Educational Inequality and Social Development

Last reviewed: February 2017

Abstract

Most middle-class students attend schools located in relatively safe neighborhoods. They have excellent facilities, well-trained teachers and administrators, parents who are vested in the education of their children. Students attending inner-city schools, on the other hand, are predominately minorities from low-income families. Their parents may be unable or unwilling to take an active role in the education of their children. The school environment teaches important lessons in diversity and social development that impact cognitive and social growth. Most scholars agree that schools with students from different backgrounds provide the most positive environment for students.

Overview

Before 1954 and the decision in Brown v. Board of Education, many school systems in the United States were racially segregated. Segregationists often built new school buildings for African American children, claiming that “their” schools were better than “ours.” In reality, African American schools were far from equal because teachers and administrators were less qualified, budgets were significantly lower, and textbooks were often outdated because they were discards from white schools. Furthermore, African American students were often required to bypass one or more neighborhood schools in order to reach an assigned school. Such was the case with young Linda Brown, who lived in Chicago and had to cross a dangerous railroad track to reach her school. In the course of bringing the five segregation cases that were grouped together as Brown, NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall worked with psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark to demonstrate the negative impact of segregation on the social development of African American children. The Clarks used black and white dolls to illustrate that African American children were being taught that it was good to be white and bad to be black.

African American writers Maya Angelou (I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, 1969) and Toni Morrison (The Bluest Eye, 1970) both wrote about wishing as children to be blond and blue-eyed with white skin because that was the ideal with which they grew up. More than sixty years after Brown, scholars maintain that race continues to be the single most important indicator of inequality in education. The social development of children affects them throughout their lives, influencing not only academic performance but also the way in which individuals develop a sense of self, how they relate to their peers, how they interact with teachers and other adults, how they view society as a whole, and how they learn to control their own emotions and behaviors.

Head Start. In 1965 as part of the War on Poverty, President Lyndon Johnson worked with Congress to create the Head Start program, which was designed to narrow the gap between African American and white children entering school. The focus was on school readiness. Since that time, Head Start has broadened its scope to promote social development and school readiness among needy children from birth to five years. Finding that it is necessary to deal with multiple needs of a child and his/her family to overcome obstacles to learning, Head Start workers offer assistance in family health and well-bring as well as academic preparation. Though Head Start has received its share of criticism, it has generally been considered effective in narrowing educational achievement gaps. However, the impact of Head Start on children has not been evident past the second grade. Despite that, parents involved with the program have continued to exhibit improved parenting skills that benefit their offspring throughout their school years.

Districts and Demographics. States and local governments have the major responsibility for educating children and youth from kindergarten to high school, and differences in state and school district budgets have a major impact on the quality of education provided. Since the poorest states and districts tend to have the greatest levels of inequality, school environments tend to be much worse in those areas. Identifying the schools with the best and worst school systems is difficult because of the different criteria used in rankings. Generally, the best schools are found in states like Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland, Connecticut, and California. The worst schools are more likely to be located in states with large minority populations (e.g., New Mexico and Alaska) and the Southeast (Louisiana and Mississippi), in particular.

The integration of American public schools was a controversial issue, and violence often broke out as schools were desegregated. The issue of busing children across school district lines was especially controversial. In what became known as “white flight,” many parents pulled their children out of schools, either moving to white-dominated suburbs where schools were de facto segregated or placing children in private schools. As whites moved out of neighborhoods in desegregated school districts, minority populations were concentrated in formerly mixed or white-dominated communities and schools.

Studies have consistently shown that neighborhoods that contain socioeconomically advantaged families promote positive social development among less advantaged children and youth. S. E. Mayer (2002) identified three distinct advantages: the presence of positive role models, access to improved social networks, and close monitoring of neighborhood conditions. Mayer examined economic segregation in American schools between 1970 and 1990, finding that increased segregation led to heightened inequalities. While Mayer saw both advantages and disadvantages in more integrated schools, the overall conclusion was that equality is threatened by high levels of segregation. Most scholars agree that advantages gained from integrated schools continue to benefit individuals long after they graduate high school.

