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Rich With Knowledge

I am not like most of my schoolmates. My family has never been one of wealth and

money. My parents never even finished high school in Mexico, the country they were born in.

My mom works as a busser at a restaurant in Emeryville and my dad works as a forklift operator

at a boatyard in Alameda and as a waiter at the same restaurant as my mom. I have never even

lived in a house; I grew up in a two bedroom apartment in which I had to share a small room

with both my younger brother and older sister.

When you look at the general population of Northgate High School, most of the kids are

better off than I am. For the most part, their parents have degrees and salaried jobs, they live in

houses in Walnut Creek, where it’s not so cheap to buy one, and their parents haven’t had to

worry about scraping together enough money to make rent each month. This is not to say that

my family is poor; we live comfortably and have the basic necessities of life, and then some, but

we are not on the same economic platform as most of the students at Northgate.

The disparity between my family’s socioeconomic status and that of my classmates has

not always existed. Before my mother discovered the blessing that is the intradistrict transfer

process, my siblings and I attended the elementary school assigned to us based on address. Most,

if not all, of the students who also attended this elementary school were in situations similar to

mine: immigrant parents, living in an apartment, and with a lack of academic resources. The

difference was that their parents worked multiple jobs, were unable to afford many supplies, and

could not provide them with the support they needed to succeed in school, while my mother

stayed home more often than not, working with us on our school work and making sure to

prioritize our education above all else. Because of this, my mother requested to transfer my

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siblings and I to the “better” schools in the district, so that we could obtain a “better” education.

This meant going to schools with a student body that was generally of a higher income.

Throughout the years I have been able to see how the academic inclination of the

majority of students at Northgate differs from that of my elementary school classmates: students

at Northgate tend to care more about their academic performance and therefore put in more effort

and receive higher grades than my old elementary school classmates, who are less focused on

school and are satisfied with mediocre grades. This contrast in my academic circumstances has

brought me to construct a senior project question that both interests me and reflects my personal

experience: How does socioeconomic status affect childhood academic development?

The American Psychological Association defines socioeconomic status as “the social

standing or class of an individual or group” (“Socioeconomic Status”). Socioeconomic status can

be determined by taking into account factors such as income, education, financial stability, and

quality of life (“Education and Socioeconomic Status”). Low socioeconomic would then mean

that the individual or family is of low-income, has suffered from a lack of education attainment

(noticeable in the education received by the parents), struggles to save money or pay bills, and

lives in poverty-ridden areas and cheap housing units. Socioeconomic status can therefore affect

the quality of education that a child receives, as well as parental involvement in the young

student’s education, thus negatively impacting the child’s academic development, resulting in

less financial and vocational stability as an adult, when compared to children of higher

socioeconomic status.

It is no surprise that children who come from a low-income background tend to be less

academically successful than their wealthier counterparts. According to the U.S. Census Bureau,

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20 percent of American children live in households with an income of less than $24,339 per year,

meaning that they live below the poverty line (Taylor), while a study conducted by the National

Center of Education Statistics claims that 51% of students in U.S. public schools live in

low-income households (Hair et al). The effects of living in a low-income household on a student

can be seen as early as kindergarten, and becomes more evident and more dramatic as the student

ages. Children of low socioeconomic standing perform significantly lower on standardized tests

and have generally lower grades than wealthier students (Hair et al). Data collected by The

College Board in 2013 shows that students with an annual household income between $20,000

and $40,000 scored, on average, 465 on Critical Reading, 482 on Mathematics, and 455 on

Writing while students with an annual household income of $160,000 to $200,000 scored on

average 539, 555, and 531 on the same sections, respectively. This study averaged the test scores

of students with household incomes ranging from $0 to over $200,000, dividing them into ten

groups with a difference of $20,000 in annual income within each group (i.e. the first group

consisted of students with a household income of $0 to $20,000, the second was of students

$20,000 to $40,000, and so on), and average test scores visibly increased in accordance with

household income (“2013 College”). According to Kelley Taylor of Insight Into Diversity,

“low-income students are five times more likely to drop out of high school than those who are

high-income and 13 times less likely to graduate from high school on time” (Taylor). These

disparities in high school carry over into higher education, with only 41 percent of low-wealth

students being likely to complete two years of college and 24 percent were likely to complete

four years, while 70 percent of high-wealth students were likely to finish two years of college

and 43 percent were likely to complete four (Baum et al). Evidently, students of

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low-socioeconomic standing are less likely to succeed academically than students of

high-socioeconomic standing, with lower test scores and grades, and a lower likeliness to receive

a substantial higher education, but what exactly is the cause of this gap in academic achievement

between low-income and high-income students, and what are the life-long consequences of it?

