Assessing Ch. 3: Family Income and School Success in "Restoring Opportunity" [Sec. B] by Barry Goldenberg

CRITIQUE/QUESTION

ProfessorBarry — 2024-01-16 05:50:52 UTC

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.)

PRAISE/APPLAUD

ProfessorBarry — 2024-01-16 05:50:52 UTC

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?

Question-Gavin Yu, Jingxi Xia

2024-04-09 18:35:21 UTC

Is there any solution to the education inequity based on different family background?

Critique/Question - Isabella, L. R., Shannon S. Madison T., Tim G. , Samuel G.

2024-04-09 18:35:42 UTC

The examples presented were the same and the circumstances were similar. Different perspectives would've been nice, and furthering their explanations of each situation would have aided in presenting the argument.

Praise- Bryan Bui

2024-04-09 18:36:16 UTC

Something I found that the article did effectively was that it demonstrated the impacts of one's socioeconomic conditions on the student's upbringing. The variying upbringing, parent education, living environment causes inequality to those that are less or more fortunate.

Critique

2024-04-09 18:36:16 UTC

We found that text would just explain that there is a problem but it never provided us with ways to remedy it. We understand that it was just one chapter, but we felt like it was just repetitive of throwing out scenarios of the problems. We wish that at the end of the chapter the author would have gave us their opinion on how to fix it.

( Emely Fontes, Sonia Arefadib, Mariah Jenkins)

Praise- Isabel Tran

2024-04-09 18:36:21 UTC

I liked how the author included how children from low-income families are more likely to engage in antisocial behaviors leading them to be less successful in school. This is a unique viewpoint to have regarding the achievement gap, while not necessarily relating to income affecting educational opportunities.

Praise/Applaud

2024-04-09 18:36:23 UTC

Most of Alexander's suburban neighbors lived in families with incomes above the $125,000 that now sep-arates the richest 20 percent of children from the rest. Anthony Mears's school served pupils from families whose incomes were near or below the $27,000 threshold separating the bottom 20 percent (see figure 2.4).

We found this the most insightful because it truly showed us the wage gap between the two different groups of income by providing an example. within this example it made us think deeper into how one family could survive off of $27,000.

Grace Turner, Myles Smith, Indy de Smet

Critique

2024-04-09 18:36:55 UTC

I think all the passages includes a lot of their personal experience, however people could have different opinions and or experiences on the same issues or topic, therefore I think the statements being made are a little too strong and too personal, which can make the readers think that the perspectives presented can be biased or lacking in objectivity.

Critique/ Question: Ian Abrea Ryan Chiu, Jordan Yee, Lydia Won, Zi Zheng Yang

2024-04-09 18:36:59 UTC

A critique coming from our group, is that the reading makes it out to be that socializing is necessary to achieve success, but we disagree to a certain extent due to our personal experience during covid

Karina Sandoval, Jessica Chen, Kelly Gonzalez

2024-04-09 18:37:36 UTC

One thing we found enlightening and helpful to understanding the gap was the link between the achievement gap and socioeconomic status. We liked how the data highlighted this and recognized that stress and mental health can affect this. We think there needs to be more programs to help counteract this and help improve it for students.

Praise - Emily C., Jessica A., Sean U., Aimy D. Chaya M.

2024-04-09 18:37:47 UTC

We can definitely see how a family income affects a student's education and the gap. It makes sense how there is this tie and you can see it constantly happening today still. We like how it is acknowledged that people in poverty are working to help their families, it is not simply they are just lazy that they do not do their homework. It is nice to see that it is understood that these students have familial issues that cause them to do not as well in school.

Praise - Galvin Yu, Jingxi Xia

2024-04-09 18:37:52 UTC

We found in the reading that the widening income gap has exacerbated disparities in school readiness and achievement, with less advantaged children facing greater challenges. This growing inequality calls for a critical examination of how schools can mitigate these differences.

Praise

2024-04-09 18:37:53 UTC

We appreciated the author's inclusion of numerous forms of examples to help illustrate the evident achievement gap in terms of family income between racial groups. Their use of student case studies as well as graphs & data were very informative and useful.

