appeals to guilt [7]. The more equalitarian communication
skills found to be utilized more frequently in higher-SES homes parallels the communication
styles fostered in higher education.
It has been evidenced that education level is a strong effecter of SES. Studies have shown
that individuals from lower-SES families who receive higher education opportunities attain
higher-SES occupations and income-levels than their parents [4]. Furthermore, individuals who
receive higher education opportunities tend to rear their children with the higher-SES
authoritative parenting style [3]. Therefore it may be presumed that access to higher education is
important for stopping the cycle of poverty in low-income communities.
Access to higher education is impacted by parental style because of its effect on
communication. A child’s development of essential communication skills and their ability to
read is impacted by parent-child interactions within the home [7]. Parent-child interactions
within the home are impacted by the parents’ occupation and education level [6].
While parental influence has a primary effect on a child's communication skills and
ability to read, a child’s involvement at their school has a significant effect also [7]. In general,
the most common influential role models in childrens' lives, besides adults within their family,
are teachers at their school [7]. Children learn communication skills and attitudes from their
teachers [7]. Because teachers have a significant role in the development of a child, it is
important for low-income communities to have the resources available to employ highly
educated teachers from higher-SES backgrounds. Teachers from higher-SES backgrounds may
Rich - Page 7 of 7
convey the more valuable communication styles and attitudes associated with higher education
environments and white-collar occupations [3,6,7].
Employing teachers from higher-SES backgrounds in low-income community schools is
contrary to the current views that many governments take on education funding. Wealthier
communities generally receive more funding for their schools than low-income communities,
which results in the more desirable and higher-SES teaching candidates migrating toward
positions at schools in wealthier communities [2,8]. As a result, the cycle of poverty continues
because children from low-income communities are not being exposed to the more valued
communication styles and attitudes of higher-SES individuals during their developmental years.
References.
1. Meet the Press, NBC News. 2004 Interview with Tim Russert. Jul 25, 2004.
2. U.S. Department of Education. More Than 40% of Low-Income Schools Don’t Get a Fair
Share of State and Local Funds, Department of Education Research Finds. Nov. 30, 2011.
< http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/more-40-low-income-schools-dont-get-fair-
share-state-and-local-funds-department->
3. Hoff, E., Laursen, B., and Tardif, T. Handbook of Parenting: Volume 2, Biology and
ecology of parenting. Lawrence Erbaum Association. Pp. 231-252.
4. Sewell, W.H. Inequality of Opportunity for Higher Education. American Sociological
Review. Volume 36, Issue 5 (Oct., 1971), 793-809.
5. Leyendecker, B., Harwood, R.L., Comparini, L., and Yalcinkaya, A. Socioeconomic
status, ethnicity, and parenting. (2005). Monographs in Parenting.
6. Kohn, M.L. Social class and parent-child relationships: An interpretation. (1963)
American Journal of Sociology, 68, 471-480.
7. Hart, B., and Risley, T.R. Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of young
American children. Brooks Publishing (1995).
8. Partee, G.L. Attaining Equitable Distribution of Effective Teachers in Public Schools.
Center for American Progress. April 2014.
top related