© STEPHEN MCS WEENY/SHUTTERS TOCK
Great Depression and World War II)
had been. But beginning in the 1970s,
economic growth slowed dramatically,
and upward social mobility became far
less certain.
Third, the economy has become
increasingly bifurcated into a low-skill,
low-wage sector (for example, service
jobs and routine production jobs) and a
high-skill, high-wage information sector
(for example, engineering and financial
analysis). Largely gone are the manufacturing jobs that provided a middle-class wage without a college degree. As
a result, education success has become
increasingly essential to economic
success (Autor, Katz, & Kearney, 2008;
Murnane, Willett, & Levy, 1995).
Fourth, popular notions of what constitutes education success have changed.
In the last few decades, test scores have
become increasingly central to our
idea of what schools are supposed to
produce. As test scores have played a
more dominant role in education policy
over the last decade (and have become
more important in college admissions),
they have become increasingly salient to
parents concerned with their children’s
education success.
Fifth, American families have changed
in several important ways in the last
four decades. Children in high-income
families are increasingly likely to be
High-income
families have far
more resources,
relative to low-income
families, to invest
in their children’s
development
and schooling.
raised by two parents, both with college
degrees, whereas low-income children
are more likely than ever to be raised
by a single mother with a low level of
education (McLanahan, 2004; Schwartz
& Mare, 2005). This means that family
income has become increasingly correlated to other family characteristics and
resources that are important for children’s development.
The combination of these broad
social trends has had important consequences for children’s academic success.
Increased uncertainty about children’s
likelihood of upward social mobility,
coupled with the increased importance
of education for career security, has
made parents increasingly anxious
about their children’s education. This
has led to greater competition among
families for their children’s academic
success.
In summary, the growth in income
inequality and in the correlation of
income with other family resources
means that family resources have
become increasingly unequal at the
same time that families are increasingly
focused on their children’s education, a
constellation of trends that has led to a
rapidly growing disparity in the extent
to which families invest their time and
money in their children’s education.
Indeed, high-income families now
spend nearly 7 times as much on their
children’s development as low-income
families, up from a ratio of 4 times
as much in 1972 (Kornrich & Furstenberg, 2013).
© TATIANA VOLGUTOVA/SHUTTERSTOCK
What Role Can Schools Play?
U.S. schools have historically been
thought of as the great equalizer—the
social institution best suited to ensure
that all children have an equal opportunity to learn, develop, and thrive.
It is unrealistic, however, to think
that school-based strategies alone will
eliminate today’s stark disparities in
