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In figure 3.1, we see the skill and behavior gaps between high and low income kindergartners and 5th graders. I chose to expand on this because I found it interesting how large the gaps are. Whether it was reading achievement or school achievement, the gap was evident. Adding on to this, I liked how the author briefly touches on behavior and mental health. Though the authors main focus was on achievement based on income, I appreciated that he considered their emotional wellbeing and relationships at home.
-Tina Duong

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Writing a book is hard! So, we should always make sure to acknowledge the impressive work that scholars do, including in this book. Is there some part of Ch. 3 that you found particularly enlightening or some "thing" that is really helpful in understanding the achievement gap?

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Just because a book if published or a study shared, does not mean that every perspective is necessary the correct one. Is there some critique you can make of the reading? (Or, rather, if critique is too strong, perhaps some "thing" the authors left out or should reconsider.)

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As emerging scholars, you should always pay attention to the footnotes/citations of the texts you read. Please look up a citation that you feel deserves a greater explanation. Then, please answer: why are you looking at this footnote and can you find the original study? Either summarize this study or expand on some citation mentioned in this chapter.

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A critique our group discussed was in regards to how while the two examples of the boys, Anthony and Alexander were useful in helping us understand the achievement gap, we feel as if these are "extreme" or very specific examples as there is a missing group of students who aren't discussed or represented in the text. It would have been nice to have mentioned or touched on people who fall somewhere in the middle of the issue.

Khine
Judy
Melanie
Rosa

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The use of graphs in this chapter was useful to understand and visualize the achievement gaps. It was helpful to get the contrast between Anthony and Alexander lives because it help visualize the the different life circumstances they had. Using actual real life examples of people allows the reader to see someone's else's reality that we otherwise would not be able to see. The chapter discusses different factors like mental health, stress, family income that effects the achievement gap.

-Melanie, Rosa, Khine, Judy

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We liked how Duncan introduced the factors of family relationships into school achievement and the importance of having a healthy familial or community relationship in the time of development in school environments. We all have experienced and read about the importance of having a healthy familial environment during the time of adolescence and childhood. Duncan on page 28 discussing mental health was a great way of highlighting the importance of this factor in school outcomes.

Cade
Jessi
Olivia
Katrina
Samantha
Yiheng

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One paragraph on page 32 discusses the gap in the amount of words low income and high income students hear, but the author uses an ill-defined term to talk about this. The author states: “The study generated the often-cited finding that over a year's time, professional parents utter an average of eleven million words to their toddlers.” What is a ‘professional parent?’ You can be a professional contractor, surgeon, plumber, etc. and all of these careers are associated with different income levels and socioeconomic statuses. This is an ineffective way to discuss the word gap, since it fails to describe the groups most effected by it.

Charlie H
Emily M
Camille A
Audrey C

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Something that really helped us in understanding and better conceptualizing the achievement gap was the presence of not only the statistics and explanations of the information but the presence of graphs to help visually represent what was going on. Some of us struggle with visualizing ideas that are written, so having graphs clearly displaying the impact of income inequalities is really helpful in being able to better understand the overall ideas the text is trying to communicate. The chapter has a nice blend of anecdotal evidence and statistical evidence to support its claims.

- Camille A., Audrey C., Charlie H., Emily M.

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The author did a great job comparing the lives of both students. Although both students are African American, we are able to see that each student differs in their educational achievement based on their income. Being able to picture the distinct lives that students live truly helps our understanding of the achievement gap whether it be due to race or income.

