I see some of the older generation saying how they feel bad for the younger people because their generation messed things up and now it's up to us to deal with the repercussions. This reminds me of that. People give us advice that they haven't or wouldn't even do themselves. It's unfair and unrealistic, and if we can't meet their expectations we end up feeling really bad about ourselves.

Absolutely! This was just one step but there is still such a long way to go for racism to truly ever end. Especially with the hate crimes as of recently and the election of Trump that brought out white supremacists from hiding.

Sometimes I feel like this hope is what we are reading and writing about in these college courses. We talk about all these "if we can just get all teachers to do this and all students to do that, we will have a peaceful and happy world." But the reality is much harsher than this and I feel like sometimes these classes can be a little too idealistic.

I agree with MPS's sentiment that school teachers are not the only people students learn from. Nowadays, kids spend a majority of their time online, over going to school and spending time with their family. Good or bad, students learn so much from their favorite youtubers and celebrities.

This goes back to my first question that asks what determines if a teacher can be considered "high quality." Sure, credentials and numbers are important, but people who lack actual experience working with kids will struggle with teaching no matter how well they personally did in school or on tests. It is true that when you meet people you focus more on the things they do and their personal qualities instead of what their gpa was in high school.

This is an interesting activity. I like how it goes a step further and asks the students to think about what the teacher can do to support their learning as opposed to just stopping at what you have learned. It would be interesting to see what students consider important and impactful. I would predict that it would be more related to life lessons than academics but I am unsure.

I would like to know what the government and NCLB considers to be "highly qualified teachers." Is it a subjective score like a number on a test or is it based on experiences where they helped children. Is there a list of standards and how was that list made?

This is a really cool project that I wish my school implemented. I did not have a lot of opportunities to work with my teachers on a project but I think it would have been great to create a closer relationship with the teacher. You also become more motivated and interested in the topic. What you learn from it sticks with you and what they did holds a lot of value.

What happens when the child's neighborhood is not racially or philosophically diverse? Nowadays, people are very untrusting of others and do not really get to know their neighbors. In my personal experience, there were not a lot of opportunities for community based work.

I wonder if multicultural education is interchangeable with the term "critical race theory" that encourages students to learn about systemic racism and how it could affect their present lives. Similarly, critical race theory should be taught in schools because otherwise, history would repeat itself.

This is the first time I've heard of "de jure segregation." I found that it is intentional segregation enforced through discriminatory laws and policies. This is different from de facto segregation because it is unintentional discrimination that comes from the states.

This is a really cool idea. I wish some of my teachers did this in high school. I always preferred teachers who would ask to learn more about us than the ones that just started with the school work right away.

This is a really cool concept but I wonder how do we incorporate this in really diverse schools with multiple cultures. For example, the video we watched in class had students from a Black community that had strong ties to hip hop culture. What do we do for schools where there are some black students, asian students, latinx, native american etc. How do we find one specific similarity in all cultures to center all of our curriculum around that?

This question is hard for adults to answer for children. I would respond with "it will help you in the future" but children don't really have the foresight neither the purpose to think about the future. I try saying things like Learning is fun or it will make you smarter! I think the answer should depend on the child and what they value. Some kids want to look smarter than others so you could say, "you go to school so you can answer questions and not look dumb" (i know this is kind of blunt but i think we should be a little more blunt and straightforward with kids instead of sugarcoating everything)

This is interesting because I often heard in high school that your skin color can make you more or less likely to be accepted into a college. I was told that students of color, specifically Latinx or Black, may have a higher chance of acceptance to increase the school's percentages of diverse ethnicities. This study is saying this is not the case, but rather how a school prepares students for college. This makes sense. Some schools do a good job at prepping students while others rarely take the time to explain.

This is so important! We tend to make judgements without ever talking or trying to understand a person's situation. I personally believe that everything happens for a reason and that people do not just make bad choices to make bad choices, rather something happened to them or they experienced something that misshaped they world view. We need more compassion and empathy.

It is interesting to see how much of an impact poverty has on one's quality of life including something so specific as their performance in school. It affects how well they listen to their teachers, how much they study outside of school, their control and focus because of nutrition, etc.

There is a lot of pressure for teachers to be these amazing role models, highly intelligent beings who are also aware of cultural, social, environment, and political issues, all the while practicing and modeling kindness, open discussion, anti-bullying policies etc. Perhaps we should focus more on how to improve the children's live to make them more agreeable and open to learning. How do we approach that?