Applications

Funding-based Inequalities. Linn Posey-Maddox, Shelley Kimelbert, and Maia Cuccchiara (2014) argue that inequalities in education are still largely due to the flight of the middle class to the suburbs. As more affluent Whites move away from large cities, seeking better schools and safer neighborhoods, they often leave behind school districts that become dependent on falling tax bases for school funding. Limited budgets may lead to the hiring of less qualified teachers and administrators and to schools unable to afford the teaching tools taken for granted in middle-class schools.

Contrarily, sociologists and educators have noticed a trend in the early twenty-first century in which some parents are consciously choosing to remain in the cities where their children have access to such cultural attractions such as plays, concerts, and art museums. Liberal and progressive parents may also choose to remain in the city because of the very diversity that frightens other parents. Posey-Maddox, Kimelbert, and Cuccchiara (2014) contend that while some experts believe that the presence of more affluent students in city schools may heighten the marginalization and exclusion of minority students, others believe that social development is enhanced by schools made up of students from different social classes. Some experts suggest that in schools with both advantaged and disadvantaged students, the latter may be forced into unfair competitions for grades, scholarships, and jobs, leading to dissatisfaction, stress, and alienation (Mayer, 2002)). Even so, Mayer recognizes that the conditions in socially mixed schools are generally seen as more of an advantage than a disadvantage overall.

Mackenzie Colburn (2012) looked at 38,000 students attending high school in Long Island, New York, in the first two years of the twentieth century, finding that $8,000 more per student was spent on students in high-income schools than on students in low-income schools. Colburn noted that some of Long Island’s poorest children attended schools that were infested with rats and which had broken windows and cracked walls. Teachers in those schools were often unqualified, and conditions predictably led to high teacher turnover. Access to textbooks and supplies was limited.

School Readiness. Zewelanji N. Serpell and Andrew J. Mashburn (2012) conducted a study of 2,966 four year olds enrolled in kindergarten for the purpose of examining the impact of social and behavioral competence on the well-being of young children. They found that social development is a strong indicator of school readiness. Children whose families had strong connections to their schools were shown to develop healthy relationships with their teachers and their peers. Those whose families were poorly connected to their schools were more likely than others to engage in disruptive behaviors.

While acknowledging the findings of earlier studies that have identified the importance of teacher attitudes on student performance, Serpell and Mashburn found that family-school connectedness is more important than teacher attitudes. They asserted that students with the lowest levels of family-school connectedness were likely to come from low-income homes, belong to a racial or ethnic minority, experience low levels of parental involvement, and be children of single parents. Students who came from families where English was not spoken at home were also likely to have low parent-school connectedness.

Studies on inequalities in education continue to document the fact that parental involvement is a major factor in student academic success. Scholars have discovered that parents who read to their children, who encourage children to read, and who read themselves tend to produce children who do well academically. Children also benefit from parents who provide enrichment opportunities outside the classroom.

Culture is also a factor when examining social impacts on education. Among African Americans, it is common for students to ridicule one another for poor performance or for making a mistake. A child who is embarrassed in front of his/her peers may have increased anxiety levels and may begin performing poorly because either high academic performance or making mistakes causes him/her to stand out from classmates.

Iheoma U. Iruka, Stephanie M. Curenton, and Shari Gardner focused their 2015 study of educational inequalities and social development on three hundred African American students from kindergarten through third grade. They found that African American students tended to be less ready for school than white students, exhibiting lower achievement and social skills and less early literacy and language and numeracy proficiency. They note that previous studies have concentrated on the impact of homes and neighborhoods on adolescent academic performance.

Parent Involvement. Their study also revealed that the most important influences were parental provision of academic enrichment opportunities, caring parents, and parental engagement with their children’s education. Low-performing students were generally from low-income neighborhoods with high levels of poverty and family disruption. Those neighborhoods also tended to be racially and ethnically segregated, and relationships lacked stability due to high levels of residents moving in and out of the neighborhood. Educational expectations of low-income parents were found to be lower than those of middle-class parents from the beginning of a child’s academic career. Living in a safe neighborhood was seen to be a major indicator of good academic performance among African American children. Neighborhoods that provided a safe and supportive atmosphere were found to mitigate the impact of negative family influences.

