The Achievement Gap

Children from low income families are struggling to keep up in our public schools. As the achievement gap between these children and children from the middle class continues to widen, the concern for the future of the United States continues to grow.

From the time a child is born, they are learning from their surroundings. Children from middle class families usually have books in their homes and are surrounded by technology that many lower class families can't afford. Many middle class families have one parent that is able to remain at home during the early developmental years of a child. If a parent is unable to stay home, a middle class family is more apt to be able to afford more highly trained daycare for their child. These factors can lead to a middle class child having a head start before they ever begin Kindergarten.

It isn't that children from lower class families are unable to learn at the same rate; it is that they are not being exposed to the same things. By the time they are school age, they are already behind and that continues during summer vacations and other times away from school. So, the question is what can be done to begin to bridge the achievement gaps between these children?

According to Antonia Cortese, the executive vice president of the American Federation of Teachers, "If we truly want to close the achievement gap, we have to find ways to make sure these children get a better-than-average education." This includes things such as better discipline, higher quality teaching, earlier intervention, and more resources. It is difficult to change what goes on inside private homes, but if we prepare our schools to better prepare these children, the achievement gap will begin to close and the future of the country will be more hopeful for many.

Consistent discipline is important for all children. Students need to learn to be respectful at an early age. If a classroom is constantly disrupted for behavioral issues, there is no way that a teacher or student can concentrate on the tasks at hand. Schools need to assure that there classrooms are conducive to highly effective teaching and learning. There are programs available for schools such as Invitational Education and Positive Behavior Support that can assist with goals of discipline and respect.

Teachers are inherently hard working and good people. Many of them put several additional hours in every week to assure things are getting done for their students. However, throughout the United States, higher quality, more experienced teachers are leaving urban schools to teach in smaller, more rural districts. They are leaving for a variety of reasons, but regardless of their reasons, urban schools are where many of our lower income families reside. By losing these teachers, the students that are already struggling to keep up, are facing yet another uphill battle.

As mentioned earlier in the article, children are influenced at a very young age. It only stands to reason that intervening at younger ages would benefit those children whose environments lack stimulation. Cortese stated, "With appropriate early instruction, including early screening combined with well-targeted, well-designed, intensive and immediate intervention, about 90 to 95 percent of our students could be reading at or near grade level by third grade." Given this information, it is imperative that we insist our schools do more and that they do it earlier in order to give children from lower income homes an even playing field.

It won't surprise you that schools with more affluent students have more resources. The children that need additional resources the most are getting the least amount of them. Part of this has to do with the lack of follow through on the part of our government when it comes to funding. No Child Left Behind continues to identify schools in need of improvement, but the money simply is not there to back the promises. Writing to our government officials and getting involved ourselves can only help with this gap in funding and in turn with the gap in achievement.

Closing the achievement gap is not going to be easy, but it can be done. If everyone does their part and pays attention to signs that there is a problem, we can change the future for many children. Only by recognizing the problem will we be able to begin solving it.