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How Does Gender Diversity Affect the Adolescent Classroom? - Know About Life

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How Does Gender Diversity Affect the Adolescent Classroom? The fundamental differences in the ways boys and girls learn has led researchers and advocates for single-sex education and co-ed education to claim the process of learning for a child can be greatly affected by the gender diversity of their classroo

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Students with disabilities at the University constitute a population as diverse as the total student body. As intelligent and academically prepared as other students at U.Va., they clearly have special needs that may require your knowledge and understanding as well as the support of the Learning Needs and Evaluation Center (LNEC) (243-5180). Disabilities include those related to chronic health conditions (for example, diabetes, HIV positive, sickle cell anemia), neurological conditions (such as seizure disorders and head injuries), and specific learning disabilities (for instance, dysgraphia, dyslexia, dyslogia). Some students have psychiatric disorders or emotional problems resulting from childhood sexual abuse, arrested addictions, and biochemical imbalances. Other students have vision or hearing deficits or mobility impairments, including temporary ones due to sports injuries. ¹
Like other U.Va. students, students with disabilities are generally industrious and motivated, although some must take longer than average to finish their degree. With reasonable understanding and accommodation on your part, these students can meet degree standards, enter professions, and achieve in graduate and professional programs with the same degree of success as nondisabled students. The following sections will help you identify characteristics of students with disabilities, know where and how to refer them to additional resources, and, most importantly, help you adapt your teaching methods to ensure equal opportunities for all your students. This chapter replicates and expands upon material found in Teaching at the University of Virginia.
Constraints
Keep in mind that the task of managing any disability drains students of time and energy, and their health routines are critically important. Disabilities also interfere with daily living skills. Some students with disabilities cannot take notes while trying to listen; others cannot read at a rate commensurate with their general intelligence. Still others have great difficulty simply getting their work on paper because of trouble with eye-hand coordination, apraxia, or arthritis. Students with disabilities may have low self-concepts or be socially isolated. Or, they may repeatedly get lost or be unable to drive because they cannot coordinate information from several senses quickly enough. And, of course, students with disabilities also encounter generic student predicaments: perfectionism, pressures associated with family expectations, family responsibilities, and so on.

Reading what sounds like a litany of problems may provoke in you one of the common reactions to disabilities, reactions you need to recognize if only to spot them among your non-disabled students. Some people feel awkward or flustered when near a person with a physical disability: "Should I open the door, or would that be condescending?" Others feel an overwhelming sense of pity and a need to take care of the person. Fear is another common reaction, including the irrational fear of the same disability attacking you. Still others suspect that people with disabilities are receiving "special breaks" and aren't pulling their own weight. Such negative feelings constitute one of the greatest constraints on people struggling to overcome disabilities.
Feelings of discomfort and prejudice toward people with disabilities disappear, however, when people get to know them as individuals. Accommodations
To succeed, students with disabilities require others to be creative and flexible to their special needs. Given a documented diagnosed disability (with information from the student's Academic Dean or the LNEC), you may need to accommodate certain students by modifying accessibility to the classroom, your lecture, or course materials. The reasonable accommodations needed by each student will vary according to his/her disability. In general, these accommodations are not difficult for the instructor to carry out, nor should they change basic course requirements. Occasionally, students with disabilities who are qualified for special support choose not to seek it; you are not responsible for accommodating a disability that the student does not declare or that you cannot verify.
Encouraging your students to let you know of any disability early in the semester will ensure ample time to make any necessary adjustments. One way to signal your willingness to accommodate students with disabilities is to include a statement on your syllabus similar to the following one recommended by the LNEC:

All students with special needs requiring accommodations should present the appropriate paperwork from the Learning Needs and Evaluation Center (LNEC). It is the student's responsibility to present this paperwork in a timely fashion and follow up with the instructor about the accommodations being offered. Accommodations for test-taking (e.g., extended time) should be arranged at least X days before an exam.

The confidential paperwork from the LNEC will typically include a short list of recommended accommodations. Many are obvious: your classroom must be accessible to students in wheelchairs, for instance, or you must allow guide dogs, interpreters, peer note-takers assigned, tape recorders, or flexibility with the number of excused absences. Others may seem less obvious but are easily accomplished. If, for example, meeting due dates is a problem for the student, you can negotiate reasonable schedules for completing work. In the following sections you'll find other suggestions for accommodation grouped by type of disability. Please note that these lists of suggestions are not exhaustive-the options for reasonable accommodations are unlimited. The LNEC can provide additional ways to address specific disabilities and/or situations, and if special arrangements are required, you can contact your school's Associate or Assistant Dean.

¹ For the information in this chapter, I rely on several sources, including LNEC staff members and works listed in Appendix II and on the Works Cited page. Because much of the information comes from a combination of sources, only direct quotes are cited in this chapter to promote readability.

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Students with disabilities at the University constitute a population as diverse as the total student body. As intelligent and academically prepared as other students at U.Va., they clearly have special needs that may require your knowledge and understanding as well as the support of the Learning Needs and Evaluation Center (LNEC) (243-5180).

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Studies have shown that early childhood education can impact a student's academic trajectory and professional successes. Early education is particularly critical in helping students of lower-income families excel in traditional school settings. While researchers have tracked the performance of individual students in early childhood educational settings, less is known about the setting itself and the impact disruptive, aggressive or disengaged students may exert on their peers and on classroom pedagogy.

A 2012 study from Columbia University and the educational R&D company Mathematic published by American Behavioral Scientist, "Links Between Young Children's Behavior and Achievement: The Role of Social Class and Classroom Composition," examined the associations between inattention, aggressive behavior and achievement at the individual and classroom levels. The study used ECLS-K survey data on math and reading achievement from more than 14,500 kindergarten students and 2,000 classrooms in the 1998-1999 academic year to investigate differences between four groups - kindergarteners showing low attention or high aggression, both low attention and high aggression, or no behavioral issues - on math and reading assessments.

The study's findings include:

Students with one or more behavior problems consistently tested lower than their peers, but those showing aggressive behaviors tested only 2 percentage points lower in math and 3 percentage points in reading than the control group while students with both behavioral problems or attention problems scored 7 to 8 percentage points lower in math and 6 to 7 percentage points lower in reading.

A classroom with a higher percentage of students with low attention issues was negatively associated with overall achievement gains.

A classroom with a higher percentage of aggressive students, however, did not affect overall test scores significantly. The researchers speculated that the limited rigor and focus on computational tasks of kindergarten may help minimize the effects of aggressive disruptions on instruction.

Test scores for children with behavioral problems were not affected by gender, low socioeconomic or minority status; lower-income students made up a larger percentage of the group of students with both behavioral issues.

Black and Latino students were overrepresented in the attention problem group, while Asian students were overrepresented in the group showing no classroom behavioral issues.

The authors noted that teachers' evaluations of a student's behavior may reflect instructor biases, and cautioned that that academic and behavioral problems in kindergarten may set the stage for progressive failures. "Even though aggressive behavior among other children had minimal relation to gains in schools at the kindergarten level, in later grades being in classrooms with aggressive and disruptive children could have negative influences on test scores."
Tags: African-American, Latino, Hispanic, race, children

Last updated: September 26, 2012
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Citation: Georges, Annie; Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, Malone, Lizabeth M. "Links Between Young Children's Behavior and Achievement The Role of Social Class and Classroom Composition," American Behavioral Scientist, July 2012, Vol. 56, No. 7, 961-990. doi: 10.1177/0002764211409196.