There is a heavy focus on the logistics of the structure of education as opposed to thinking realistically what the classrooms are like on the inside. We can say things like classroom sizes, diversity, and inclusivity but it's much easier said than done. More emphasis should be placed on how teachers are actually teaching classrooms.

Presentations are better in tests as it's more similar to how in the real word we have to work together in a group, collaborate, communicate, and present our ideas to one another. Tests may be a good measure of how much you remember about certain concepts, but a presentation shows that you understand it well enough it explain it to someone else.

I agree with this. Connection is more important than memorization which is often more emphasized in education due to standardized testing. Memorization questions are easier to grade and score than bigger picture questions but bigger picture questions lead to greater mastery.

The autonomy to choose what social issues are important to you would increase a student's interest and therefore their dedication to academic work. Choice is important.

I agree with this sentiment because the U.S. is so diverse and many want to know more about their home countries and how it relates to America. Growing up Asian American, it was hard to actualize U.S. history information because I couldn't relate to any of the figures I was reading about. I wasn't interested in it either. But I think introducing multicultural texts can help ethnic students be more interested and engaged in their courses.

It is kind of crazy to see that oppression was so prevalent that educators has to resort to using an old supermarket to teach black students or students who did not agree with the racist teachings of Euro-centric schools. It is inspiring to see people go to whatever lengths they have to to fight for the right cause.

This is a great sentiment. Being met with different opinions is a good thing, not a bad thing. You want to challenge your own thoughts and you want to hear new perspectives because there is always another side to a situation that you may not consider. I like surrounding myself with different people with different outlooks because it helps me stay aware that I am not always right.

This is a very valid reason to want to drop out of school. It takes a lot of bravery to speak up and take action and actually drop out. Some people continue to conform to avoid confrontation and fighting. But real change starts with real action. It is very courageous that these students knew with confidence that what they were learning was nonsense and that they did not want to tolerate it any longer.

It still shocks me how people used to think this way. How they used to think that skin color somehow determined how smart or dumb you were. That is the most illogical and unreasonable belief to ever exist yet it remained prevalent for centuries and some people still hold this belief today. Skin color has nothing to do with one's level of intelligence.

Our education system should encourage vulnerability and open discussions about heavy topics such as racism and prejudice. Only this way do we actually make change instead of tiptoeing about real issues.

Considering the recent horrible mass shooting in Boston, I think multicultural education is more important than ever. Social media is dangerous and in the wrong hands it can be used to give someone very harmful and wrong messages. That is why schools should implement antiracist education so that tragedies such as this one does not occur again.

I can see why people would say these things and want to keep educational topics light hearted. But this isn't the reality of the world. When we ignore all the violence and discrimination in the past, we hurt more people than we heal. I acknowledge that it can feel uncomfortable for white students who might feel attacked when they learn about these topics. But to be ignorant and then encounter people of color in the future and know nothing about their history will have them feeling even more uncomfortable.

I really like that "to care" is included in the goals of transformative curriculum. We are often fed information from textbooks and lectures only caring about memorizing the highlights and not really internalizing the real difficulties and hardships people have faced. It is important for us to care about these different social issues because it can affect someone you meet or someone around you.

I like this approach. I am a fan of progressivism and would like to see schools try to make history a more interactive experience for students to really empathize and understand what they are reading in their textbooks. Sometimes it is hard to believe that the people we are reading about are real.

This is really great change that I do hope to see will happen in the future. America is very diverse and more people deserve to have their stories heard and related to.

Multicultural education is so important, especially for this group that will encounter many people from many different ethnic backgrounds. It is good to know a little bit about different cultures and to not stay somewhat ignorant or blind to these differences. The hope is to spread knowledge and compassion so that people are not viewed as outsiders.

This is true. It is good to hold your students to specific expectations and to want them to meet those standards. However, standardization makes these expectations toxic and have the opposite effect of making students not learn. Instead teachers and students focus more on achieving higher test scores to be competitive with other schools.

This is interesting because usually NCLB gets a lot of backlash. It is nice to know that there were some benefits of having same standards for all schools regardless of income, ethnicity, disability, and English proficiency. This shows that anyone, regardless of these outer differences, are capable of achieving if they are given the right and equal treatment.

I wish my high school classes talked more about current events at the time. During my time in high school, there were foreign invaders going to Vietnam and trashing the streets and country to retaliate. I remember this really stressing my family out and it would have been nice to talk about in school.

