This is really disheartening to see because the whole point of schools is to provide every student a quality education, regardless of their backgrounds, but if these education gaps are not closing as students progress through their grades, something is wrong. Ideally, if a student who comes from a poorer background is not doing well in kindergarten, throughout the years, the education system would give them the education they need to overcome resources they lacked as a child, and they would be performing well in high school. If this is not happening, we need to make sure we are making things more equitable for students who are of lower-income by possibly investing more in free tutoring for those who need it.

I feel the same way, coming from someone who also attended a really competitive school in the Bay Area. While I did feel constantly pressured to do well and I was always stressed out if I performed less than what I expected, I think it instilled a strong work ethic in me. I am able to stay on top of all my work and I know how to create to-do lists and prioritize between school, my internship, extraciricuclars and just having fun or relaxing. Of course, I still struggle to get things done, but the switch into a college environment was not too difficult for me.

I think this paragraph highlights how everyone wants this kind of treatment for their children (a clean environment with good teachers in a nice area), yet it is only made available to people who have a lot of money. Meanwhile, parents who may be from a lower socioeconomic background have to settle for less because they are not able to afford it. A good education system should be well-funded and available for everyone, not just students from families who can afford to pay $900 a month.

I think this sentence just really shows the wealth disparity between people of different races especially between white people and people of color (particularly blacks and Hispanics as they have been marginalized in this country for hundreds of years). It is so interesting that 2 cities that are so close together have such different per capita incomes. It is clearly not an issue of difference in location or industry, but rather because of race. I think there are many systems in place that prevent some minorities from being able to make the same amount of money as their white counterparts, a large one being access to resources such as education.

I also think that this should be the primary responsibility of schools. They should give students every single resource that they need to be successful not only financially, but they should also provide them with the knowledge they need to be good citizens. We discussed this in lecture as well, but I think it is really important for schools to teach students what it means to be an American citizen, such as how voting works and how to make informed decisions.

This makes a lot of sense because I think students who come from low-income backgrounds have always had to work extra hard to end up at the same place as their wealthier counterparts who have more resources and thus more opportunities. It may make them feel "weak" to ask for help even though it is totally normal for us to reach out to professors when we are struggling. I think there is a big psychological effect that is going on here. No one wants to feel like they cannot handle a class or exam, especially if they have put a lot of pressure on themselves to overcome their situation. It is totally understandable when lower-income students have trouble reaching our, but we should work on creating a safe space where students feel comfortable reaching out regardless of their situations.

From what I can tell, this article mainly focuses on white and black students but as someone who grew up near Berkeley, I wonder how being of Asian origin would affect this, especially because of the high Asian student population in Berkeley. I think Asian culture definitely affects the way students perform and I wonder how much of it is affected by income levels. I really like the analysis these articles are doing, but I wonder how these education gaps affect students who aren't black or white.

What stands out to me here is that almost all of these factors can be affected by a student's socioeconomic status. For example, if a student knows their family is struggling financially, they will not be able to pay attention in class because they might feel too stressed to do their work. These financial troubles may be what keep them preoccupied. Thus, not only do poorer students have less resources to do well in school, but the stress of being poor is also a factor in what impacts their ability to do well in school. It definitely is very unfair that not all students have the same starting ground to be able to get success.

This sentence kind of highlights just how much of an impact someone's past affects the chances they have for success in their future. Alexander grew up under great circumstances which gave him the resources to be able to do well in the future easily. Meanwhile Anthony does not have resources easily available so if he wants to get success, he will most likely have to work much harder than Alexander.

This line stands out to me because from what I have learned, most people do not even believe in the American Dream anymore. People have been much more suspicious of the idea that hard work can lead to success, especially knowing that so many factors can come in the way, such as luck, immigration status, new policies, economic conditions and so much more. So many people are tired of the rhetoric that hard work will definitely lead to success when it has shown that it is simply not always true, so it is interesting that this article seems to suggest otherwise.

This relates to something I learned in one of my criminology classes, which is that systemic changes that need to be made, especially when it comes to battling issues like racial and educational gaps, take a lot of time to be implemented because it takes a lot to change what has been the norm. Hispanic students are not just dropping out of school for no reason; they may be dropping out because they have to make money due to a system that does not offer them opportunity, or because the education system is not built in a way to support them. It is important when trying to make progress, that we take into consideration ways to give educational opportunities in a way that is helpful and effective for a community.

I think a lot of people of color feel the pressure of being almost a "representative" of their culture. I have noticed sometimes in certain settings, I have to act a certain way so that people not only don't have a negative perception of me, but also so that they don't have a negative perception of people from my culture. It shouldn't be my job to break any stereotypes people may have, but I definitely have felt that pressure before.

I can kind of understand what these students mean because it is an eye-opening way to experience how unfair the world really is. So many aspects of American society are influenced by perceptions of race, gender, etc and the more we realize how ingrained it is in society, the more pessimistic we feel about change happening.

This kind of reminds me of how people try to be "race-blind" when educating students, but in a way, this kind of discounts the experiences that they go through. The cultural aspects and environment that each student goes through gets completely ignored even if it is important to understanding their learning style or behavioral patterns.

Looking at this sentence made me wonder if anything is politically neutral. When beliefs and politics have become so intertwined, there is no separation between politics and every other aspect of society. Being more open-minded and preferring change is linked with being liberal while being more comfortable with the status quo or disliking change is associated with being conservative. Also, the Department of Education is an extension of the government which is by definition, entangled with politics.

This is a very good point because it points out how the education system has a limited viewpoint of what being "gifted" means. It typically tends to favor students who may be good at math or science, and excludes students who may be good at art or creative writing. Each person has a different skill set, but only defining certain students as gifted excludes many other children and the label that they are "normal" or "ungifted" is extremely damaging and can lead to them not having motivation to try.

This is really interesting and I wonder if it applies to older students as well, especially regarding honors/AP classes versus regular classes. If AP students are treated or labelled as being more intelligent by their teachers' and peers' expectations, this could be a contributing factor to why they actually tend to do well in classes. Likewise, if a student in a regular class or lower-level class knows that people may not have high expectations for them, they might not try to perform as well. It is a very interesting phenomenon since these programs might play into self-fulfilling prophecies.

I wonder why we haven't heard more about these types of early education programs because they can not only save so much money, but they can also allow for so many communities to have access to programs that may not have been available before. Each person that we can prevent from committing crimes through education, is a person who is able to gain success and provide for their family and community. Redirecting some money in order to provide education for young children may be expensive to implement but the benefits for the future are so large.

I think this is a really poor mindset to have because it completely discounts their experiences and the societal factors that work against them. A lot of documentation is necessary to enroll in public schools that some students may not have and college educations tend to be extremely expensive and can lead to lots of debt to cover tuition. It is not fair to blame people for circumstances that they are in just because it seems easy to break out of poverty, because in reality, there are many barriers.

I think this is a really common mindset to have, because truly education is one of the best ways to get success. I've heard this a lot as my dad grew up in poorer conditions, and he was able to get a good job and get opportunities because he did so well in school and college. While there is definitely a luck component to getting some access to these opportunities, education is so crucial to the process of getting success.