Middle-class parents are likely to get involved in school organizations such as Parent-Teacher Organizations and booster clubs. They attend sporting events, band concerts, Glee Club concerts, and Honor’s Day activities. They also lend their time to fundraising activities for the school and for various activities in which their children are involved. More important, they maintain contact with teachers and track the academic progress of their children. Low-income parents, on the other hand, may not participate in such activities because they cannot take time away from work or because they are intimidated by teachers and administrators. Among African American children, high rates of male incarceration mean that many fathers are absent from their children’s daily lives, placing greater burdens on single-mothers.

Discourse

Jennifer M. Augustine (2014) contends that inequality in education has continued to be a major problem in American schools since the mid-1970s when conservatives managed to halt progress toward desegregation. Additionally, social mobility has been stalled since the 1980s. Augustine addressed the role of mothers in the academic achievement and social development of their children, finding that mothers with the lowest levels of education were less likely to be involved in their children’s education or to promote educational opportunities outside the classroom. Such mothers were often single parents because of divorce or having never married. Mothers with more education were more likely than the less educated to be in stable marriages, but Augustine identified no impact of marital status on parenting among mothers with high levels of education. Low-income mothers with low levels of education often lack the ability to promote their children’s social development since they lack the social, cognitive, and psychological skills needed to do so (Augustine, 2014).

Some educators attempt to level out inequalities in education by innovative teaching methods that involve students in projects that are geared toward particular grade levels. These efforts include drawing maps, solving problems, learning to synthesize, writing papers, learning computer skills, giving multimedia presentations, working in small groups, and participating in role-playing activities. Critics argue that the requirement to teach to standardized tests, especially with teacher raises and promotions linked to student test performances, hinders teaching innovation. Further, long after the recession of 2007-2009, many schools continued to struggle with reduced staffs that increased student-teacher ratios.

Despite the fact that society as a whole has become more integrated since the 1950s, many experts maintain that from kindergarten to high school, vast racial inequalities in education remain. For the 2013-2014 school year, Asian/Pacific Islanders had the highest rate of high school graduation (89%), followed by whites (87%). Hispanics, (76%), African Americans (73%), and Native Americans (70%) trailed behind. Sociologist Karl L. Alexander (2001) of Johns Hopkins University argues that inequalities in education are largely responsible for continued unequal social development.

The impact of unequal education on social development is evidenced by the fact that African Americans are twice as likely as whites to drop out of school before graduation. One in five African American males end up in prison before the age of 30. Only one in fifty-five African American males obtains a master’s degree (Colburn, 2012). In 2013, the Nation’s Report Card produced by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NEA) reported that 33 percent of whites performed above proficiency level on national achievement tests, but only 12 percent of Hispanics and Native Americans and 7 percent of African Americans did so. Differences were particularly apparent in reading, with 47 percent of whites above proficiency level as opposed to 26 percent of Native Americans/Alaskan Natives, 23 percent of Hispanics, and 16 percent of African Americans. The argument that educational inequalities affect future social development is supported by the fact that, according to Department of Labor statistics, in 2014 median weekly earnings for individuals with college degrees ranged from $1,219 for white workers to $970 for African American workers. College-educated Hispanics and Latinos had median weekly earnings of $1,007.

Terms & Concepts

Achievement Gap: Well-documented differences in levels of academic performance based on race and ethnicity have been identified as the “achievement gap.” While the gap between whites and Asian/Pacific Islanders on the one hand and African Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, and Native Americans on the other has narrowed in the early twenty-first century, according to national achievement tests, inequalities are still evident and are shown to negatively impact the social development of minority children.

Brown v. Board of Education (347 U.S. 483, 1954): Supreme Court decision that mandated the integration of U.S. schools and eventually led to the abolition of the “separate but equal” doctrine. Brown was actually a set of five separate cases from different parts of the country that all dealt with school systems that had been designed to promote racial segregation.

Busing: As the drawn-out process of integrating the public schools continued, school districts began transporting students across district lines by bus to ensure that racial quotas were met. The Supreme Court upheld busing in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg in 1971, but in Milliken v. Bradley three years later, the Court held that busing could be used only when it resulted from school districts drawn solely for the purpose of racial segregation (de jure) but not when it resulted from natural movements in and out of neighborhoods (de facto).