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Child behavior and achievement: The role of social class and classroom composition - Journalist's Resource

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Studies have shown that early childhood education can impact a student's academic trajectory and professional successes. Early education is particularly critical in helping students of lower-income families excel in traditional school settings.

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There is a newer version of this teaching guide. Visit Creating Accessible Learning Environments for the most recent guide on the topic. by Danielle Picard, Graduate Teaching Fellow 2014-2015 Print version   Students of all abilities and backgrounds want classrooms that are inclusive and convey respect. For those students with disabilities, the classroom setting may present…

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What are learning disabilities?

Learning disabilities or learning disorders are umbrella terms for a wide variety of learning problems. A learning disability is not a problem with intelligence or motivation and kids with learning disabilities aren't lazy or dumb. In fact, most are just as smart as everyone else. Their brains are simply wired differently-and this difference affects how they receive and process information.

Simply put, children and adults with learning disabilities see, hear, and understand things differently. This can lead to trouble with learning new information and skills, and putting them to use. The most common types of learning disabilities involve problems with reading, writing, math, reasoning, listening, and speaking.

While every kid has trouble with homework from time to time, if a certain area of learning is consistently problematic, it might indicate a learning disorder.

Children with learning disabilities can, and do, succeed

It can be tough to face the possibility that your child has a learning disorder. No parent wants to see their child suffer. You may wonder what it could mean for your child's future, or worry about how they will make it through school. Perhaps you're concerned that by calling attention to your child's learning problems they might be labeled "slow" or assigned to a less challenging class.

But the important thing to remember is that most kids with learning disabilities are just as smart as everyone else. They just need to be taught in ways that are tailored to their unique learning styles. By learning more about learning disabilities in general, and your child's learning difficulties in particular, you can help pave the way for success at school and beyond.

Signs and symptoms of learning disabilities and disorders

Learning disabilities look very different from one child to another. One child may struggle with reading and spelling, while another loves books but can't understand math. Still another child may have difficulty understanding what others are saying or communicating out loud. The problems are very different, but they are all learning disorders.

It's not always easy to identify learning disabilities. Because of the wide variations, there is no single symptom or profile that you can look to as proof of a problem. However, some warning signs are more common than others at different ages. If you're aware of what they are, you'll be able to catch a learning disorder early and quickly take steps to get your child help.

The following checklists offer some common red flags for learning disorders. Remember that children who don't have learning disabilities may still experience some of these difficulties at various times. The time for concern is when there is a consistent unevenness in your child's ability to master certain skills.

If you're worried, don't wait

Signs and symptoms of learning disabilities: Preschool age

Problems pronouncing words.

Trouble finding the right word.

Difficulty rhyming.

Trouble learning the alphabet, numbers, colors, shapes, or days of the week.

Difficulty following directions or learning routines.

Difficulty controlling crayons, pencils, and scissors, or coloring within the lines.

Trouble with buttons, zippers, snaps, or learning to tie shoes.

Signs and symptoms of learning disabilities: Ages 5-9

Trouble learning the connection between letters and sounds.

Unable to blend sounds to make words.

Confuses basic words when reading.

Slow to learn new skills.

Consistently misspells words and makes frequent errors.

Trouble learning basic math concepts.

Difficulty telling time and remembering sequences.

Signs and symptoms of learning disabilities: Ages 10-13

Difficulty with reading comprehension or math skills.

Trouble with open-ended test questions and word problems.

Dislikes reading and writing; avoids reading aloud.

Poor handwriting.

Poor organizational skills (bedroom, homework, and desk are messy and disorganized).

Trouble following classroom discussions and expressing thoughts aloud.

Spells the same word differently in a single document.

Paying attention to developmental milestones can help you identify learning disorders

Paying attention to normal developmental milestones for toddlers and preschoolers is very important. Early detection of developmental differences may be an early signal of a learning disability and problems that are spotted early can be easier to correct.

A developmental lag might not be considered a symptom of a learning disability until your child is older, but if you recognize it when your child is young, you can intervene early. You know your child better than anyone else does, so if you think there is a problem, it doesn't hurt to get an evaluation. You can also ask your pediatrician for a developmental milestones chart or access one in the Get more help section below.

Problems with reading, writing, and math

Learning disabilities are often grouped by school-area skill set. If your child is in school, the types of learning disorders that are most conspicuous usually revolve around reading, writing, or math.

Learning disabilities in reading (dyslexia)

There are two types of learning disabilities in reading. Basic reading problems occur when there is difficulty understanding the relationship between sounds, letters and words. Reading comprehension problems occur when there is an inability to grasp the meaning of words, phrases, and paragraphs.

Signs of reading difficulty include problems with:

Letter and word recognition.

Understanding words and ideas.

Reading speed and fluency.

General vocabulary skills.

Learning disabilities in math (dyscalculia)

Learning disabilities in math vary greatly depending on the child's other strengths and weaknesses. A child's ability to do math will be affected differently by a language learning disability, a visual disorder, or a difficulty with sequencing, memory, or organization.

A child with a math-based learning disorder may struggle with memorization and organization of numbers, operation signs, and number "facts" (like 5+5=10 or 5×5=25). Children with math learning disorders might also have trouble with counting principles (such as counting by twos or counting by fives) or have difficulty telling time.

Learning disabilities in writing (dysgraphia)

Learning disabilities in writing can involve the physical act of writing or the mental activity of comprehending information. Basic writing disorder refers to physical difficulty forming words and letters. Expressive writing disability indicates a struggle to organize thoughts on paper.

Symptoms of a written language learning disability revolve around the act of writing. They include problems with:

Neatness and consistency of writing.

Accurately copying letters and words.

Spelling consistency.

Writing organization and coherence.

Other types of learning disabilities and disorders

Reading, writing, and math aren't the only skills impacted by learning disorders. Other types of learning disabilities involve difficulties with motor skills (movement and coordination), understanding spoken language, distinguishing between sounds, and interpreting visual information.

Learning disabilities in motor skills (dyspraxia)

Motor difficulty refers to problems with movement and coordination whether it is with fine motor skills (cutting, writing) or gross motor skills (running, jumping). A motor disability is sometimes referred to as an "output" activity meaning that it relates to the output of information from the brain. In order to run, jump, write or cut something, the brain must be able to communicate with the necessary limbs to complete the action.

Signs that your child might have a motor coordination disability include problems with physical abilities that require hand-eye coordination, like holding a pencil or buttoning a shirt.

Learning disabilities in language (aphasia/dysphasia)

Language and communication learning disabilities involve the ability to understand or produce spoken language. Language is also considered an output activity because it requires organizing thoughts in the brain and calling upon the right words to verbally explain or communicate something.

Signs of a language-based learning disorder involve problems with verbal language skills, such as the ability to retell a story, the fluency of speech, and the ability to understand the meaning of words, directions, and the like.

Auditory and visual processing problems: the importance of the ears and eyes

The eyes and the ears are the primary means of delivering information to the brain, a process sometimes called "input." If either the eyes or the ears aren't working properly, learning can suffer.