I support the idea of having parents involved in their child's education. Especially because many parents from low-income communities do not have higher education but want to understand it for their children.

Placing students who do not need special education in special education has a number of negative effects. For one, they are limited in what they learn compared to normal groups. They may also experience lower self-efficacy by being put in a class with students they are not at the same level at.

So much pressure for teachers. I agree that teachers should be trained to recognize the signs of special education needs, but again they need to be paid a lot more bc of all the other hundreds of responsibilities they have with the children of our future.

I can see why this parent is upset at the labeling, but I personally think sometimes it is necessary. Without some labels, we cannot give a person the kind of help they specifically need. We know that every person is extremely unique and requires different things. Labels help us group and efficiently help a specific group. What we really need to do is remove the negative connotations surrounding labels and just recognize them simply as a label.

While I understand the author's intentions and reasons for wanting her child to be placed in normal classes, I have to disagree with making this exception or change. As someone who works with elementary school students with learning disorders such as ADD, just having one student with a disorder in a class with typical students makes a huge difference in learning progression. On top of normal disruptive student behavior, students who are developmentally delayed will cause the whole class to pause. I also think the student may experience more bullying or teasing in a normal classroom especially if they are really disruptive.

I never realized how dehumanizing this label could be. While it may not have any direct effect on Lydia's feelings right now, as she grows up she may start to question her "Other" label.

I can only imagine how frustrating this can be for someone to watch her own child grow up, unable to develop like the other kids. What is horrible is that it is not her fault or anyone's fault, but she probably blames herself for not being able to be this "super mom" that can support her child on top of working and enjoying her own life. Not only that, but she must deal with the negative stereotyping

This is a very powerful statement. This is a sentiment that I hope comes true for all students.

I never made this connection but this makes sense. Often, people will raise issues with certain topics without fully acknowledging their personal flaws or the potential part they play in reinforcing such harm.

I would like to see this kind of support group in schools. What is hard is getting parents to attend them because of work and stubborn values. But putting this kind of support for parents can be huge for those who actually do come and learn from it.

I have seen some students in my high school who took on this kind of mentality. To prove that they were not gay, they would be mean toward gay students or talk poorly about the LGBTQ+ community as a whole. This just creates more unnecessary hatred and creates a greater divide. We are so afraid of outside perceptions.

This can be a very tricky topic to speak on when you are teaching students. Sometimes you subconsciously reinforce gender norms because that is what you grew up with and what society has instilled with you.

This is very true. Society paints this image that men are supposed to be tough and strong, and to never shed a single tear. As such, whenever they see another guy show some form of "weakness" they call them slurs probably out of the insecurity that they cannot do that themselves.

This is very true and starts as young as second grade. I hear me students talk about how girls can do any sport too, girls can be faster than boys, and girls can be smarter than boys. Boys also accept this and say similar messages too.

There needs to be a book that has all the standards and outlines for how gender should be taught in schools that all teachers use so that all the information is cohesive.

During my senior year of high school, students from the LGBTQ+ club raised their concerns with how the school was for holding their battle of the sexes assembly. They argued that it wasn't inclusive to people who were non-binary and that it was simply outdated. Initially the school hesitated to change the assembly because it was an annual tradition but eventually they changed it to battle of the teachers.

This is so true! I try not to make comments on any student's appearance but then I think about how insecure I was as a kid and how getting compliments would make me feel better. But now I recognize that it would actually make me feel worse when I did not get these compliments and it would make me even more insecure. For example, it one teacher compliments my dress, I feel good but when someone else doesn't, I question, am I not pretty enough? But if no one ever commented on my appearance, I wouldn't even care about this.

I think the reason it is so hard to treat everyone the exact same is because teachers are just human, we get stressed out and we have lesson plans that need to be taught, so we will do what needs to be done to get everything taught in time which may include choosing the same students who always raise their hands to keep the class moving.

I am guilty of this. I let the males just say whatever and have to remind myself to tell everyone needs to raise their hands to get called on. I have to work on being more consistent and fair to all my students even if I think it will hurt student's feelings. Doing so benefits them in the long run even if in the short term their feelings may be hurt.

Picking on students in class can be kind of tough because it is fast and sometimes you choose people unconsciously. Also when you see a student who normally doesn't raise their hand, you want to pick on them to encourage them to raise their hand more but then you think about all the other kids you didn't choose who you think might not raise their hand again.

