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Social Class and Education, Essay Example

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Introduction

Education inequality is a reality in the contemporary scenario. This is despite the developments and infrastructure advancements, which have been realized in the progress of the society. In the U.S., the scenario is not different with social classes influencing the access to education. Governments and other stakeholders are sentient on this actuality. This is evident with the presidential candidates in the U.S. tasked with explaining their positions concerning this reality. The media, including newspapers and other excerpts explored the position of the two candidates, the incumbent Obama and Romney since they represented different social classes.   Judging from this scenario, it is evident that social classes are influential in policy creation and consequently the society’s welfare (Biddle, 2001). When considering the aforementioned information, it is apparent educational inequalities are brought about by the differences in classes. This is mainly because the individuals from the higher and middle-income classes are economically empowered to access the education infrastructure to the highest levels.  This actuality influences the future generations of these classes, whereby it is easier for the privileged to maintain their status while the lower social classes find it difficult to enjoy similar opportunities. This can be attributed to the fact that the contemporary job market requires skilled individuals. This skill is provided by education hence limiting the lower social classes from progressing in the society. In order for the lower classes to be empowered, it is essential that education is accessible for the demographic. This will effectively break the cycle, which condemns the lower social classes to the same quality of life by empowering them to access education as their privileged peers (Kincheloe and Steinberg, 2007). Despite education being cited to be a fundamental right, the lower economic classes, as compared to the privileged classes in the society, do not equitably access education.

In the society, it is apparent that the distribution of resources is inequitable across population. This actuality results in the segmentation of the society according to their access to resources. In all societies, there are low, middle and high-income earners. These classes have been a characteristic of the society since the historical times. Despite this, in the historic times, prevalence of these classes was due to possession of physical resources including land and livestock among others. The advent of education provided a new avenue for the society to create opportunities for themselves.  This led to the rise of the middle class since physical resources were not the only avenue of wealth creation. The progress realized in the society, including mechanization and globalization have augmented the need for skilled individuals in the contemporary job market. This means that individuals require skills in order to be proficient in different sectors. For an individual to acquire the necessary skills and expertise required for employment, it is crucial to acquire a quality education to the highest level possible. This requirement has made it necessary for individuals to pursue knowledge to the highest possible level. With this consideration, the pursuit for education is not as straightforward as presented since socioeconomic factors are prominent in influencing its access. Education is an investment, and it requires resources. This means that education attracts costs, which have to be incurred by the society. This actuality locks out the lower economic classes since they do not have adequate resources to facilitate for their access to this fundamental requirement in the contemporary scenario.

As aforementioned, skills are essential for an individual to carve out opportunities in the competitive society. This is achievable through access of education. University and college education are considered the adequate levels for an individual to acquire the required skills for the contemporary job market. The college and university level education attract high tuition fees than the preceding education levels. The government and other stakeholders have tried to be proactive in addressing this limitation through numerous grants, scholarships and loans. Despite the availability of these solutions, they are not sufficient to cater for this socioeconomic class since the resources provided for this purpose are limited. This means that the financial burden of education is confined to individuals and their families (Min-zan Lu, 2012). This is a challenge because it is arduous for them to raise or even access the required resources for a quality education. This means that the individuals from the low economic classes are confined to limited progress since they cannot access the skills offered by educational institutions due to lack of resources. This class is also confined to the state apparatus provided for education services including community colleges, institutions, which cannot match the quality and resources, provided in the prestigious institutions. This results in individuals from the lower classes accessing insufficient education, which makes them less competitive in the job market. Their lack of resources impedes them to access the required standards of higher education hence compromises the opportunities that are available for them in the job market.

When considering the correlation between socioeconomic classes and education, it is apparent that lack of resources impedes access to quality education. When analyzing the situation, another correlation becomes overt. It is evident in the aforementioned information the social classes influence the access of education. Despite this, it is also valid to argue that education creates the low social classes. This is because the contemporary society is over reliant on education, as the marker for qualification for opportunities in the job market (Andersen and Taylor, 2011). This overreliance has resulted in the opportunities present in the society to be confined to the social classes, which access adequate resources. When individuals are unable to access education, their job opportunities are limited significantly. This results in the individuals having to be contented with jobs, which require unskilled labor. This means that they will be subjected to lower pay as compared to the educated demographic. The individuals have to work longer hours or even hold multiple jobs in order to satisfy their economic requirements (Reay, David and Ball, 2005). Most of the unskilled jobs do not attract benefits including health insurance among others. This means that they have to put additional efforts in order to access the benefits, which are provided for the educated class. If education is accessible to all, then the lower classes would be able to obtain jobs which are better paying and have the aforementioned benefits.

This actuality percolates into their lifestyle since they will have to live by the resources, which they can access, in this case, limited resources. This results in the uneducated individuals to have limited access to the resources and amenities in the society. This influences negatively the quality of their lives in the long term. Individuals from the lower classes are unable to access efficient services due to the social status. These services include health insurance among other benefits. They also live in neighborhoods, which are characterized by detrimental living conditions and vices including drugs and crime. All these detrimental effects are side effects of the inequity in the access of education in the society. This means that education needs to be made accessible to address the social problems, which affect the low social classes.

When considering the aforementioned premises, it is evident that education has been engrained into the contemporary society. Education influences an individual’s access to resources and consequently their social class. This means that the correlation between education and social class is inevitable. In order for the society to address the inequalities present in the education sector between the classes, it is imperative that all the stakeholders are proactive in ensuring that this is a reality. The government and the private sector alike have to reevaluate the structures and policies involved in the sector. For instance, education should be made affordable for the lower classes of society. It is evident from the policies of the incumbent U.S. president that the lower social classes are the responsibility of the state.