Auditory processing disorder - Professionals may refer to the ability to hear well as "auditory processing skills" or "receptive language." The ability to hear things correctly greatly impacts the ability to read, write, and spell. An inability to distinguish subtle differences in sound make it difficult to sound out words and understand the basic concepts of reading and writing.

Visual processing disorder - Problems in visual perception include missing subtle differences in shapes, reversing letters or numbers, skipping words, skipping lines, misperceiving depth or distance, or having problems with eye-hand coordination. Professionals may refer to the work of the eyes as "visual processing." Visual perception can affect motor skills, reading comprehension, and math.

Other disorders that make learning difficult

Difficulty in school doesn't always stem from a learning disability. Anxiety, depression, stressful events, emotional trauma, and other conditions affecting concentration make learning more of a challenge. In addition, ADHD and autism sometimes co-occur or are confused with learning disabilities.

ADHD - Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), while not considered a learning disability, can certainly disrupt learning. Children with ADHD often have problems sitting still, staying focused, following instructions, staying organized, and completing homework.
[Read: ADHD in Children]
Autism - Difficulty mastering certain academic skills can stem from pervasive developmental disorders such as autism and Asperger's syndrome. Children with autism spectrum disorders may have trouble communicating, reading body language, learning basic skills, making friends, and making eye contact.

Hope for learning disabilities: The brain can change

Science has made great strides in understanding the inner workings of the brain, and one important discovery that brings new hope for learning disabilities and disorders is called neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity refers to the brain's natural, lifelong ability to change.

Throughout life, the brain is able to form new connections and generate new brain cells in response to experience and learning. This knowledge has led to groundbreaking new treatments for learning disabilities that take advantage of the brain's ability to change. Innovative programs, such as the Arrowsmith program, use strategic brain exercises to identify and strengthen weak cognitive areas. For example, for children who have difficulty distinguishing between different sounds in a word, there are new computer-based learning programs that slow down the sounds so that children can understand them and gradually increase their speed of comprehension.
[Read: Helping Children with Learning Disabilities]
These discoveries about neuroplasticity provide hope to all students with learning disorders, and further research may lead to additional new treatments that target the actual causes of learning disabilities, rather than simply offering coping strategies to compensate for weaknesses.

How does understanding the brain help a learning disorder?

Using a telephone analogy, faulty wiring in the brain disrupts normal lines of communication and makes it difficult to process information easily. If service was down in a certain area of the city, the phone company might fix the problem by re-wiring the connections. Similarly, under the right learning conditions, the brain has the ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections. These new connections facilitate skills like reading and writing that were difficult using the old connections.

Diagnosis and testing for learning disabilities and disorders

Since diagnosing a learning disability isn't always easy, don't assume you know what your child's problem is, even if the symptoms seem clear. It's important to have your child tested and evaluated by a qualified professional. That said, you should trust your instincts. If you think something is wrong, listen to your gut. If you feel that a teacher or doctor is minimizing your concerns, seek a second opinion. Don't let anyone tell you to "wait and see" or "don't worry about it" if you see your child struggling. Regardless of whether or not your child's problems are due to a learning disability, intervention is needed. You can't go wrong by looking into the issue and taking action.

Keep in mind that finding someone who can help may take some time and effort. Even experts mix up learning disabilities with ADHD and other behavioral problems sometimes. You may have to look around a bit or try more than one professional. In the meantime, try to be patient, and remember that you won't always get clear answers. Try not to get too caught up in trying to determine the label for your child's disorder. Leave that to the professionals. Focus instead on steps you can take to support your child and address their symptoms in practical ways.

The diagnosis and testing process for learning disabilities

Diagnosing a learning disability is a process. It involves testing, history taking, and observation by a trained specialist. Finding a reputable referral is important. Start with your child's school, and if they are unable to help you, ask your doctor or friends and family who have dealt successfully with learning disabilities.

Types of specialists who may be able to test for and diagnose learning disabilities include:

1. Clinical psychologists

2. School psychologists

3. Child psychiatrists

4. Educational psychologist

5. Developmental psychologist

6. Neuropsychologist

7. Psychometrist

8. Occupational therapist (tests sensory disorders that can lead to learning problems)

9. Speech and language therapist

Sometimes several professionals coordinate services as a team to obtain an accurate diagnosis. They may also ask for input from your child's teachers.

Integration, sequencing, and abstraction: Technical terms for how the brain works

A professional learning disorders specialist might refer to the importance of "integration" to learning. Integration refers to the understanding of information that has been delivered to the brain, and it includes three steps:

Sequencing, which means putting information in the right order.

Abstraction, which is making sense of the information.

Organization, which refers to the brains ability to use the information to form complete thoughts.

Each of the three steps is important and your child may have a weakness in one area or another that causes learning difficulty. For example, in math, sequencing (the ability to put things in order) is important for learning to count or do multiplication (as well as learn the alphabet or the months of the year). Similarly, abstraction and organization are important parts of numerous educational skills and abilities. If a certain brain activity isn't happening correctly, it will create a roadblock to learning.

Getting help for children with learning disabilities

When it comes to learning disabilities, it's not always easy to know what to do and where to find help. Turning to specialists who can pinpoint and diagnose the problem is, of course, important. You will also want to work with your child's school to make accommodations for your child and get specialized academic help. But don't overlook your own role. You know your child better than anyone else, so take the lead in looking into your options, learning about new treatments and services, and overseeing your child's education.

Learn the specifics about your child's learning disability. Learn about your child's type of learning disability. Find out how the disability affects the learning process and what cognitive skills are involved. It's easier to evaluate learning techniques if you understand how the learning disability affects your child.

Research treatments, services, and new theories. Along with knowing about the type of learning disability your child has, educate yourself about the most effective treatment options available. This can help you advocate for your child at school and pursue treatment at home.

Pursue treatment and services at home. Even if the school doesn't have the resources to treat your child's learning disability optimally, you can pursue these options on your own at home or with a therapist or tutor.

Nurture your child's strengths. Even though children with learning disabilities struggle in one area of learning, they may excel in another. Pay attention to your child's interests and passions. Helping children with learning disorders develop their passions and strengths will probably help them with the areas of difficulty as well.

Social and emotional skills: How you can help

Learning disabilities can be extremely frustrating for children. Imagine having trouble with a skill all of your friends are tackling with ease, worrying about embarrassing yourself in front of the class, or struggling to express yourself. Things can be doubly frustrating for exceptionally bright children with learning disabilities-a scenario that's not uncommon.

Kids with learning disabilities may have trouble expressing their feelings, calming themselves down, and reading nonverbal cues from others. This can lead to difficulty in the classroom and with their peers. The good news is that, as a parent, you can have a huge impact in these areas. Social and emotional skills are the most consistent indicators of success for all children-and that includes kids with learning disorders. They outweigh everything else, including academic skills, in predicting lifelong achievement and happiness.
[Read: Raising Emotionally Intelligent Children]
Learning disabilities, and their accompanying academic challenges, can lead to low self-esteem, isolation, and behavior problems, but they don't have to. You can counter these things by creating a strong support system for children with learning disabilities and helping them learn to express themselves, deal with frustration, and work through challenges. By focusing on your child's growth as a person, and not just on academic achievements, you'll help them to learn good emotional habits that set the stage for success throughout life.

