Educational Outcomes and Poverty

There has recently been a disparity in family incomes. Children from low-income backgrounds typically start school later than their counterparts who come from wealthy families, according to a measure of their preparation for school. The qualities of a community and its social networks, as well as the educational attainment of children, are all influenced by poverty. International actions, however, demonstrate that poverty's effects can be reduced via long-term solutions (Ladd, 2012). Even in industrialized nations, poverty is still posing serious problems. With around one in every six children coming from low-income families, child poverty is a problem. There is also an increase of income inequality among families as poverty levels in some families increases. Research shows that poverty impacts on the behavior of children, achievement in education and the retention in schools.

Low-income backgrounds have an adverse effect on the quality of life of children. There is a relationship between poverty and mental disorders, social as well as educational functioning and the general health of individuals (Lund et al., 2010). Strategies have been put in place to determine the impact of low-income background on children, the family views and the community as well. The quality of education is often highly influenced by the income of a family. This paper shows the impact of low-income neighborhoods on the view of parents about the educational outcomes in schools. This article addresses the importance of research on the effect of poverty on the community and the quality of education. The paper also discusses the related previous study or work in this area as well as the social significance of the impact of low neighborhood backgrounds on the parents' attitudes towards educational outcomes.

Literature Review

The readiness for school shows the child's potential for educational or social success. Education influences the well-being of children. The child develops physically with suitable motor skills. A child that goes to school would gain emotional health and promote positive approaches to new experiences in their life. The child gets appropriate social and communication skills. The child would also develop cognitive abilities and general knowledge that is appropriate for their age. Research shows that a low-income family would decrease the opportunities for access to education by children (Ladd, 2012). The child's readiness for school gets affected regarding health conditions, life at home, quality of schooling and the neighborhoods. Poverty leads to factors that affect the general development of the child and the quality of their schools.

Poor child development and low-quality education get attributed to poverty regarding its depth, duration, age in which poverty occurs or community characteristics like neighborhood crime and the quality of education systems. Poverty would also affect the social circle of the child that constitutes of parents, relatives or neighbors (Kiernan, 2011). A child's social background would influence their communicative competence. Children from disadvantaged backgrounds usually lack motivation for school since they hardly learn the social skills required to get them ready for school. Inadequate parenting, inconsistent care from guardians or poor role models contribute to the child's lack of social skills is necessary for the readiness for school. In most cases, parents from low economic backgrounds lack support. Studies indicate that there is an excellent relationship between families that live in poverty and the little interest for school among children.

Reports have shown that children from low-income backgrounds get low scores in communication skills, mathematical knowledge, copying and applying symbols, concentration abilities and interaction with other students from advantaged backgrounds (Lacour, 2011). Research also shows that schools with the most significant number of poorly motivated learners come from neighborhoods with social insecurity and poverty. Children from poor socioeconomic backgrounds get low vocabulary scores and have poor vocabulary retention capacity compared to children from advantaged backgrounds. Studies show that socioeconomic backgrounds determine the achievement in schools. High-income families become typically characterized by good outcomes for the children. Children from advantaged backgrounds usually attain good results on cognitive and school parameters, behavior and health as well as the social and emotional aspects.

Studies in the United States show that low parental education or family stress affects cognitive development as well as academic achievement. Poverty has a smaller effect on behavior and socioemotional outcomes (Kiernan, 2011). Extreme poverty has severe adverse effects. Individuals from low socioeconomic backgrounds are at high risk. Parents from poor socioeconomic backgrounds are likely to get premature babies than those from advantaged backgrounds. Resultantly, the children born in poor economic backgrounds are at a risk of school failure than those from high-income families. International studies also show the relationship between poor socioeconomic backgrounds and the measures of education across nations. Income plays a crucial role in the attainment of knowledge. However, economic inequalities occur despite education achievement. Schools are not an ultimate balancer. Studies indicate that there could be little difference between children from high and low socioeconomic backgrounds. There could be misrepresentation based on children from low socioeconomic backgrounds that dropped out of school. However, there has been a controversy on the issue of blaming the student's weak socio-economic background to low achievement in school. The achievement gaps between high and low socioeconomic backgrounds get attributed to the environment outside school. The family and the community influence the child's educational outcome (Lacour, 2011). Schools play a crucial role in bridging that gap by giving support to children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The high level of school dropouts from disadvantaged children would lead to a school with fewer graduates, therefore, affecting the overall quality of education. Studies show that students from low-income families get disadvantaged from the lowest to the highest levels of educational attainment. The adverse effects of poverty on learning have become widely accepted. One critical question is whether the harmful effects of poverty on education can be corrected or prevented from future occurrence (Lacour, 2011). Early intervention can take place to increase the cognitive and social abilities of children from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Parents are of the view that decreasing the social factors surrounding a child would increase their potential for positive growth and educational achievement. Intervention measures can target health issues such as immunization or prenatal care that are related to positive health outcomes for disadvantaged children and would lead to better cognitive abilities. However, the relationship between parents and their children is thought to be of significance in the reduction of the effects of poverty. Parents feel that the interaction with their children outside the school environment affects early development in the child.

