Essay Sample on Inequality in Education

Introduction

When an individual talks of education, he or she refers to the process through which learning is facilitated or the process through which people acquire skills, values, beliefs, habits or even knowledge that helps them know how to survive. In this instance, the essay will highlight in the inequalities associated with education which majority of the people term as a bad thing. However, from the examination that is made a difference in school ends up hitting the headlines as one of the good things which will also be seen in this essay. This examination has been done by the National Center of education giving an example of how children from the well of families and those with poor backgrounds relate when it comes to performance in schools.

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Therefore, from the study that has been conducted one finds out that in case there is an inequality concerning academic performance between low and high-income children the gap is quite narrow. That is in the current years all the children that enter kindergarten may they be from a poor background or wealthy families are all equally prepared when it comes to academic success (Matter). A good example is where a study was conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics where they took most of their employees to roughly 1000 public school and private school. They sat with various children in different schools which allowed them to learn what they know and quickly identify the content they have about their studies. Apart from that, they went further to talk to the parent to learn about the experiences of these children and if challenges are facing them. Through this what was found out was that the gap between low income and wealthy families' children, in relation to reading and good performance was minimal. This, therefore, was facilitated by the rapid improvement of skills by low-income children entering kindergarten.

Inequality is not only in terms of wealth but also in terms of one's color. Therefore racism is the case where people are discriminated due to their color and are grouped either as blacks or whites. When this falls in the education system, both children of the whites and blacks perform equally the same. From the study what is noted is that the rate of improvement between these children persists till the fourth grade. National Assessment of Education Progress established that when these children got to the fourth grade, their rank was a bit higher when compared to their predecessors who came 12 years earlier. This was all the same even in the case of the poor and the affluent families (Reich). Therefore this gets to show that as society develops and facilities get to improve it is quite minimal to distinguish children when it comes to their performance in education as services offered to them are excellent.

These developments associated with the inequalities especially in education fascinated the majority of the people. Through this one can finally say that what led to narrow readiness gaps was due to the capabilities of low-income families to acquire public funded preschool programs for their children. As the rate of these affordable services increased and their quality improved, it facilitated children from low-income families catch up with their affluent peers. In the late 1990s, most poor children did not attend the preschool, but in the current years, there is an increase in the number of the poor children attending public preschools since there is the increase in the rate of unemployment thus need to improve quality in learning. Another thing that led to this is that public preschools have improved reaching the standards of those in well off communities.

Another thing that has contributed to the narrowing of the gap is the changes that are happening in the children's home. Through listening of the parents, experiences of the children back home were that both the poor and wealthy families had more books that enabled them to learn which they did with their parents. However, these children lack access to computers, internet, and video games which gave them a chance to study math and keep reading making them sharp (Leonardo, Zeus, and W. Norton Grubb 50). Their parents also spent time with them and took them to libraries or did home activities. Therefore it is noticeable that all these opportunities that the poor are experiencing have always been there for the rich.

However, one of the thing that is confusing is that the number of poor parents increased in the recent years leaving a question on how the school readiness gap reduced. What led to this was because parents commenced taking the first years of their children with the seriousness which are crucial when it comes to the child's development. The rich invested rapidly both their time and money in their children's cognitive development which allowed them to grow sharp and bright. Due to the publicity campaigns and information low-income families have been able to learn how to raise their children making them equally sharp and polished to their counterparts who come from the rich background.

Therefore from what is stated in the essay, one can conclude that however much inequality is concerning education, what matters is how children are raised from their childhood. That is in case a child is raised by a low-income family but took all their time to show this child the importance of education he or she ends up putting effort and becoming successful in studies. In the case of racism is all but the parents trying to show their children to love the way they are which will improve their moral to study and compete with their white counterparts.

Works Cited

Matter, G. "Opinion | The Good News About Educational Inequality - The New York Times." N.p., 2016. Web. <https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/28/opinion/sunday/the-good-news-about-educational-inequality.html>.

Reich, Michael. Racial inequality: A political-economic analysis. Vol. 4883. Princeton University Press, 2017.

Leonardo, Zeus, and W. Norton Grubb. Education and Racism: A primer on issues and dilemmas. Routledge, 2018. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315101200