Finding support while helping a child with learning disabilities

All children can be both exhilarating and exhausting, but it may seem that your child with a learning disability is especially so. You may experience some frustration trying to work with your child, and it can seem like an uphill battle when you don't have the information you need. After you learn what their specific learning disability is and how it is affecting their behavior, you will be able to start addressing the challenges in school and at home. If you can, be sure to reach out to other parents who are addressing similar challenges as they can be great sources of knowledge and emotional support.

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Learning Disabilities and Disorders - HelpGuide.org

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Does your child have a learning disorder? Learn the common warning signs and how to get help.

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Study 2

In study 2, the researchers tested the idea that working-class students underperform because of lower familiarity with academic culture, and highlighting these differences leads to even lower performance. To directly study this, the researchers manipulated how familiar students were with academic standards in a task, which served as a proxy for social class. Some students were given extra training on the task. The researchers then used the same hand raising procedure with one group of students while the other group of students did not raise their hands when they knew the answer to a problem.

The pattern of results was the same as from study 1. As was to be expected, students who were more familiar with the task performed better than students who were less familiar with the task. When students were highly familiar with the task at hand, the hand raising had no effect on their performance. But, when students were not very familiar with the task, the hand-raising procedure led to lower performance. Thus, highlighting different starting points during a task leads to lower ability students to perform even worse.

Study 3

Up to this point, it seems that highlighting differences between groups of students who are more or less familiar with a task through hand raising leads to the disadvantaged students performing even worse. In study 3, the researchers attempted to mitigate the harm caused by highlighting the disadvantages. In this study, some students were made to be more familiar with the task then others, and all of the students used the hand raising procedure. However, in some classrooms, the students were told that some classroom peers were more familiar with the task because they had better training.

Results indicated that, again, students who were more familiar with the task performed better than students less familiar with the task. For students who were highly familiar with the task, talking about whether the students were familiar with the task had no effect on their performance. But, for students who had low familiarity with the task, being made aware of a previous disadvantage led to better performance than when the disadvantage wasn't mentioned.

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In study 2, the researchers tested the idea that working-class students underperform because of lower familiarity with academic culture, and highlighting these differences leads to even lower performance. To directly study this, the researchers manipulated how familiar students were with academic standards in a task, which served as a proxy for social class.

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Understanding disparities in school readiness among America's children when they begin kindergarten is critically important, now more than ever. In today's 21st century global economy, we expect the great majority of our children to complete high school ready to enter college or begin a career, and assume their civic responsibilities. This requires strong math, reading, science, and other cognitive skills, as well as the abilities to work well and communicate effectively with others, solve problems creatively, and see tasks to completion.

Unfortunately, the weak early starts that many of our children are getting make it hard to attain these societal goals. Since key foundations for learning are established beginning at birth, starting school behind makes it likely that early disadvantages will persist as children progress through school, and last into their adult lives.

Knowing which groups of children tend to start school behind, how far behind they are, and what factors contribute to their lag, can help us develop policies to avert the early gaps that become long-term problems. Inequalities at the Starting Gate: Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills Gaps between 2010-2011 Kindergarten Classmates explores gaps by social class and race/ethnicity in both cognitive skills-math, reading, and executive function-and noncognitive skills such as self-control, approaches to learning, and interactions with teachers and peers. We refer to these skills gaps as gaps in school readiness.

The gaps reported in Inequalities at the Starting Gate are presented as a group's score on a given skill relative to a comparison group. (Skills are measured in standard deviations-a metric commonly used in education research-with a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1. This allows for measuring how far a group's average score is from the comparison group's average score and report it as a fraction of one.) For more information on the methodology, sources (the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics and others), and findings, please visit epi.org to review the full report: Inequalities at the Starting Gate: Cognitive and Noncognitive Skills Gaps between 2010-2011 Kindergarten Classmates, by Emma García, Economic Policy Institute, June 17, 2015.

The paper uses data from the National Center for Education Statistics' Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class, a cohort of students who entered kindergarten in 2010 for the 2010-2011 school year (ECLS-K 2010-2011). The nationally representative sample provides information about the children-their race or ethnicity, socioeconomic status, language spoken at home, etc.-and their experiences in their early years, such as how actively their parents engaged them in enriching activities and whether they received prekindergarten care (see table at right). The analyses focus on the association between these characteristics and children's readiness for school.

The findings reflect broader societal inequities. As is true of odds of school and life success among Americans today, social class is the single factor with the most influence on how ready to learn a child is when she first walks through the school's kindergarten door. Low social class puts children far behind from the start. Race and ethnicity compound that disadvantage, largely due to factors also related to social class.

A substantial minority are so far behind that school success will be very hard.Given the large share of children entering our schools from disadvantaged contexts, these findings demand our urgent attention on both economic and moral grounds.

Low social class poses major barriers to young children's readiness in reading and math

Measured skills

Reading

Math

Working memory

Cognitive flexibility

Self control

Approaches to learning

Social interactions

Closeness to teacher

Eagerness to learn

Persistence

Focus (pays attention)

Creativity

Internalizing behavioral problems

Externalizing behavioral problems

Research has established that growing up in poverty tends to put children behind. Inequalities at the Starting Gate seeks to determine how much social class matters, both absolutely and relative to other factors, such as race and ethnicity. It also assesses how a range of family characteristics and parenting practices, such as family composition, paid care, and enriching activities with parents,influence education gaps between groups of young children.

To understand the influence of social class-parents' income levels, level of education, and job status-on children's early development, the study divides children into five groups based on social class and compares the second (low-middle), third (middle), fourth (middle-high), and fifth (high) quintiles or "fifths" with the first (low) fifth.

We use the term social class to refer to the socioeconomic status (SES) construct created for the ECLS-K by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics based on five different components, including parents' (or guardians') educational attainment, occupational prestige score, and household income.

In line with prior research, Inequalities at the Starting Gate finds that the most socioeconomically disadvantaged children lag substantially in both reading and math skills, and that these skill levels rise along with social class. As such, poor children face substantial obstacles to school success. For example:

Children in the highest socioeconomic group (the high SES fifth) have reading and math scores that are significantly higher-by a full standard deviation-than scores of their peers in the lowest socioeconomic group.

Reading and math skills advantages of children in the middle of the SES distribution relative to the lowest SES group are roughly half as large as advantages of high-SES children to the lowest SES group.

Considering race in addition to social class reduces math and reading skills gaps minimally. And even adding in controls for the full range of parental and care activities shrinks these gaps only slightly more (to 0.8 standard deviations).

Black and Hispanic ELL children begin kindergarten with the greatest disadvantages in math and reading, due largely to links between minority status and social class

To better understand the links between racial and ethnic status and children's school readiness, Inequalities at the Starting Gate looks at gaps between black, white, Asian, and Hispanic children. Because Hispanics are the largest minority in the United States and also heterogeneous-and thus likely to experience gaps along different dimensions-they are divided into subgroups, based on English-speaking versus non-English speaking status. As multiple prior studies have also found, there are substantial gaps in reading and math skills when comparing white and Asian children with black and Hispanic children, and those gaps can largely be attributed to relative social status:

There are significant gaps between the reading and math skills of both white and Asian children and the reading and math skills of black and Hispanic children. However, these gaps are much smaller than gaps based on social class.

