Paste your teIt is argued by many researchers that education impacts on the outcome of an individual success and well being. Therefore, it is crucial for planning to take place at an early stage in an individual's life to map his/her future while considering the benefits which may be derived from a strong educational background. Research has shown substantial evidence that socio-economic status is associated with student academic achievement (Baharudin and Luster 1998, Jeynes 2002, Eamon 2005, Major banks 1996, Hochschild 2003, McNeal 2001, Seyfried 1998). The Ministry of Education in Trinidad and Tobago in its adoption of inclusive education outlined its philosophy based on the assumption that every child can learn, every child has the right to an education and every school should provide for the varying abilities of students (Ministry of Education, 1993, p. xvii). In the United States of America, the U.S. Department of Education, No Child Left Behind Act 2001 mission was to build minds and character of every child, from every background.
Many researchers in their work have clearly stated that a gap exists in academic performance between students who belong to Low Socio-economic status and High Socio-economic status. While there are others who believe poor performance is not just based on low socio-economic factors but mediated through other factors. Some contributing factors which can be linked to academic performance are students' role, school environment, peer pressure and parental involvement. A student role will be devised from elements such as race, level of effort towards goals and the involvement in extra -curricular activities. The school environment relates to its size, the neighborhood and the relationships which exist among stakeholders. Peer pressure involves the maximum level of risks that a child is willing to take that eventually impacts negatively upon them. Parental involvement in a child life is dependent on the size of the family and the family socio-economic status. According to (Esminger and Fothergill, 2003) in many research papers socio-economic status and social class is used interchangeably but some research does not treat it as the same.
The researcher believes socio-economic factors are significant predictors of a child's life as well as his/her academic performance. The American Psychological Association (APA) refers to socio-economic status as social standing of an individual or group which is determined by factors such as occupation, level of income and education. It can also be seen as the way individuals and families fit into society using social and economic measures that depicts the impact on one's well being. In any given country the correlation of these factors are identified in order to determine one's socioeconomic position which can be high, medium or low. Low income and little education have shown to be strong indicators of a range of physical and mental problems. This paper argues "to what degree does low socioeconomic background affect the academic performance of students." The argument focuses on the assumptions that students because of their low socio-economic status drop out of school and lack parental involvement which ultimately affects adversely their academic performance.
Russell Rumberger and Sun Ah Lim authors of the study Why Students Drop Out of School: A Review of 25 Years of Research (2008) found that students who belong to poor families were more likely to drop out from school than students who are more stable financially. Previous studies have also demonstrated that students who come from low socio-economic status do not perform as well as students from middle and high socio-economic status. Onocha (1985) concludes that a child from a well educated family with high socio-economic status is more likely to perform better than a child from an illiterate family.
The educational environment of a school being attended sets the parameters that brings forth learning outcomes. We speak of different countries categorized as first world countries – United States of America, Canada and New Zealand; Second world countries – Hungary and Romania; or third world countries – Rwanda, Kenya and Bangladesh. The drop out of school issue is a global challenge which stems from common causes but the depth of the challenge may vary. Why do students drop out from school? Reasons for leaving school include school-related reasons, family-related reasons, and work-related reasons (Bridgeland, DiIulio Jr., & Morison, 2006; Rotermund, 2007). Rumberger (1983, 1987) found a connection between socioeconomic status and dropping out of school, with students from lower socioeconomic (SES) families being disproportionately represented among dropouts. Jordan, Lara, and McPartland (1996) in the National Educational Longitudinal Study 1988 conducted in the United States supported this finding when they found that 82% of early dropouts data belonged to families below the mean SES, a composite of several items including family income, parents' education, and parents' occupation. Lichter, Cornwell, and Eggebeen (1993) found that in rural areas, poverty matters more with regard to dropout rates than family structure.
The"National Report for Trinidad & Tobago Civil Society's Review of Progress Towards Millennium Development Goals" January 2015, 20% of the population is below the poverty line, that is 1 in every 5 persons. This means that to some extent all schools will have children belonging to lower class families who battle with obstacles. The (Census Bureau, 2009) recorded that 42.9 million Americans were living in poverty which accounted for 14.3 % of the country's population. However, depending on the geographic location of the school the ratio of students coming from low socio-economic status into schools will vary. In Nigeria, about 7.3 million children were out of school and 62% of the total population is female children mostly due to poverty of their households (UNICEF, 2004). The researcher believes that there is a negative correlation among low socio-economic status and academic performance in schools throughout the world.