This is true because 1) boys are expected to tolerate punishment better than females. They are supposed to be strong and less affected by harsh words. 2) They get more help because there are lower expectations for boys to be engaged in school, so when they are they get more help and attention.

I wonder which age group they are referring to here. From my personal experience of being a student myself and also working with 1st to 4th graders, I have noticed that female students tend to participate more. Males only dominated conversations by being disruptive.

These eating disorders are extremely stressful and debilitating. It makes focusing in school hard when all you can think of as you sit in class is how you look to others. We need to work on changing peoples views on body thinness and food by implementing nutritional and mindfulness classes at this age group.

Sadly, I knew a lot of girls like this in high school. They were overly stressed about their appearance. They spent all of their money on makeup, some girls would steal makeup. They are constantly checking themselves in the mirror and editing their social media pictures.

This is what I hate about movies, books, and other forms of media that portray unrealistic depictions of what high school looks like. Adolescents are very susceptible to outside information so the kind of images and roles they are being told hold strong. It creates insecurity when you can't look like the popular girl in the movies.

If I had to put a number to it, my high school experience was caring 40% about my grades and academics and 60% worried about my friend group, how I appear to my peers, and whether or not I was liked by others. High school truly is a war zone.

Being a teenager is already difficult because you are dealing with all these insecurities, anxieties, and pressure. To add on the weight of being judge for being a teen mom is very challenging. Women who decide to continue pursuing their education should be supported because they need to provide support for their new life.

But doesn't this also promote sexism or at least deeming it okay. Sexism is the unequal treatment of men and women. To make women cover up because men find their bodies sexual again places all the responsibility onto women to fix this issue when men are also at fault.

This makes sense. Any young teen could get pregnant without access to quality sex education on preventative measures. It is not fair or correct to attribute teen pregnancy to cultural values.

As horrible as this view is, I think my school also had this horrible sweeping generalization. It is obviously not true because everyone is capable of greatness but self-efficacy gets lowered because of this stereotype.

An ongoing issue that women continue to face is how often women are blamed for wearing "exposing" clothing but men are not corrected at all for their tendencies to sexualize the female body.

This sounds like how clubs are formed in high school. It is often how high schoolers find people with similar interests and create a small, close community.

I could relate to wanting to find a private space in school because you don't feel like you fit in with others. I often did this in high school to avoid being around other groups.

This supports the research that says social support is really important for students' attitudes and motivation for school. Having a space to connect and talk with friends by sharing similar interests will make the students like going to school more.

This is observing a culture by directly going there, immersing yourself in the culture, and recording differences and similarities.

I like this teacher's approach to teaching where she understands that knowing a second language is a good thing not a bad thing. It's not good to make students feel bad for not being able to speak English. It ruins their self-esteem and self-efficacy.

I think this is a really good idea for non English speaking students because at the end of the day comprehension is more important than ability to write grammatically correct sentences in English.

I have a student in a similar situation where he only knows how to speak Spanish and that impacts his English reading capabilities. He can accurately pronounce tough words but has no comprehension of what the words mean.

There are elementary schools like this in Socal where the students learn in English learn both English and Spanish. And the students are all ethnicities. I think it is to take advantage of that language acquisition stage

Basically demonstrating the point that just because a familiy is low-income, it does not mean they are incapable of providing their kids with resources to enrich their learning at home.

Really good at home social support. Completing homework and school related material is much easier when there is someone willing to work with you or at least hold you accountable for getting your work done. It also teaches collaboration and communication skills.

In another class, I learned how important access to such resources is extremely advantageous for children's learning. Psychology courses have also made it obvious how important having a separate space specifically for studying is good for getting into the correct mindset and mood. As opposed to using you sleeping space to eat, study, do work, and sleep.

I predict that the participants experienced a lot of difficulty with learning the language, making friends, and following certain rules/policies. Because schools have to move progressively it is hard to stay on one topic for a few students bc you have to keep moving on. I would hope there are after school programs. But attitudes toward education are very different now. Not many people value college or school and might not be motivated to go to after school programs

This is a very interesting population to focus on. I think the results could be generalized to how foreigners feel supported in the American education system.

