[regional_school] Re: Income Inequality-The real cause of the urban school problem
- From: Meghan Delehanty <meghandelred@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <regional_school@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2011 08:34:48 -0400
Do you have any RCSD parents involved in the behind the scenes?
From: wcala@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: regional_school@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [regional_school] Re: Income Inequality-The real cause of the urban
school problem
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2011 08:29:38 -0400
We continue to work behind the scenes with RCSD and legislative road blocks.
The next months are critical. If we do not make progress, we will be planning
alternative strategies. I will keep all informed.Thanks Bill From:
regional_school-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:regional_school-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of neilcho@xxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, October 14, 2011 11:36 AM
To: regional_school@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [regional_school] Re: Income Inequality-The real cause of the urban
school problem This op-ed piece is dead on. It also leaves little room for
optimism, at least on the macro level. Given the current me-first, I'm-a-victim
stance of many advantaged Americans (and their stranglehold on our national
legislative process), it is hard to see how we will stabilize, much less turn
around, the growing income gap. Aside from educational consequences, this
current drift and the mean-spiritedness that surrounds it has also had profound
effects on our national health care system and people's access to it. Soon, I
fear, it will find outward expression in social unrest by those being demonized
by the Right Wing and the well-off as "the problem" (immigrants, unions,
minorities, poor people, etc.) . It is in this context of irrational
scapegoating that I believe we all have to do what we can on a "small stage" to
affect positive change, at least at the micro (individual, local, etc.) level.
So, what's up with our regional school project? Is there a way to keep pushing
and a reason to keep working on putting some flesh on its bones?
Best to all, Neil Chodorow -----Original Message-----
From: William Cala <wcala@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: regional_school <regional_school@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Fri, Oct 14, 2011 8:26 am
Subject: [regional_school] Income Inequality-The real cause of the urban school
problemThis 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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