Kieren Gregory
11/1/18
Lower Income Students Aren’t Performing to their Full Potential Academically
You go to school in order to learn the fundamental skills needed to pursue a later career in life to support a family. Throughout primary and secondary school, you build onto these necessary math and reading skills to the point where its time to take a test on all of what you learned to determine college acceptance. Many lower income children throughout the world lack the availability of resources and motivation from their parents, who didn’t receive the best education to help prepare their child to perform to the best of their ability. The poverty rate in children is rising each year and is affecting their development skills and academic performance, as well as a rise in the test score gap compared to children that come from higher-income families. This brings in the question of how does poverty affect lower-income students’ academic performance in standardized tests?
Brain development is crucial during the early stages of life, specifically the first two decades. During the fundamental two decades, children should have developed well rounded cognitive, motor and social skills. During a study conducted by psychologist Seth Pollak at the University Wisconsin–Madison, he tested the gray matter volume in the temporal lobes, frontal lobes, and hippocampus in 389 healthy children. The temporal and frontal lobes, as well as the hippocampus, , are critical for a child's cognitive academic success and understanding of the environment around them. Pollak found that children living below the poverty line had 9% less gray matter than normal. Gray matter is essential for these critical parts of the brain to carry information for emotions, memory and core decision making. Since the poorer children have less gray matter their fundamental skills are limited and thus makes their brain not function to their potential. Lower-income children also have less developed brains due to the environment around them. Some environmental factors in a child’s learning environment: are little access to healthy food to start the school day, unsafe neighborhoods and stressed or abusive parents. Society needs to further invest in programs that help children combat the effects of poverty, they are the future employees and successors of the United States.
The growing test score gap between lower income and high-income students is still a major concern. To obtain a high score on standardized tests, students need to be well prepared mentally in order to perform well. According to various data comparing lower and higher income families from The College Board, it is indicated that there is a correlation between poverty and varied scores. Families who earn more than $200,000 a year, the student will likely get a combined score of 1710 out of 2400, as families who earn less than $20,000 the student would earn about a score of 1316 out of 2400. If a student’s parents have higher education such as a masters degree, the student will likely score 300 points higher than a student's parent who didn’t get access to higher education. Although students can still perform well despite the education of their parents, a parent-child relationship is crucial for a better learning environment. A good head start for performing well on the SAT is having access to the PSAT before the official SAT test day. The students who take advantage of the PSAT earn scores of 1612 out of 2400, students who don’t take advantage earn scores of 1409 out of 2400. The key factor in ensuring students from lower-income families succeed in standardized tests is making sure the parent has opportunities to further their education to motivate their child to take advantages to perform well in school. If the parent has a better education they would be more qualified to help their child with their schoolwork.
Although a study from Stanford University suggests brain development does not affect students academic performance, it is still a problem that is occurring in children who are living in impoverished conditions. One solution that will help improve lower-income students academic performance in school is making sure students have access to programs which help boost students motivation towards school. According to John Stevenson from Golden Gate University, universities or college campuses can implement programs for lower-income students, so they can participate in student lead activism, leadership, and community services(pg 216 vol 118). If all these factors are implemented towards lower-income students, it can help benefit the lower income students. The leadership programs would motivate students to be more independent and wanting to do better to stay out of the cycle of poverty. The overall solution for students to score higher on standardized tests is to receive motivation from their parents and an improved parent-child relationship. The future of America and the world depends on the quality of education our future generations receive to make an impact on the world in the long run.