Some of the recommendations the government might consider concerning the issue of education and social classes is by subsidizing the sector further to ensure that education is conceivable for the lower classes.  The government might also improve the existing institutions serving the lower classes including community college to match the education quality provided in other prestigious institutions. This will enable the student from the lower income bracket families to acquire a competitive education hence match up the qualifications of other students. The private sector may also be encouraged to be accommodative of this demographic through the provision of programs tailored for these students. This will make certain that education is easily accessible to poor individuals hence facilitate future progress for the demographic.

Education is a fundamental right for individuals in the contemporary society. This means that it is imperative that governments ensure that the sector is not discriminative to social classes.  This is essential since it will empower individuals from the lower classes to access the opportunities presented in the contemporary scenario. This means that the disruption of the cyclic effect of poverty among the lower classes will be possible since individuals can access the resources present in the society. If education is available for all classes, then individuals will have the required skills to attain financial independence. The society should make certain that education is accessible in order to facilitate equitable distribution of resources in the society, hence empower individuals from the lower classes.

Education is an integral requirement in the contemporary scenario. This means that individuals have to attain education in order to access the resources available in the society. This has been necessitated by the progress witnessed by the society whereby various skills are required.  These skills are provided by the education offered by various institutions.  Despite this, individuals from the lower classes are impeded from accessing education since they do not have the sufficient resources. This means that the relevant stakeholders should make education accessible in order to ensure that the individuals in the society can access the available resources augmenting their lives. This is essential because it will facilitate the individuals from the low classes to acquire more resources consequently enhancing their lives than the current situation.

Andersen, M. L., & Taylor, H. F. (2011).  Sociology: The essentials . Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Biddle, B. J. (2001).  Social class, poverty, and education: Policy and practice . New York [u.a.: Routledge Falmer.

Kincheloe, J. L., & Steinberg, S. R. (2007).  Cutting class: Socioeconomic status and education . Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Pubs.

Min-zan Lu. (2012). From silence to words: writing as struggle.college English, vol 49, No 4. Pp 437-448.

Reay, D., David, M. E., & Ball, S. (2005).  Degrees of choice: Class, race, gender in higher education . Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books.

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Essay on Social Class And Education

Students are often asked to write an essay on Social Class And Education in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Social Class And Education

Social class and education.

Social class and education are closely linked. Children from wealthy families tend to have access to better educational resources, such as private schools, tutors, and enrichment programs. They are also more likely to grow up in neighborhoods with good schools and have parents who are involved in their education. As a result, children from wealthy families tend to do better in school and are more likely to go to college.

Poverty and Education

On the other hand, children from poor families often face a number of challenges that make it difficult for them to succeed in school. They may live in neighborhoods with poor schools and have parents who are unable to help them with their homework. They may also have to work to help support their families, which can take away from time that they could be spending on their studies. As a result, children from poor families are more likely to drop out of school and are less likely to go to college.

Breaking the Cycle of Poverty

Education is one of the most important ways to break the cycle of poverty. By providing children from poor families with access to a quality education, we can help them to improve their life chances and give them a better future.

250 Words Essay on Social Class And Education

Social class and education are closely connected. Children from wealthier families tend to have better access to education and are more likely to succeed in school.

Wealth And Education

Social capital.

Another reason why social class and education are connected is that social capital plays a role. Social capital refers to the networks of relationships that people have. Wealthier families tend to have more social capital than poorer families. This means that they are more likely to know people who can help them get their children into good schools or who can provide them with information about the school system.

Overcoming Inequality

The connection between social class and education is a problem because it can lead to inequality. Children from poorer families are less likely to have access to a good education, which means that they are less likely to succeed in life. This can lead to a cycle of poverty, where children from poor families are more likely to stay poor. There are a number of things that can be done to address the connection between social class and education. One is to invest in early childhood education. This can help to ensure that all children have a strong foundation on which to build their education.

Overall, the connection between social class and education is a complex issue with no easy solutions. However, by understanding the problem, we can start to take steps to address it.

500 Words Essay on Social Class And Education

What is social class.

Social class refers to a category of people who share similar social, economic, and cultural characteristics. Essentially, it’s a way of grouping individuals based on their socioeconomic status and shared experiences. Social classes can be determined by various factors like income, education, occupation, and family background.

How Social Class Influences Education

Social class and education are interconnected and influence each other. Children from higher social classes tend to have better access to quality education, leading to higher educational attainment and better career opportunities. They often attend well-funded schools with experienced teachers, resources like libraries and technology, and a supportive learning environment. In contrast, children from lower social classes may face barriers in accessing quality education due to factors like poverty, lack of resources, and discrimination.

Role of Parents’ Education

Socioeconomic status and academic achievement.

Socioeconomic status, which includes factors such as income, occupation, and wealth, significantly impacts children’s academic achievement. Children from families with higher socioeconomic status often have access to better schools, extracurricular activities, private tutors, and other resources that contribute to their educational success. This can lead to a gap in academic achievement between children from different socioeconomic backgrounds.

Importance of Equal Educational Opportunities

To promote social mobility and reduce educational inequality, it is crucial to ensure equal educational opportunities for all children, regardless of their social class. This includes providing access to quality education, resources, and support services for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Governments, schools, and communities must work together to break down barriers and create a level playing field for all students, allowing them to reach their full potential.

