Analysis of Teacher Curriculum

America's Teacher's Today- Inhibiting or Accelerating Student Success?

Research studies at more than 6,000 fourth-grade Texas classrooms revealed the following significant differences that separated low SES school systems from high SES school systems:

Low SES School System

• Extremely lower scores on state assessment tests
• Poor classrooms = less school materials
• Curriculum is less interactive and more authoritative

Who is to Blame?

Resources, school environment, and student socialization in the classroom are just a few things that are brought back to teachers. The issue of lack of resources cannot be blamed simply on the educators, but it is their responsibility to be sure everyone is receiving the same level of education no matter their socioeconomic status. In today’s curriculum, the material leans toward the affluent members of society who can afford to have the time and materials necessary for school related affairs.  The curriculum also goes under the assumption that the students in the classroom have all had similar life experiences. This is simply not the case as often low SES students do not get beyond their immediate neighborhood; local grocery store, apartment and school.

The following graphs analyze the percentage of student proficiency in three different academic categories over different grade spans based on the overall population and based on student socioeconomic status:

The grade spans were separated to determine the “multiple elementary structures” and the effect they have on elementary student academic achievement. In the overall graph, the amount of students that were classified as proficient was lower, but in a very small range of 6% to 7%. However, when analyzing the low SES graph, there is a significantly greater amount of proficient students recorded. The percentages practically doubled, especially in the reading category. These graphs intend to analyze the inadequacies in the current teacher curriculum which is specifically causing low SES students to fall behind at an early age. The author of this article, Dr. Dave states that this should be of great concern to our society due to the importance that education has "in a young student’s capacity to learn."

What Needs to be Done?

Educational reform needs to begin from inside the system. One cannot change the makeup of a student body to better academic results. It must be a responsibility of the education system to provide more accommodating system for a group of diverse students. Ladd’s research promotes using student academic achievement to evaluate teaching quality. Her theory states that by “attaching stakes” to student academic achievement, it will promote teachers to work harder in helping students by putting their job on the line if their students fail.

Source: "Grade Span Configuration – A Local Investigation." Ames Coalition for Effective Schools. ACSD School Board, 10 2010. Web. Web. 15 Nov. 2012. <http://amesces.wordpress.com/2010/09/10/grade-span-configuration-a-local-investigation/>.

Conclusion

Conclusion- Summary and Interpretation of Findings

The Educational System: "Tipping it towards the underdogs"

There has been a continual decline in the quality and equality of education in recent years. Studies have shown this issue to be related to socioeconomic status, family background, and school environment. The educational system has become skewed towards affluent families and does not consider the current poverty level in America. With education being the fundamental component of success for children, it is imperative that all students are given equal opportunities to be successful. Family education, background and income are causing student achievement to decline in many low SES families. Finally, student role performance encompasses the issues that low SES children have to deal with: socioeconomic status, school factors, and home life factors.

Education has proved to be a difficult issue to attempt to reform. However, the research provided in this report concludes the issues to fall into categories that not only include school environment, but home life and family lifestyle as well. In 2007, 16.7% of high school students dropped out in low SES families in comparison to 3.2% in high income families. This statistic proves the severity of this issue. 

Changing the educational system must start from changes within the classroom. However, in order for there to be a continuous alteration in student academic achievement, other aspects such as home life and family support must change. The school system needs to encourage children to stay in school, even if their families do not. This research determines that the educational system must resort its priorities by “tipping it towards the underdogs” by providing low SES communities with more academic support. Giving children a proper education is not only imperative in reducing the socioeconomic gap in society, but also in improving our country’s future.

Introduction

Today's Student Academic Success and Socioeconomic Status: An Introduction

How prevalent is this problem?
What can be done about it?

In today’s school system, students are becoming more divided in terms of their educational levels. While many students may graduate with a vast amount of accomplishments, there are also a large portion of students that fall considerably below average. These extremes have led to the determination that there is an issue with the current education system. With the current decline in the economy, more students come from low socioeconomic families and have to deal with living along the poverty line.

The main components that inhibit a successful learning environment stem from student home life, family education, family income, and the skewed education system. Students from lower income families tend to have issues developing academically in comparison to students from high SES families. Many low SES families lack education themselves, therefore, do not encourage their children to receive a quality education. While this may not always be the case, there are many instances where education is not as important as putting food on the table. Also, the school system is developed to where one must have resources to be able to succeed in school. Many student’s attending public school do not have the money, therefore, are automatically set up to fail. The issue many of these students have is that they tend to fall behind and lose hope. This should never be the case in regards to problems in the educational system, and it is simply unacceptable that student’s today are failing because they are not being set up for success.