Parents feel that a prediction of behavior, social responsiveness or verbal characteristics of their children in the way of becoming a positive role model, would influence the outcome of children. Parents should get involved with their children through offering support that would increase the readiness for school (Kintrea, 2011). The parent can acquire knowledge on problem-solving involving their children to boost children motivation for school. The parent should seek support or services that would develop the social skills lacking in their children. Positive intervention measures would enhance the quality of education of children from disadvantaged backgrounds. A combination of parental education and early intervention measures is effective in reducing the effects of poverty on the quality of education. Early intervention should constitute the entire and take place consistently. Evaluations of the initial intervention measures would establish their effectiveness in benefiting the affected children.

Methodology

Early childhood applies interactive and communicative approaches to learning (Kintrea, 2011). Mastery of language, mathematics or music usually takes place in groups or children planned activities. Evaluation of this method would get done focusing on Low-income black children that are vulnerable to school failure. This target population would get provided with quality early childhood education followed by teachers visiting their homes to determine their progress on development. Parents approve that by the late thirties, the children that benefited from early intervention would achieve academic success acquire good jobs that are highly paid and have a low record of criminal activities. A similar intervention strategy can become used on children from low-income families between infancy and five years of age. The children would get provided with need-based high-quality education. The approaches used would focus on the social, cognitive as well as the emotional development of the child with an emphasis on games. These children are likely to achieve academic success in reading, mathematics and go through higher levels of education. Parents of children involved in this program are also expected to benefit through attaining higher education and job status.

Intervention methods could also target preschool to third-grade students using language and outreach activities as well as upgrade the staff and health facilities (Hernandez, 2011). In this process, there would be no curriculum since the programs become adapted to the needs of the child. This method would ensure the high level participation of parents. Parents would receive training on parental education and how they would engage their children using useful parental skills. The target population would be African American children from needy income families (Artiles et al., 2010). These children would get exposed to quality education at preschool and kindergarten level. A follow up on this population would indicate high academic achievement in two years. The duration of exposure to quality education would influence the high academic performance, parental participation in school programs, score retention, and particular placement in education. Long-term evaluation of this approach could get done. A follow up after fifteen years is likely to show that individuals from low-income families that received early education intervention would record high rates of school retention, more years in education, low juvenile cases and low frequency in the drop out from school.

There has been a concern about the most suitable age for educational intervention. Research would establish at which age the response would be of little help. Research shows that intervention as the child gets to teenage would yield dramatic results. The parents could involve the community by requesting the local medical organization to assist them in keeping their children in school. The student and the parent would get into an agreement that would motivate the learner and keep parents from low-income backgrounds involved. Tutoring volunteers would visit the community for career guidance and offer financial support for education through scholarships with the active collaboration of the parents and the school (Kintrea et al., 2011). The intervention approach would take place for several nights in a week. This initiative would be an exciting learning environment for students from low-income families. This method would cut down on absenteeism and school dropout rates. The number of students that join university would increase. This technique of educational intervention would be useful in a community with high rates of poverty or racism. Communities have the potential to alter the quality of education of children and the youth that live in low economic or socially disadvantaged backgrounds. These investments in education would not go to waste as education gives a high return on investment. International research reveals the importance of this study to the school or classroom setting. The quality of the school or the classroom affects learner performance. Some schools are more equitable than others. Extracurricular activities such as music and sports increase the student's willingness to learn despite the socioeconomic backgrounds (Hopson, 2011). Schools can be useful in improving the performance of children that come from low-income families by keeping the schools diverse in consideration of the student socioeconomic backgrounds. Allowing all kinds of entries would result in a poor outcome in education for disadvantaged children and teens.