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Report | Education

Early Education Gaps by Social Class and Race Start U.S. Children Out on Unequal Footing : A Summary of the Major Findings in Inequalities at the Starting Gate

Report • By Emma García and Elaine Weiss • June 17, 2015

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Understanding disparities in school readiness among America’s children when they begin kindergarten is critically important, now more than ever. In today’s 21st century global economy, we expect the great majority of our children to complete high school ready to enter college or begin a career, and assume their civic responsibilities. This requires strong math, reading, science, and other cognitive skills, as well as the abilities to work well and communicate effectively with others, solve problems creatively, and see tasks to completion.

Unfortunately, the weak early starts that many of our children are getting make it hard to attain these societal goals. Since key foundations for learning are established beginning at birth, starting school behind makes it likely that early disadvantages will persist as children progress through school, and last into their adult lives.

Knowing which groups of children tend to start school behind, how far behind they are, and what factors contribute to their lag, can help us develop policies to avert the early gaps that become long-term problems. Inequalities at the Starting Gate: Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills Gaps between 2010–2011 Kindergarten Classmates explores gaps by social class and race/ethnicity in both cognitive skills—math, reading, and executive function—and noncognitive skills such as self-control, approaches to learning, and interactions with teachers and peers. We refer to these skills gaps as gaps in school readiness.

The gaps reported in Inequalities at the Starting Gate are presented as a group’s score on a given skill relative to a comparison group. (Skills are measured in standard deviations—a metric commonly used in education research—with a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1. This allows for measuring how far a group’s average score is from the comparison group’s average score and report it as a fraction of one.) For more information on the methodology, sources (the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics and others), and findings, please visit epi.org to review the full report: Inequalities at the Starting Gate: Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills Gaps between 2010–2011 Kindergarten Classmates , by Emma García, Economic Policy Institute, June 17, 2015.

The paper uses data from the National Center for Education Statistics’ Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class, a cohort of students who entered kindergarten in 2010 for the 2010–2011 school year (ECLS-K 2010–2011). The nationally representative sample provides information about the children—their race or ethnicity, socioeconomic status, language spoken at home, etc.—and their experiences in their early years, such as how actively their parents engaged them in enriching activities and whether they received prekindergarten care (see table at right). The analyses focus on the association between these characteristics and children’s readiness for school.

Student and family characteristics of the kindergarten class of 2010–2011

Note: SES stands for socioeconomic status. Among Hispanic children, some do not report their language status (Hispanic children with language reported account for 24 percent of the Kindergarten Class of 2010–2011).

Source: ECLS-K, Kindergarten Class of 2010–2011 (National Center for Education Statistics)

Copy the code below to embed this chart on your website.

The findings reflect broader societal inequities. As is true of odds of school and life success among Americans today, social class is the single factor with the most influence on how ready to learn a child is when she first walks through the school’s kindergarten door. Low social class puts children far behind from the start. Race and ethnicity compound that disadvantage, largely due to factors also related to social class.

A substantial minority are so far behind that school success will be very hard. Given the large share of children entering our schools from disadvantaged contexts, these findings demand our urgent attention on both economic and moral grounds.

Low social class poses major barriers to young children’s readiness in reading and math

Measured skills.

• Working memory
• Cognitive flexibility
• Self control
• Approaches to learning
• Social interactions
• Closeness to teacher
• Eagerness to learn
• Persistence
• Focus (pays attention)
• Internalizing behavioral problems
• Externalizing behavioral problems

Research has established that growing up in poverty tends to put children behind. Inequalities at the Starting Gate seeks to determine how much social class matters, both absolutely and relative to other factors, such as race and ethnicity. It also assesses how a range of family characteristics and parenting practices, such as family composition, paid care, and enriching activities with parents, influence education gaps between groups of young children.

To understand the influence of social class—parents’ income levels, level of education, and job status—on children’s early development, the study divides children into five groups based on social class and compares the second (low-middle), third (middle), fourth (middle-high), and fifth (high) quintiles or “fifths” with the first (low) fifth.

We use the term social class to refer to the socioeconomic status (SES) construct created for the ECLS-K by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics based on five different components, including parents’ (or guardians’) educational attainment, occupational prestige score, and household income.

In line with prior research, Inequalities at the Starting Gate finds that the most socioeconomically disadvantaged children lag substantially in both reading and math skills, and that these skill levels rise along with social class. As such, poor children face substantial obstacles to school success. For example:

• Children in the highest socioeconomic group (the high SES fifth) have reading and math scores that are significantly higher—by a full standard deviation—than scores of their peers in the lowest socioeconomic group.
• Reading and math skills advantages of children in the middle of the SES distribution relative to the lowest SES group are roughly half as large as advantages of high-SES children to the lowest SES group.
• Considering race in addition to social class reduces math and reading skills gaps minimally. And even adding in controls for the full range of parental and care activities shrinks these gaps only slightly more (to 0.8 standard deviations).

Black and Hispanic ELL children begin kindergarten with the greatest disadvantages in math and reading, due largely to links between minority status and social class

To better understand the links between racial and ethnic status and children’s school readiness, Inequalities at the Starting Gate looks at gaps between black, white, Asian, and Hispanic children. Because Hispanics are the largest minority in the United States and also heterogeneous—and thus likely to experience gaps along different dimensions—they are divided into subgroups, based on English-speaking versus non-English speaking status. As multiple prior studies have also found, there are substantial gaps in reading and math skills when comparing white and Asian children with black and Hispanic children, and those gaps can largely be attributed to relative social status:

• There are significant gaps between the reading and math skills of both white and Asian children and the reading and math skills of black and Hispanic children. However, these gaps are much smaller than gaps based on social class.
• Race-based skills gaps shrink significantly when children’s social class is taken into account. This, too, affirms prior research, which finds that racial minorities’ lower socioeconomic status largely explains gaps that appear to be due to race.
• Adding controls for social class and a set of parenting characteristics and practices makes the gap in reading between black and white children disappear almost entirely and the reading gap between non-English speaking Hispanic children and their white counterparts shrink by more than two-thirds. That such characteristics do little to mitigate the influence of social class (shrinking SES gaps only slightly), but substantially reduce the influence of race on gaps suggests an association between these characteristics and socioeconomic status. In other words, black parents may read to their children less often not because of their race, but because they are less likely to have a second parent to help out.
• In real life we cannot disentangle black and Hispanic children’s race and ethnicity from the contexts in which they live, which put them at a major disadvantage relative to their average white and Asian peers. It is not race itself, then, but the poverty and other things that too often go along with being a minority child in America, that compound disadvantage. In addition to the high odds of living in poverty (as do 46 percent of black and 63 percent of non-English speaking Hispanic children), these disadvantages include living with one parent (as do 65 percent of black children), and lacking access to preschool (as do 53 percent of Hispanic children, compared with only 40 percent of white children and less than 40 percent of Asian children).

Low social class also affects children’s social, behavioral, and other noncognitive skills

When assessing students’ readiness to enter school, it is increasingly apparent that researchers need to focus on a much broader set of skills than math and reading. Persistence is as likely as math and reading aptitude to help a student actually finish high school. Effective communication with teachers and peers is also critical to school success, as is the ability to play well with others. These so-called noncognitive skills tend to develop—or lag—in tandem with cognitive skills.

Noncognitive skills are harder to measure than cognitive skills because they are harder to define and lack reliable “tests.” Despite these measurement challenges, since they interact with cognitive skills and are key to every child’s full development, it is critically important to understand the gaps in these noncognitive skills.

The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study asks both parents and teachers to rate children’s abilities across a range of these skills. Of course, the specific skills measured may vary between the home and classroom setting; creativity, for example, could look different when constructing a tower of blocks at home versus writing an essay in class. Expectations may also vary by context. Teachers likely evaluate their students’ skills levels relative to those of other children they teach. Parents, on the other hand, may be basing their expectations on family, community, culture, or other factors. Nonetheless, all adults report gaps by social class.

• The most socioeconomically disadvantaged children lag substantially in noncognitive skills, as rated by both parents and teachers, although the gaps are not as large as those in reading and math. For example, social class–based gaps in self-control and approaches to learning, as reported by teachers, are roughly half as large as gaps in math and reading; as reported by parents, SES-based gaps in these noncognitive skills are between a third and a half as large as gaps in math and reading.
• Both parents and teachers also perceive social class–based gaps in students’ social skills, with the high-SES students enjoying even larger advantages when reported by teachers.
• Both groups of adults note gaps in persistence between low- and high-SES students. Again, teachers see larger gaps than do parents.

Race influences how parents and teachers perceive children’s noncognitive skills

Parents’ and teachers’ assessments of the same students’ noncognitive skills vary by race. For example, in simple terms, black children are doing fine on these skills according to their parents but lagging according to their teachers. We don’t know whether this is due to expectations in the classroom versus at home, different measures of these skills in those two contexts, or some other reason. But these disparities between parents’ and teachers’ perceptions merit further research because they may have important implications for policy. And these differences can be striking:

• Both Asian and non-English speaking Hispanic parents give their children low scores on approaches to learning compared with how white parents score their kids. On the other hand, teachers perceive no advantage for white students.
• There is a visible gap between parents’ and teachers’ assessments of black children. Black and white parents equally rate their children’s persistence, approaches to learning, and social interactions, but when teachers do the rating, black students have a distinct disadvantage relative to whites in these skills.
• The disparity with respect to self-control is even more visible than differences in persistence, learning approaches, and social skills. According to parents, black children exhibit a relatively high degree of self-control, while teachers perceive black children to have substantially less self-control than white students.
• The fact that parents’ and teachers’ assessments match when broken down by social class, but not by race, suggests that race introduces some biases—whether on the part of parents or teachers—that we must seek to better understand.

Starkly unequal starts call for policy action

The findings of Inequalities at the Starting Gate study affirm decades of research that connects parents’ economic resources and opportunities with their children’s school readiness. When those resources are limited, children aren’t prepared, cognitively or noncognitively. When those resources are evident, children are well prepared. These unequal starts by race, ethnicity, and, most stubborn of all, social class, emphasize the urgent need to rethink how we design and implement not only our education policies but also our social and economic policies.

Expand access to care and education for disadvantaged families

Research provides guidance on strategies to mitigate poverty-related early skills gaps. Some of these strategies, such as home visiting and other programs that help disadvantaged parents support their children’s development, and access to quality care and prekindergarten, have bipartisan backing by Congress and President Obama. These and other evidence-based policies provide a significant societal return by enhancing children’s readiness for school while also improving parents’ job prospects and productivity:

• Home visits by nurses that help parents understand and ensure their children’s healthy development improve child well-being and school readiness. Congress has reauthorized federal funding for the Maternal Infant and Early Child Home Visiting program, which supports state home-visiting programs. However, many at-risk mothers are not being served.
• Quality child care helps ensure that children go to school ready to learn (and that parents have a stable place in the workforce). The recent reauthorization of the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act (CCDBG) was an important step toward improving the safety and quality of child care for children whose parents need federal subsidies. However, funding is so limited that even many eligible families cannot receive the support they need.
• Prekindergarten boosts children’s odds of thriving in kindergarten and after, with the biggest benefits for low-income children. While states have made real progress toward making pre-K available to low-income children, quality remains very uneven, and as the data show, some of the children who would benefit most—such as non English-speaking Hispanic children—still lack access to such programs.