- Priscilla Andrade & Aaron Lim

Critique/Question

2024-04-09 18:37:55 UTC

A lot of the data and statistics seem really old like the data set on eight graders from 1988. How accurate is this now, in 2024? We’re also not sure how the author measured and collected data for anti-socialness and mental health so we wonder how they acquired all that particular information.

(Ziqing Li, Jianyang Cao, Ashley Ramos, Jiaying Huang)

Praise

2024-04-09 18:38:10 UTC

Readings that we read before class show the positive and negative effects of how the achievement gap may influence students. The income gap/ family circumstances are actually directly related to students' education and achievement is also shocking.

Julie Hsieh/ Lydia Chen

Critique, AthenaC. DanielleF. PeiyiW.

2024-04-09 18:38:14 UTC

How can resources be equally distributed so that students in poverty can receive the same help as those who are at a better socioeconomic status?

Question- xinrui wang

2024-04-09 18:38:18 UTC

What’s one solution to inequity for people who come from different cultural backgrounds ?

Praise

2024-04-09 18:38:19 UTC

It was interesting to see how the writer was able to display in words how the different amounts of income of parents contribute to the success of the child through connections, extracurriculars and experience in apply/going to college.

Trinity Estigoy, Weijie Du, Yisha Zhao, Hannah Riggs, Victor Garcia

Praise/Applaud -Jenny Leong, Jasmine Escalante, Maryanne Molina, Frances Ko

2024-04-09 18:38:28 UTC

Our group thought that understanding how someone's external resources can play into the achievement gap. There is definently a racial achievement gap that is influenced by other factors. It is interesting to see how your enviornment can change your future. This can include having more access to academic resources such as tutors and educational programs.

Praise/Applaud

2024-04-09 18:38:49 UTC

Something we found enlightening was how students are kept down with the myth of choice in their classses. In Berkeley High, students are mislead into thinking that they can choose their own teachers, when all this does is perpetuate their stunted academic growth by restricting their access to challenging classes. Family experiences at home and a lack of support in their home may also cause them to selected an easier class.

Linus Fischer

Yesenia Luna

Seoyeon

Dylan N

Alexa W

Question - Bill Ly, Nathan Hoang, Isabel Tran, Arya Ouyang

2024-04-09 18:38:52 UTC

How does income affect someone's lifestyle?

Praise-Paul Luo

2024-04-09 18:38:52 UTC

I liked how the author pointed out how families with a higher income were able to "provide" more to help their children become successful in life with private tutors and extracurricular activities and stuff.

Critique- Zhiyu Wang, Ying Fan, Jiayuan Li, Bryan Bui, Cindy Perez

yingf10 — 2024-04-09 18:39:02 UTC

Everyone's upbringing will be different depending on the environment they're in. The education they receive and the resources they have are very different. This also leads to each person's ability, knowledge level is also different. So in fact, we can't judge whether a person is hard or not just by grades or achievements.

Critique - Jillian Yeh, Ashley Tang, Lisette Maldonado, Maria Calva

2024-04-09 18:39:15 UTC

One critique is the lack of Asian-American, Indigenous students from studies like these. While research like this has already brought focus to the affects of the socioeconomic status on student's achievement. It is important for all studies to include all ethnic groups.

Praise - Shengqi Li

2024-04-09 18:39:15 UTC

I think statistics charts that in the article that shows the gaps helps me to understand the concept better. It also supports the authors statements, which makes the statements more convincing to me.

Praise/Applaud - Elijah Lee, Christopher Poblete, Kelly Yu

elijasl1 — 2024-04-09 18:39:17 UTC

In the beginning, the author used stories of real scenarios that helped visualize and bring to attention the effects of income gaps in American families. Furthermore, the personal stories and passages allow us to think about our lives and how they relate to the author's purpose in this chapter.

Praise: Ian Abrea, Ryan Chiu, Jordan Yee, Lydia Won, Zi Zheng

2024-04-09 18:39:28 UTC

The readings were able to properly portray the significance of mental stress on academic performance based on the data points brought up in the reading.

Critique - Marely M., Kevin M., Nancy R.

2024-04-09 18:39:40 UTC

We think it would have made it a more well rounded study to include more students from different races. Adding this could have broaden the discussion.

