The educational achievement gap in the United States highlights the disparities of various forms of access, support, opportunities, treatment and attention across lines of race and socioeconomic status. It is well understood that, on a national level, white students preform better in school than their black classmates based off of test scores, enrollment in advanced classes and graduation rates (see hereand here). This understanding has harsh implications that may lead to the manifestation of particular biases that could potentially foster the maintenance of the achievement gap (see here, hereand here). These attitudes and biases, however statistically supported they may be, can be harmful because it leads to the notion that white culture better supports a students educational experience. This stereotype is not so easily quantifiable due to the difficulty in measuring cultural and ideological understandings of success, but one way it is made very visible is through a school’s implementation and enforcement of dress codes, which has become a highly contested issue covered by major media outlets. Continue reading
Author: Sarah Hancock
One major contributing factor, well understood amongst scholars, of the achievement gap is the socioeconomic disparities across student populations. The ways in which socioeconomic disparities are manifested and how different experiences of poverty affect students differently is a topic that deserve more scholarly attention. Proper nutrition is oftentimes discussed more when it comes to its relation to academic success, as studies have shown that adequate nutrition and consumption of specific nutrients and foods is associated with higher grades, among other facets of higher academic performance among students (CDC Health and Academic Achievement Report). However, one factor that should also be included in this discourse is the effect that homelessness has on academic achievement – especially because homelessness among students is rising. Homeless children and youth are defined as such by meeting a number of criteria. Namely, they do not have access to a fixed nighttime residence due to economic factors or situations of loss or abandonment. Because of this many of the youth who are defined as homeless sleep in friends houses, hotels and motels, trailer parks and campgrounds, cars and other public places. Continue reading
Much of the discourse surrounding the black/white achievement gap in public education is concerned with the forces that cause such disparities in academic achievement between racial groups. Major topics of discussion and research include school funding, teacher quality, curriculum rigor, family’s socioeconomic status, summer activities and extracurricular opportunities. Scholars, specifically sociologists Edward Morris and Brea Perry, have identified a key factor in the achievement gap equation that often gets neglected, which is the way in which schools carry out disciplinary actions. Continue reading
Lake Region School District is located in rural Maine and is well-known for consistently producing underachieving students. In 2010, the state publicized and circulated this information throughout local media outlets labeling Lake Region High School (LRHS) as “one of the 10 persistently lowest-performing schools in the state.” Continue reading