How Does Social Class Affect Education

Throughout decades, education inequality is still one of the most deliberate and controversial issues in the United States. Thus far, the privilege or right to receive education has not attained the level of equality throughout the nation. Poor districts obtain less educational funds while rich districts obtain more, which create an immense gap between the quality of schools in poor and rich areas. In other words, the education gap is the root of inequality in America. Inequality in education is linked to the major problems in the society. The need for studies to be done to find ways of overcoming these inequalities is very inevitable. The means of mitigating these inequalities are important for the entire world. This is something of great interest due to the fact that children need quality education which is a pillar for a guaranteed future. Generally speaking, the distinctions among races, genders, and classes in the society have caused the educational inequality in America.

In this article the author explains how the schools are based on a class system and higher-class areas have better recourses and more classes offered. Higher-class societies have better equipment, new technology, modern facilities, better books, and better teachers. Not only are the school’s educational facilities better the extracurricular activities are also better. For example sports facilities, training facilities, band, art, all because these lower class schools cant afford what these lower class schools can. Students in lower end districts are actually ending up worse off then the higher end students. Meaning attrition rate, drop out rate, sat scores and much more.

This is due to children from different social background have different access to resources and have different experiences of education. This means that lower class children are still more likely to have a lesser education than those pupils who are more privileged (). Rather than improving life chances for all the pupils through education the system, it still leaves a barrier which is not equal. This lack of equality could also reflect from the parents as the amount of knowledge parents have about schooling and the educational market would be different. Parents that have more of a cultural, social and economical capital have more choice on where to send their child. Money can help if the best school is far away of if the child needs their own textbooks for further study. Parents or guardians who have a good understanding and knowledge of how schooling works are in better position to influence their child to choose a certain path. This therefore puts the middle class and above in an improved position than the classic working class as they would have the knowledge as well as the finances to put their child in a higher achieving school with a higher reputation or place them in private schools, like; Harrow or Eton, which would be the ‘gateway’ to success as they would more and greater connections in the real

Schooling affects both education and income since most of the better paying jobs require a college degree or other advanced study. Jobs that offer lower income and social prestige demand less schooling. Most people consider schooling crucial to personal success. Just as students are treated differently within schools, schools themselves differ in fundamental ways.

Revolutionist and Philanthropist Nelson Mandela, once said “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. (Forbes Magazine) Indeed! Education is one of the most important qualities a person can have. However, not everyone has access to the resources for a good education. Here in America, where education is free up until college, why does a child’s socioeconomic status affects their elementary education? One of the main factor for low SES is Poverty. Which ultimately determines their life’s chances. However, with improvement in family, and community, and health and safety issues, and improving the school system for equal educational opportunities, the dynamics of low socioeconomics will start to change.

In the modern world, education is the crucial key to the economic success. It can help an undeveloped country become a developing country, turn a developing country into a developed one, or even make a developed country become a more advanced economy. A successful education system is a system which makes sure that every student can access school equally. However, although the United States is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, there seem to be many inequalities in the American education system. In this essay, the education inequalities will be classified into four areas: race, economic background, gender, and Standardized Educational Testing.

The View that Schools and What Happens Within Them are the Main Causes of Social Class Difference in Educational Achievement

When the author says that “Education reflects social stratification,” (Thomas 2013) he is saying that a child’s education is based on their income and social class status. “Poverty is the most relevant factor in determining the outcome of a person’s educational journey,” (Thomas 2013) a child who do not have wealth would stay in a poorly neighborhood and the school is no better all the kids deal with the same issues. They cannot really spend money on things they really need like new books or computers. Sometimes they do not even have enough staff members and teachers to meet the kid’s requirements. Reasoning being is because most of the funds are spent on what the child needs such as paper and meals instead of on the programs to help their

Family with low economic standards has fewer opportunities than the children that come from a high economic status. Although the federal states finance private school this school have their own private institutions to finance their own institution. In other words school in a rich neighborhood have a better form of education more supply, better schools campus and better qualify teachers, in differential at the poor communities. Even though education is considerate expansive went you star College or assist to a University where the student constantly have to take students loans, because does not qualify for any government financial help. James D. Kirylo in the preferential option for the poor said “School setting is a place where educators’ are in a natural position to make preferential option decisions when working with youngsters whose lives are affected by poverty”. For this reason the government have a form of pressure to the students to paid their debs, in most cases the student don’t finish paying until they rich a average age of 50 or more. And in the Marjory of the case Spanish and African American are the one who suffer the most went it come to education status. Education should not be defined by race, religion or gender it should be equal for everybody regardless of the social economic

In the beginning of lecture, we began to learn about the social context of schools via “The Widening Academic Achievement Gap between the Rich and the Poor” by Sean F. Reardon, written in 2011, Reardon looked at the economic, political and community the students live in. This has been a constant class conflict in the United States ever since modern education first took shape. How those born with a silver spoon would have a much easier life. In addition, the difference between larger cities; more populated and urbanized, along with the smaller communities which have far less of each. As the country became more urban, the idea of differences between big cities and small towns arose. The same with growth of the K-12 school system. From this high school diplomas where once all a person needed to live a sustainable life. Now a college degree is required for nearly every job that provides a standard wage of living. Thus, my research question, stims from the “Why drop out?” Others have looked at this question, in other fields such as John Alspaugh who wrote “The Effect of Transition Grade to High School, Gender, and Grade Level Upon Dropout Rates” in 2000.

The quantitative data I used in this research study had sufficient evidence to identify a trend in educational systems: a trend where those of higher social class receive a higher quality education; a trend that, I concluded, needs to be resolved in order to eradicate inequality due to social class. Being able to identify these injustices, and having the educational background to use as a tool when looking at societal issues, should prove to be extremely invaluable when working as a

Given the uneven cultural backgrounds and intellectual foundations that students have, researcher hypothesized that, “school fuels the social-class achievement gap by enabling unfair social

Socioeconomic status (SES) is the social status as measured by income, education and occupation (Placeholder5). SES influences educational outcomes, for example low-income families are unlikely to have the financial resources to purchase learning materials (Aikens & Barbarin, 2008) such as books or computers to create a supportive learning environment (Orr, 2003). The lack of resources ch widens the educational gap between rich and poor children (Hart, 2013; Lubienski, 2002). Research indicates that existing economic power in students’ community have a strong impact on academic achievement. For example, English (2002) found that approximately half of the difference in test score can be attributed to demographic factors such as income, parents’ education attainment, and urban influence, rather than the schools (Lubienski, 2002).

Religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, are many examples of effects on academic education. But one of the biggest effect is social class. What many people don’t know is not all schooling is free, even public schooling. Public schooling has fees such as art fees, lunch fees, book fees (sometimes), and if you go to a school where they are giving out computers you must pay to use them because the school could possibly make it a requirement to have a computer to be able to do work in and outside of school and be monitored by the school on what the kid is doing.

gain of knowledge and experience. If we are simply segregating the distribution of certain knowledge due to the income of a person, we are restricting the right for a person to obtain equal knowledge. With the education system being constricted due to the income of the student’s family, they are unable to fulfill their grasp of knowledge in comparison to the schools of a wealthier district.