Praise/Applaud - Sophia D, Marak M, Caitlin L, Chloe V, Isalys D

2024-04-09 18:39:46 UTC

Something our group thought that was helpful in understanding the achievement gap in the reading was how the different family dynamics were discussed. For example, for how involved the parent is in the childs education and how they view it is very important to their success later on. Another thing we noted was the differences in how money is spent ; wealthier families focus and spend money on the achievements of the child whereas lower income families focus on trying to survive and buy essentials.

PRAISE/APPLAUD - Isabella, L. R., Shannon S. Madison T., Tim G. , Sam G.

2024-04-09 18:40:14 UTC

We really enjoyed the quality of the schools, how it's being affected, and how this inequality is in relation to the incomes of each student. Not only did the facts and figures (statistics) aid in the visualization of the data, but demonstrated how massive the impact of this inequality is. We also enjoyed the inclusion of mental health and behavior impacts regarding the poor students outscoring the richer students.

Praise - Britney Duong, Joyce Lui, Esmeralda Ramirez, Judy Wu

2024-04-09 18:40:16 UTC

What we liked about the text was the detailed example comparing the two student and their extracurricular activities. Colleges and universities not only look at grades, but also how many extracurricular activities students do alongside school, meaning children from low-income families who can't afford such activities suffer as a result. Yet for middle-class families, it is the norm for them to be active. This just furthers the education gap, and how students from wealthier families qualify for college more so than their poorer counterparts.

Critique

2024-04-09 18:40:21 UTC

One critique that we had was the comparison between two kids. we felt that this wasn't a big enough population comparison to be able to come to conclusions about each persons races experience due to the fact that other people within that race might have a different experience.

Grace Turner, Myles Smith, Indy de Smet

Praise

2024-04-09 18:40:36 UTC

The author provides different kinds of perspectives to show the gap between people from different families such as mental health.

The author provides data to make abstract things understandable and straight.

(Jianyang Cao, Ziqing Li, Ashley Ramos, Jiaying Huang)

Praise, AthenaC. DanielleF. PeiyiW.

2024-04-09 18:40:51 UTC

The readings have provided insights into both perspectives. For instance, from daily expenses and resources, we can see how a parent's background can affect a student's growth. environment is very important to a student's growth. a parent with an educational background can provide support for their child-like college application and extracurricular

Praise

2024-04-09 18:40:51 UTC

On page 5 of the reading, the author explains how Harold's mother perceives her role. She provides "clothing and shelter, teaching the difference between right and wrong, and provides comfort." This reminds me of my mother. Even though she never had a lot of money and didn't finish college, she always taught me and my brothers the right things and instilled love and safety in us. We have all graduated college and are on to do big things, and it all started with our mom's care. (Justin Hohn-Mack)

Critique/Question- Jenny Leong, Jasmine Escalante, Maryanne Molina, Frances Ko

2024-04-09 18:40:54 UTC

Our group thinks that the authors emphasizes on the family's contribution. However, we think that the repsonsibilty should not be placed on the family and instead the responsibility should be placed on the government.

Praise/Applaud - Matthew Guzman, Miranda Beckman, Tristina Nguyen, Andres Medina, Ryan Ehara

2024-04-09 18:40:55 UTC

We agreed that the upbringings of a child such as socioeconomic status shapes the educational path for a student. For example, low income students have limited resources towards there education and extracurriculars that can help boost there academics.

Praise-Zhiyu Wang, Ying Fan, Jiayuan Li

yingf10 — 2024-04-09 18:41:07 UTC

This passage got me deeply interested in the issue of income disparities in education investments. It shows how the gap between high-income and low-income families' spending on child enrichment funding has widened significantly over time, particularly in investments in activities such as music programs, trips, and summer camps. This is closely related to my interest in how social inequality can be reduced through education. The main takeaway is that differences in economic status create a significant split in the educational resources that can be provided to children, which has a profound impact on their academic achievement and life chances

Praise/ Applaud

2024-04-09 18:41:13 UTC

This chapter brought a light to the issues that children go through the lens of multiple perspective (low, middle, and high class) . We liked that the chapter highlight the importance of extra circular activities.