Given the current aspects that are not allowing students to receive a proper education, it is logical for one to be concerned for the future of America’s leaders, politicians, scientists, etc. Changes are imperative in improving education in order to improve society as a whole. An issue of such magnitude cannot be corrected by one simple alteration. As Helen Ladd states, that in order to make changes in such as wide range of people, it will have to involve a broader and bolder” procedure to changing the current policies. In order to better these children, it is imperative that the quality of our educators change as well as the curriculum that is taught. It is also imperative that children are encouraged to strive for success at school as they might not be at home.

What exactly is socioeconomic status and how does it affect people? The American Psychological Association provides the following description:

Socioeconomic status (SES) is often measured as a combination of education, income, and occupation. It is commonly conceptualized as the social standing or class of an individual or group. When viewed through a social class lens, privilege, power, and control are emphasized. Furthermore, an examination of SES as a gradient or continuous variable reveals inequities in access to and distribution of resources.

Exactly how much does ones socioeconomic status play a role in the quality of education? Research indicates that low SES "prevents access to vital resources and creates additional stress at home." 

This report intends to answer the stated concerns that have widened the educational gap. This issue is one that is currently dividing our country and must be fixed before it is too late for these students. This report aims to identify the specific issues associated with these stated gaps, and to analyze the most efficient way to resolve this problem. Information gathered from scholarly literature and primary behavioral studies are analyzed in this study to determine the severity of this issue, and to conclude how to approach the proposed recommendations.

Is Family Socioeconomic Status Really Important in Student Achievement?

Unfortunately, today the answer is YES.

Before we begin, let us examine a couple of key definitions...

School is defined as "the institutional environment that sets the parameters of a students’ learning experience." 

Student role performance (SRP) is defined as "the ability of a student to fulfill their role in the classroom."

Both of these components are important in either encouraging a student to achieve, or it can be the reason they fall behind. In many cases, students that come from low SES communities do not receive any encouragement that promotes education. Not only does the classroom affect SRP, socialization factors do as well. According to research by Master's student Jennifer Barry, the peer groups a student is involved in effects their SRP by 14 percent.

Another factor that influences education and future aspirations is the role a child's peers have on them.  While peers can be beneficial, in many cases with low SES students peer groups can create effect SRP negatively due to "peer pressure and peer conformity." 

Family effects SRP by 10 percent whether is it due to their education level or the background they came from. In many cases, low SES children come from single parent households, which has shown to impact test scores negatively.  

However, this issues really boils down to socioeconomic status. It has been shown that SES affects SRP by a landslide of 52 percent. This is because "SES dictates the quality of home life for children." 

Socioeconomic status combines family and money issues, with which many low SES children have to endure. These children are not able to have an adequate SRP because they are set back by their family’s economic hardships.

This figure analyzes all the components discussed in this post. It shows a dramatic low percentage of student achievement when income is between 10K to 20K. As income increases so does student achievement, however, at a significantly lesser rate. 

Source: Berry, Jennifer. The Effect of Socio-economic Status on Academic Achievement. MA thesis. Wichita State  University , 2006. privately published, Web. http://soar.wichita.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/10057/616/barry_jennifer.pdf?sequence=1

Family Education Level and Student Achievement

How Prevalent is Family Education on the Impact of Student Achievement?

SAT scores are reported on a scale from 200-800, with additional sub scores reported for the essay (ranging from 2-12) and for multiple-choice writing questions (on a 20-80 scale). The national average for each section of the test is approximately 500.

The Factors

This post aims to analyze one of main components that inhibit a successful learning environment. Studies show that student home life, family education, family income, and the skewed education system all produce significant impacts on creating a quality academic experience.

Students from lower income families tend to have issues developing academically in comparison to students from high SES families. Many low SES families lack education themselves, therefore, do not encourage their children to receive a quality education. While this may not always be the case, there are many instances where education is not as important as putting food on the table. 

This determines that students with parents having no high school diploma have scores much below the average. Students do not begin to fall into the average range until they are under the categories where parents have some college education.

The Breakdown

This main aspects inhibiting student success in the classroom can be broken down according to the following:

• School Sector
• Public or private school
• Class size
• High SES students= small classrooms, quality teacher/peer relationships
• Low SES students= large classrooms, no motivation for success

This is only one of the many issues that are responsible for creating the current educational gap. Please review other blog posts for further information on this issue.