- Stephanie
- Nathaly
- Lisette
- Shirley
- Minji

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(Figure 3.1) - shows the skill and behavior gap between high and low-income Kindergarten and 5th-grade students

We decided to look at these gaps because we think it excludes some important factors when discussing current issues.
1) We feel that it is challenging to test Kindergarten students considering their age and the wide range of skills they may have based on their development. Generally, students in older grades have similar motor and cognitive skills, but we feel that with Kindergarten, it may vary vastly, which makes it hard to measure.
2) One of the biggest issues we have with this is the consideration of Pre-K for these students. A "high-quality" Pre-K may pose huge differences in skills, which we would like to know if that was measured in this study. Pre-K not only advances children academically, physically, and emotionally but is also a threshold to finding any learning disability or deficiencies at an early age and tackling them. Many times, high-income families have the resources to do this, while low-income families do not. Therefore, we would like to see if these high-income families' students engaged in these resources, thus was the reason for such differences, or if all the students came from similar academic backgrounds from the start.
- Jamie, Quynh, Dyandra, Kate

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The author did a good job of presenting examples of two students who grew up in different lifestyles and circumstances. The author proceeds to use these differences to analyze the achievement gap that is evident in their academic outcomes. Using these real-life examples enables readers to put things into perspective including how differences in parent involvement, income, transportation, etc. can greatly impact their outcomes. Readers are also able to sympathize with the given examples and see where they fall within these circumstances.

-Quynh, Jamie, Dyandra, Kate

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What we found particularly enlightening was the price of student expenses. From what we found, that amount can range from $4,000 to $9,000 from 2005-2006, using that money from extracurricular activities to tutoring services. This money can be used in other services for poor income families in other ways, such as bills and meals. Yet, the families need to fund for their children for a prosperous future. Therefore, they need to fund their children's education, and make a sacrifice to their economic status.
Peter
Dima
Kennedy
Sam
April

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We really appreciated how Duncan brought up the importance of mental health and its effects on children and the parents. Poverty itself is a struggle, and to have parents that go through it, eventually having kids that will also go through it because of the seeming never ending cycle of poverty, shows just another aspect of the systems in place to keep the status quo. Lots of children and parents need access to mental health resources in order to succeed, and yet that in itself is a luxury that is not covered by most insurances (something that even the middle class do not have access to).

Celina
Phoebe
Mario
Jiayue
Emily W.

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Both families in the reading are so different in terms of their financial status and income. One grew up with an income of more than $300,000 and the other grew up in a family that makes near or below $27,000. It’s either one or the other, but oftentimes there are people who are right in between. When you're a little above the poverty line, there are resources that you are no longer eligible for because you are not considered “in poverty”. These are some factors that should be considered.

-Quynh, Kate, Dyandra, Jamie

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Footnote 24
We decided to look at this footnote to see how exactly educational levels of parents affect a child's home quality and academic achievement. The study was found through the DOI number and the study discussed the correlations between maternal education levels and child success. We found the results to be a little surprising because it mentioned how children who have young mothers with low level education perform better but those with additional schooling have higher quality home environments. We found this surprising because we have always found that in most cases, education levels of parents play a large role in determining how successful a child is. However, other results did show that higher maternal education resulted in better successes in reading than compared to math.
- Melanie, Rosa, Khine, Judy

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Respective gaps in mathematics

achievement were 1.15 standard deviations (115 SAT-type points) in kindergarten and the same size in fifth grade.

The author closes a paragraph about literacy disparities with "Gaps in mathematics achievement are also substantial." But fails to expand on the topic and instead moves to the next paragraph. This citation could have benefitted the article if they had explained why a disparity in mathematics is detrimental to young students. The incomplete thought should have been left out or been given its own meaningful paragraph, rather than being thrown in as an after thought. Not to mention, the article itself has a good amount of important information, such as small class sizes and free lunches benefiting test scores and student engagement.

Phoebe, Mario, Celina, Jiayue, Emily W.

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Some critiques that we have of the reading include the lack of acknowledgement of the diverse, multi-lingual backgrounds of many of the low-income, BIPOC students when they were tested for early literacy (Duncan & Murname, p. 25). Considering the fact that all students are being assessed in their English literacy, there may not be adequate consideration for student's literacy in their native languages. In addition, we also had broader critiques about the way in which different parenting styles and focuses were described, particularly among the low-income families. While Duncan & Murname emphasized the extensive benefits higher-income students received from participating in extracurricular activities, low-income parents and families' were often portrayed as being singularly focused on providing for the physical needs of their children without caring for the socio-emotional or academic needs of their children - which we know to not be the case.

Jiayue
Mario
Phoebe
Celina
Emily W.