The negative performance that low-income students display in academic settings can be

partly attributed to the volatile school environments that many low-income students develop in.

The economic environment of the schools that students attend has been seen to have a positive

correlation to the students’ academic performance: students attending wealthier schools have a

higher academic performance than students attending schools with less funding (Thomson).

Schools that receive low amounts of funding must stretch funds, resulting in larger class sizes,

less experienced teachers being hired, and lower levels of academic achievement (Barret). Larger

class sizes mean that teachers struggle to focus on each individual student, and hiring less

experienced teachers means that teachers are ill-equipped to help students who are already at a

disadvantage. Leonore Cruise, a minister, nurse, and former foster parent, also stresses the

challenges that low income schools face when obtaining educational equipment for students,

saying “From the other end of it, people delegating money and equipment and things, it tends to

be the poorer schools that get the last choice of equipment, safety in the schools.” According to

Kati Haycock, in 1990 schools in high poverty areas spent $5173 pers student on average, while

wealthier schools spent $6,565 per student on average (Haycock​, 4​ 2). What’s more important,

however, is how this funding is spent. Haycock follows up by stating that schools should

prioritize investing in “well-educated teachers, up-to-date textbooks, and challenging curricula.”

Educators can compensate for these roadblocks by teaching what is known as a “growth

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mindset”. A study conducted by Stanford University researchers has shown that “students from

low-income families who believe that they can develop skills and do better in school if they work

hard and practice—a ‘growth mindset,’ in other words—may be buffered from the effects of

poverty on student achievement” (Flannery). In order for disadvantaged students to be able to

have this mindset, teachers have to be able to show students that the ability to succeed is not set

in stone, that anyone can have it and develop it. However, only 20% of teachers surveyed

“strongly believe” that they can foster this mindset in their classrooms (Flannery). This lack of

confidence on the teacher’s part transfers over into how they teach, leaving students with a

lackluster educational setting, unable to better themselves academically. Schools are the arena in

which children receive the most substantial portion of their education, and attending one that

lacks adequate funding and teaching staff, which is the case for most low-income students, can

result in low academic performance in students.

Beyond economic environment, the ability to maintain a stable schooling environment

also impacts the educational development of students. Sarah Sparks brings attention to the

struggles facing foster children in her article for ​Education Week​. Most, if not all, of foster

children are constantly moved from home to home, resulting in frequent changes in school

placement as well (Sparks). This jostling from school to school creates a lack of stability that

developing students depend on in order to focus on school work and, ultimately, succeed. One

student in Sparks’ article was living in the foster care system and was being moved miles from

his current high school to one that didn’t offer the advanced classes he took (Sparks). Luckily

this student was able to arrange a way to continue attending the same high school, but for many

this is not always the case. Many of the students living in the foster care system experience

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turbulent schooling environments that can affect their performance in school. Moving from

foster home to foster home, they also lack the stability that comes with having a supportive and

encouraging parent in the household.

The amount of time and attention that parents give to their children also plays an

important role in how they perform in school, and for most low-income students, sufficient

academic support is something that their parents are unable to provide. The size of the academic

achievement gap between socioeconomic classes can be traced back to how much time and

money parents from both ends of the spectrum invest in their children’s education, and how early

on they become involved in their children’s academic development (“Income Inequality”).

Parents of low-income families are more often than not pressed for time, as they struggle to find

stable jobs and pay a myriad of bills, challenges that more affluent parents are not faced with.