I wonder why this is the case? If second-gen is better academically, they should be more educated and have more money to then support the kid with the right nutrition and prenatal care? Maybe the second-generation is more open to harmful substances like drugs and alcohol compared to the first generation which affects the health of their children

I also did not have strong relationships with teachers but sometimes it can be the fault of the student. I personally was too shy to speak to them and I had very low self-esteem. Also if we force teachers to care about each and every student, will that care be genuine and how are they meant to form relationships with every single student on top of know every single student's particular background on top of knowing each child's preferred learning style. There needs to be some other sort of intervention.

This is such a common experience for college students. We randomly choose something we find not to be boring, take the classes for it and by the time we realize we don't actually like it, well, we're already in too deep. I think this is due to the lack of exposure to different types of job opportunities. But also how are we just supposed to know what we want at 18?

Again, this article places the pressure on teachers which if that is the case, they should be paid a lot more than they actually are.

While I agree that this is an important issue, I wonder how schools could realistically fund more support for undocumented students considering how severely underfunded schools currently are. Of course, all students should be given equal opportunities, but how can that come about realistically? And why do we put so much pressure on teachers

Our society pushes education and college onto students without understanding that not everyone is going to succeed with a degree. High schools should also take into account how some students might not want the college route because sometimes it really doesn't guarantee financial stability

One way to tackle lack of motivation could be to increase interest and hope/self-efficacy.

Proper nutrition and quality care is so important for child development and not having the means to provide that for children is devastating. It creates more hate, sadness, and misfortune. I hope that policymakers can work to provide these means.

I agree with this sentiment. Learning about students' cultures and backgrounds isn't something educators should be interested in, rather it should be something they are responsible for. It helps a lot with figuring how to approach the students' learning and being sensitive to their identities.

I think it is also important to acknowledge the challenges and difference each kid goes through instead of pretending there aren't any differences. If you pretend that all students are equal and have the same resources that each student wouldn't get the right kind of care.

Parent-teacher communication is critical in supporting a child's learning. It is really helpful to know more about a child's home life to assess what extra help they may need.

Many of these articles attack how the education system approaches students in poverty but few talk about how to address this with students because they are often the perpetuators of the negative comments.

It is possible that this person already felt insecure about their financial situation and perceived everyone's reactions as pity because the child feels so indifferent.

There is so much teachers have to be aware of that makes me not want to be a teacher. Not that I do not think this isn't important because it definitely is. But this article and the many we've seen in the past show how hard it is to be a really good teacher.

This was the case at my high school where teachers assigned us online homework, assuming that every had good wifi and access to a computer at home. There were also projects that required us to buy supplies that were expensive. Clubs also required money to join.

I saw this a lot in my high school where my teachers would purposefully only call on the Asian smart students because they knew they would know the answers and it would keep the class moving. But as a result, other students don't get a chance and their internal belief that they aren't smart enough gets reinforced.

This reminds me of how when I was a child my mom didn't want me to speak Vietnamese because she didn't want me to be teased for not being able to speak English. It sucks because now I cannot speak Vietnamese and I grew up to be somewhat ashamed of my heritage.

This is a really interesting way to view schooling. It is true that American schools do in a way diminish the importance of individuals' cultural backgrounds by forcing assimilation.

Many articles make this same point of how we are not teaching children with the appropriate instruction because of their race. Our personal attitudes and the common stereotypes can make teaching the child hard because there are so many factors to consider. As such, I feel that teachers should be played a lot more seeing how that are literally responsible for creating the adults who help the functionality of society,

I wonder what age group of girls are referring to here because I work with a lot of Latino 1st-5th graders and at each grade level I have never really observed this. At this age the girls are pretty confident and have no problem correcting or calling out boys. I think after puberty, however, this might change as you begin to think more about how you are perceived by others.

I don't think it is as easy as she makes it sound. As we learned in last week's article, there are some kids who don't even understand the order of taking pre-algebra before algebra simply because they don't have people in their lives to explain that to them. It may seem easy to her because it is a path a lot of people in her family have taken or that her family holds strong values to school so she knows more about it.

This example goes to show how different cultures have different attitudes toward education/grades.

This reminds me of the discussion we had in class on Tuesday and last week's discussion on implicit biases teachers may carry into the classroom. I wonder if in the hiring process, schools ask teachers about their comfortability with diversity and how they personally understand racism.

I had a similar high school experience as my high school was predominantly Vietnamese Americans. As such, I never felt outcasted and in fact the reverse happened where the few white people at my school felt left out.