Race-based skills gaps shrink significantly when children's social class is taken into account. This, too, affirms prior research, which finds that racial minorities' lower socioeconomic status largely explains gaps that appear to be due to race.

Adding controls for social class and a set of parenting characteristics and practices makes the gap in reading between black and white children disappear almost entirely and the reading gap between non-English speaking Hispanic children and their white counterparts shrink by more than two-thirds. That such characteristics do little to mitigate the influence of social class (shrinking SES gaps only slightly), but substantially reduce the influence of race on gaps suggests an association between these characteristics and socioeconomic status. In other words, black parents may read to their children less often not because of their race, but because they are less likely to have a second parent to help out.

In real life we cannot disentangle black and Hispanic children's race and ethnicity from the contexts in which they live, which put them at a major disadvantage relative to their average white and Asian peers. It is not race itself, then, but the poverty and other things that too often go along with being a minority child in America, that compound disadvantage. In addition to the high odds of living in poverty (as do 46 percent of black and 63 percent of non-English speaking Hispanic children), these disadvantages include living with one parent (as do 65 percent of black children), and lacking access to preschool (as do 53 percent of Hispanic children, compared with only 40 percent of white children and less than 40 percent of Asian children).

Low social class also affects children's social, behavioral, and other noncognitive skills

When assessing students' readiness to enter school, it is increasingly apparent that researchers need to focus on a much broader set of skills than math and reading. Persistence is as likely as math and reading aptitude to help a student actually finish high school. Effective communication with teachers and peers is also critical to school success, as is the ability to play well with others. These so-called noncognitive skills tend to develop-or lag-in tandem with cognitive skills.

Noncognitive skills are harder to measure than cognitive skills because they are harder to define and lack reliable "tests." Despite these measurement challenges, since they interact with cognitive skills and are key to every child's full development, it is critically important to understand the gaps in these noncognitive skills.

The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study asks both parents and teachers to rate children's abilities across a range of these skills. Of course, the specific skills measured may vary between the home and classroom setting; creativity, for example, could look different when constructing a tower of blocks at home versus writing an essay in class. Expectations may also vary by context. Teachers likely evaluate their students' skills levels relative to those of other children they teach. Parents, on the other hand, may be basing their expectations on family, community, culture, or other factors. Nonetheless, all adults report gaps by social class.

The most socioeconomically disadvantaged children lag substantially in noncognitive skills, as rated by both parents and teachers, although the gaps are not as large as those in reading and math. For example, social class-based gaps in self-control and approaches to learning, as reported by teachers, are roughly half as large as gaps in math and reading; as reported by parents, SES-based gaps in these noncognitive skills are between a third and a half as large as gaps in math and reading.

Both parents and teachers also perceive social class-based gaps in students' social skills, with the high-SES students enjoying even larger advantages when reported by teachers.

Both groups of adults note gaps in persistence between low- and high-SES students. Again, teachers see larger gaps than do parents.

Race influences how parents and teachers perceive children's noncognitive skills

Parents' and teachers' assessments of the same students' noncognitive skills vary by race. For example, in simple terms, black children are doing fine on these skills according to their parents but lagging according to their teachers.We don't know whether this is due to expectations in the classroom versus at home, different measures of these skills in those two contexts, or some other reason. But these disparities between parents' and teachers' perceptions merit further research because they may have important implications for policy. And these differences can be striking:

Both Asian and non-English speaking Hispanic parents give their children low scores on approaches to learning compared with how white parents score their kids. On the other hand, teachers perceive no advantage for white students.

There is a visible gap between parents' and teachers' assessments of black children. Black and white parents equally rate their children's persistence, approaches to learning, and social interactions, but when teachers do the rating, black students have a distinct disadvantage relative to whites in these skills.

The disparity with respect to self-control is even more visible than differences in persistence, learning approaches, and social skills. According to parents, black children exhibit a relatively high degree of self-control, while teachers perceive black children to have substantially less self-control than white students.

The fact that parents' and teachers' assessments match when broken down by social class, but not by race, suggests that race introduces some biases-whether on the part of parents or teachers-that we must seek to better understand.

Starkly unequal starts call for policy action

The findings of Inequalities at the Starting Gate study affirm decades of research that connects parents' economic resources and opportunities with their children's school readiness. When those resources are limited, children aren't prepared, cognitively or noncognitively. When those resources are evident, children are well prepared. These unequal starts by race, ethnicity, and, most stubborn of all, social class, emphasize the urgent need to rethink how we design and implement not only our education policies but also our social and economic policies.

Expand access to care and education for disadvantaged families

Research provides guidance on strategies to mitigate poverty-related early skills gaps. Some of these strategies, such as home visiting and other programs that help disadvantaged parents support their children's development, and access to quality care and prekindergarten, have bipartisan backing by Congress and President Obama. These and other evidence-based policies provide a significant societal return by enhancing children's readiness for school while also improving parents' job prospects and productivity:

Home visits by nurses that help parents understand and ensure their children's healthy development improve child well-being and school readiness. Congress has reauthorized federal funding for the Maternal Infant and Early Child Home Visiting program, which supports state home-visiting programs. However, many at-risk mothers are not being served.

Quality child care helps ensure that children go to school ready to learn (and that parents have a stable place in the workforce). The recent reauthorization of the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act (CCDBG) was an important step toward improving the safety and quality of child care for children whose parents need federal subsidies. However, funding is so limited that even many eligible families cannot receive the support they need.

Prekindergarten boosts children's odds of thriving in kindergarten and after, with the biggest benefits for low-income children. While states have made real progress toward making pre-K available to low-income children, quality remains very uneven, and as the data show, some of the children who would benefit most-such as non English-speaking Hispanic children-still lack access to such programs.

Given the societal returns from these programs, policymakers at all levels should ensure the needed public investments to expand them in states with strong programs and establish quality programs in other states.

Enhance policies to boost jobs and income

Poverty poses such huge challenges to life success that mitigating its effects is insufficient. If we really aim to close achievement gaps, not just narrow them, we need to have fewer poor kids. As Robert Putnam warns in his recent book Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, saving the American Dream requires ensuring not just opportunity but mobility; a child's life odds should not be determined by her parents' employment or wealth. And that equality of opportunity cannot exist unless we tackle the severe inequities underlying our findings through policies to boost parents' socioeconomic status:

Raise wages, starting with the federal minimum wage. Many states and cities have already raised the minimum earned by the lowest-wage workers and it is time for Congress to follow. One current proposal would raise the minimum wage, which is lower in real terms than it was in 1968, to $12 an hour. Policymakers could also make those wages go further by increasing the earned income tax credit.

Boost employment. Low-SES families are particularly vulnerable in times of high unemployment, as the recent slow recovery from the recession of 2007-2009 has shown. The federal government has a range of jobs-boosting policies at its disposal, including interest rate policies of the Federal Reserve and investments in infrastructure, in addition to initiatives to connect unemployed workers with existing jobs.

Sustain the social safety net. As many studies have shown, unemployment insurance, food stamps, cash assistance, and other federal programs that help families navigate tough economic times help ensure that children do not suffer the effects of poverty. These programs must be sustained and extended to all families that need them, especially those with vulnerable children.