This lack of time available for low-income parents to spend with their children results in less

direct academic support for their children. Low-income families are also likely to be headed by a

single parent, most of the time a mother, further impeding the parent’s ability to focus on his or

her child or children’s education (Tavernise). Wealthier parents have more time available to

spend with their children, with over 50 percent of middle class to rich parents claiming to read

daily to their children over the summer, while less than 40 percent of low-income parents did so

(Hechinger Report). High-income parents can also provide their children with better

psychological support and a healthier educational environment at home (Thomson) while parents

living in poverty “demonstrate less nurturing, reduced genuine concern for healthy development,

and little academic modeling” (“The Effects”). Jorge Melgoza, the Administrator of Equity and

Disproportionality at Mount Diablo Unified School District, notes the importance of parents

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reading to their children from a young age, as he says, “ It makes a big difference if a parent is

actually reading to their children early on. It doesn’t matter the language, just the literacy,

because we know that there’s research that it’s really about developing literacy in any language.”

This directly affects how well a student develops academically, as increased educational support

from parents creates an enriching academic environment for children. As well as spending time

with their children fostering academic skills that will help them succeed in school, wealthier

parents are also able to spend more money on their children’s education than poor parents are.

This can be seen in the amount of activities that parents enroll their children in, such as sports

teams, music lessons, and tutoring, with low income parents being less likely to afford to enroll

their children in any of these activities than high-income parents are. Participating in

extracurricular activities from a young age helps children develop more cognitive abilities

(Tavernise). Wealthier parents can also afford materials to better stimulate their children

academically that poorer parents cannot, such as “books, computers, stimulating toys, skill

building lessons, or tutors.” This correlates to the child’s reading competency level, as higher

at-home literacy environments (access to books and reading materials) results in higher levels

(“Education and Socioeconomic Status”). The amount of wealth that a child’s parents have

positively influences how well that child performs in school, as wealthier parents can afford to

spend more time cultivating enriching educational environments and more money enrolling their

children in extracurricular activities and tutoring lessons, however, this leaves the children of

poorer parents at a disadvantage, as they cannot afford all the educational luxuries that wealthier

parents can, thus further exacerbating the academic achievement gap between children of

different socioeconomic statuses.

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The disparities in academic achievement between high income and low income students

follow them past their educational years, affecting their financial and vocational success as

adults. As previously explained, low-income students are far less likely than high income

students to finish four years of college, much less to attend one. One reason for low-income

students opting to not pursue a higher education would be because they see themselves as unable

to. Studies show that students of higher socioeconomic standing tend to have higher aspirations

for their careers and futures than students of low socioeconomic standing (“Education and

Socioeconomic Status”). Low-income students are satisfied with maintaining the lifestyle in

which they currently live and “surviving”, instead of pursuing a higher education and quality of

life (“The Effects of Poverty”). This connects back to the concept of a “growth mindset”. The

majority of low-income and impoverished students have “fixed mindsets” and therefore believe

that intelligence is “fixed” and set in stone, rather than cultivated and developed (Flannery).

Students who don’t believe that they can succeed don’t succeed, and therefore do not receive a

higher education or college degree, making their chances of obtaining a well paying job

significantly decrease. When only a select number of students in the country receive a high

quality education and obtain high paying jobs, the economic potential of the future workforce is

stifled and not effectively developed. In order to boost the economy, we need educated workers

in the workforce (“Income Inequality”). The inability to climb upwards on the socioeconomic

ladder creates a cycle of generational poverty, one that is hard to break. Generational poverty

occurs when “a families’ socioeconomic status has remained at or below the poverty level for

more than three generations” (“The Effects of Poverty”). This cycle is perpetuated when the

children of low-income parents are unable to obtain a higher education and higher paying job

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and are thus stuck at the same economic level as their low-income parents. This can carry over to

their own children and beyond, meaning that the struggles of a low-income child could very well

become the struggles of his or her future children if he or she cannot receive a quality education.

A lack of adequate academic development as a child can lead to the child struggling to obtain a

well paying job as an adult, which results in socioeconomic stagnation and inability to surpass

their parents’ already low income, and carries over into their offspring, so that they too face the

same problems the low-income child did.