Given the societal returns from these programs, policymakers at all levels should ensure the needed public investments to expand them in states with strong programs and establish quality programs in other states.

Enhance policies to boost jobs and income

Poverty poses such huge challenges to life success that mitigating its effects is insufficient. If we really aim to close achievement gaps, not just narrow them, we need to have fewer poor kids. As Robert Putnam warns in his recent book Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis , saving the American Dream requires ensuring not just opportunity but mobility; a child’s life odds should not be determined by her parents’ employment or wealth. And that equality of opportunity cannot exist unless we tackle the severe inequities underlying our findings through policies to boost parents’ socioeconomic status:

• Raise wages , starting with the federal minimum wage. Many states and cities have already raised the minimum earned by the lowest-wage workers and it is time for Congress to follow. One current proposal would raise the minimum wage, which is lower in real terms than it was in 1968, to $12 an hour. Policymakers could also make those wages go further by increasing the earned income tax credit.
• Boost employment . Low-SES families are particularly vulnerable in times of high unemployment, as the recent slow recovery from the recession of 2007–2009 has shown. The federal government has a range of jobs-boosting policies at its disposal, including interest rate policies of the Federal Reserve and investments in infrastructure, in addition to initiatives to connect unemployed workers with existing jobs.
• Sustain the social safety net . As many studies have shown, unemployment insurance, food stamps, cash assistance, and other federal programs that help families navigate tough economic times help ensure that children do not suffer the effects of poverty. These programs must be sustained and extended to all families that need them, especially those with vulnerable children.
• Reform corrections policies . Other structural factors influence a child’s odds of growing up poor. For example, millions of American children are growing up in single-parent households (or with no parent) because one or both parents are in jail. While there are many barriers to growing up in a two-parent family, smart reforms to corrections policies, which research shows would also benefit states economically, would address one major obstacle.
• Enact immigration reform . Hispanic children growing up in immigrant households may face additional roadblocks to success. Lack of legal status severely limits many parents’ work options and can destabilize families, which obviously affects children’s well-being. In this way, immigration reform discussions are relevant, too, to school improvement efforts.
• Address segregation and concentrated poverty . Finally, we must address societal and structural biases that compound the effects of poverty for children of color. Black and non-English speaking Hispanic children tend to grow up in isolated neighborhoods of concentrated poverty, and many black children live in those conditions over multiple generations. Decades of research suggests that poor children growing up in segregated minority communities are more likely to remain in poverty because they have less access to good schools and social capital and other resources. Thus reducing segregation and multigenerational poverty through fair and affordable housing policies is an additional imperative if we are to improve education.

A wake-up call

The education gaps highlighted in Inequalities at the Starting Gate sometimes narrow as children grow. But they nevertheless represent bleak life prospects that portend serious problems for our society as a whole. If we do not treat them as both the moral and economic crisis they represent, we waste the human capital contributions of groups that have shaped our country’s uniquely diverse, dynamic, and entrepreneurial nature. We share a national ideal that everyone should have the opportunity for prosperity and success. Reclaiming this vision for our children begins with ensuring that all children start school on equal footing.

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• DOI: 10.1163/9789004319523_004
• Corpus ID: 148685567

Social Class and Education

• Published 30 October 2017
• Education, Sociology

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Social Class and Educational Achievement Essay Plan

Last Updated on January 11, 2019 by

Evaluate the extent to which home based, rather than school – based factors account for social class based differences in educational achievement (30)

The lower classes are more likely to suffer from material deprivation at home which can hold children back in education because of a lack access to resources such as computers, or living in a smaller house means they would be less likely to have a quiet, personal study space. In extreme situations, children may have a worse diet and a colder house, which could mean illness and time off school. According to Gibson and Asthana, the effects of material deprivation are cumulative, creating a cycle of deprivation. This would suggest that home background influences a child’s education.

Also, the amount of money one has and the type of area one lives in affects the type of school a child can get to. Richer parents have more choice of school because they are more likely to have two cars or be able to afford public transport to get their children to a wider range of schools. Also, house prices in the catchment areas of the best schools can be up to 20% higher than similar houses in other areas – richer parents are more able to afford to move to these better schools. At the other end of the social class spectrum, those going to school in the most deprived areas may suffer disruptions in school due to gang related violence. All of this suggests that location, which is clearly part of your ‘home background’ in the broader sense of the word, is a major factor in educational achievement.

Cultural deprivation also has a negative effect on children at home. Bernstein pointed out that working class children are more likely to be socialised into the restricted speech code and so are less able to understand teachers at school compared to their middle class peers who speak in the elaborated speech code. The classes are also taught the value of immediate rather than deferred gratification, and so are less likely to see the value of higher education. In these theories, home background influences children all the way through school.

Although the concept of cultural deprivation is decasdes old, more recent research suggests it is still of relevance. Fenstein’s (2003) research found that lower income is strongly correlated with a lack of ability to communicate, while research by Conor et al (2001) found that being socialised into poverty means working class students are less likely to want to go to university than middle class students because they are more ‘debt conscious’.

Similarly, the case of Mossborn Academy and Tony Sewell’s Generating Genius programme show that schools can overcome disadvantage at home – if they provide strict discipline and high expectation.

Although all of the above are just case studies and thus of limited use in generating a universal theory of what the ‘major cause’ of differences in educational achievement by social class might be, many similar studies have suggested that schools in poorer areas have a lower ethos of expectation (from Willis’ classic 1977 research on the lads to Swain’s research in 2006). It is thus reasonable to hypothesis that the type of school and in school factors such as teacher labelling and peer groups might work to disadvantage the lower classes as Becker’s theory of the ideal pupil being middle class and Willis’ work on working class counter school cultures would suggest, although in this later case, Willis argues that the lads brought with them an anti-educational working class masculinity, so home factors still matter here.

