The Persistent Gap in Education Achievement - Essay Example

The Persistent Gap In Education Achievement Between Children From Low-Income Families And Their Peers

In today’s world where knowledge must come at a price, educational achievement gaps are prevalent, especially in respect to varying household incomes. The financial ability of children’s parents or immediate family is a significant determinant of their level of education. Some children are forced to remain high school diploma holders their entire lives just because their parents cannot afford college, despite the fact that they may be very smart. Extensive research has previously been conducted to ascertain the depth of the educational achievement gap with an aim to alleviate the situation. Referring to scholarly works on sociological frameworks, one author, Bourdieu, introduces the theory of habitus, which he says is a sort of machine that aids the reproduction of the prevailing social conditions of people (Reay, D. 2004). His concept thrives on the fact that people force particular demands and constrictions on their lives, a habit that leads to specific predictable behavior in the society. In resonance to this theory, education thrives on the existence of resource and the ability to afford it. Since far back in history, high levels of education have always been associated with the affluent in the society. In Bourdieu’s perspective, "habitus of culture" forms an essential prerequisite of culture because it determines one's childhood experiences, nature of socialization and social class (Reay, D. 2004). Consequently, educational achievements become the product of one’s social class and the advantages accrued by a particular economic status. Such segregation means that educational achievements are replicated from generation to generation, depending on the financial abilities of families. In most cases, children reach the same level of education reached by their parents before them due to budgetary constraints. The focus of this paper will be to analyze studies on the persistent gap in educational achievement while focusing on low-income family children versus their peers.

The prevalence of the educational achievement gap based on economic abilities raises the question of the direction taken by the education trend over the decades. Milman asserts that from 2008 to 2012, there was prevalent stagnation of numeral and literacy skills among high school children belonging to low socio-economic classes in Australia (2013). Further, the report shows that 41% of these students failed to further their studies after Year 12 due to economic constraints (Milman, O. 2013). The gap in educational achievements between the rich and the poor therefore continues to worsen through the years because the modern economy places a lot of emphasis on educational qualifications. As more students of the lower class drop out of school, their educational achievements become comparatively lower than those of their peers and they increase the chances of their next generation having lower educational achievements. The level of education gap seems to be a generational phenomenon where children inherit the same educational status as their parents before them. Most children born to working class families often remain in the same category, despite their level of education (Evans, G. 2006). Such children desire to do better in life and achieve their ambitions, but the social class they belong to often acts as a barrier. They consequently have to accept the reality of social stratification and settle for lower educational levels and low status jobs. Policies aimed at alleviating this situation date as far back as the 1960s, however, schools for the low-income earners’ children remain under-resourced and of lower quality (Lupton, R., 2005). Such policies aim at improving the quality of education and reducing the gap in educational attainments. Contrary to this, a research conducted by a government unit in secondary schools revealed that schools set in poor backgrounds provided substandard education (Lupton, R., 2005). The answer to equalized educational achievements between the rich and the poor therefore seems to lie in the adoption of strict policies that alleviate the economic struggles of the poor. Educational achievements are heavily reliant on availability of resources. As such, to ensure that children from poor backgrounds obtain equal opportunities, policies must ensure the fair distribution of resources in schools irrespective of their social status.

Students from poor backgrounds are categorized to be at risk in policy formulation because they have slimmer chances to completing their education successfully. The use of the term “risk” ensures that students emotionally accept categorization in policy-making (Archer, L., Hollingworth, S., & Mendick, H. 2010). To address this predicament, governments strive to set up policies to ensure that such students obtain quality education. Among the policies adopted to improve the quality of education for students from low-income families includes policies addressing social exclusion, admissions, and school regulation policies. Reay asserts that policies on regulation of learning and surveillance of school activities ensure that the educational achievements of working class students are heightened (2005). The monitoring part of the policy ensures that the social relations of students stay healthy to boost the overall performance. Much as this policy has been considerably active in advancing the academic attainments of children from low-income families, it has also had an adverse emotional impact on them. Children tend to think that if they perform poorly in tests they are condemned to a lifetime of joblessness and poverty, adopting a psychic economy driven by a fear of future (Reay, D. 2005). The admissions policy accounts that it is mandatory for students to be integrated in the school system despite their social standing. The policy states that students from both high and low classes have a right of admittance to any school, so long as they can afford the tuition. Other factors covered in this policy include the rights of special needs students. Policies that touch on social exclusion are much more recent and focus on initiatives based on different residential areas and interventions that can be adopted to fix problems found in such areas (Archer, L. et.al 2010). The economically and consequently educationally challenged groups of people belong to the social exclusion category, which the policy aims to protect. Social exclusion policies aim at increasing the education population to enhance the skill of the workforce and eventually the economy of a nation. This is done by ensuring that students compulsorily remain is school and receive equal chances in education despite their economic backgrounds.

