Victoria Dilibe

ENG 111

8 December 2020

My paper seeks to change the emphasis of the ongoing reform of education to the benefit

of low-income students in the school systems of the United States. My classmates from my

English 111 course at Ivy Tech, as well as my instructor, will be my intended audience for this

article. This paper concerns my audience because it includes restructuring of education that will

influence several different facets of their education. Many members of certain family and

friends, if not ourselves, come from low-income households and districts of public schools. I

found that most of the students in this course agreed after telling classmates that teaching has

changed dramatically over the years and in a negative way. This was a significant revision of my

paper because it allowed me to far better understand my audience. The emphasis on rigorous

standardized testing has taken away the opportunity of the instructor to construct lessons that

relate to the learning abilities of various students.

What if we have been teaching the right skills in U.S. schools all along and the solution

to poverty is answering the most important issue? The big challenge of our century has been this.

Earlier, with the belief that those at the bottom of the economy will never graduate, we only

taught children in and above the working class. Times have changed, and the poorest or

otherwise vulnerable are educated today. The move to emphasis on standardized testing has

made it more and more difficult for teachers to build lessons and adapt to the classroom students.

This improvement in teaching does not take into account the challenges that low-income students

have to contend with outside of school that hinder their academic ability and cause teachers to

pay attention.
 More improvements to school policy have been made over the years than many people

might imagine. When a new politician takes office, it tends that they promote reform in

education to enhance services, what they think. Much has been said regarding this century's

talents, norms, and learning standards, but its primary focus has been to prepare for college and

career. The new demand for higher level learning and various early starting skills has increased

the pressure for further assessments and generated a learning style of "teaching to the test." New

reports of rapid growth in student poverty are brought to the attention of policymakers and prove

that they have done little but misidentify the issues. The aim of this paper is to persuade this

country's policymakers and citizens that education policy needs to be shifted to assist poor low-

income students.

Reporter Lindsey Layton tells us in a Washington Post news report that the majority of

public-school students come from low-income families" according to new research from the

2013 federal data (Layton). "Similarly, Southern Education Foundation reports show that "fifty-

one percent of pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade students were eligible for the federal

program that offers free or reduced lunches for students (Layton). Reports such as the one

presented by the Southern Education Foundation clearly show that poverty has become, and is

more critical than ever, the greatest barrier to educational advancement. Not only that, Janie

Boschma and Ronald Brownstein, prominent writers for The Atlantic, show that Most African

American and Hispanic students attend public schools in almost all major American cities, where

most of their classmates qualify as poor or low-income" (Boschma and Brownstein). If most of

their classmates identify as disadvantaged or low-income (Boschma and Brownstein). That poses

the issue of whether policymakers are implementing a purposeful structural economic and racial

isolation strategy. To support that, Sean Slade, author of the Huffington Post, makes a great point
by saying, "Coincidentally, it has been 51 years since we declared poverty unacceptable as a

nation." In his 1964 State of the Union Speech, it has been 51 years since President Lyndon B.

Johnson initiated the war on poverty (Slade). The pressure to attain high test scores has removed

choices that foster a love of learning and appreciate the special potential of a child. Particularly

in high poverty schools where these luxuries can't be afforded. States with high-poverty students

prefer to spend less per student... all but five states] spent less than the national average of

$10,938 per student," Lindsey Layton informs us" (Layton).

"In a Heather Long article about lunch shaming, she tells us This is mainly a question of

irresponsible parents (Long). This also goes to show that for them to excel, low-income students

do not receive the opportunities and get the support they need outside of school. These students

are slipping behind their peers and struggling to pursue an education more than ever. "College

graduation rates among students from low SES backgrounds are 14% compared to 60% of

students from high SES backgrounds in the study provided by Alanna Bjorklund-Young"

(Bjorklund-Young). "Also, most particularly from her studies, "When students were questioned

about their anticipated educational achievement as high school sophomores, 58 percent of

students from low-SES backgrounds expected to graduate from college. However, only a fifth of

low-SES students eventually graduated from college when researchers later revisited the same

students (Bjorklund-Young). In support of this, Kim Mihyeon's article tells us that "Renzuli and

Park (2000) showed that most of the talented students who dropped out of school were from low-

income families" (Mihyeon 87).

Knowing the numbers of students with low incomes and how they are disadvantaged

helps to assess the value of services and funding to support this demographic. Researchers used

longitudinal mixed effect modeling in the Jaret Hodges article to evaluate the development of
elementary students from low-income families on a state achievement test. "Camp attendance

had a positive effect on the test scores in both math and English/language arts," the findings of

this study revealed (Hodges 1). "Students from higher-income families had an average gain in

reading performance over summer enrichment programs to support them" (Mihyeon 88). For

most students with low incomes, fee-based options for enrichment programs are out of control.

