Why Children from Lower Socioeconomic Classes, on Average, Have Lower Academic Achievement Than Middle-Class Children
Why Children from Lower Socioeconomic Classes, on Average, Have Lower Academic Achievement Than Middle-Class Children
Richard Rothsteinputs schooling inequalities within the larger context of disadvantages linked to poverty. When the nation essentially abandoned antipoverty policies, it effectively locked in vast learning disadvantages that it then asked schools to overcome. He describes how social class characteristics operate to produce differences in achievement. Rothstein discusses why when lower social class characteristics are highly concentrated in particular neighborhoods,achievement is depressed even further. He notes that better schools can elicit higher achievement from disadvantaged children than worse schools, but no matter how good school quality may be, the achievement gap will remain. He describes some practical programs—such as high-quality early childhood care and education, health clinics in schools, high-quality afterschool and summer programs, and policies to promote residential integration by race and class—that could help narrow the achievement gap. Each of these is politically difficult, Rothstein acknowledges, but none is out of reach.
Keywords: Socioeconomic status, class, culture, parenting, poverty, neighborhoods
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