Conclusion

In conclusion, a research on the effects of low-income families on parents’ views about the quality of schools would be helpful in planning for learning. This study would help identify the schools that need support to achieve equity in educational outcomes. This research would enable the society to reach out to the disadvantaged children through offering academic, social or community support. The study would create awareness on the long term or short term effects of school dropout or failure in school. Research on this topic would highlight areas that need to be worked on for maximum achievement in education. This analysis would demonstrate the effect of early education intervention methods in minimizing the impact of socioeconomic background on education. Doctors would also work to improve health to reduce chances of poor cognitive abilities resulting from ill health. Parents should also acquire appropriate parental skills in guiding their children (Mendez, 2010).

Parents would read books to their children and make their children have access to the reading materials. This method would resultantly make children enjoy reading. Pediatricians and doctors would encourage good parenting in low-income families through advocating for turn-taking in speaking and listening while interacting with children. The parent should observe the child's responsiveness regarding hunger, fatigue or their verbal behavior. These parents should also have an added development on child development such as proper nutrition and hygiene (Mendez, 2010). This measure would reduce the number of times that the children get ill and stay away from school. Parents should also get more involved with parenting through visiting parent-child centers that would give them useful skills of parenting their children. It would be challenging to identify needy students in the community, but research and community intervention through home visits would be handy in determining and reaching out to students from low-income families.

Improving the quality of education for children from low-income families continues to be an area of concern among educationists, researchers, and policymakers. This interest gets attributed to the gap in performance between children from advantaged families and those from disadvantaged families. Policies that focus on the improvement of academic performance of children from low-income families concentrate on investments in education. These investments would include training of teachers, concentration on early childhood through advocating for small classes, or development of the school curriculum through extracurricular activities and community workshops. Apart from poverty, racial segregation could also affect the performance of children from low-income families. Social intervention and networking would make it easier to reach out to the needy children. Further related studies could also get done. For instance the effect of housing on the quality of education of children from low-income families (Sanbonmatsu et al., 2011).



References

Artiles, A. J., Kozleski, E. B., Trent, S. C., Osher, D., & Ortiz, A. (2010). Justifying and explaining disproportionality, 1968–2008: A critique of underlying views of culture. Exceptional Children, 76(3), 279-299.

Hernandez, D. J. (2011). Double Jeopardy: How Third-Grade Reading Skills and Poverty Influence High School Graduation. Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Hopson, L. M., & Lee, E. (2011). Mitigating the effect of family poverty on academic and behavioral outcomes: The role of school climate in middle and high school. Children and Youth Services Review, 33(11), 2221-2229.

Kiernan, K. E., & Mensah, F. K. (2011). Poverty, family resources and children's early educational attainment: the mediating role of parenting. British Educational Research Journal, 37(2), 317-336.

Kintrea, K., St Clair, R., & Houston, M. (2011). The influence of parents, places and poverty on educational attitudes and aspirations. Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Lacour, M., & Tissington, L. D. (2011). The effects of poverty on academic achievement. Educational Research and Reviews, 6(7), 522-527.

Ladd, H. F. (2012). Education and poverty: Confronting the evidence. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 31(2), 203-227.

Lund, C., Breen, A., Flisher, A. J., Kakuma, R., Corrigall, J., Joska, J. A., ... & Patel, V. (2010). Poverty and common mental disorders in low and middle income countries: a systematic review. Social science & medicine, 71(3), 517-528.

Mendez, J. L. (2010). How can parents get involved in preschool? Barriers and engagement in education by ethnic minority parents of children attending Head Start. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 16(1), 26.

Sanbonmatsu, L., Katz, L. F., Ludwig, J., Gennetian, L. A., Duncan, G. J., Kessler, R. C., ... & Lindau, S. T. (2011). Moving to opportunity for fair housing demonstration program: Final impacts evaluation.