( Emely Fontes, Sonia Arefadib, Mariah Jenkins)

Karina Sandoval, Jessica Chen, Kelly Gonzalez

2024-04-09 18:41:15 UTC

We think that it should be specifically stated of the family expectations that some of these students have to deal with. While it can be assumed through the reading, we think that it should be accounted for in the data because it is a very important factor.

Praise - xinrui wang

2024-04-09 18:41:21 UTC

I found that the article did a good job demonstrating that socioeconomic background can be a big contributor to student inequity. Those who are born with better backgrounds can have a ground advantage.

Critique - Emily C., Jessica A., Sean U., Aimy D., Chaya M.

2024-04-09 18:41:26 UTC

Maybe this chapter or article could have expanded more on the possibility of low income connecting with delinquency or even students joining bad groups and that affecting their education. It can be easier to do bad things or fall into the wrong crowd when you are surrounded by people of that nature. The options given to these students still might not be enough or as accessible compared to other well-off students.

Praise

2024-04-09 18:41:39 UTC

The author uses pictures and charts to show how kids from rich and poor families do differently in school as they grow from kindergarten to fifth grade. These charts help us see the big differences in what kids know and how they act, starting from a young age. This makes it easier to understand what the author is talking about.

- Alma Koesuma, Kayla Chendra Ng, Stevinska Shandi

Critique/Question: Matthew Guzman, Miranda Beckman, Tristina Nguyen, Andres Medina, Ryan Ehara

2024-04-09 18:41:42 UTC

We disagree with the emphasis the author puts onto the correlation with mental health and illnesses with low-income and racial status. We believe that there is a huge stigma behind this correlation that is much more than simply just wealth.

Critique/Praise - Dongwook Kim

dongwk18 — 2024-04-09 18:41:42 UTC

The cost of books are not cheap which means that every people do not get the same opportunity. Also, the reading itself is subjective but most institutions requires students to read certain books to success in their class.

I found out that the cause of the gap between the academic achievement gap between wealthy and low-income family could be related to the cost of reading

Question

2024-04-09 18:41:49 UTC

What do you think is the greatest factor in achieving higher education?

(Justin Hohn-Mack)

Question

2024-04-09 18:41:53 UTC

Does the academic mindset of a more affluent student differ from one who is from a poorer background?

Nathan Hoang

Critique/Questions - Elijah Lee, Christopher Poblete, Kelly Yu.

elijasl1 — 2024-04-09 18:41:56 UTC

Our group thought that the author should have included more perspectives since the book mainly focuses on money, but other factors or values could affect the students' lives.

ZhichaoJin/SusuLi/JiebisenTang/TianminSun

2024-04-09 18:42:02 UTC

Critique - we thought the readings are a little repetitive of the issues, while not assertively providing the sad & heavy side of consequences that students & families might end up with. For example, the "school to prison pipeline" that might still be happening in U.S. nowadays.

Praise - the readings made clear about the issues with empirical data from studies and/or real-life cases by interviewing students. Repetition of the talking about the problems do make a positive impact in telling the issues.

Praise-Chengx Li- Yijie Xiao, Yipeng Liu, Yaxin Mo

2024-04-09 18:42:11 UTC

This author provided comparisons between the education level low and high income family. Rich are more accessible to the educational resources such as internship and personal teachers, etc.

Praise- Weike Yu, Jiashuo Wu

2024-04-09 18:42:13 UTC

Various educational approaches yield varying levels of knowledge acquisition among children. Discrepancies in family income levels also affect children's access to education. In our observation, children from high-income families possess greater resources for learning, particularly in areas such as reading, writing, and mathematics. High-income households tend to prioritize their children's academic success even before they commence formal schooling. However, even if two families have identical incomes, we believe disparities in children's behavior would persist.

2024-04-09 18:42:44 UTC

The text would just explain that there is a problem but never provided any solutions. In my opinion, I think school shouldn't make reading as a mandatory option. Cause not everyone are able to afford novels and textbooks these days. Or school should at least provide free books and devices for students. I wish the author would gave us more opinion on how to fix the problems in our education. (Yihao Lin)

Critique - Isalys D, Marak M, Sophia D, Caitlin L, Chloe V

2024-04-09 18:42:47 UTC

The author briefly mentioned how mental health impacts a student achievement. They could have gone a bit deeper into how this can influence a student's ability to succeed. This reading also only looked at a white family/student and a Black family/student so it would be helpful if it looked more closely at other ethnicities as well. Also, the author made a comment about how maternal education and IQ level can impact a student's achievement but we agree with the author's point that having money is not the be all end all but its important to note that having access to money also allows people to access higher levels of education. So it's kind of difficult to see how these two variables are independent of each other. We think the author could have noted that in the reading.