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A critique we discussed within our group was how it would be insightful to see more students experiences being represented with in the reading. We know that poor students face significant economic struggles that reflect their performance in schools; however we also know there are poor students who are resilient despite their circumstances, as wells as wealthy students who are not successful (although there are probably few). It would be good to see what specific factors caused their life outcomes among students of the same social class.
- Stephanie, Nathaly, Lisette, Shirley, Minji

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Footnote 30
(Lareau, Unequal Childhoods, 35, 66-67)

This chapter in this book by Anette Lareau discusses the difference between the way children from middle-class families and children from working-class families are raised. Middle-class parents, regardless of race, tend to utilize a parenting style called "concerted cultivation." They are able to use their time and resources to cultivate their children's interests and desires beyond their basic needs and survival. They incorporate activities into their children's lives and control their schedules. On the other hand, working-class parents rely on "natural growth." Their children develop spontaneously on their own as long as basic needs are fulfilled.

- Camille A., Audrey C., Emily M., Charlie H.

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In the reading by Duncan, there was one part that talked about parental education levels matter even more than family structure and income. They matter equally, and parental education levels do not matter more than family structure and income in a child's school achievement. This was on page 31.

Cade
Jessi
Olivia
Katrina
Samantha
Yiheng

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Footnote 2 pg. 25

The part of the article that should be highlighted is on page 25 where it mentions the income distribution of white and both black and hispanic students. This statistic is crucial as it relates to our class discussion on red lining and how the separation of race and economic status has had an effect on children's schooling. Students who are raised in low economic areas struggle with focusing on other basic needs before being able to focus on their schooling and that's why I think there is an achievement gap starting from a young age. Looking at the footnote, this makes the data we read reliable. We always hear stories of this achievement gap and it was refreshing to actually see some data on it to prove that this statistic actually exists.
Olivia, Cade, Katrina, Jessi, Samantha, Yiheng

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Our group focused on the first footnote. The statistic provided for this achievement gap focuses on educational outcomes of Kindergarteners as they progress through school. The achievement focuses on income, but educational outcomes can vary on other factors as well. Students from low-income families can also achieve successful educational outcomes based off of what their parents can teach them at home, it's not all solely based on income.

- Stephanie
- Nathaly
- Lisette
- Shirley
- Minji

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Footnote 12
Investing  in  Children:  Changes  in  Parental  Spending  on Children, 1972-2007
We wanted to look into how much parents spend on children. Using data found from the early 1970s to 2000s, we looked into parental investment. After the 1900s, we found that parents were spending the largest when children were under the age of 6 in their mid-20s. This made us ponder about the truth behind this, and how much longer parents need to support for their children even after college. It is important to know how much parents are trying to support their children and how much they spend to keep their child's future alive.

Peter, Dima, Kennedy, Sam, April

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A critique we had of the text was how the reading was how income is different based on certain careers. Even though parents have service job, they are able to afford something that is of higher quality or value. Just because they are not in certain high professional jobs, does not mean they are of low-income. Service jobs are able to work hard and save enough to earn even higher income to support their children for education.

Peter
Kennedy
Dima
Sam
April

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I appreciated how Duncan touched upon multiple ways in which income affects school success. Not only did he explain how more affluent families are able to allocate more time and money on their child's education and enrichment activities but he also mentioned how lack of nutrition and food among low income families negatively impacts a child's intellectual growth. Additionally, I liked how Duncan brought up living environments. Those with more income are able to purchase homes in areas that have better schools, access to healthcare, less air pollutants, etc. When analyzing a students' academic achievement and behavior, these are all factors we should take into consideration.
-Tina Duong

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A critique I had of the reading is how it only discussed the "stereotypical" perspective of wealthy vs poor families. I feel like there are cases in which a child growing up in an affluent family ends up "going down a wrong path". And on the other hand, a child raised in a low-income household becomes resilient from adversity and ends up achieving great success, despite not having the resources and opportunities compared to their more affluent peers. I think it would've been more holistic and realistic if Duncan considered adding these scenarios/perspectives in this reading.
-Tina Duong