South Bronx Upper East Side
A student’s educational opportunity and their likelihood to succeed should not be based on the neighborhoods that they live in or the amount of money/income their parents make. In New York City, neighborhoods tend to be segregated due to factors such as income levels. Research has shown that this neighborhood income segregation is affecting the educational opportunities in those areas. Specifically, it is leading to a disproportionate advantage for those living in a higher income neighborhood such as the Upper East Side, while limiting the resources for those living in a lower income neighborhood such as the South Bronx.
Sean Reardon, a Stanford professor who has studied the income inequality trend, states that the growth in income inequality has granted high-income families “far more resources, relative to low-income families, to invest in their child’s development and schooling.”
When the city implemented a test for elementary school students to be admitted into the “gifted and talented programs” at school, “more children in affluent areas took the test, and a higher percentage of them then passed it.”
“In District 2, which includes many of Manhattan’s wealthiest areas, 28.2 percent of the children who took the test scored in the 97th percentile, the theoretical cutoff for the citywide gifted program, compared to 4.7 percent for District 8 in the South Bronx.”¹
In the United States, “by the time high-income children start school, they have spent about 400 hours more than poor children in literacy activities,” stated Meredith Phillips, an associate professor of public policy and sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Phillips analyzed data from surveys that show how “affluent children spend 1,300 more hours than low-income children before age 6 in places other than their homes, their day care centers, or schools (anywhere from museums to shopping malls).”²
The students’ exposure to surroundings other than their school and home provides a cultural advantage with greater opportunity to expand their learning past the classrooms–an opportunity that is lost to those who are not able to visit museums or other similar areas.
“Increasing residential segregation based on income is widening the quality gap between the schools that low- and higher-income children attend while compounding the unique problems faced by high-poverty schools.”
-Greg J. Duncan and Richard J. Murnane
The authors of Restoring Opportunity: The Crisis of Inequality and the Challenge for American Education highlight the academic challenges that high-poverty schools face because of the lack of resources available in these low-income neighborhoods.
Economist Christopher Avery conducted an “intervention that targeted high achieving, low-income students in the Boston and New York areas to receive 10 hours of free, one-on-one college advising from a professional counselor.”
“Many students included in the study lacked adequate college advising at their high schools; just less than one-quarter of students cited their guidance counselors as their most important source of information about college admissions” (37).³
Avery found that students who went through this counseling session were “7.9 percentage points more likely to enroll in one of the most competitive institutions.” Additionally, the students who participated in this session became aware of selective colleges outside of the Ivy League. With this knowledge, they were able to apply to their “match schools” and gain admission to other selective colleges.
The positive influence of this intervention correlates with the notion that students from high-income families have more opportunities to invest in resources, such as private tutoring and counseling, that further help these students achieve success. However, low-income students lack these resources that are readily accessible to high-income students, and as a result, they are left behind.
An educational initiative that began in 2013. It focuses on providing extensive one-on-one parent teacher conferences for students who have scored below grade-level on state exams.
- Robinson, Gail. “Class in the Classroom: The Income Gap and NYC’s Schools.” City Limits. Institute for Nonprofit News, 25 Sept. 2013. Web. 22 Nov. 2015. <http://citylimits.org/2013/09/25/class-in-the-classroom-the-income-gap-and-nycs-schools/>.
- Tavernise, Sabrina. “Education Gap Grows Between Rich and Poor, Studies Say.” Informing and Advancing Effective Policy. Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis, 10 Feb. 2012. Web. 22 Nov. 2015. <http://cepa.stanford.edu/news/education-gap-grows-between-rich-and-poor-studies-say>.
- “Increasing College Opportunity for Low-Income Students.” White House. The Executive Office of the President, 2014. Web. 22 Nov. 2015. <https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/white_house_report_on_increasing_college_opportunity_for_low-income_students.pdf>.