Critique

barkerda — 2024-04-09 18:42:59 UTC

The data sets appear to be quite old and exclusionary to AAPI and indigenous students in particular. How have these achievement gaps changed over the last couple of decades and how does this achievement gap apply to demographics not included?

-David Barker

Critique- Alexa W., Yesenia L., Seoyeon E., Dylan N., Lidus F.

2024-04-09 18:43:12 UTC

On page 28, while we are in agreement that child enrichment expenditures are a factor of educational outcomes, we would place less value on it being the factor that is "affected most". Family and household dynamics are a stronger tie towards educational outcomes. An unstable living situation can cause dissaray in student attention during class. This all depends on the resources a school can provide to support the student.

Question/ Critique

2024-04-09 18:43:16 UTC

We are curious on how neurodivergent student from different economic backgrounds are effected by their advantages/disadvantages compared to their neurotypical counterparts?

Trinity Estigoy, Weijie Du, Yisha Zhao, Hannah Riggs, Victor Garcia

Critique

2024-04-09 18:43:18 UTC

One thing we found that would help improve the study was the inclusion of more up to date data & graphs with more current information. As we are sure the numbers are more than likely different than the data presented within the chapter. That way it could make the findings more relevant.

-Priscilla Andrade & Aaron Lim

Praise - Jillian Yeh, Ashley Tang, Lisette Maldonado, Maria Calva

2024-04-09 18:43:22 UTC

On pages 28 and 30 of the reading, we thought it was interesting how we are able to see a comparison of how much families spent on their child's education and how increasing income plays into an increase in achievement gaps. It was shocking to see the increased gap between spending with higher income families spending almost tripling.

CRITIQUE: Lia Goodwin, Luis Marquez, Justino Lopez-Gonzalez, and Melinda Radilla.

2024-04-09 18:43:41 UTC

I feel like the text focused a lot on achievement gap which is important, but didn't touch on standardized testing, NCLB, ESEA, ESSA.

Praise

ZhiyuWang — 2024-04-09 18:44:27 UTC

This discussion of the impact of the quality of family relationships on school achievement was very intriguing to me because it suggested that educational success is not just dependent on material resources, but also involves emotional and social support within the family. This ties in closely with my interest in educational psychology, particularly the exploration of how to create positive family environments that are conducive to learning. The main takeaway is that harmonious family relationships are critical to a child's response to learning and academic achievement, which reminds us that we also need to pay attention to a student's family background and emotional well-being as we seek to improve educational outcomes.

PRAISE/APPLAUD: Winson Ao Zhang, Fengming Mo

fengminm — 2024-04-09 18:44:55 UTC

We found undetstanding that children from low-income families usually face more challenges, such as a lack of appropriate learning resources and support, which may lead to their poor performance in school is really helpful in understanding the achievement gap.

Praise-Leanna Phan

2024-04-09 18:45:21 UTC

I enjoyed how the author mentioned many examples of different students in each economic background and many in the same class but explained their different home lives. This made it easy to relate to the students because of the diverse detail written about each person.

Praise

barkerda — 2024-04-09 18:45:25 UTC

I enjoyed the fact that the authors included anecdotal experiences in this chapter as it helped strengthen the data points and made the issue feel more real

- David Barker

Praise - Marely M., Kevin M., Nancy R

2024-04-09 18:45:36 UTC

We believe that the mention of environmental racism added a lot to the conversation. When it comes to this conversation it's important to know how living in dangerous living situations where you are consistently exposed to pollutants can greatly impacts students ability to learn and perform.