Reform corrections policies. Other structural factors influence a child's odds of growing up poor. For example, millions of American children are growing up in single-parent households (or with no parent) because one or both parents are in jail. While there are many barriers to growing up in a two-parent family, smart reforms to corrections policies, which research shows would also benefit states economically, would address one major obstacle.

Enact immigration reform. Hispanic children growing up in immigrant households may face additional roadblocks to success. Lack of legal status severely limits many parents' work options and can destabilize families, which obviously affects children's well-being. In this way, immigration reform discussions are relevant, too, to school improvement efforts.

Address segregation and concentrated poverty. Finally, we must address societal and structural biases that compound the effects of poverty for children of color. Black and non-English speaking Hispanic children tend to grow up in isolated neighborhoods of concentrated poverty, and many black children live in those conditions over multiple generations. Decades of research suggests that poor children growing up in segregated minority communities are more likely to remain in poverty because they have less access to good schools and social capital and other resources. Thus reducing segregation and multigenerational poverty through fair and affordable housing policies is an additional imperative if we are to improve education.

A wake-up call

The education gaps highlighted in Inequalities at the Starting Gate sometimes narrow as children grow. But they nevertheless represent bleak life prospects that portend serious problems for our society as a whole. If we do not treat them as both the moral and economic crisis they represent, we waste the human capital contributions of groups that have shaped our country's uniquely diverse, dynamic, and entrepreneurial nature. We share a national ideal that everyone should have the opportunity for prosperity and success. Reclaiming this vision for our children begins with ensuring that all children start school on equal footing.

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Early Education Gaps by Social Class and Race Start U.S. Children Out on Unequal Footing: A Summary of the Major Findings in Inequalities at the Starting Gate

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Understanding disparities in school readiness among America's children when they begin kindergarten is critically important, now more than ever. In today's 21st century global economy, we expect the great majority of our children to complete high school ready to enter college or begin a career, and assume their civic responsibilities.

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EducationWorld is pleased to present this article contributed by Aimee Hosler, a writer for onlineschools.com and mother of two. Passionate about education and workplace news and trends, Hosler holds a B.S. in journalism from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.

Bullying. Peer pressure. Social anxiety. Their negative effects can reach well beyond the classroom. In this information age, even distance-learning students can be targets of cyberbullying.

Teachers have long been aware of these social concerns, and increasingly, parents and policymakers are getting involved. Addressing these challenges in the classroom has never been easy, but has always been important. Research suggests that when schools promote positive social and emotional development, it not only reduces negative social behaviors, but also has a long-term positive impact on children's success in a variety of areas.

Why social, emotional and character development matter

For most parents and teachers, the reasons for promoting social, emotional and character development in the classroom are obvious: They want children to be kind, emotionally competent and respectful to others.

The benefits of social-emotional learning extend far beyond that, however. According to Harvard University's Center on the Developing Child, a child's "environment of relationships" in the first years of life can actually shape her developing brain's architecture, creating circuits that can influence academic performance, mental health and interpersonal skills for the rest of her life.

Many schools or districts have adopted structured social-emotional and character development programs to help cultivate these important student skills. There are also many informal ways in which teachers can support social-emotional learning in the classroom and at the school level.

How to promote social, emotional and character development in the classroom

Teachers must establish a classroom environment that promotes social and emotional development right from the start-their students' long-term success depends on it. Rules and expectations should be clear and reinforced often, and should prioritize behaviors such as kindness, honesty and good citizenship. This is only the beginning, however.

TKCalifornia, a program designed to support early education teachers and administrators, emphasizes that in order to promote social-emotional development in the classroom, teachers must model effective social behavior at all time and intentionally teach skills such as conflict resolution and problem-solving. These guidelines may sound great on (virtual) paper, but how, precisely, do they play out in the classroom? Here are a few strategies that might help.

Strategy 1: Create a consistent, but play-based, classroom structure

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, "Play is integral to the academic environment. It ensures that the school setting attends to the social and emotional development of children as well as their cognitive development." TKCalifornia notes that one of the most powerful ways to nurture social or emotional development in the classroom is by establishing routines that are fun at the core. For instance, using songs, chants or games during challenging times-such as during periods where children must wait in line or take turns-can minimize negative behaviors, giving teachers an opportunity to reinforce positive ones.

Strategy 2: Teach-and reinforce-empathy

Helping a child understand people's behaviors, feelings and thoughts is the first step toward teaching them how to respect and relate to others. Teachers can model empathy by comforting a child who is upset or by verbally acknowledging students' feelings, but they can also incorporate these lessons into existing curricula.

For example, when reading a book, ask children to identify characters' emotions and discuss how other characters or events have contributed to their feelings. You may also choose to role play with puppets or with the children themselves. By giving children a broader emotional vocabulary, and by emphasizing that everyone has feelings, teachers can hone or reinforce students' empathy.

Strategy 3: Actively teach conflict resolution

When children begin to fight or argue-as they often do-it is easy for teachers to step in as mediators and resolve the conflict themselves. It might be more beneficial in the long run, however, if they use these opportunities to teach children how to resolve conflict themselves. For instance, if two children are fighting over a toy, rather than telling them to take turns and setting a timer, ask them how they could go about sharing the item. Talk through solutions. Educators can also model problem-solving skills throughout the day. For example, allow children to vote for the book they want to read, or encourage them to take turns leading their peers during transition periods.

Great teachers are students, too

Teachers can modify their methods and philosophies to accommodate students' evolving needs, which can be influenced by everything from technological innovation to the economy. What works well for one classroom might not in the next. Consider investing in a little continuing education on the topic of social-emotional development, whether it means attending a formal workshop or simply keeping tabs on the latest research. Your students will thank you.

Related resources

Promote Social-Emotional Development With Proven Programs
Enhancing Students' Social and Emotional Growth
Site Review: Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning
Beyond Icebreakers: Building Student Connectedness
Anti-Bullying Lessons, Resources and Strategies
How to Accentuate Respect and Eliminate Disrespect in Students
25 Activities for Building Student Character, School Community

Education World®
Copyright © 2013 Education World

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Boost Student Social-Emotional Development | Education World

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EducationWorld is pleased to present this article contributed by Aimee Hosler, a writer for onlineschools.com and mother of two. Passionate about education and workplace news and trends, Hosler holds a B.S. in journalism from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. Bullying. Peer pressure. Social anxiety.

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What Are Classrooms Like for Students with Learning Disabilities?

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Common classroom conditions can and do affect many students adversely-to some degree, at one time or another, in one way or other-but, some students are especiallyvulnerable to classrooms' hazards (e.g., children of poverty, nonnative speakers, those with attention deficits).

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ADA: Fast Facts for Faculty - Invisible Disabilities in the University

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Invisible disabilities are the most common type of disability among college students. For example, students with learning disabilities, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and/or psychiatric disabilities may request accommodations even though they do not appear to have a disability. There are numerous other hidden or invisible disabilities such as heart condition, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, and Seizure Disorder.

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Most of the discussion of education and social inequality in America is over the advantages well off families have at getting their children into elite schools that perpetuate their advantage. Given the degree to which those schools control access to some of the most prestigious and financially rewarding careers, that's a real issue. But it's one that by definition impacts only a fraction of one percent of the population. Even if every seat to the top ten universities in the land were awarded solely on the basis of merit, the other 99-plus percent of students would go on to other schools or no school at all.

