One topic that I found interesting this year is the topic of socioeconomic status in our society and educational systems. I wanted to dig deeper into this topic and how socioeconomic status is a factor in a students education. What I found is that not only does socioeconomic status effect overall achievement in school, but also parent involvement and health of students.
An article showed that parents involvement in the educational pursuits of their children has profoundly influenced young people’s academic success (Malone, 2017). This goes to show that students that have support behind them from their house are able to perform better in school and have higher achievement rates. This is a disadvantage to students from lower income families because they may not always have a parent at home to be able to push them and support their academic career. This may be due to lack of support, working a second job, or other factors like drug addiction or mental illness.
This example ties directly into what we discussed during module 4. We talked about how different parenting strategies can effect the longterm outcome of a students academic success. We watched a video( “Interview with Lareau”)that discussed the process of a neglecting parenting style will negatively effect the students academic performance (3/28). This show’s that parent involvement is important to the success of students and their academic careers.
I would also like to talk about how the overall family socioeconomic status will effect the students success in an academic setting. An article read, children from lower socioeconomic status (SES) families tend to perform worse in school than children from more privileged backgrounds. However, it is unclear to what extent differences in intelligence account for the academic achievement gap between high and low SES children (Stumm, 2017). This shows that there is an achievement gap between the lower and higher socioeconomic status students. But it also shows that they are not sure how much of that gap is created from pure intelligence. Some of this gap can be create from intelligence, but also it could be enhanced from other factors like parent involvement, outside resources, and many others.
This factor goes to show that there are many different aspects of a students life that can influence how he/she performs on a academic level compared to others, but socioeconomic status is going to play a major role in a students performance in school. No matter if it is from lack of intelligence, or from other factors revolving around a student coming from a family of lower socioeconomic status.
As talked about in module 4, we as teachers need to be able to teach every student. Through this we need to be able to teacher our students, our class textbook says, the most important thing you can do for your students is teach them to read, write, speak, compute, think and create–through constant, rigorous, culturally connected instruction. Too often, goals for low-SES, or minority-group student have focused exclusively on basic skills (Woolfolk, 2012). By saying this it means that teachers only focus on teaching low-SES students basic skills and expect the rest to come later on in their education. But as teachers we should be teaching all students the same skills so that not only to the high-SES student get a full education, but also the low-SES students as well.
Lastly health concerns for low socioeconomic status students plays a factor in educational achievement. The article showed that, children in social housing had poorer health and education outcomes than all other, but living in a social housing in wealthier areas was associated with better adolescent outcomes (Martens, 2014). Students that do not have a proper home are not given the tools that they need to be able to succeed in a educational setting. This shows that the students coming from a lower income housing situation are at a disadvantage. Only the students that come from wealthier social house see and advantage over the poor social housing group of students. When students are not healthy they are not able to attend school. The health concerns of students living in social housing and lower income households is alarming. When students are not able to go to school because of a health concern they are only falling farther behind in their education. Since studies from earlier already showed that students of lower income families have a lower intelligence, any missed school days are only setting them further back from the rest of the students at school.
This also connects to what we talked about in module 4, when talking about fostering resilience. During our class period on (3/30) we talked about fostering resilience in our students. As teachers we can start to implement the thoughts of being resilient as a student and not allow the outside factors of what is going on in a students life to hinder their education.
The first video I have attached below is the video I referenced earlier in this blog. It talks deeper into how different parenting styles may affect long term outcomes for children.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1ortYT4TWg
The image that is posted below is a graph showing the difference in hospital visits between the advantaged and disadvantaged.
In conclusion this is something that as teachers we need to be aware of and need to work on helping this situation. Students should not be at a disadvantage in the classroom because of something they themselves cannot control. Teachers need to work together to offer more help and more services to students that come from a lower-SES family to allow them to succeed in the classroom and not fall behind.
References
Malone, D. (2017). Socioeconomic Status: A Potential Challenge for Parental Involvement in Schools. 83(3), 58-62. Retrieved 2017.
Stumm, S. V. (2017). Socioeconomic status amplifies the achievement gap throughout compulsory education independent of intelligence. Intelligence, 60, 57-62. doi:10.1016/j.intell.2016.11.006
Martens, P. J. (2014). The Effect of Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status on Education and Health Outcomes for Children Living in Social Housing. American Journal of Public Health, 104(11), 2103-2113.