[regional_school] Income Inequality-The real cause of the urban school problem
- From: "William Cala" <wcala@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <regional_school@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2011 08:26:20 -0400
This op. ed. is drawn from a very powerful new book, Whither Opportunity,
just published by the Russell Sage Foundation.
https://www.russellsage.org/publications/whither-opportunity
ECONOMIC INEQUALITY: THE REAL CAUSE OF THE URBAN SCHOOL PROBLEM
Chicago Tribune Op. Ed. -- October 06, 2011
By Greg J. Duncan and Richard J. Murnane
America's urban public schools are in trouble: Student test scores are low
and dropout rates are high. Recent remedies proposed include everything from
reducing the power of teachers unions and opening more charter schools to
ending test-based accountability. But what if education critics are focused
on the wrong problem?
Implicit in these very different proposals is the assumption that urban
schools are failing because they are run badly, and that the solution lies
in improving their management. Over the last five years, we have been
involved in a wide-ranging research project that provides compelling
evidence to the contrary. Our findings show that the root of the problems
facing urban schools can be found in gradual but extremely powerful changes
in the nation's economy - not the least of which is the increasingly unequal
distribution of family incomes. Policies that address the consequences of
these changes, which recent poverty figures show have worsened, are more
likely to improve the life chances of the children from low-income families.
For the first three-quarters of the 20th century, economic growth, fueled in
large part by the increasing educational attainments of successive
generations of Americans, was a rising tide that lifted the boats of the
rich and poor alike. During the most recent three decades, by contrast, the
fruits of economic growth have not been widely shared and the gap between
the incomes of the nation's rich and poor families has grown enormously.
Little noticed, but vital for our nation's future prosperity, is the equally
dramatic widening of the gap between the educational attainments of children
growing up in rich and poor families. Between 1978 and 2008, the gap between
the average mathematics and reading test scores of children from high- and
low-income families grew by a third. This growing test score gap has been
reflected in a growing gap in completed schooling. Over the last 20 years,
the rate of affluent children who completed college increased by 21
percentage points, while the graduation rate of children from low-income
families increased by only 4 percentage points.
Growing economic inequality contributes in a multitude of ways to a widening
gulf between the educational outcomes of rich and poor children. In the
early 1970s, the gap between what parents in the top and bottom quintiles
spent on enrichment activities such as music lessons, travel and summer
camps was approximately $2,700 per year (in 2008 dollars). By 2005-2006, the
difference had increased to $7,500. Between birth and age 6, children from
high-income families spend an average of 1,300 more hours than children from
low-income families in "novel" places - other than at home or school, or in
the care of another parent or a day care facility. This matters, because
when children are asked to read science and social studies texts in the
upper elementary school grades, background knowledge is critical to
comprehension and academic success.
Historically, we have relied on our public schools to level the playing
field for children born into different circumstances, but in recent years,
the gaps in achievement and behavior between high- and low-income children
have only grown wider. Why? For one thing, residential segregation by income
has meant that poor children are concentrated in the same schools to a much
greater extent today than 40 years ago. As a result, children from
low-income families are far more likely to have classmates with low
achievement and behavior problems, which have a negative effect on their own
learning. Children from poor families are also especially likely to attend
schools with high rates of student turnover during the school year, and
there is clear evidence that students learn less under such circumstances.
In Chicago's public schools, 10 percent of students change school every year
and it is not uncommon for some classrooms to have five new students arrive
during the year. Research shows that students learn less if they attend
schools with high student turnover during the school year.
Teacher quality contributes to the weak academic performance of low-income
students as well. Schools serving high concentrations of poor, nonwhite and
low-achieving students find it difficult to attract and retain skilled
teachers. When teachers leave after only a short period of time, there is
little payoff to investments in improving their skills, and it is difficult
to coordinate instruction among teachers, a feature that characterizes
effective schools.
Americans' reactions to income inequality range from dismay and indignation
to a belief that inequality is simply the price of the chance to achieve the
American dream. Debating the merits of teachers unions, charter schools and
test-based accountability all fail to address the core problem, which is
that growth in family income inequality has eroded educational
opportunities. Promising policy responses to this problem include early
direct investments in children, particularly through high-quality preschool
programs that teach the basic cognitive skills and socio-emotional skills
that children need to thrive in schools, and income supports such as the
earned income tax credit that raise the income of low-wage workers and have
been shown to strengthen poor families and boost children's school
successes. We do not mean to imply that school policies do not matter; they
do. But only by enacting policies that address the underlying problem of
economic inequality will our country remain a place where education opens
the door to opportunity and upward social mobility - the kind of society in
which all Americans can take pride.
- Greg J. Duncan is an education professor at the University of California
at Irvine. Richard J. Murnane is a professor of education and society at the
Harvard Graduate School of Education. They are co-editors of "Whither
Opportunity? Rising Inequality, Schools and Children's Life Chances,"
published by the Russell Sage Foundation and the Spencer Foundation.
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