A long NYT feature, " For Poor, Leap to College Often Ends in a Hard Fall," focuses on the obstacles that smart kids from impoverished backgrounds have in getting ahead through higher education. It's extremely anecdotal, focusing on three girls from a Galveston, Texas high school, but points to larger trends.

Angelica, a daughter of a struggling Mexican immigrant, was headed to Emory University. Bianca enrolled in community college, and Melissa left for Texas State University, President Lyndon B. Johnson's alma mater.

"It felt like we were taking off, from one life to another," Melissa said. "It felt like, 'Here we go!' "

Four years later, their story seems less like a tribute to upward mobility than a study of obstacles in an age of soaring economic inequality. Not one of them has a four-year degree. Only one is still studying full time, and two have crushing debts. Angelica, who left Emory owing more than $60,000, is a clerk in a Galveston furniture store.

Each showed the ability to do college work, even excel at it. But the need to earn money brought one set of strains, campus alienation brought others, and ties to boyfriends not in school added complications. With little guidance from family or school officials, college became a leap that they braved without a safety net.

The story of their lost footing is also the story of something larger - the growing role that education plays in preserving class divisions. Poor students have long trailed affluent peers in school performance, but from grade-school tests to college completion, the gaps are growing. With school success and earning prospects ever more entwined, the consequences carry far: education, a force meant to erode class barriers, appears to be fortifying them.

"Everyone wants to think of education as an equalizer - the place where upward mobility gets started," said Greg J. Duncan, an economist at the University of California, Irvine. "But on virtually every measure we have, the gaps between high- and low-income kids are widening. It's very disheartening."

The growing role of class in academic success has taken experts by surprise since it follows decades of equal opportunity efforts and counters racial trends, where differences have narrowed. It adds to fears over recent evidence suggesting that low-income Americans have lower chances of upward mobility than counterparts in Canada and Western Europe.

Thirty years ago, there was a 31 percentage point difference between the share of prosperous and poor Americans who earned bachelor's degrees, according to Martha J. Bailey and Susan M. Dynarski of the University of Michigan. Now the gap is 45 points.

While both groups improved their odds of finishing college, the affluent improved much more, widening their sizable lead.

Likely reasons include soaring incomes at the top and changes in family structure, which have left fewer low-income students with the support of two-parent homes. Neighborhoods have grown more segregated by class, leaving lower-income students increasingly concentrated in lower-quality schools. And even after accounting for financial aid, the costs of attending a public university have risen 60 percent in the past two decades. Many low-income students, feeling the need to help out at home, are deterred by the thought of years of lost wages and piles of debt.

In placing their hopes in education, the Galveston teenagers followed a tradition as old as the country itself. But if only the prosperous become educated - and only the educated prosper - the schoolhouse risks becoming just another place where the fortunate preserve their edge.

"It's becoming increasingly unlikely that a low-income student, no matter how intrinsically bright, moves up the socioeconomic ladder," said Sean Reardon, a sociologist at Stanford. "What we're talking about is a threat to the American dream."

In the case of the well-off preserving their children's place in the upper tier, it's a function of having eh means, know-how, and connections. In the case of the poverty trap, the problem is a self-perpetuating cycle wherein the markers of failure passed on.

Melissa also wanted to get off the island - and more immediately out of her house. "When I was about 7, my mom began dating and hanging around a bunch of drunks," she wrote on the Upward Bound application. For her mother, addiction to painkillers and severe depression followed. Her grandparents offered her one refuge, and school offered another.

"I like to learn - I'm weird," she said.

By eighth grade, Melissa was at the top of her class and sampling a course at a private high school. She yearned to apply there but swore the opposite to her mother and grandparents. Protecting families from their own ambition is a skill many poor students learn. "I knew we didn't have the money," Melissa said. "I felt like I had no right to ask."

Of course, this barrier exists even for kids in the lower middle class. My family couldn't have afforded to send me to private school, either. But the local school was merely mediocre, not lousy. And I had a reasonably stable home life, with both of my parents under one roof.

Melissa now marvels at what a good parent her mother has become to her younger brother after she stopped drinking and was treated for her depression. But when she returned from the high school trip to Chicago, the conflicts grew so intense that Miss G. took her in one night. "I really put her through a lot," said Melissa's mother, Pam Craft. "Everything she did, she did on her own - I'm so proud of her." Miss G.'s notes variously observed that "there are limited groceries," "student is overwhelmed" and "she's basically raising herself."

While faulting her mother's choices in men, Melissa made a troubling choice of her own with her ambitionless boyfriend. Among the many ways he let her down was getting another girl pregnant. Yet as many times as they broke up, they got back together again. "He is going to bring her down," Miss G. warned.

Despite the turmoil, Melissa earned "commended" marks, the highest level, on half her state skills tests, edited the yearbook and published two opinion articles in the Galveston newspaper, one of them about her brother's struggle with autism. Working three jobs, she missed so much school that she nearly failed to graduate, but she still finished in the top quarter of her class. It was never clear which would prevail - her habit of courting disaster or her talent for narrow escapes.

Obviously, the children of upper middle class and even wealthy parents make these kinds of mistakes. But they're less likely to do so. More importantly, their parents are in a position to drastically mitigate the consequences.

Outside school, Angelica's life revolved around her boyfriend, Fred Weaver, who was three years older and drove a yellow Sting Ray. Fred was devoted - too devoted, Mrs. Lady thought, and she warned Angelica not to let the relationship keep her from going to college. Fred's father owned a local furniture store, and everyone could see that Fred's dream was to run it with Angelica at his side.

Senior year raced by, with Miss G. doing her best to steer frightened and distracted students though the college selection process. Despite all the campus visits, choices were made without the intense supervision that many affluent students enjoy. Bianca, anchored to the island by family and an older boyfriend, chose community college. Melissa picked Texas State in San Marcos because "the application was easiest."

Angelica had thought of little beyond Northwestern and was crestfallen when she was rejected. She had sent a last-minute application to a school in Atlanta that had e-mailed her. Only after getting in did she discover that she had achieved something special.

Emory cost nearly $50,000 that year, but it was one of a small tier of top schools that promised to meet the financial needs of any student good enough to be admitted. It had even started a program to relieve the neediest students of high debt burdens. "No one should have to give up their goals and dreams because financial challenges stand in the way," its Web site says.

In many ways, this mirrors my own experiences and many of my first-generation-college peers. My parents had no insights into the college process and my high school guidance counselors, while friendly, had no real clue. Few of the graduates went on to college and most who did went on the the local teaching college; the best tended to go to Alabama or Auburn. Even though Georgia was right next door, I don't know that I knew Emory existed when I was a high school junior. And that was a decade before the World Wide Web came along, so the only way to research schools was the local library and/or mailing away for catalogs. Further, while I didn't decide which schools to apply to based on "which application was easiest," I didn't bother to apply to schools with rigorous application processes that were obviously too expensive for me to attend.

Compared to these girls, though, I had the advantages that come from family stability and parental judgment. High school boys are probably less likely to make college decisions based on their girlfriends than vice versa, anyway. But, had I been a girl, there's no way in hell I'd have been dating a 20-something-year old boy; my parents simply wouldn't have allowed it.