This leads to a greater gap between low-income and high-income students' educational

experiences. It will be tremendously advantageous to adjust curriculum reform to concentrate on

the use of these camps. Studies have shown that they assist these students in standardized tests

and enhancing the curriculum as a whole. These camps are excellent opportunities for students.

The truth of the matter is easy to see and have all along been concealed in plain sight. It is

time to show people these problems that are negatively impacting our children's progress and

ultimately failing our future. Most educational systems are moved to the evaluation style of

teaching and make it more challenging for not only the students, but also the teachers. Teaching

the style of the exam and making it more challenging for not only the students but also the

teachers. The emphasis on stringent standardized testing has taken away the opportunity of the

instructor to construct lessons that relate to the learning abilities of various students. This makes

it difficult for students to be academically successful and it is expensive to place them at a huge

disadvantage with all the tools to help them progress. This country's leaders need to be made

aware of the negative effect that their hand has had on youth education. Teachers have been

trained for a cause and specialize in this area. Now that we've all been told, it's time to take a

stand against these corrupt politicians and begin to make Congress hear our voice. It is enough to

see reform introduced by a quick call from every last one of us all to our representatives that

prohibits these criminal behaviors of negligence. With the people, the strength of this nation
resides and is enacted by the people's voice. When our children and the future of our children are

being taken to an imminent demise, we cannot lose power anymore.

Works Cited

Bjorklund-Young, Alanna. “Family Income and the College Completion Gap” John Hopkins

School of Education, 11 Dec. 2017, www.edpolicy.education.jhu.edu/remediating-

adolescent-literacy-what-does-the-research=say/. Accessed 3 May. 2018.

Boschma, Janie, and Ronald Brownstein. “The Concentration of Poverty in American Schools.”

The Atlantic, 29 February 2016,

www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/02/concentration-poverty-american-

schools/471414/. Accessed 3 May. 2018.

Hodges, Jaret, et al. “The Effect of an Out-Of-School Enrichment Program on the Academic of

High-Potential Students from Low-Income Families.” Journal of Advanced Academics,

vol. 28, no. 3, Aug. 2017, p. 204-224. EBSCOhost, Muncie.libproxy.ivytech.edu/login?

url=http//search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=tru&db=edb&AN=124002106&site=eds-live. Accessed 3 May. 2018.

Ladd, Helen. “Student Poverty Isn’t an Excuse; It’s a Barrier.” Education Week, 10 May 2016.

www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/05/11/student-poverty-isnt-an-excuse-its-a.html

Accessed 3 May. 2018.

Layton, Lyndsey. “Majority of US Public School Students Are in Poverty.” The Washington

Post, 2015. ECBSCOhost, Muncie.libproxy.ivytechedu/login?

url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=edsgov&AN=edsgcl.397678919&site=eds-live. Accessed 3 May. 2018.

Long, Heather. “School Lunch Shaming: ‘No One Believes We Do This to Kids.’ Will Congress

End It?” CNNMoney, Cable News Network, 15 May 2017,

money.cnn.com/2017/05/15/news/economy/school-lunch-shaming-

congressbill/index.html. Accessed 3 May. 2018.

Heather Long, author of “School Lunch Shaming: ‘No One

Mihyeon, Kim, et al. "Program Development for Disadvantaged High-Ability Students." Gifted

Child Today, vol. 40, no. 2, Apr. 2017, p. 87-95. EBSCOhost,

muncie.libproxy.ivytech.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=edb&AN=122331393&site=eds-live. Accessed 3 May. 2018.

Olsen, Avery B. “Beyond the Income-Achievement Gap: An Examination of the Conditions That

Promote High-Achievement of Low Socioeconomic Status Students in College.”

eScholarship, University of California, 2015. EBSCOhost,

Muncie.libproxy.ivytech.edu/login?

url=http://search.ebscohost.com.muncie,libproxy.ivytech.edu/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=edssch&AN=edssch.qt1p26f4fv&site=eds-live. Accessed 3 May. 2018.

Slade, Sean. “Poverty Affect Education – And Our Systems Perpetuate It.” Huffington Post, 24

July 2016, www.huffingtonpost.com/sean-slade/poverty-affects-

education_b_7861778.html. Accessed 3 May. 2018.

Wax, Amy L. “Educating the Disadvantaged – Two Models.” Harvard Journal of Law & Public

Policy, vol.40, no. 3, June 2017, p. 687-728. EBSCOhost,

allstate.libproxy.ivytech.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true &db=f5h&AN=123526039&site=eds-live. Accessed 3 May. 2018.