Poverty: Less Successful Academic Career?

Throughout history, public schools have suffered and still continue to fail while the rest of the world is moving ahead. There are various barriers that have prevented low-income student from succeeding with the rest of the world. Parent involvement plays a role because if they lack higher levels of education, most likely this will cause the student to have a disadvantage. Also, because of families with

There is no doubt that another adverse effect brought on by children due to poverty is the academic complications. Granted that poor families rarely have enough to sustain a normal life, poor children generally do not move on to college or in some cases do not finish high school. Students who do not go to college will have a hard time finding a job, let alone a job that can support families of their own, and will probably end up in poverty. Likewise, poor children are

Research in the past decade on the widening gap of educational opportunities between lower and higher income families has shown that children enrolled schools that predominantly serve lower income families tend to have lower pedagogical success and more negative associations regarding the American education system.

Since President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “war on poverty” in 1964, poverty rates in the United States have still been staggering. The effects of poverty on society have been particularly debilitating, contributing to high rates of unemployment, crime, and even uneducated children. This link between poverty and education is pressing, as education is growing in importance as a determinant of one’s success. What are the factors that create the correlation between poverty and education, and what are some practical approaches to solving this issue?

It is assumed that if you are poor then you will not receive a form of higher education. It is even more realistic that when this is the case lack of education impairs your chances of gaining ground beyond that of poverty. About 34% of unemployed people never got a high school diploma compared to the 6% of unemployed people who have attained a bachelor's degree (U.S. Census Bureau). These unemployed individuals never got the education needed to hold a middle-class worthy job so they live in poverty. This chart below demonstrates how education increases chances of employment, allowing an income that may keep you above poverty level.

Alexis, I do agree with you that students in poverty are less likely to be successful then students in higher income. There is a chance for these students to succeed if they have the right teacher even if there parents are not involved in their children education. With the right help and guidance these students can have a chance to break the cycle but if they are put in the back and not getting the right help that they need they will continue following their parents foot

Children from low-income households are more likely to encounter an increased number of risk factors that encumber their academic successes; these factors are inclusive of (a) low levels of maternal education; (b) high levels of maternal depression; (c) inconsistent and harsh disciplinary practices; (d) and exposure to drug abuse, domestic violence, and child abuse. (p. 11)

leading causes of poverty is lack of education. Increasing college funds help certain areas of

Many high school students in the U.S. are affected by poverty. In fact, 22% of kids under the age of 18 are living in poverty. This trend is unfair for students because a child living in poverty is more likely to drop out of school. People in poverty are less likely to earn a college degree which makes it more difficult to find a high-paying job that they qualify for.

Statistics show that children from low-income families and low-income areas do not do near as well on standardized test as other children’s. A lot of the time this is because the low-income family living in the low-income area also lives in a low-income school district. These school districts are usually filled with bad teachers or good teachers that just don’t care anymore. Also because of the apathy towards learning presented by the surroundings of the students these children also develop the aforementioned apathy for learning. If you do not think learning is important then you will not apply yourself and this will lead you to doing poorly in the classroom and on these standardized tests.

“ Historically, low-income students as a group have performed less well than high-income students on most measures of academic success” (Reardon, 2013). Typically low-income families come from low-income parts of the state making a school that does not have as much funding as a higher economic schools does lack in resources for their students. The school then has lower paid teachers and administrators, with lower quality supplies. This results in a school which typically has faculty who do not perform as well as the well-funded schools. “The law fails to address the pressing problems of unequal educational resources across schools serving wealthy and poor children” (Hammond, 2007). Students from low and high income families will not be able to achieve the same education because their education simply is not the same.

Children who live in areas of concentrated poverty never fare well. They often have low graduation rates and deal with constant violence. What happens to neighborhoods also happens to schools. Children succeed when their parents are capable of providing for them. When parents are unable to afford their own neighborhood advantages, their children start seeing the difference along racial and social barriers and embody it.

Education and schooling in the United States is an interesting concept. I have always suspected that there are disparities between the quality of education a student receives, and the outside influences that act upon the student in both positive and negative ways. I was fortunate enough during my academic career that I had parents and a social situation that allowed some of the best opportunities for a good education. In the course of events I was afforded the opportunity to attend a private school, get money for a college education via the Army, and always had parents that were involved with my education, ensuring that I meet their expectations. As I look at the education system as a whole in our country, a commonality is seen the socioeconomic (SES) status of a student and the quality of education they receive. I saw this in my own perspective knowing that by attending a private school, I was being offered an education that other peers might not have. However, I also believe that a person’s individual drive and family involvement play a vital role in the education system as well. I know many students that attended the same school as I did, but without a good family structure or involvement, that failed academically in school. On the other side of the spectrum, I also know students that came from disadvantaged schools but had a good amount of family involvement and personal accountability in their own academic careers. These students succeeded, where many of

As mentioned earlier there are stereotypes that come with socioeconomic status, including that children from low socioeconomic status families tend to not perform as well in school as children from higher socioeconomic status families. This is not because the children from low socioeconomic status have a deficiency that causes them to underperform, but rather it is because there is an expectation that the children will not do as well and so the children walk into the classroom facing a losing battle (Schmitt-Wilson, 2013, p 228). The education that a child receives in the earliest years of their life sets up a framework for the education through the rest of their lifetime (Stull, 2013, p 54). That being said, if a child does not receive the best education in the earliest years of their schooling, it is not surprising when they do not do as well in school and do not seek higher education after high school. Another common stereotype is that children from low socioeconomic status will not go on to get high paying jobs, but even if this is true it is not

Just 14 percent of the variety in a kid's performance can be credited to class quality, as indicated by Donald Hirsch, counsel to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. This implies a child's experience significantly affects their performance in school. Kids who originate from low-pay families are far less inclined to perform well in school.