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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.