In Romania this phenomenon of school dropouts has become so serious that it requires immediate attention from all parties concerned. The Educa''ia 2000+ Center and UNICEF have developed the project Efficient solutions to prevent school dropout: costs and mechanisms. The project aims to offer support for strengthening the overall efforts to solve this significant issue. It follows three main directions: to extend the existing database on school dropout; to test a series of realistic solutions; and to estimate the costs of implementing at national scale the proposals submitted. Efforts also focused on better preparing those involved in education to deal with school dropout.
Bangladesh continues to experience increased rates of drop outs age 6-10 years at primary school level. According to a study which was conducted by 10 NGO's with the Commonwealth Educational Fund, the dropout rate increased from 33% to 47 % in 2006. While New Zealand in their drive to cut down the number of students who drop out of school experienced a positive change over a 10 year period in which there was a decrease in dropouts aged 13 -15 years old from 7296 – 2801. The amount of students un-enrolled within the age group 13 – 15 years is 1.5% compared to the previous 4.3%.
A number of studies looked at the interaction between the children in particular, the household income and socio-economic status. All the studies concluded that children's enrolment, retention and completion can seriously be affected by the low socio-economic status and low educational level of the parents which bring forth poverty (Porteus et al, 2002; Gakuru cited in Ackers et al, 2001; Ranasinghe & Hartog, 2002; Vavrus, 2002; Hunter & May, 2003; Dachi & Garrett, 2003; UNICEF, 2005; Birdsall et al, 2005; Bruneforth, 2006; Cardoso & Verner, 2007; Guo & Zhang 2008; Zhao & Glewwe,2010; Wang 2010). Poverty is the most common contributory reason for many children to be out of school " (Glewwe, 2010) call poverty, a plausible explanation of school disruption".
Some individuals who dropped out of school can still become a great success. At the age of 15 David Karp's parents created an encouraging environment for him to feel comfortable enough to pursue his dreams. He was very passionate about Computer Science and lacked motivation and aptitude for school studies. He was the developer of a successful blogging platform and extremely rich today. Another successful high school dropout at age 16 is Richard Branson who was unable to reach success within the confines of school due to his dyslexia. He started by editing a student magazine and today has become one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time.
Dropping out of school yields many negative outcomes not just for the individuals, but the country economic success as well. High school drop outs have great difficulty in finding jobs while adding to the unemployment level. The quality of their life is affected because of their low earnings; they cannot contribute towards taxes and usually depend on social welfare. Some scholars have viewed dropping out of school as the final stage in a dynamic and cumulative process of disengagement (Newmann, 1992; Rumberger, 1987; Wehlage, Rutter, Smith, Lesko, & Fernandez, 1989) or withdrawal (Finn, 1989) from school that is influenced by a variety of proximal and distal factors.
Parental involvement includes different activities that initiate an active relationship with the child. Earlier studies indicated that parental involvement impacts heavily on goals attainment. Epstein's Model designed a framework of six types of involvement which could be the key to a successful partnership of the school, families and the community. The six types of involvement include:
PARENTING: Assist families in understanding child and adolescent development, and in setting home conditions that support children as students at each age and grade level. Assist schools in understanding families.
COMMUNICATING: Communicate with families about school programs and student progress through effective school-to-home and home-to-school communications.
VOLUNTEERING: Improve recruitment, training, work, and schedules to involve families as volunteers and audiences at school or in other locations to support students and school programs.
LEARNING AT HOME: Involve families with their children in learning activities at home, including homework, other curriculum-related activities, and individual course and program decisions.
DECISION MAKING: Include families as participants in school decisions, governance, and advocacy through PTA/PTO, school councils, committees, action teams, and other parent organizations.
COLLABORATING WITH COMMUNITY: Coordinate resource and services for students, families, and the school with businesses, agencies, and other groups, and provide services to the community.
A study done by Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) in The United States revealed that parental involvement has a positive impact on students belonging to all levels of socio-economic status. Campbell and Wu (1994) said "the home environment and family processes provide a network of physical, social and intellectual forces and factors which affect the students' learning". According to them, the family's level of encouragement, expectations, and education activities in the home are related to socio-economic status, while Song and Hattie (2004) agreed that families from different socio-economic groups create different learning environments that affect the child's academic achievement. Findings made by Driessen, Smith and Sleegers (2004), state that the family is an institution among other things that can influence the education and socialization of children. There is some certainty that parents attitudes help to condition children's attitudes which trigger future aspirations.
