Have you ever considered how well your education was due to your family's financial satiation? Many professors and social workers support their opinions on the topic, how economic inequality affects children's education. In the article “Why American Schools Are More Unequal Than We Thought,” Susan Dynarski explains the disadvantages children suffer from being in low-income families. Unlike Dynarski, we are presented with a counterargument in the article “The Good News about Education Inequality,” by Sean Reardon, Jane Waldfogel, and Daphna Bassok. Through these articles we can see that educational inequality has a long way to go, and even though we are making progress, we still need to provide resources to less privileged children. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The first article we'll look at is "Why American Schools Are More Unequal Than We Thought," by Susan Dynarski, a professor at the University of Michigan. In Dynarksi's article he argues for the disadvantages of poor students compared to their peers by stating their grade point average (Dynarski). It is important to highlight how to be aware if a child's education is affected by their family's income. In Dynarski's article he provides research and statistics to look beyond what we see in a school context: "Measured using that conventional approach, the gap in math scores between disadvantaged eighth graders and their classmates in Michigan is of 0.69 standard deviation". A very important question to ask is: how long does this affect a child or how long will it last? The education of children whose income has been affected is already several years behind their peers and may never catch up. Dynarski answers our question by pointing out how long we can see economic inequality affecting children, says “we can see it with national data,” and also uses the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study to prove this point. While Dynarski's article proves a good point through research and statistics, it is very one-sided. Unlike Dynarski's article, the article "The Good News about Education Inequality" provides another side of the story. In the article “The Good News about Educational Inequality” by Reardon, Waldfogel and Bassok provide an overview of how the performance gap in low-income children has narrowed. In Dynarski's article we could see how the gap started intentionally. Reardon, Waldfogel, and Bassok provide us with research and statistics from the National Center for Education Statistics to show how they have been able to provide how the huge gap has narrowed. Additionally, it is important to note that the gap has improved due to the rapid improvements of low-income students. Reardon, Waldfogel, and Bassok provide this information by stating, “Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress shows that in 2015, when those kindergartners were in fourth grade, their math and reading skills were about two-thirds of a grade level. higher than their counterparts 12 years earlier." One of the main questions to ask is: how could the gap improve so quickly? This occurs through preschool programs, changes in home life, income growth and, most importantly, cognitive development. Children affected by educational inequality now have a better future ahead of them. From the point of view of Reardon, Waldfogel and Bassok). 430-433.
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