(MintPress)— Despite the narrowing achievement gap between white and black students in the United States, the disparities between students from high- and low- income families are on the rise.
A recent study by Sean F. Reardon of Stanford University shows that the income achievement gap is 30 to 40 percent wider among children born in 2001 than among those born 25 years earlier.
For the past several decades, education programs have focused on closing the racial gap in education. Although there remains a great deal of racial inequality in education, educators may have more success in closing the achievement gap by shifting their focus to the connection between income inequality and achievement disparities.
Reardon’s study revealed that the income achievement gap, based on the income difference between children from the 90th percentile of family income distribution compared to children from the 10th percentile is nearly twice as large as the black-white achievement gap.
Education has long been regarded as the key to a successful American life. High school and college graduates tend to make more money and are more likely to find employment than those without a high school diploma.
In 2009, the unemployment rate for high school dropouts was 13.8%. The unemployment rate for those with a college degree was only 4.1%. A high income achievement gap can lead to fewer high school graduates and higher unemployment.
If left unaddressed, the income achievement gap could lead to a cycle of poverty at a time of economic turbulence in the United States.
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What Causes the Income Achievement Gap?
Reardon’s study is published in the book, Whither Opportunity? alongside other studies on the impact of income inequality on children’s life opportunities. Greg Duncan and Katherine Magnuson report in the book that the income achievement gap is wide at the start of kindergarten and does not increase nor decrease as children progress throughout school.
A plethora of socioeconomic issues are believed to have an impact on the growing income achievement gap, including hunger, housing instability, and lack of parent availability that are often associated with poverty.
Meanwhile, families above the median income level have been increasing investments on children’s cognitive development, leading to increased test scores and contributing to a widened achievement gap.
Although there are relatively few studies to prove the connection between income and children’s cognitive development, it is believed that high-income families spend more money on education programs like preschool, tutoring, and private education.
Given the presence of the income achievement gap among children 5 years and younger, the government has shifted focus to programs that promote the physical, social, emotional, cognitive, and language development of children born into poverty.
The ASCD (formerly the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) believes that investing in early childhood education is the best way to close the achievement gap.
“Conservative cost-benefit models show that for an initial investment of roughly $15,000 per child, the return to society was roughly $250,000, or $17 for every dollar invested,” reported ASCD.
Despite studies supporting the need for early childhood investments, according to the 2004 census estimates, programs like Head Start, Title I, pre-kindergarten, and school nutrition enrichment programs are only reaching 7 percent of the estimated 13 million children living in poverty.
Additionally, Reardon reports that “increasing income segregation has led to greater differentiation in school quality and schooling opportunities between the rich and the poor.”
The lack of quality education accessible to low-income families combined with a spike in income disparities between rich and poor have manifested in the growing income achievement gap.
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Achievement Gap: Not as Simple as “Rich vs. Poor”
According to Dr. Ronald F. Ferguson, professor of education and public policy at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Harvard Kennedy School, the achievement gap is a racial issue and not just a socioeconomic issue.
In a presentation at Vanderbilt University, Ferguson asked, “If you look at the scores of black kids who say their parents are educated and compare them to white kids who say their parents are high school dropouts, who’s got the highest test scores?”
Based on 12th grade reading scores from 1994, the answer was white kids whose parents were high school dropouts.
Ferguson’s statistics affirm that the achievement gap cannot be simply described in terms of black and white or rich and poor. Many factors of the achievement gap are interconnected such as race, English language comprehension, income, and parental education.
Low-income families that seek early development support are predominately non-white. 43.6% of Early Head Start participants in 2011 were white; the remaining participants were 34.2% were Hispanic/Latino, 25.21% were Black, and other racial and ethnic minorities.
Reardon’s study has left Americans asking serious questions about the complexities of the income achievement gap – Does a lack of quality education lead to a low-income job or does a low-income job lead to an achievement gap? And more so, does this cycle of poverty and the achievement gap disproportionately affect racial and ethnic minorities?
Source: MintPress
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