Edited by Lili Fishman
“Early childhood is the critical period in which to lay the foundations for success in education and beyond. Yet children who would benefit most from early childhood care and education are least likely to receive it. For example, only 1% of 3- to 4-year old children in rural Iraq have the opportunity to attend pre-primary education programmes.” Image Source: education-inequalities.org
Educational inequality is the unequal distribution of resources, teachers and materials in areas that have a higher prevalence of low socioeconomic status (SES). Research conducted by Emma Garcia and Emma Wiess from the Economic Policy Institute reveals that there are large educational performance gaps between low and high socioeconomic societies. According to the research, “These performance gaps reflect extensive unmet needs and thus untapped talents among low-SES children” (Garcia & Wiess, 2017). Children living in such areas usually have poor educational success due to low number of teachers present, high student to teacher ratio, and a lack of proper educational material and classroom supplements. Teachers are a glue in our society in terms of education and building a strong foundation in students in important fields like STEM and reading, and they remain dependent on adequate classrooms and materials to teach. Children in the younger age cohort often have imperative cognitive skills to learn that will ensure their success in school and their life, since they are bound by the critical period and the sensitive period, that ensures the most plasticity in the brain and allows the brain to absorb and understand subjects. Therefore, it is important for schools to provide children with enough materials to learn and develop during these maturation times.
Critical and sensitive periods are time periods where our brain is the most plastic and goes through developmental maturation, as it has the capability to readily acquire and understand information and language. Once students pass this time period, learning novel information like a new language can get difficult. With early education, students can lack a strong foundation in their subjects, which can be hard to relearn later in higher education.
Many schools that lack funding have trouble hiring and retaining teachers on their low pay. Foreign language classes are scarcely offered in low income and minority school districts. Foreign language classes are mostly seen in schools with rich, affluent white families, according to Gross, an author at the Hechinger Reporter (Gross, 2016). In addition, according to Smedley, author of the book The Right Thing To Do, The Smart Thing To Do, “wealthy and predominantly white Montclair offers foreign languages at the preschool level, while poor and predominantly black Paterson does not offer any until high school— and then, relatively few” (Smedley, 1970). This lack of high quality foreign language classes and teachers can make it harder for minority students to be bilingual or get the opportunity to become bilingual. Bilingualism improves cognitive and communication skills, while also making applicants competitive for schools and jobs.
In addition, besides the standard curriculum teachers and faculty are expected to teach in their specific quarters and semesters, schools and teachers also have a hidden curriculum where unofficial rules and norms are taught to students. For example, we learn how to communicate with others, socialize, cooperate, and learn to compromise, which are important skills to have. Our education system provides us with important social and intellectual skills that allow us to have a successful education.
In order to reduce these performance gaps among the high and low SES families, our communities must take action. In order to narrow the performance gaps, we need to start building the foundational education early on in children’s life. Firstly, according to Olinsky, senior vice president of Policy and Strategy at American Progress, we should implement free, universal pre-k programs so that children from all socioeconomic backgrounds can attend school and learn from their peers and teachers (Olinsky, 2015). This will enable children to develop schemas of the world around them by learning numbers, letters, and animals. Children coming from disadvantaged families will especially benefit from this because oftentimes, these children's parents or guardians have jobs requiring heavy labor and extended hours, meaning homeschooling is infrequent and unrealistic. In addition, jobs and companies need to encompass a more diverse workforce by hiring capable workers from all SES. When families of lower SES can work and earn for their family, they will be able to afford better educational opportunities, such as tutoring sessions and educational materials. As a society, we must fight to increase the wages given per hour to employees (Olinsky, 2015). All workers, regardless of their social class and/or employers, should have the right to a livable wage, in which they can use that money to provide for better education, better health, and better protection for their family.
Although there will never be a perfect answer on how we, as a society, can reduce educational inequality globally, we can certainly start with educating ourselves and our families of the disadvantaged groups of people and how to help them. Helpful resources like uncf.org and education-inequalities.org display databases that show how important factors wealth, race, and ethnicity can affect someone’s chance to learn and be curious about science and the universe. As a society, we should take advantage of these resources and fight for change, and fight for a more well educated America and educational system.