A staggering amount of students in the United States live in low-income households, and

the numbers increase each year. The challenges that these children face can be unimaginable,

from living in foster homes to dealing with alcoholic or drug addict parents. These struggles

affect their development and performance in school, as students of low-socioeconomic status are

less academically successful than children of high-socioeconomic status, as these wealthier

children don’t face the same issues. The economic standing of the schools that children attend

have a direct impact on how they perform; more funding for schools means the more likely it is

for students to succeed. Parental involvement also plays a significant role in a child’s academic

development, as low-income parents fail to provide their children with sufficient educational

enrichment and academic support. The result of this is students of low socioeconomic status not

pursuing higher a higher education, not obtaining a well paying job, and perpetuating a cycle of

generational poverty that their future children will feel the repercussions of. Something must be

done to fix this. Low income students are not receiving an adequate education, leaving them

significantly behind their wealthier classmates. Each child has an incredible amount of potential

to grow and succeed academically, but by not properly nurturing the minds of low-income

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students, society as a whole is missing out on the benefits that an evenly well educated

population would bring to the economy and the cultural development of the country. Increasing

funding for schools and access to educational opportunities for low-income students will help

these children be better able to move away from poverty and towards a more comfortable quality

of life. Everyone should have the ability to succeed, both academically and economically, and

make a better life for themselves.

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Works Cited

“2013 College Bound Seniors Total Group Profile Report.” ​The College Board​,

http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/research/2013/TotalGroup-2013.pd

f​. Accessed 27 Jan 2019

Baum, Sandy et al. “Wealth Inequality is a Barrier to Education and Social Mobility.” ​Urban

Institute,

https://www.urban.org/research/publication/wealth-inequality-barrier-education-and-s

ocial-mobility​. Accessed 28 Feb. 2019

Barret, Kira. “The Evidence is Clear: More Money for Schools Means Better Student

Outcomes.” ​neaToday,​ ​http://neatoday.org/2018/08/01/money-matters-in-education/​.

Accessed 20 Feb 2019

Cruise, Leonore. Minister, former Foster Parent, Masters in Nursing. Personal Interview. 15

April, 2019.

Haycock, Kati. “Racial and Financial Inequities Hamper Public Education.” ​Education​, Edited

by Mary E. Williams, Greenhaven Press, Inc., 2000, pp. 41-45

“Education and Socioeconomic Status.” ​American Psychological Association,

https://www.apa.org/pi/ses/resources/publications/education​. Accessed 15 Feb 2019

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“The Effects of Poverty on Childhood Development.” ​The University of Tennessee at Martin,​

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archPaperonPoverty.pdf​. Accessed 4 March 2019

Flannery, Mary Ellen. “Impact of Poverty on Students: All In Their Minds?” ​neaToday,​

http://neatoday.org/2016/09/29/growth-mindset-in-students/​. Accessed 20 Feb. 2019

Hair, Nicole L et al. “Association of Child Poverty, Brain Development, and Academic

Achievement.” ​National Center for Biotechnology Information,​

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4687959/​. Accessed 2 March 2019

Hechinger Report, The. “The Growing Achievement Gap.” ​U.S. News,

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y-exacerbates-the-achievement-gap​. Accessed 30 Jan. 2019

“Income inequality affects our children’s educational opportunities.” ​Washington Center for

Equitable Growth,

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rtunities/​. Accessed 30 Jan. 2019

Melgoza, Jorge. Administrator of Equity and Disproportionality at Mount Diablo Unified School

District. Personal Interview. 19 March 2019.

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“Socioeconomic Status.” ​American Psychological Association,

https://www.apa.org/topics/socioeconomic-status​. Accessed 15 February 2019

Sparks, SarahD. "The Gifted Child in Foster Care: Lost in the Shuffle; Poverty, trauma, and high

rates of mobility keep bright children in the fostercare system from finding their way

into academically rigorous courses and programs." ​Education Week,​ 7 Mar. 2018, p.

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=f0e3b63a​. Accessed 17 Jan. 2019.

Tavernise, Sabrina. “Education Gap Grows Between Rich and Poor, Studies Say.” ​The New York

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