Critique: Yipeng Liu, Yaxin Mo, Yijie Xu, Chengxi Li

2024-04-09 18:45:57 UTC

The passage was generally good but we don’t think it covers enough situations. The examples it involves are too specific. People are having different experiences and

living in different environments. You can summarize all of them with similar backgrounds. We think that the phenomena in the book is actually existing since the background in the book, but still needs a best solution to them. The truth in the book, from the author, can be very objective but we don’t think there

Praise (Melinda Radilla, Luis Marquez, Justino Lopez-Gonzalez, and Lia Goodwin.

2024-04-09 18:45:59 UTC

The authors did a great job in sharing statistical data so support their claims. We appreciate the fact that they shed light on these important matters.

Praise: Olivia Roberts

2024-04-09 18:46:50 UTC

I like how the author compared and contrasted the stories of different students (Alexander and Anthony) to show how income can determine how much student can "acheive" or be "successful" in education (i.e. get into a top university). A multitude of variables make it harder for lower income students to achieve what is necessary to get into competitive schools, making social mobility very difficult.

Critique-Leanna Phan

2024-04-09 18:49:51 UTC

I thought the differences between each child were important to include, but some aspects were more focused on in some students but left out in others which didn't give a fair comparison. For instance, one of the kids had parents that could afford many extracurriculars and another child's parents could not afford the same but was able to offer love. Some could argue that the ability to afford those extracurriculars but to also enroll their child in them is an act of love as well. Both children were loved but the author made it seem like one or the other.

Critique: Kelsy Gonzalez

2024-04-09 19:11:57 UTC

I believe that the passage did great with the comparison however it was limited to just the two perspectives. The passage doesn't talk about the experience in its entirety because it is limited. It should have kept the focus on how the economic background of a family impacts a student instead of including conversations about IQ.

Critique/Question: Jennifer Pei

2024-04-10 06:14:57 UTC

A critique that I had of the reading was that some of the readings were just too old. While some of the SES issues are still relevant today, a lot of the articles did not present the newer challenges/environments that we as students face, particularly when it comes to accessibility to technology and the internet and how that is having a huge impact on information that is available.

Praise/Applaud: Jennifer Pei

2024-04-10 09:19:38 UTC

I think this reading did a good job of explaining how the SES factors can positively or negatively affect students. One statement in particular that stood out to me was the environmental factors of living in a higher income area vs a lower income area. It was interesting to see that even something as simple as the air that we breathe can impact our focus and mental state when it comes to schooling.

Critique

2024-04-15 18:25:29 UTC

I liked how the author explained a difference in student's education based on their socioeconomical differences, however they limited it to only finances and not what comes with lower income families. I feel that having a lower income is just part of the issue, but more people with that tend to live in unsafe environments, have parental issues such as split parents, and more. So it is not just being limited to finance, it is what comes with it.

(Jayden Fong)

Critique/Question - Frank

fperezve — 2024-04-17 04:15:46 UTC

It is interesting to see how most of the data is from the 1980's. I would be more curious to see how the data would reflect today in the public school system. More specifically, if the dynamics and disparities have changed between low-income students and privileged students. New research on students from different cultural backgrounds would perhaps shed light on other environmental factors, or even from within the schools.

Praise/Applaud - Frank

fperezve — 2024-04-17 04:19:43 UTC

I think the readings provide a lens on how to view such disparities between low-income families, compared to well-off families. More specifically, the outcomes of some of the students from both backgrounds. It shows how schools and teachers explain less of the achievement gap than many think. And yet schools, on average, appear to help reduce inequality, at least among young children.

Jingran Xu

jingrx2 — 2024-05-24 06:33:25 UTC

Question: While the readings do an adequate job of outlining the issues of the achievement gap through repeated discussion, they fall short in conveying the deeper, more distressing consequences that affect students and families. This aspect is crucial as it highlights the real and severe impacts of educational disparities that extend beyond academic performance, affecting lives in profound ways. The text could benefit from a more direct examination of these consequences to fully address the gravity of the issues discussed.

Applaud: The readings effectively illuminate the issues surrounding the achievement gap by employing empirical data and real-life examples from interviews with students. This method of repeatedly discussing the problems helps reinforce the significance of the issues at hand, ensuring they are clearly understood and acknowledged. The use of concrete data and personal narratives enhances the credibility of the arguments presented and makes the case for addressing these educational disparities more compelling.