NY Times: "Education Gap Grows Between the Poor and the Rich, Studies Show"

[JPZenger]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/10/education/education-gap-grows-between-rich-and-poor-studies-show.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Excerpts:

"...the gap between rich and poor students has grown substantially during the same period.

“We have moved from a society in the 1950s and 1960s, in which race was more consequential than family income, to one today in which family income appears more determinative of educational success than race,” said Sean F. Reardon, a Stanford University sociologist. Professor Reardon is the author of a study that found that the gap in standardized test scores between affluent and low-income students had grown by about 40 percent since the 1960s, and is now double the testing gap between blacks and whites.

In another study, by researchers from the University of Michigan, the imbalance between rich and poor children in college completion — the single most important predictor of success in the work force — has grown by about 50 percent since the late 1980s.

The changes are tectonic, a result of social and economic processes unfolding over many decades. The data from most of these studies end in 2007 and 2008, before the recession’s full impact was felt. Researchers said that based on experiences during past recessions, the recent downturn was likely to have aggravated the trend."

[atreides1]

1. Back to the Middle Ages

When the rich were educated and the poor were only good for menial chores...and for providing fodder for the wars of the Church!

[JPZenger]

2. Or, go to 150 years ago..

Or, we could go back 150 years ago when it was illegal to teach slaves to read and write.

[MisterP]

4. might I ask which historians this is based on?

[Curmudgeoness]

3. Since the data used is from 2007-08,

I can only imagine how much worse it will be with the cuts that are being made/have been made to PA education. Since these cuts hit the poorer districts the hardest, things will continue down the wrong path.

I do wonder about the 1950's and 60's being driven more by race than socio-economic class. That may have been true in the cities where neighborhoods were segregated by race and the white districts got the money, but in smaller towns, the poor all lived in the same neighborhoods, whether they were white or black or brown.....and they all suffered.