A survey carried out by the National Centre for Social Research comparing the educational achievements of students in rural areas versus in urban areas shows significant discrepancies in the two groups. The research explores the differences between education in the rural areas and that in the urban areas concerning social class, situational variations, and individualities. The study showed that although students from rural areas had more achievements in secondary schools than their peers, there were differences when students from affluent rural regions were taken into account (National Centre for Social Research 2009). Among the reasons for this trend included social positions, prior achievements, and decreased area deprivation. As such, the study reveals that even though children from the rural areas may have had more educational achievements, their social status often limited them. Students from affluent rural regions performed well in school because they had more advantages based on resources. This research therefore shows that the geographical location of students plays a minor role in determining their educational achievements. Social status, on the other hand, plays a vital role in enhancing educational achievements. For this reason, the report recommends offering of additional support for disadvantaged students to improve their performance in school (National Centre for Social Research 2009). As such, necessary interventions need to be put in place to ensure that disadvantaged children obtain equal chances as their counterpart in higher social positions. Milman asserts that disadvantaged youth that fail to acquire an equal opportunity for education are doomed to exclusion and poverty based on recent government reports on varying educational attainments (2013). Regulating the opportunities accrued to students will translate to educational achievements of disadvantaged students being more akin to those of their peers, thus reducing the poverty predicament.

Social class is deeply rooted in the culture, emotional and psychic aspects of the human being (Reay, D. 2005). As such, people are constantly aware of their place in the society, which affects factors such as abjection, superiority or inferiority, incongruity and belongingness to social class (Reay, D. 2005). The feelings accruing due to economic status, whether conscious or unconscious play a crucial part in the formation of educationally affiliated theories. Social class may be a factor that physically divides the society, but it mostly exists in the beliefs of people, some of whom believe that it is genetically given to generations (Reay, D. 2005). It is therefore common to find that the educational achievements in the higher social class families remain consistently high as compared to those of lower social class families. This trend holds because education can only be acquired where resources are available, and in most cases, parents of high-status can afford it. Even in the schools themselves, the effects of social class are profoundly implicit due to the existence of class-based emotions such as hopes, desires, fantasies and fears (Reay, D. 2005). At school, children are ever conscious of the class they belong to in the society, whether low, middle or high class. Such consciousness creates the perfect breeding ground for envy, resentment or even defensiveness. To illustrate this, Reay gives an example of a conversation between three working class children and a high-class child (2005). Even though the conversation does not implicitly point to the effects of social class, it is laced with comments that imply the higher social class is better and presents more advantages. This example elucidates the privileges accruing to children of more affluent families, which most often leads to defensiveness and among children of lower class families. Social class segregations, therefore, create divides among students, thereby affecting the quality of education. These adverse effects of social class on educational achievement have led to constant reviews of policy, including the continued regulation and surveillance of learning. In this regard, students with higher academic achievements are expected to take more external examinations in the process of boosting social relations (Reay, D. 2005). However, while external examinations are crucial in alleviating the performance of lower class children, it also fixes the failure of the working class. Higher educational achievements are related to a good job, good life and general success in life, unlike low educational achievements. In fact, this is illustrated in a case where two white girls from working class families believe that failing their SATs is a sure recipe for failure in life. One of them even says that they will be nothing supposing they fail their tests (Reay, D. 2005). In this text, the gap in educational achievement between the high-class children and their counterparts is represented as the result of prevailing social conditions, policies adopted and ordinary academic practices.

This study reveals that children from low-income families are subject to disadvantages at all stages in school (Sammons, P., Toth, K. and Sylva, K. 2015). As such, evidence suggests that the educational achievement gap between children from the wealthy families and those from low-income families continues to increase. As the economic status tightens globally, it means that the income gap between the rich and the poor will continue to rise. Consequently, children from low-income families will continue to study with limited resources and a higher number will continue to drop out of school due to lack of funding. Shifting economic situations mean that students from low-income families will have a harder time finding jobs to pay for their tuition, which means that a higher number of them will leave school at the age of 16 years (Archer, L. et.al 2010). The educational achievement rift caused by variation in social class continues to thrive because unlike vices like racism and sexism, inequalities due to social class are acceptable in the society. Social inequality remains a real vice because it causes a circumstantial sentencing to eternal poverty for working class and low-income generations. When resources are limited, it means that the quality of education remains poor and the emotional stability of students in such environments remains questionable. As such, the quality of education offered to children of higher social class is likely to remain much higher than that of their peers, further widening the educational achievement rift.

Reference List

Archer, L., Hollingworth, S., & Mendick, H., 2010. Urban youth and schooling: the experiences and identities of educationally 'at risk' young people. Education in an urbanised society, Open University Press, Maidenhead.

Evans, G., 2006. Educational failure and working class white children in Britain. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Lupton, R., 2005. Social justice and school improvement: improving the quality of schooling in the poorest neighbourhoods. British Educational Research Journal, 31(5), pp.589-604.

Milman, O., 2013. ‘Disadvantaged young people face 'life sentence of poverty and exclusion'’. The Guardian, 29 October, accessed 18 May 2016, <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/29/coag-education-report-disadvantaged-youth>

National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), 2009. Educational Attainment in Rural Areas, NatCen Social Research, accessed 18 May 2016, <http://natcen.ac.uk/our-research/research/educational-attainment-in-rural-areas/>

Reay, D., 2004. ‘It's all becoming a habitus’: Beyond the habitual use of habitus in educational research. British journal of sociology of education,25(4), pp.431-444.

Reay, D., 2005. Beyond consciousness? The psychic landscape of social class. Sociology,39(5), pp.911-928.

Sammons, P., Toth, K. and Sylva, K., 2015. Subject to background: what promotes better achievement for bright but disadvantaged students?. The Sutton Trust. Accessed 18 May 2016 <http://www.suttontrust.com/researcharchive/subject-to-background/>