I think it is really sad how her hurtful words became a joke for people to laugh at. This issue should have been taken more seriously but I think because other races may feel "this doesn't personally affect me" it was not condemned or handled with as much severity as it should have been

I could really relate to this sentiment as an Asian American growing up in a dominantly white area. Even though I was young and only in elementary and middle school, I subconsciously already knew all the stereotypes people had of asians such as "they're quiet," "they are good at math," and "they're good at everything and don't have mental health issues." I felt I had to fit into these stereotypes but by doing so I really pushed away my own signs of bad mental health and depression.

This is so important because the over saturation of terrible devastating news desensitizes people to the reality that the person dying had a whole life, a personality, a family, friends, etc. and now that is just gone. But because we see so much death and tragedy all the time it just feels like "another story"

This is why the phrase "I don't see color" is upsetting. Not acknowledging someone's race and the difficulties the experience due to their skin color is being ignorant and making the problem worse. We should be aware of the stereotypes and challenges people of color face instead of pretending they don't exist.

In elementary school, friendships are less about sharing similar values or philosophies and more about doing the same activities together such as playing a similar sport. As time goes on, we start to think about our personal values and struggles and yearn to meet people who can relate which could be a possible factor as to why we start to stick with our same races.

When kids experience something traumatic in their childhood, it drastically affects their performance in school. What is more difficult is that kids often don't have the vocabulary or ability to express what happened to them so they don't reach out for help and become more closed off in school.

How do we fix this problem? At first, I thought funding Santa Ana high school so that they can add more extracurricular activities and provide more resources for the students, but I wonder if you have to fix the community first. That could be by helping their parents getting jobs and educating them on finance.

This is very true but very unfair for students who are shy and scared to talk to older adults. That was the case for me where I did not know if it was okay to ask my teachers or other staff to help me because it did not seem like they cared about me outside of the classroom.

Teacher bias and attitudes play a huge role in student's outcomes. If a teacher does not believe a student can perform well, they are likely to not give that student as much help or attention. Implicit biases should be checked before hiring teachers.

I do not know when this article was written, but I think this aspect has changed in both K-12 education and college. Many of my professors are understanding that some students work multiple jobs, may not have reliable means of transportation, or do not have access to certain technologies. These professors try to make accommodations and acknowledge students' efforts. As for K-12, the elementary school I work at is in a low SES community and all the staff is aware and takes important care of not making students feel bad for not having certain supplies.

I could relate to this experience when I started working in Irvine when I grew up and still live in Santa Ana. A lot of my coworkers are more wealthy and could not relate to my financial struggles which made it an awkward topic to bring up. Whenever I do hang out with my Irvine friends, I tend to try not to bring up money

This is very true when we consider that in some cultures school is not as heavily stressed compared to others. Parents attitudes toward the importance of getting a degree can dramatically change how much they care to put in additional money to their child's education. For example, they may not see the need to spend extra time at night reading to them or buy them new school supplies because they might expect their kid to just get through high school and then start working with them.

I think the real problem is that a lot of freshman coming into high school and even sophomores have no idea about what colleges are and why they have to take certain classes. At least from my personal experience as a first-generation student who didn't have any older siblings or relatives who went to college, I did not get any advice on what to do in high school. Perhaps, even in middle school, schools should begin introducing career options so that students can have an idea of what they want to be in the future.

In my personal high school experience, my counselors, because they see so many students, did not take the time to talk deeply about which school courses to take based on what careers you were interested in. In my high school, we would just receive our schedules and the only time counselors would make changes is if there was a time conflict rather than personal preferences. This negatively affected me in my junior year when I wanted to AP Bio but my counselor told me I had to take physics. I later learned after I graduated that it was perfectly fine to take AP Bio and that it would even be more beneficial for me when applying to colleges.

I never realized how even the knowledge of the differences between a prealgebra and algebra can show class differences and the importance of knowing people who went through the education system.

Other possible strategies that could benefit schools where achievement is low is creating non-profit after school learning programs dedicated to subjects such as reading or math. Nonprofits can get free volunteers from local college students who want to see what the field is really like. This is idea benefits both parties greatly.

Culture may play a part in the increasing gap in that different cultures have different attitudes toward the importance of school, learning, and earning a degree

I wonder if the reason 5th grade in particular shows a larger gap is because that is when most children start puberty. Puberty can add more stress onto the child and affect their abilities to focus in school

This is consistent with another research study that found students from lower SES backgrounds had 30% less the vocabulary as students from a high SES backgroun