So is it home background or school factors that matter? The research above suggests home background does have a role to play, however, you certainly cannot disregard in school factors in explaining class differences in educational achievement either – in my final analysis, I would have to say that the two work together – middle class advantage at home translating into better schooling, and vice versa for the working classes.

If you like this sort of thing – then you might like my A-level sociology revision bundles : The bundle contains 5 full, 30 mark sociology of education essays, written for the AQA specification.

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The Effects of Material Deprivation on Education

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Sociology, social class and education

The relationship between the educational system and social class inequalities is one of the most fundamental issues in the sociology of education. Schools have been held up as both the means of achieving equality in society but also as centrally implicated in the reproduction of inequalities. So we are confronted with a conundrum. How is schooling to be understood in relation to social class?

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The education system is both a source of perpetuating socio-economic inequalities, and a tool for challenging the status quo. Educational institutions, especially schools are an integral part of the socialization process, preparing the next generation to take on their role as “social” actors. The course examines how and why the education system perpetuates or challenges existing inequalities within society. It introduces students to sociological theories of education, examining the intersection between education, class, culture, gender, resistance and democracy. The first part provides a macro level analysis of education and its place within society by introducing students to grand theories of education with a particular emphasis on functionalism, pragmatism, and critical pedagogy. The second part focuses on the formalized education system, in particular the school, examining the structure and organization of the school, teaching and pedagogy, classroom inequalities, and the politics of language and curriculum. The readings therefore move from a macro level analysis to the micro unit of the school, highlighting both the potential and the limitation of modern day schooling in challenging existing inequalities within society.

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The studies on inequalities in educational opportunities have been conducted along studies on social mobility, social class stratification and forming or studies concerned with the evolution of modern democracies. Our theoretical approach represents a critical analysis of the education system in order to identify state policies or common practices which do not lead to a better operation of the state itself. Our goal is that of identifying such aspects and introduce them on the public agenda in order to create remedial public policies. Conclusions show that a decrease of income inequality distribution among social classes and a democratic, merit-based political system which is not subjected to legislation or procedure changes at short times would increase equity and social cohesion of a society, thus creating better work and life opportunities for a larger number of people.

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Home — Essay Samples — Education — Inequality in Education — The Impact Of Social Class On Inequality In Education

Social Inequality in Education: The Role of Social Class

• Categories: Inequality in Education Social Class

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Published: Oct 2, 2020

Words: 864 | Pages: 2 | 5 min read

Education and Socioeconomic Status

Socioeconomic status (SES) encompasses not just income but also educational attainment, financial security, and subjective perceptions of social status and social class. Socioeconomic status can encompass quality of life attributes as well as the opportunities and privileges afforded to people within society. Poverty, specifically, is not a single factor but rather is characterized by multiple physical and psychosocial stressors. Further, SES is a consistent and reliable predictor of a vast array of outcomes across the life span, including physical and psychological health. Thus, SES is relevant to all realms of behavioral and social science, including research, practice, education and advocacy.

SES affects our society

SES affects overall human functioning, including our physical and mental health. Low SES and its correlates, such as lower educational achievement, poverty and poor health, ultimately affect our society. Inequities in health distribution, resource distribution, and quality of life are increasing in the United States and globally. Society benefits from an increased focus on the foundations of socioeconomic inequities and efforts to reduce the deep gaps in socioeconomic status in the United States and abroad.

SES and educational issues

Research indicates that children from low-SES households and communities develop academic skills slower than children from higher SES groups (Morgan, Farkas, Hillemeier, & Maczuga, 2009). For instance, low SES in childhood is related to poor cognitive development, language, memory, socioemotional processing, and consequently poor income and health in adulthood. The school systems in low-SES communities are often underresourced, negatively affecting students’ academic progress and outcomes (Aikens & Barbarin, 2008). Inadequate education and increased dropout rates affect children’s academic achievement, perpetuating the low-SES status of the community. Improving school systems and early intervention programs may help to reduce some of these risk factors; therefore, increased research on the correlation between SES and education is essential.

SES and family resources

Literacy gaps in children from different socioeconomic backgrounds exist before formal schooling begins.

• Children from low-SES families are less likely to have experiences that encourage the development of fundamental skills of reading acquisition, such as phonological awareness, vocabulary, and oral language (Buckingham, Wheldall, & Beaman-Wheldall, 2013).
• Children’s initial reading competency is correlated with the home literacy environment, number of books owned, and parent distress (Aikens & Barbarin, 2008; Bergen, Zuijen, Bishop, & Jong, 2016). However, poor households have less access to learning materials and experiences, including books, computers, stimulating toys, skill-building lessons, or tutors to create a positive literacy environment (Bradley, Corwyn, McAdoo, & García Coll, 2001; Orr, 2003).
• Prospective college students from low-SES backgrounds are less likely to have access to informational resources about college (Brown, Wohn, & Ellison , 2016). Additionally, compared to high-SES counterparts, young adults from low-SES backgrounds are at a higher risk of accruing student loan debt burdens that exceed the national average (Houle, 2014).

Research indicates that school conditions contribute more to SES differences in learning rates than family characteristics do (Aikens & Barbarin, 2008). Researchers have argued that classroom environment plays an important role in outcomes.