In order for parents to ascertain their level of involvement they have to consider the following questions. Do you read to your child or listen to your child read to you? Do you monitor your child progress? Is there a place for the child to study? Is homework checked to ensure that the child did what was asked? Are you motivating your child with praise and encouragement? Do you attend school functions? How regular do you communicate with the teachers? Are you spending quality time with the child? As a parent it is of significant value to learn about the development stages of the child and support learning through workshops and available literature.
Learning activities and educational experiences are interrelated therefore students lacking the necessary literacy and numeracy skills could encounter some difficulty. (Bornstein and Bradley, 2003) stated that "parents who read to children impacts positively on the child academic success''. Children with low socio-economic status families are not allowed the luxury of having a family member read to them or assist them with their school work. Aikens and Barbarin, (2008) research states that "children from low-SES environments acquire language skills more slowly, exhibit delayed letter recognition and phonological awareness, and are at risk for reading difficulties, are absent frequently, occasionally presents homework and often displays low self esteem".
The world at large consists of many children who belong to low socioeconomic background also come from single parent families. So can we attest that poor grades result from low socio-economic status? If parents take an active role and foster good values, provide guidance and support to their children many benefits can be derived. Klinglee and Warwick (1990) in their study to determine the extent to which parental involvement affects a child academic performance showed that parents from low socio-economic background are not as involved with their children as parents from high socio-economic background.
From a global perspective students belonging to low socioeconomic backgrounds have been and will continue to be a part of the education system. Climbing the educational ladder would have been tough but in many instances managing their difficulties did not restrict academic success. Studies done by (Ford and Harris, 1997; Steinberg, 1992; Stevenson, 1990) which examined African American parents documented that parents who kept positive views about the value of education and places high academic expectations from their children usually experience higher levels of academic achievement.
A qualitative study done by (Milne and Plourde, 2006) investigated the significance of parental involvement as a factor which affects academic performance. The authors were curious to discover what factors low socio-economic homes had in common to enable children to achieve academic success. In their findings they saw that the children had books to read, writing materials, allocated homework time and limited access to television. The parents ensured that the children were involved in educational activities while they assisted, encouraged and participated with them. Emphasis was placed continuously on the importance of an education and quality time was present to reinforce relationships. The study also concluded that educators should not assume students from low socio-economic status will be struggling in the classroom.
On the other hand The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Early Child Care Research Network has shown evidence that children in chronically impoverished families have lower cognitive and academic performance and more behavior problems than children who are not exposed to poverty, partially explained by a lack of stimulating behaviors and home experiences among low-income families (Engle & Black). Similarly Duncan and Brooks-Gunn (1997) found through studies that growing up in poverty is associated with poor motivation, lack of learning resources and learning environment. As a result academic performance can be negatively affected.
For most children to succeed in school, their parents' interest in their learning is of paramount importance. This interest ought to be with what happens on a daily basis; this is how the child lives and how he/she understands his life. In order to assist poor children parents need to give the child more exposure. Let them to be part of experiences, by taking them to exciting places that allows a different dimension to the understanding of the world. However, money is the crucial factor especially for families struggling to meet their daily needs. How can they give their children experiences with no money? When families are constrained by fewer resources, children's learning is consequently affected (Bjorkman M.2005). "An important ingredient in most children's success in school is a positive relationship with their parents" (Bettelheim, 1987). Parent's personal educational backgrounds and economic backgrounds have a significant effect on their children's education. However, if parents are a positive influence in their Children's everyday lives, and most importantly in their everyday education, the future of our society will look brighter and brighter every day.
It is felt that students of low socio-economic status face more obstacles in achieving success in school than students of high-SES. The research used in this study shows that the quality of academic performance does not stem only from a child low socio-economic status but also from other factors. The gap can be filled to assist students but it requires a lot of resources, parent's involvement, community involvement, plenty time, strategic planning and teaching. Parental involvement in school can help solve this problem by emphasizing the importance of a good education, and getting their children excited about learning.
The teachers need to bring more excitement to the classroom looking for ways and means to inspire the students. Teachers will have to develop instructional strategies that will enhance learning opportunities and induce students to arrive at their full potential. In order for improved performance to be attained by students it is necessary for us to understand the factors which contribute to low academic success. Improving educational outcomes is an investment of which the potential benefits far outweigh the costs leading to greater efficiency and productivity which positively affects the economic growth of any country.
xt in here…