Education and Equality of Opportunity

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Education and Equality of Opportunity

• Ben Hylla

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Equal Opportunity?

• Equal opportunity does not mean that everyone
  will have the same income and equal status.
• Only that each person has the same starting
  line

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School Models for Equality of Opportunity

• Common School Model
• Sorting Machine Model
• High Stakes Testing Model

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The Common School Model
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Common School Model

• Insures that everything is on equal footing by
  placing rich and poor in the same school
• Does this hold true in the real world?

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The Sorting Machine Model
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Sorting-Machine Model

• Attempts to overcome family background by testing
  and examining student and placing them into areas
• Competition takes place within the schools
• Tested in Middle School
• Nature v. Nurture?(intelligence test or biased
  testing)

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High-Stakes Testing
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High-Stakes Testing

• High stakes test are given for each course in the
  core classes
• All test will select a right position and test
  scores will show employers qualifications

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Education, Gender, and Income

• There is a close relation to income and education
  but also in social factors
• P.46,47,48,and 49 show mens earnings outweigh
  womens earning on the same levels of education
• Although higher education generally means higher
  income, equality depends on equality of
  opportunity in the labor market

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Education, Race, and Income

• White non-Hispanic earnings are highest accept in
  advanced degrees
• If we want to achieve equal opportunity we need
  to remove gender and race bias in the labor
  market
• What steps have been taken to do this, and what
  else could we do?

12
Cultural Capital Child-Rearing and Equality of
Opportunity

• Cultural Capital- the economic value of a persons
  behaviors, attitudes, and knowledge
• Middle class family childrens parents involve
  their children in many activities that help them
  to have things such as better punctuation and
  increase their chances of getting a higher class
  job
• working class childrens parents let the child
  do things without much intervention

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Cultural Capital Preschool and Equality of
Opportunity

• What is troubling about the following facts?
• Strong factors of childrens math scores
• Owning a home computer
• Exposure to performing arts
• Preschool
• Weak factors
• educational expectations of family
• Frequency of reading
• Number of tapes, records, or CDs
• Sports and clubs
• Arts and Crafts activates
• Strong factors of childrens reading scores are
• Frequency of reading (includes parent reading to
  child)
• Having a home computer
• Exposure to performing arts
• Preschool
• Weak factors
• educational expectations of family

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Schooling Why are the Rich Getting Richer and
the Poor Getting Poorer?

• High educated, high paid jobs that need to remain
  in America do but companies moving overseas
  because labor is cheaper results in less work for
  lower educated, lower paying jobs

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Shopping for a Public School Education, Social
Class, and School Districts

• Schools in high income areas have high college
  attendance rates but housing and cost of living
  is also much higher making it hard for middle and
  lower class to enter into them
• On the U.S. Department of Education web-site they
  have a guide to finding a good school for your
  child in the areas around you
• http//www.ed.gov/parents/schools/find/choose/inde
  x.html

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Central City Schools

• Poor academic performances in central city
  schools are because of
• Large enrollments
• High rate of teacher absenteeism
• Safety problems
• High discipline rates
• Transferring schools
• Single parent homes
• At least 3 hours of TV a day
• High rates of teen-age pregnancy
• Exposure to crime

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Social Class and At-Risk Students

• At-Risk Student- identification of a potential
  academic problem
• Factors that go into at-risk students(the more
  factors they have the more likely to drop out)
• Lowest socioeconomic status
• Changing schools two or more times between grade
  1-8
• Average grade of C or lower in grades 6-8
• Being in a single parent household during grade 8
• Having one or more siblings who did not complete
  high school
• Being held back one ore more times from grades 1
  to 8 greatest factor if they will drop out or
  not

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Tracking and Ability Grouping

• Tracking- separates students into different
  curricula such as college preparatory,
  vocational, and general.
• Ability- places students in classes according to
  their abilities this is mainly the United States
  grouping method
• Higher incomehigher ability

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Should Tracking and Ability Grouping be Abolished?

• Yes
• Allows high achievers to progress faster
• No
• Fosters social inequality

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Social Reproduction

• Social reproduction- schools play a role in
  maintaining differences in social class
• Ex. Low income families live in a low income
  neighborhood with poor schooling therefore
  receive lower education and end up living back in
  low income areas.

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Conclusion/Discussion

• Can schools provide equality of opportunity?
• If no, what can be changed?