• Students who were randomly assigned to higher quality classroom in grades K-3 earned more, were more likely to attend college, saved more for retirement, and lived in better neighborhoods (Chetty et al., 2011).
• A teacher’s years of experience and quality of training are correlated with children’s academic achievement (Gimbert, Bol, & Wallace , 2007). Children in low-income schools are less likely to have well-qualified teachers (Clotfelter, Ladd, & Vigdo, 2006).
• The following factors have been found to improve the quality of schools in low-SES neighborhoods: a focus on improving teaching and learning, creation of an information-rich environment, building of a learning community, continuous professional development, involvement of parents, and increased funding and resources (Muijs, Harris, Chapman, Stoll, & Russ, 2009).
• Schools with students from the highest concentrations of poverty have fewer library resources to draw on (fewer staff, libraries are open fewer hours per week, and staff are less well rounded) than those serving middle-income children (Pribesh, Gavigan, & Dickinson, 2011).

SES and academic achievement

Research continues to link lower SES to lower academic achievement and slower rates of academic progress as compared with higher SES communities.

• Children from low-SES families enter high school with average literacy skills five years behind those of high-income students (Reardon, Valentino, Kalogrides, Shores, & Greenberg, 2013).
• In 2014, the high school dropout rate among persons 16–24 years old was highest in low-income families (11.6 percent) as compared to high-income families (2.8 percent; National Center for Education Statistics, 2014).
• The success rate of low-income students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines is much lower than that of students who do not come from underrepresented backgrounds (Doerschuk et al., 2016).
• According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2014), individuals within the top family income quartile are 8 times more likely to obtain a bachelor’s degree by age 24 as compared to individuals from the lowest family income quartile.

Psychological health

Increasing evidence supports the link between lower SES and learning disabilities or other negative psychological outcomes that affect academic achievement.

• Low SES and exposure to adversity are linked to decreased educational success (McLaughlin & Sheridan, 2016). Such toxic stress in early childhood leads to lasting impacts on learning, behavior, and health (Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health et al., 2012).
• Children from lower SES households are about twice as likely as those from high-SES households to display learning-related behavior problems. A mother’s SES is also related to her child’s inattention, disinterest, and lack of cooperation in school (Morgan et al., 2009).
• Perception of family economic stress and personal financial constraints affected emotional distress/depression in students and their academic outcomes (Mistry, Benner, Tan, & Kim, 2009).

SES and career aspirations

Social class has been shown to be a significant factor in influencing career aspirations, trajectory and achievement.

• Diemer and Blustein (2007) found that racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic barriers generally hinder individuals’ vocational development. Career barriers are significantly higher for those from poor backgrounds, people of color, women, those who are disabled, and LGBTIQ-identified individuals (Blustein, 2013).
• A study showed that individuals from a lower social class generally had less career-related self-efficacy when it came to vocational aspirations (Ali, McWhirter, & Chronister, 2005).
• Those from higher social class backgrounds tend to be more successful in developing career aspirations and are generally better prepared for the world of work because of access to resources such as career offices, guidance counselors, better schools, high level “social actors,” and familial experience with higher education (Diemer & Ali, 2009).

Get involved

• Consider SES in your education, practice, and research efforts.
• Stay up to date on legislation and policies that explore and work to eliminate socioeconomic disparities. Visit the Office on Government Relations for more details.
• Visit APA’s Office on Socioeconomic Status (OSES) website .

Aikens, N. L., & Barbarin, O. (2008). Socioeconomic differences in reading trajectories: The contribution of family, neighborhood, and school contexts. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100, 235-251. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.100.2.235

Ali, S. R., McWhirter, E. H., & Chronister, K. M. (2005). Self-efficacy and vocational outcome expectations for adolescents of lower socioeconomic status: A pilot study.  Journal of Career Assessment, 13 (40), 40-58. doi:10.1177/1069072704270273

Bergen, E., Zuijen, T., Bishop, D., & Jong, P. F. (2016). Why are home literacy environment and children's reading skills associated? What parental skills reveal. Reading Research Quarterly , 52, 147-160. doi:10.1002/rrq.160

Blustein, D. (2013). The psychology of working: A new perspective for career development, counseling, and public policy. Abingdon-on-Thames, England: Routledge.

Bradley, R. H., Corwyn, R. F., McAdoo, H. P., & García Coll, C. (2001). The home environments of children in the United States Part I: Variations by age, ethnicity, and poverty status. Child Development , 72 , 1844-1867. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.t01-1-00382

Brown, M. G., Wohn, D. Y., & Ellison, N. (2016). Without a map: College access and the online practices of youth from low-income communities. Computers & Education , 92 , 104-116. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2015.10.001

Buckingham, J., Wheldall, K., & Beaman-Wheldall, R. (2013). Why poor children are more likely to become poor readers: The school years. Australian Journal of Education , 57 , 190-213. doi:10.1177/0004944113495500

Chetty, R., Friedman, J. N., Hilger, N., Saez, E., Schanzenbach, D. W., & Yagan, D. (2011). How does your kindergarten classroom affect your earnings? Evidence from Project STAR. The Quarterly Journal of Economics , 126 , 1593-1660. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjr041

Clotfelter, C. T., Ladd, H. F., & Vigdor, J. L. (2006). Teacher-student matching and the assessment of teacher effectiveness. Journal of Human Resources , 41 , 778-820. doi:10.3368/jhr.XLI.4.778

Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health, Committee on Early Childhood, Adoption, and Dependent Care, Section on Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, Shonkoff, J. P., Siegel, B. S., Dobbins, M. I., ...Wood, D. L. (2012). Early childhood adversity, toxic stress, and the role of the pediatrician: Translating developmental science into lifelong health. Pediatrics , 129 (1), e224-31. doi:10.1542/peds.2011-2662

