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Equal Educational Opportunity and Income Disparity

Problem:  Although the U.S. aspiration is for equal educational opportunity for all children regardless of income, race, gender, or other factors affecting the background of the child, the reality is that poverty does produce significant gaps in academic achievement. 

Source:  Schulte and Keating, "Pupils' Poverty Drives Achievement Gap:  A Growing Divide -- Economic Segregation in Montgomery [County, MD] Schools," Washington Post, September 2, 2001, A1, A12-13:

• "The [Montgomery County School] district is evolving into two 'separate and unequal' school systems, according to School Superintendent Jerry D. Weast, who sees the growing number of poorly performing schools and the unadressed 'elephant on the table.'" (A1)

• "Schools on the western side of the county still are among the best in the nation, ranking among the elite in test scores and college admissions.  But performance has declined dramatically at schools in swath running from the southeastern corner through the center of the county." (A1)

• "The Washington Post analyzed the test scores and economic status of 50,000 Montgomery County students in the third through the eighth grades.  The analysis found that poverty was the most influential factor in predicting a student's performance.  It also showed that the performance gap between schools with high levels of poverty and more affluent schools had continued to widen, even as the amount targeted to help troubled schools doubled to $60 million in the last five years." (A1) [emphasis added]

• "The data indicated that the performance of individual students differed dramatically depending upon the overall level of poverty in the school they attend.  Lower-income students performed their worst at schools where the student population was overwhelmingly poor.  But when lower-income students attended schools where most of the students were more affluent, they achieved higher scores -- matching or exceeding the county average." (A1, A12)

• "Although overall [SAT] scores in Montgomery Country mirrored those of the previous year, white and Asian American students did slightly better this year, and Latino and black pupils -- more than half of whom are poor -- did somewhat worse.  The gap between the performance of white and Asian American students and their black and Latino peers widened to 243 points." (A12)

• " . . . while the overall portrait of the country school system is multicultural, the concentration of affluent and poor, of white and nonwhites, reflects the growing segregation of the district. (A12)

• "The achievement gap that divides America's schoolchildren has usually been defined in racial terms. . . . Recent research shows, however, that economic status is far more accurate than race in projecting who will do well on tests.  For example, lower-income fourth graders were more than twice as likely to score below grade level on reading tests than their middle class counterparts, according to a recent National Assessment of Educational Progress.  For every $10,000 increase in household income, researchers have found a 30-point gain in test scores." (A12)

• "In schools where the poverty level is below 5 percent . . . poor children do well.  Though their scores aren't quite as high as their more affluent classmates, they register at or above the county average in both reading and math.  . . . But a change in the environment seemingly changes a poor child's fate.  When lower-income children attend schools where the student body is overwhelmingly poor, their test scores are sub-par.  For example, The Post's analysis showed that some of the worst scores posted by low-income students came at schools including Broad Acres, Glen Haven, and Wheaton Woods, where there are high concentrations of poor children." (A13)

• Similar conclusions have been reached with respect to the relationship between concentration of low-income students and lower academic performance in Florida: "Schools serving a large percentage of children from low-income families have significantly lower student test scores than schools serving a small percentage of these students.  Although high-poverty schools receive more resources per student, they face greater challenges to improving student performance.  These challenges include high student mobility, absenteeism, and disciplinary problems.  . . . Due to limitations of available time, financial resources, and educational skills, low-income parents often have difficulty becoming active partners in their children's education. Although some high-poverty schools have implemented strategies to involve parents, limited parental involvement is still a major obstacle to improved student performance. . . . School principals who exhibit strong leadership behaviors and consistently focus on improving student performance can make a difference in the performance of high-poverty schools."  Source: Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability, A Report on Improving Student Performance in High Poverty Schools, Report No. 96-86, June 1997. 

Source:  Montgomery County Public Schools (data), "Poverty, Performance and Montgomery County," Washington Post, September 2, 2001, A13: "The level of poverty concentration at Montgomery County elementary and middle schools affects the performance of individual students within a school, even when the [individual] student's economic status is considered.  Reading scores for students at the wealthiest schools are higher than scores for similar students at schools with higher poverty concentrations.  As the poverty concentration of a school increases, . . . students suffer a decline in scores, with the poorest students showing the greatest decline."

Solutions: 

• See the Florida Department of Education's August 1996 Report, A Close Look at Successful Schools.  This [report] examines higher performing, higher poverty elementary, middle, and high schools in Florida. "The report found that primary factors promoting school success are a committed faculty, facilitative instructional leadership, structured instructional programs, effective discipline programs that stress personal responsibility and non-violent problem solving, strong parental and family involvement, an overall sense of school community and pride, and expectations for all children to learn at a high level." 

• [more to come]

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