Poverty's Role In Increasing The Achievement Gap

Poverty also plays a huge role in increasing the achievement gap between the white and black students. Studies indicate that poverty cuts across all races in different countries. According to the census data of 1990, 11.5 million children were living in poverty and the largest group in that category was the white population. Nonetheless, the percentage of ethnic groups shows that most of these people are the minority population (Jencks & Phillips, 2011). Despite poverty, several other issues which contribute to the achievement gap include family experience, values, cultural norms, segregation, attitudes of teachers the school environment and motivation of students (Hedges & Nowell 1999). In most cases, the black population of students are frequently negative attitude victims who have low expectations from counselors, teachers and administrators. Since they are recipients of low expectations from the schools workforce, they often experience distancing and alienation in schools and this in the end leads to poor performance which in the end makes them to drop out of school (Rothstein, 2004).
Oakes (2005) further studied if high school exams measure …show more content…
Worthy of noting is that Wisconsin is referred to as one of the worst states for black children based on single parenthood, poverty and proficiency in mathematics. In this investigation Becker (2015) indicates that only 15% of the entire black students showed their proficiency in mathematics examinations when compared to 43% of white students in the course of 2013-2014. Therefore, education experts describe the achievement gap in Wisconsin state as unusually horrifying. Furthermore these experts state that this gap is primarily rooted to economic and racial