Diemer, M. A., & Ali, S. R. (2009). Integrating social class into vocational psychology: Theory and practice implications. Journal of Career Assessment, 17, 247-265. doi:10.1177/1069072708330462

Diemer, M. A., & Blustein, D. L. (2007). Vocational hope and vocational identity; Urban adolescents’ career development.  Journal of Career Assessment, 15, 98-118. doi:10.1177/1069072706294528

Doerschuk, P., Bahrim, C., Daniel, J., Kruger, J., Mann, J., & Martin, C. (2016). Closing the gaps and filling the STEM pipeline: A multidisciplinary approach. Journal of Science Education and Technology , 25 , 682-695. doi:10.1007/s10956-016-9622-8

Gimbert, B., Bol, L., & Wallace, D. (2007). The influence of teacher preparation on student achievement and the application of national standards by teachers of mathematics in urban secondary schools.  Education and Urban Society, 40, 91-117. doi:10.1177/0013124507303993

Houle, J. N. (2014). Disparities in debt: Parents’ socioeconomic resources and young adult student loan debt. Sociology of Education , 87 (1), 53-69. doi:10.1177/0038040713512213

McLaughlin, K. A., & Sheridan, M. A. (2016). Beyond cumulative risk: a dimensional approach to childhood adversity. Current Directions in Psychological Science , 25 , 239-245. doi:10.1177/0963721416655883

Mistry, R. S., Benner, A. D., Tan, C. S., & Kim, S. Y. (2009). Family economic stress and academic well-being among Chinese-American youth: The influence of adolescents’ perceptions of economic strain.  Journal of Family Psychology, 23, 279-290. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0015403

Morgan, P. L., Farkas, G., Hillemeier, M. M., & Maczuga, S. (2009). Risk factors for learning-related behavior problems at 24 months of age: Population-based estimates.  Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 37, 401-413. doi:10.1007/s10802-008-9279-8

Muijs, D., Harris, A., Chapman, C., Stoll, L., & Russ, J. (2009). Improving schools in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas: A review of research evidence.  School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 15, 149-175.

National Center for Education Statistics. (2008). Percentage of high school dropouts among persons 16 through 24 years old (status dropout rate), by income level, and percentage distribution of status dropouts, by labor force status and educational attainment: 1970 through 2007. Retrieved from  http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d08/tables/dt08_110.asp

Orr, A. J. (2003). Black–White differences in achievement: The importance of wealth.  Sociology of Education, 76, 281-304. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1519867

Pribesh, S., Gavigan, K., & Dickinson, G. (2011). The access gap: Poverty and characteristics of school library media centers. The Library Quarterly , 81 (2), 143-160.

Reardon, S. F., Valentino, R. A., Kalogrides, D., Shores, K. A., & Greenberg, E. H. (2013). Patterns and trends in racial academic achievement gaps among states, 1999-2011. Retrieved from https://cepa.stanford.edu/content/patterns-and-trends-racial-academic-achievement-gaps-among-states-1999-2011

U.S. Census Bureau. (2000). Current population survey: Design and methodology. Retrieved from www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/education/index.html.

Additional SES resources

Download Fact Sheet (PDF, 232KB)

Publications

APA Policy Statements on Socioeconomic Status

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What Is The Relationship Between Social Class And Education (Essay Sample)

Relationship between social class and education.

The social class of an individual is defined by the amount of wealth that they have. As well, such wealth is highly depended on the level of education of an individual because getting a good job requires a person to have high levels of education. Therefore, social class is directly depended on an individual’s education.

In the education system, people are taught how to be responsible human beings both in the family and job market. Therefore, people who work hard to achieve their educational qualifications end up in a better position in the competitive edge of the job market. As a result, such individuals end up securing the best jobs that are highly paying. In regard to such huge amount of wealth, such people end up in a high social class within the society. In most cases, the individuals interact with people of their same social class. On the other hand, individuals who do not achieve relatively high qualifications in the education system end up working in less paying job levels. Their level of income is, in turn, reflected in the amounts of wealth that they will have and the level of the social class of the individuals that they will associate with. Therefore, the relationship between social class and education in this case is that, people of different educational qualifications belong to different social classes.

In addition, given the fact that the education system teaches morals and ethics, then the higher the education level of an individual, the better the morals and ethics they will have. As a result, such individuals will find it easy to interact with individuals with the same education level since they understand one another’s character and behavior better as compared to people with different education levels. As well, people who have passed through the higher levels of the education system will exhibit certain characters and behaviors hence making it difficult for them to interact with the most learned individuals. Therefore, the two groups of individuals will belong to the different social classes respectively in terms of their education level. An individual’s level of education is important in determining their social class because it gives a reflection of how they deal with issues in real life situations. The level of education, also, plays a substantial part in judging the intelligence of an individual hence resulting to the various groups of social classes because human beings have to understand one another in order to cope with real life situations.

Typically, individuals expect the children from high class families to exhibit excellent performance in the education system. As well, those from middle class families are expected to be average while those from low class families are normally associated with low chances of succeeding in the education system. Therefore, this is evidence that social class has a huge relationship with an individual’s educational success. In rare cases, is the social class of an individual not reflected in the educational system since some individuals from low class families can access student’s loans to fund their education. As a result, this brings about success in the educational system and, in turn, changing them from low class individuals to high class individuals.

Concisely, understanding an individual’s social class background plays a substantial role in determining their chances of success in regard to education. On the other hand, the performance of an individual in the education system can be used as a determinant of the individual’s social class in the future. Therefore, the social class of an individual definitely has a relationship with their education either directly or indirectly.

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