From the intercity of Detroit to the rural farmland of Missouri, children all over the United States share one common requirement. They must attend school. Most students groan at the idea of having to go to school every day, failing to see the importance of an education. However, upon reflection most people will be able to appreciate the impact it had on them. Similar to the cluelessness of its importance, many students are completely unaware of the disparity within the overall education system. They have no idea that the education they are receiving is completely different from their counterparts in another town, county, or state.
Students Walking to Class – Photo Credit
This begs the question; how different can they really be? There are several websites such as Niche, where the sole purpose is to compare school districts and document the differences. After just a brief look, it becomes evident how different these schools can be. The top-rated traditional public school in America is Stuyvesant High School, located in New York City. It graduates 99% of its students, boasts an average SAT score of 1470, and has a 99% proficiency in both reading and math. Meanwhile, one of the many public high schools on the bottom of the list was Butler High School, from Augusta, Georgia. Here, only 67% of the students graduate, the average SAT is 930, and the school is 8% proficient at reading and 5% proficient at math. The difference is as apparent as it is astounding. When looking at the two side by side, it is hard to believe the two public high schools can be that different.
The Highest Rated Public High School in the Nation – Photo Credit
Of course, these results are multi-factorial. There are many elements that go into the education of a student. “The Factors Effecting Student Achievement,” by Engin Karadag, outlines some of the many factors that can impact student achievement. As you probably guessed, the quality of the school and teacher qualifications play a significant role in student education. A study completed by Berkley students, entitled “The contributions of school quality and teacher qualifications to student performance: Evidence from a natural experiment in Beijing middle schools,“ found that increasing the quality of the teacher pool resulted in an average increase in student scores. This report, in addition to the many similar studies that reinforced it, stress the theme that the school and teacher quality effect education. Still, even these reports acknowledge that there are many other factors.
Of the many factors that exist, socio-economic status is one of the most prominent. This is because it is an underlying factor that affects many other issues which are on the surface. For example, one widely accepted fact is that schools in low-income areas are frequently worse. This is because less money is generated by the area for the education system. This lack of funding is then translated into schools that lack updated materials and facilities. These educational institutions are often unable to bring in quality teachers because they are drawn in by the schools with better funding, seeing as they can offer higher salaries and better working conditions.
An Illinois School in an Impoverished Area – Photo Credit
Moreover, there are many psychological factors that can impact students. Overtime, the low-quality education institutions have failed many students reinforcing a positive feedback loop in which the students are not expected to succeed. Knowing these expectations, the students frequently give in to the downward trend of the schools, resulting in both their own failure as well as that of the schools. Often, these trends occur in low-income areas where the schools are not getting enough funding to start with.
While a failing education system should be important in and of itself, the issue reaches beyond just education. Many studies have displayed that there is a positive correlation between financial success and level of education. Meaning that the children who are unable to get an excellent education will most likely fail to find fiscal success. This can have a cyclical effect in low-income areas which are unable to support their education systems properly. While this may not have been how the issue started, it has not and will not be helpful in its resolution moving forward.
Education, Employment, and Earnings – Photo Credit
Overall, the purpose of this blog is to explore our current education system. This includes searching for the root of the problem, researching the impacts, and investigating possible solutions. While this blog may not have a direct impact on anything, education is the first step.
Gabe, I appreciated your breakdown of the education system in America. It’s interesting to point out the stark contrast between wealthier public schools like Stuyvesant vs. the extremely underprivileged ones like Butler, which is caught in an endless cycle of unequal education and poverty. I liked how in your analysis, you especially emphasized this cyclic nature of educational and economic disparities. I did a little research about an organization called Stand Together, which attacks at the root of the poverty problem in our country, which is education, or the lack thereof. Stand Together expresses that “fundamental to a child’s growth and an adult’s success, education is integral to intellectual, emotional, and physical development. Yet, every year, millions of children fall through the cracks of a broken system and lose hope for a fulfilling, prosperous life.” Like your blog, the organization’s website discusses how children can become trapped in a whirlpool of instability, distress, and even health problems as a result of a poor education. Essentially, the existing problems of poverty inhibit students from receiving a proper education, which in turn hinders students’ ability to succeed in the future. Like you mentioned, this issue is extremely complex and cannot be resolved overnight. However, organizations like Stand Together are getting the ball rolling by enabling students to succeed and have opportunities that they never could have had without help. Specifically, Stand Together helps students through scholarships, mentoring, and after-school programs that help children follow their dreams and build the foundation for a brighter future.
https://www.stand-together.org/cycle-educational-failure/
Gabe,
As I am certain you have researched, and as I can also see through your keen use of graphs, there is a distinct link between education level and, what I will call, success in later life. Clearly the schools that are below 10% in both reading and mathematics will likely produce young adults that will not have this future success, as they are less likely to be able to further their education. Of course then we get into a cycle of poverty, potential unemployment, and an overall unsuccessful life that may only create more children entering the very same public school to repeat this cycle. This is the reason for so many programs that are looking to provide funding for these kids to escape. You can look at WorldVision (https://www.worldvision.ca/stories/child-sponsorship/what-is-the-cycle-of-poverty), which hopes to give international help to students from areas that do not support the greatest education systems. Or GlobalGiving which similarly tries to break this cycle by providing a starting fund to students (https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/break-the-cycle-of-poverty-through-education/). The view that education is able to break the cycle of poverty and help kids get out of a bad situation is clear – you can see it in the graph you provided as your last image – unemployment goes way down and average weekly salary shoots upward at that point.
Yet, the question that I am stuck asking is why do so many of these programs exist, or have to exist. Why can we not take the money invested into these programs and instead use them to develop the schools? Schools that have more resources available to students will prompt a greater interest in education. By having better school aesthetics, chairs, fresh paint, students will not feel like they are being as forced to going to somewhere drab and boring. By having resources available to do fun science and physics labs, you will boost interest in education in students who desperately need it in order to get out of their current predicament (https://www.emergingedtech.com/2016/04/10-ways-to-increase-students-interest-in-a-subject/). So I am here asking why do these organizations act to raise money for individual students – to change lives one at a time, instead of using their revenue to invest in the schools that produce students that get stuck in the first place? Addressing the schools one by one can lead to generations of people who escape their cycles of poverty – it would be the better solution in my mind at least.