New Book Aims to Solve Academic Inequality in Schools

Academic outcomes will not uniformly improve until schools figure out a way to equalize opportunity for their students, argues a new education book.

Giving all American kids an equal opportunity to learn is the key to getting the country’s education system on the right track, write Drs. William Schmidt and Curtis McKnight in their new book Inequality for All: The Challenge of Unequal Opportunity in American Schools. One of the biggest challenges facing the country’s education system at the moment are the achievement gaps between students from high-income families and their less well-off peers. This discrepancy also translates to their schools, where rich communities can pitch in to make up the shortfall in funding plaguing all school districts, and therefore can provide for their children a better classroom environment.

The biggest factor that contributes to the growing achievement gap is the plague of low expectations. Children from minority or low-income backgrounds typically tackle curriculum that is less challenging, especially in the subjects of mathematics and English. That means that even if the students are prepared and eager to learn, they will not get the opportunities to tackle topics typically taught as a matter of course in schools in more affluent districts. Even if the schools have a mixed student body, serving a large percentage of both poor and rich students, typically it is the minority and low-income students who end up the victims of “tracking,” which the authors describe as practice of assigning students on weaker classrooms. As the students progress from grade to grade, in these tracked sections, they inevitably fall more and more behind kids on their grade who are routinely exposed to more rigorous content.

The importance of differences in instruction among classrooms underscores the essential role of teachers. Schmidt and McKnight are quick to note that it is unfair to simply blame teachers for struggling schools. They present strong evidence that too many teachers are inadequately prepared to teach mathematics and are forced to pick and choose what to teach from the conflicting guidance of textbooks, state standards and assessments. The authors are especially critical of the most commonly used mathematics textbooks. Many of these give shallow coverage to too many subjects rather than focusing on a few key topics at each grade, as is done in higher-achieving countries.

The solution to this issue could come in the form of the controversial Common Core Standards, the curriculum developed by academic experts and education representatives from all over the country. States that choose to adopt standards that conform with CCS will be able to lay down minimum standards for their schools rigorous enough that even students who don’t do any advanced work will, at least, be exposed to concepts that would make them competitive after graduation.

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New Book Aims to Solve Academic Inequality in Schools | Renascence School International News Blog

June 8, 2012 at 2:57 pm

[...] achievement gaps between students from high-income families and their less well-off peers.”(more) Comments (0) Return to main news [...]

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wintertime

June 8, 2012 at 7:22 pm

“One of the biggest challenges facing the country’s education system at the moment are the achievement gaps between students from high-income families and their less well-off peers.”

High achieving children live in homes where there is **tons** of “afterschooling”. Some of the afterschooling is done by the parents, some by the children, and some is purchased tutoring.

It is my opinion that if every government owned and run school in this nation were to disappear tomorrow, the **same** children who are getting an education today would get one tomorrow. Those who are NOT getting an education would NOT get one tomorrow.

I have concluded that the typical government school merely sends home a curriculum for the parents and child to follow IN THE HOME. That is where the real work of learning happens. The school merely administers tests and grades projects that have been completed in the home.

I came to this conclusion when I noticed that there was little difference between the amount of time spent IN THE HOME sin studying when I compared successful homeschoolers with successful institutionalized children. Both groups have parents who highly value education, have consistent home routines, controlled access to elcetronics, rational discipline practices, and both the homeschoolers and institutionalized children are spending about the same amount of time studying at the kitchen table under the watchful eye of a concerned parent.

So?….When the successfully **afterschooled** child raises the standardized scores of his government schools, who takes the credit for the hard work done IN THE HOME by the parent and child? Answer: The school, of course!

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wintertime

June 8, 2012 at 7:23 pm

There is **one** thing that government schools do fairly well ( but very expensively): BABYSITTING!

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j

June 19, 2012 at 6:54 am

Wintertime’s comments are spot on.

I will add that the “afterschooling” includes building children’s background knowledge through travel and adult discussions, using adult vocabulary (not profanity, but a great variety of different words) and reasoning (telling anyone “just because” is an awful answer).

Field trips used to provide this experience to a broad range of children, but the costs involved mean that students often have to pay a substantial fee to cover the costs. Subsequently, this means that field trips themselves have fallen by the wayside in many schools.

Back to afterschooling my children.

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