For example, institutional racism has deprived certain races of getting quality education. Data collected from the public schools of Chicago indicated that “87 percent of their public school enrollment was Black or Hispanic; less than 10 percent of children in the schools were White” (“Race Matters: Unequal Opportunities for School Readiness”). In addition, similar reports also indicated that in St. Louis, “82 percent of the student populations were Black or Hispanic; in Philadelphia and Cleveland, 79 percent; in Los Angeles, 84 percent, in Detroit, 96 percent; in Baltimore, 89 percent” (Ibid). There is a huge disconnect between public and private schools and their class diversity and funding. Schools that lack diversity suffer from educational inequality, which is a barrier to success. Many low income families live in areas where schools have few resources, low teacher availability and worse educational access, in terms of tutors, extracurricular activities and physical education. The insufficiency in the school system promotes inequality and unnecessarily divides low SES children and their higher SES peers. This segregation minimizes students’ opportunity to be in a diverse population, which is likely the sort of environment they will work with in the future.
Image Source: “Race Matters: Unequal Opportunities for School Readiness.” The Annie E. Casey Foundation
According to Darling-Hammond, the author of “Unequal Opportunity: Race and Education,” “The wealthiest 10 percent of U.S. school districts spend nearly 10 times more than the poorest 10 percent (Darling-Hammond). This difference in educational disparity is due to the low SES income for minorities and ultimately endangers our future children’s lives and education pathways. In addition, public education systems in which white students are the majority are “more than twice as likely to offer a significant number of advanced placement (AP) classes as schools where Black and Latino students are in the majority” (“Race Matters: Unequal Opportunities for School Readiness”). AP classes are rigorous courses in specific subjects that encourage students to think outside the box, as well as analytically. These classes are similar to college level classes, as they prepare students to learn materials at a faster pace and work independently. AP courses can significantly impact one’s educational experience in high school, as they can allow for receiving merit-based scholarships for college, and thus save tuition money. In low income areas, where students don't have the privileges of AP classes, their opportunity to receive tuition scholarships, and attending college is seriously minimized.
Now with the growing world of technology, all students to some degree rely on a proper internet connection to hand in tests, homework material, and collaborate for projects. Due to COVID-19, having a strong internet connection is crucial, as several schools and colleges have decided to have a remote fall semester in which students will be completing their schooling at home, on their laptops and tablets. This can be a serious issue for families and communities housed in low economic places, because internet access and proper computers and monitors may not be financially feasible. For example, “household incomes that are below $30,000 a year (29%) do not have the ability to own a smartphone” (Anderson and Kumar). In addition, 40% of low income families don’t have home broadband services, while 46% do not own a traditional computer (Ibid). Lack of high speed internet connections can really hinder a child’s education as they will be less likely to attend live classes and lectures due to broadband connection issues. Live-streaming classes is a great way to stay engaged in a class, while also getting an opportunity to interact with instructors if a student has a specific conceptual question. In order to reduce this educational disparity, our government needs to focus on providing a strong universal broadband connection to all our communities. This strategy will help reduce technology disparity in high and low SES backgrounds families. This plan has already sprung into action in some parts of the United States, such as New York City. In January of 2020, “New York Mayor Bill de Blasio claimed that he is aiming to provide universal broadband internet access to NYC, this plan offers a strategy for encouraging new private investment on an internet infrastructure that the city government” (Wood). This plan will likely aid residents living in relative and absolute poverty. These revolutionary and radical changes need to occur more often in our country to provide better, and higher quality education for future generations of students.
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Sources
Anderson, Monica, and Madhumitha Kumar. “Digital Divide Persists Even as Lower-Income
Americans Make Gains in Tech Adoption.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center,
Darling-Hammond, Linda. “Unequal Opportunity: Race and Education.” Brookings,
Brookings, 28 July 2016, www.brookings.edu/articles/unequal-opportunity-race-and-
education/.
García, E., & Weiss, E. (2017, September 27). Education inequalities at the school starting
gate: Gaps, trends, and strategies to address them. Economic Policy
Gross, Natalie. “To Help Low-Income Kids, More Schools Try Dual-Language Programs.” The
Christian Science Monitor, The Christian Science Monitor, 21 Nov. 2016,
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Olinsky, B. (2015, May 1). 6 Policies to Combat Inequality. Center for American
“Race Matters: Unequal Opportunities for School Readiness.” The Annie E. Casey
Smedley, Brian D. “Inequality in Teaching and Schooling: How Opportunity Is Rationed to
Students of Color in America.” The Right Thing to Do, The Smart Thing to Do:
Enhancing Diversity in the Health Professions: Summary of the Symposium on Diversity
in Health Professions in Honor of Herbert W.Nickens, M.D.., U.S. National Library of
Medicine, 1 Jan. 1970, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK223640/.
Wood, Colin. “New York City Unveils 'Internet Master Plan' for Universal Broadband
Access.” StateScoop, 7 Jan. 2020, statescoop.com/new-york-city-internet-master-plan-
universal-access-john-paul-farmer/.
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