Educational Leadership

Continued unabated, this gap between the “information haves” and “ information have-nots” could lead to even greater social and economic inequality in our society that will be difficult, if not impossible, to reverse.

Changing the Trajectory I have painted a bleak picture of the gap between poverty and privilege not to suggest its inevitability but to galvanize people to action. So what can we do? Consider the following steps.

Un-level the Playing Field

Programs like Title I are based on a policy of “leveling the playing field,” ensuring that education resources for poor communities are equal to those for the more affluent. But the notion of providing equal resources is only helpful when none of the competing partners has an advantage at the outset. As we have seen, that is certainly not the case for students who come from poor neighborhoods when compared with more affluent peers.

We need to tip the balance not by equalizing funding but by providing more resources and additional supports to students in poor neighborhoods. Not just extra funding, but additional human resources are needed. Training paraprofessionals for such simple activities as reading one-on-one with children in libraries like those in the Badlands could have enormous benefits later on.

Strengthen Parent Involvement School programs often profess the importance of parent involvement, but schools rarely offer sustained, intensive parent involvement training programs. We need programs that help parents become the advocates they wish to be by teaching them about the skills and strategies children will need to be successful in school. Such programs will help them make judgments about what kinds of language and literacy experiences to look for in preschool and child-care settings, what to look for in initial

Although the
have-nots gain
knowledge, the haves
gain it faster.

reading instruction in kindergarten and the early grades, what to ask principals and other policymakers who make decisions regarding reading instruction, and how to determine whether their child is making adequate progress in reading or needs additional instruction.

Engage Students’ Minds

Far too often, people underestimate the capabilities of students who live in poor neighborhoods, equating poverty with low ability. In reality, however, these students are eager to learn and develop greater expertise when given opportunities to do so.

In public policy, our targets for these students have been to help them graduate from high school and become college-ready. In fact, if students from poor families are to have a fighting chance, they will need far more. They will need a rich knowledge base. They will need to learn how to participate in a new kind of information fabric in which learning, playing, and creative thinking interact in ways that not only use existing knowledge, but also advance it in new directions. We deceive them and ourselves if we expect any less.

Economically Integrate Schools

Schools today reflect their neighborhoods. Throughout the United States, schools are economically segregated, exacerbating the problems of inequality.

Schools in poor areas struggle for
many reasons, but among the most
prominent are their rotating faculty of
inexperienced teachers and adminis-
trators and their low-level curriculum.
In contrast, schools in affluent areas
are more stable, with more highly
trained teachers, rigorous curriculum,
fewer discipline problems, and more
support from volunteers. Studies have
shown that economic integration
can begin to change this scenario
(Kahlenberg, 2001).

Reclaiming the Dream Americans are a resilient people. We remain a formidable force in the knowledge economy. Nevertheless, the last decade’s economic chaos and rising inequality has led some to question whether there is a future for the American dream. For those of us who believe that this concept is still what defines us and makes America great, it is time to renew our determination to recapture the American dream and make it a reality for all our children. EL

References

Carnevale, A., & Rose, S. (2011). The undereducated American. Washington, DC: Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce.

Duncan, G., & Murnane, R. (Eds.). (2011). Whither opportunity? New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Kahlenberg, R. (2001). All together now. Washington, DC: Brookings.

Lareau, A. (2003). Unequal childhoods. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Massey, D. (2007). Categorically unequal. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Neuman, S. B., & Celano, D. (2006). The knowledge gap: Implications of leveling the playing field for low-income and middle-income children. Reading Research Quarterly, 41, 176–201.

Neuman, S. B., & Celano, D. (2012). Giving our children a fighting chance: Affluence, literacy, and the development of information capital. New York: Teachers College Press.

Stanovich, K. E. (1986). Matthew effects in reading: Some consequences of individual differences in the acquisition of literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 21, 360–406.

Susan B. Neuman (sbneuman@umich .edu) is a professor in Educational Studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and professor of Teaching and Learning at New York University. She is the author, with Donna Celano, of Giving Our Children a Fighting Chance: Affluence, Literacy, and the Development of Information Capital (Teachers College Press, 2012).