Further-and this is something I think most middle aged and older folks haven't internalized-college is radically more expensive now than it was when I was an undergrad. When I transferred to Jacksonville State in 1986, full time tuition was $400 a semester for in-state students. In today's dollars, that's $840.22. For the 2012-2013 academic year, it's $265 per credit hour; that's $4770 for an 18-hour semester (and I took 21 or more since it was the same price, regardless). In constant dollars, then, it's nearly six times as expensive to get an undergraduate degree from a no-name regional college than it used to be. Which means the "work your way through school like I did" (and I did) plan isn't practical.*

Ultimately, then, the combination of money, parental time and attention, and related environmental considerations matter more than ever:

Income has always shaped academic success, but its importance is growing. Professor Reardon, the Stanford sociologist, examined a dozen reading and math tests dating back 25 years and found that the gap in scores of high- and low-income students has grown by 40 percent, even as the difference between blacks and whites has narrowed.

While race once predicted scores more than class, the opposite now holds. By eighth grade, white students surpass blacks by an average of three grade levels, while upper-income students are four grades ahead of low-income counterparts.

"The racial gaps are quite big, but the income gaps are bigger," Professor Reardon said.

One explanation is simply that the rich have clearly gotten richer. A generation ago, families at the 90th percentile had five times the income of those at the 10th percentile. Now they have 10 times as much.

But as shop class gave way to computer labs, schools may have also changed in ways that make parental income and education more important. SAT coaches were once rare, even for families that could afford them. Now they are part of a vast college preparation industry.

Certainly as the payoff to education has grown - college graduates have greatly widened their earnings lead - affluent families have invested more in it. They have tripled the amount by which they outspend low-income families on enrichment activities like sports, music lessons and summer camps, according to Professor Duncan and Prof. Richard Murnane of Harvard.

In addition, upper-income parents, especially fathers, have increased their child-rearing time, while the presence of fathers in low-income homes has declined. Miss G. said there is a reason the triplets relied so heavily on boyfriends: "Their fathers weren't there."

And, without that guidance dumb choices and general immaturity are not tend to be more prevalent but are more costly.

Just before her senior year, Melissa planned a trip to celebrate her 21st birthday. Preparing to leave, she discovered her money was missing. Only one person had her bank code. After finishing Job Corps, her boyfriend was jobless once again and acting odd - as if he were using drugs.

No one but Melissa was surprised. Although she returned the engagement ring, she could not return the $4,000 in credit card debt he had promised to help pay. With her finances and emotions in disarray, she started her senior year so depressed she hung up black curtains so she could sleep all day. She skipped class, doubled her work hours, and failed nearly every course.

"I started partying, and I was working all the time because I had this debt," she said.

If the speed of her decline stands out, so does her lack of a safety net. It is easy to imagine a more affluent family stepping in with money or other support. Miss G. sent her the names of some campus therapists but Melissa did not call. She waited for an internal bungee cord to break the fall. She came within one F of losing her financial aid, then aced last summer's classes.

She is now a fifth-year senior, on track to graduate next summer, and her new boyfriend is studying to be an engineer. At home, she had a way of finding the wrong people. "I haven't found any wrong people out here," she said.

With more than $44,000 in loans, she can expect to pay $250 a month for the next quarter century, on top of whatever she may borrow for graduate school. She hides the notices in a drawer and harbors no regrets. "Education - you can't put a price on it," she said. "No matter what happens in your life, they can't take your education away."

Then there's this:

Among the perils that low-income students face is "under-matching," choosing a close or familiar school instead of the best they can attend.

"The more selective the institution is, the more likely kids are to graduate," said Mr. Chingos, the Brookings researcher. "There are higher expectations, more resources and more stigma to dropping out."

I wound up under-matching as an undergraduate for financial reasons and under-matching, big time, for graduate school simply because I didn't know better. In my case, I didn't need much of a support system at school and I got excellent instruction and have no regrets about the educational experience itself. Nor am I sure that Chingos' analysis applies across the board. The community college where I taught was obsessed with helping students who frankly weren't college material make it, whereas Alabama took a sink-or-swim approach to undergrads.

And then there's the "don't get above your raisin'" phenomenon, which is apparently not confined to the rural South:

[Bianca's] grandfather's cancer, and chemotherapy treatments, offered more reasons to stay. She had lived with him since her father had died. Leaving felt like betrayal. "I thought it was more important to be at home than to be selfish and be at school," she said.

The idea that education can be "selfish" - a belief largely alien among the upper-middle class - is one poor students often confront, even if it remains unspoken. "Family is such a priority, especially when you're a Hispanic female," Miss G. said. "You're afraid you're going to hear, 'You're leaving us, you think you're better.' "

There's a lot more to the story and, again, it's mostly anecdotal. The bottom line seems to be that, aside from money constantly being an issue for poor students, even if they're getting financial aid, the biggest issue is that they're simply not prepared to do things that kids from a middle class background would take for granted: filling out the right forms, asking the right questions, communicating conflicts to professors and advisors, and the like. Even being first generation college, I either understood those things intuitively or managed to figure them out soon enough.

* UPDATE: Alan Jacobs, who graduated from Alabama in 1980 and got his PhD from UVA in 1987, makes this point more vividly.

I was one of those "low-income students" once. Not poor - we always had plenty to eat and toys at Christmas and decent if shabby cars to get around in - but not comfortably middle-class either. We lived primarily off my mother's income, and women didn't get paid a lot in those days. (My father was in prison for much of my childhood and inconsistently employed when he was home.) I doubt that my parents could have saved money to send me to college if they had wanted to, but they didn't want to: they saw no value in college education.

[...]

If I didn't pay cash money for my education I wasn't going to get one. So that's what I did. And here's the key point: I could. UAB wasn't a great school, in the humanities anyway, but it wasn't a bad one at all - my teachers were all competent and in some cases excellent - and the tuition was low enough that even a part-time receiving clerk could write out a quarterly check to cover it.

My situation wasn't ideal: working that much, I struggled to keep up with my studies. Eventually I decided I wanted to take my education more seriously and transferred to THE University of Alabama, in Tuscaloosa, where the History and English departments were much better, and I cut back on work. But I only could do this after convincing my parents, finally, to sign those student loan forms.

In the end, I graduated with some debt, but it was manageable. And while as an academic I've never made much money - certainly not as much as I would have if I had gone into the law, the only other option I ever seriously considered - I've been able to provide a better life for my son than my parents were able to provide for me.

America is supposed to be about, in some fundamental way, just that possibility. But as the NYT story shows, the costs of higher education are making experiences like mine effectively impossible for young people who grow up today in the economic class I come from. And that's really, really sad.

We've discussed the reasons for the skyrocketing cost of higher ed in previous posts but the key factor is simply that tuition at state colleges and universities isn't backstopped by taxpayers like it used to be. Everything from health care to prisons is crowding out higher education funding in state budgets, so the costs are being passed on to the students. That's probably reasonable in the case of those whose families can afford it. But it creates a tremendous barrier that smart kids from families without means simply didn't have when Alan and I were coming through the system.

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Most of the discussion of education and social inequality in America is over the advantages well off families have at getting their children into elite schools that perpetuate their advantage. Given the degree to which those schools control access to some of the most prestigious and financially rewarding careers, that's a real issue.