Liberals: Within the context of educational equality, liberals are individuals who are open to diversity and who feel a responsibility to provide equal educational opportunities to all students. They may choose to live in cities where their children are exposed to various cultural activities and to peers who come from diverse backgrounds.

Progressives: Educational progressives are those who emphasize concepts such as individuality, innovation, and progress. They believe in education as an active ongoing activity that requires the participation of all involved in the learning process.

“Separate but equal”: Doctrine that led to racial segregation of American school systems, particularly in the South where Jim Crow laws were rampant. The core idea was that as long as African Americans were provided with access to education through a separate school system, they were not being discriminated against. In reality, such school systems were never equal and, in Brown, were held to be “inherently unequal.”

Social Development: Social, emotional, cognitive, creative, and physical skills that are necessary to adjusting well to a society in which an individual lives. Poor social development may lead to behavioral problems in childhood that linger into adolescence and adulthood, creating situations in which individuals become dysfunctional.

Bibliography

Attewell, P. A., & Newman, K. S. (Eds.). (2010). Growing gaps: Educational inequality around the world. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Augustine, J. M. (2014). Maternal education and the unequal significance of family structure for children’s early achievement. Social Forces, 93(2), 687–718. Retrieved October 23, 2016, from EBSCO Online Database Sociology Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sxi&AN=99749805&site=ehost-live

Colburn, M. (2012). Funding for the future. Perspectives, Spring, 129–133. Retrieved October 23, 2016, from EBSCO Online Database Sociology Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sxi&AN=80029528&site=ehost-live

Flono, F. (2015) Helping students succeed: communities confront the achievement gap. National Civic Review, 104(1), 25–32.

Iruka, I. U., Curenton, S. M., & Gardner, S. (2015). How changes in home and neighborhood environment factors are related to change in black children’s academic and social development from kindergarten to third grade. Journal of Negro Education, 84(3), 282–297.

Mayer, S. E. (2002). How economic segregation affects children’s educational attainment. Social Forces, 81(1), 153-176. Retrieved October 23, 2016, from EBSCO Online Database Sociology Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sxi&AN=7513668&site=ehost-live

Posey-Maddox, L., Kimelbert, S., & Cuccchiara, M. (2014). Middle-class parents and urban public schools: Current research and future directions. Sociology Compass, 8(4), 446–456. Retrieved October 23, 2016, from EBSCO Online Database Sociology Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sxi&AN=95322521&site=ehost-live

Reardon, S. F. (2013). The widening income achievement gap. Educational Leadership, 70(8), 10–16.

Serpell, Z. N. & Mashburn, A. J. (2012). Family-school connectedness and children’s early social development. Social Development, 21(1), 21–46. Retrieved October 23, 2016, from EBSCO Online Database Sociology Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sxi&AN=70469993&site=ehost-live

Siraj, I., & Mayo, A. (2014). Social class and educational inequality: The impact of parents and schools. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Zewelanji, N., Serpell, N., & Mashburn, A. J. (2011). Family-school connectedness and children’s early social development. Social Development, 21(1), 21–46.

Suggested Reading

Alexander, K. L. (2001). The clouded crystal ball: Trends in educational stratification. Sociology of Education, 74(4), 169–177. Retrieved October 23, 2016, from EBSCO Online Database Sociology Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sxi&AN=5486702&site=ehost-live

Conchas, G. Q. (2016). Cracks in the schoolyard: Confronting latino educational inequality. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Escandell, X., Marí-Klose, M., & Marí-Klose, P. (2015). Gender gaps in educational outcomes among children of new migrants: The role of social integration from a comparative perspective. Sociology Compass, 9(12), 1036-1048. Retrieved October 23, 2016, from EBSCO Online Database Sociology Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sxi&AN=111313018&site=ehost-live

Heath A. F., & Brinbaum, Y. (Eds.). (2014). Unequal attainments: Ethnic educational inequalities in ten western countries. Oxford, UK: British Academy for Oxford University.

Hoskins, B., & Janmaat, J. G. (2016). Educational trajectories and inequalities of political engagement among adolescents in England. Social Science Research, 56, 73–89. Retrieved October 23, 2016, from EBSCO Online Database Sociology Source Ultimate. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sxi&AN=112828682&site=ehost-live

Kirshner, B. (2015). Youth Activism in an Era of Education Inequality. NY: New York University Press.