Literature Review Blog #1

Lit Review #1 

'Can Students Themselves Narrow the Socioeconomic-status-based Achievement Gap Through Their Own Persistence and Learning Time?'

Haigen Huang, University of Missouri

http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1084023.pdf

Citation: Huang, H. (2015). Can students themselves narrow the socioeconomic-status-based achievement gap through their own persistence and learning time? Education Policy Analysis Archives, 23(108), http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v23.1977

Author, Haigen Huang, pictured above. source: https://miamioh.edu/ehs/about/partnerships-centers/centers/discovery-center/about/our-staff/research-eval-project-teams/huang-haigen/index.html

This academic source begins by discussing the achievement gap between students from low and high socioeconomic backgrounds. This achievement gap between low and high is around 30 to 40 percent higher for children born in 2001 than it is for those born 25 years earlier. This means, this is becoming an increasingly prominent phenomenon among today's youth, in particular. Haigen Huang contrasts these numbers to the overarching idea of the 'American Dream', i.e. the ideology that if you work hard enough, no matter your background, you will succeed. Huang ponders the idea that perhaps students from low socioeconomic backgrounds achieve less because of the way they see themselves. This source then has a lengthy literature review of previous academic articles and studies that have taken a look into this topic. The topic has ignited more research in the past few decades as a stronger connection between SES (socioeconomic status) and achievement level among students has been identified. There has also been more research on the topic as it is becoming more of an issue today than it ever has been. Huang then performed his own study on the topic. The research question at hand-- whether or not low socioeconomic students could reduce their SES-based achievement gap through their effort and persistence. The results from his study did not support a conclusion that individual students could make a difference to narrow the SES-based achievement gap. Huang does note, however, that there was a small portion of low-SES students who performed as well as high-SES students. Therefore, it is not impossible for students to narrow the achievement gap through their own efforts, though it is less likely. 

Haigen Huang has roughly nine years of experience in educational research. His interest in educational equity studies, with a focus in social class in gender, motivated him to get his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-- Columbia. He has experience in leading projects that investigated ways to narrow the socioeconomic-status-based achievement gap, and has successfully published in several journals relating to educational research and SES students. On his website, Huang lists his work commitments to include advocacy for underrepresented populations to have access to equal learning opportunities.

Key Terms relating to topic:

- SES: socioeconomic status; a sociological and economic combined total measure of a person's work experience, and of an individual's or family's economic and social position in relation to others, based on income, education, and occupation. 

- Achievement Gap: used to refer to the observed, persistent disparity of educational measures between the performance of groups of students, especially groups defined by socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, and gender. 

Quotes relating to my topic:

- "Studies conducted over the past 50 years provided overwhelming evidence to establish the constraint that SES imposes on student achievement." (2)

- "According to this large body of research, students from low-SES backgrounds show lower achievement due to various barriers such as lack of economic resources, low parental involvement, and limited access to high quality educational opportunities, for example, highly qualified teachers." (3) 

- "The SES-based achievement gap not only persists, but has also been widening. As Reardon (2011, p. 1) noted, 'the achievement gap between children from high- and low-income families is roughly 30 to 40 percent larger among children born in 2001 than among those born twenty-five years earlier.'" (3)

- "The data and results did not support a conclusion that individual students could make a difference to narrow that gap. However, this should not be interpreted to mean that it is impossible for any low-SES students to achieve as highly as their high-SES peers." (23)

This source is helping me to refine my topic because it focuses on the work and effort of low-SES students and how that relates to their success, if it affects it at all. This is helpful because many studies focus on other factors, but this one solely has to do with the efforts of the student. This source also helps to refute a common counterargument from others-- that it does not matter what SES you were born into, if you work hard you can achieve anything. Unfortunately, this is generally not the case. 

 

Research Blog #3

Academic Sources

'Can Students Themselves Narrow the Socioeconomic-status-based Achievement Gap Through Their Own Persistence and Learning Time?'

Haigen Huang, University of Missouri

http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1084023.pdf

This academic source begins by discussing the achievement gap between students from low and high socioeconomic backgrounds. This achievement gap between low and high is around 30 to 40 percent higher for children born in 2001 than it is for those born 25 years earlier. This means, this is becoming an increasingly prominent phenomenon among today's youth, in particular. Haigen Huang contrasts these numbers to the overarching idea of the 'American Dream', i.e. the ideology that if you work hard enough, no matter your background, you will succeed. Huang ponders the idea that perhaps students from low socioeconomic backgrounds achieve less because of the way they see themselves. This source then has a lengthy literature review of previous academic articles and studies that have taken a look into this topic. The topic has ignited more research in the past few decades as a stronger connection between SES (socioeconomic status) and achievement level among students has been identified. There has also been more research on the topic as it is becoming more of an issue today than it ever has been. Huang then performed his own study on the topic. The research question at hand-- whether or not low socioeconomic students could reduce their SES-based achievement gap through their effort and persistence. The results from his study did not support a conclusion that individual students could make a difference to narrow the SES-based achievement gap. Huang does note, however, that there was a small portion of low-SES students who performed as well as high-SES students. Therefore, it is not impossible for students to narrow the achievement gap through their own efforts, though it is less likely. 

- This source is helping me to refine my topic because it focuses on the work and effort of low-SES students and how that relates to their success, if it affects it at all. This is helpful because many studies focus on other factors, but this one solely has to do with the efforts of the student. This source also helps to refute a common counterargument from others-- that it does not matter what SES you were born into, if you work hard you can achieve anything. Unfortunately, this is generally not the case. 

'Are Socioeconomically Integrated Schools Equally Effective for Advantaged and Disadvantaged Students?'

Guillermo Montt

http://resolver.ebscohost.com/openurl?sid=EBSCO:eric&genre=article&issn=00104086&ISBN=&volume=60&issue=4&date=20161101&spage=808&pages=808-832&title=Comparative%20Education%20Review&atitle=Are%20Socioeconomically%20Integrated%20Schools%20Equally%20Effective%20for%20Advantaged%20and%20Disadvantaged%20Students%3F&aulast=Montt%2C%20Guillermo&id=DOI:

This source talks about the differences in achievement levels between low-SES and high-SES students, and how integration of the two in academic settings can be beneficial. The benefits of having low-SES students attend schools in high-SES neighborhoods, rather than their own, include a decrease in the achievement gap between low and high. A potential con, however, is that integrating low-SES students into high-SES student school systems can bring down the overall level of achievement because it lowers the achievement of high-SES students. "The results presented above show that, in general, attending a socioeconomically integrated school yields higher achievement for disadvantaged students but an equal achievement loss to advantaged students when compared to disadvantaged students attending disadvantaged schools and advantaged students attending advantaged schools." 

- This source is valuable in helping me to refine my research topic, by helping me to explore possible solutions to the socioeconomic issues that students face

- This study found that integrating low-SES students into more advantaged school systems benefits those lower income students, but poses a disadvantage for the high-SES students already in attendance 

- This poses a problem: to integrate or not to integrate? This is something I would like to explore in my paper, and perhaps offer some type of solution for 

'Who are the Most Disadvantaged? Factors Associated with the Achievement of Students with Low SocioEconomic Backgrounds'

Mehmet Sukru Bellibas, Adıyaman University

http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=1bf98a05-3938-48f5-9e7b-38d117b13116%40sessionmgr4010&vid=4&hid=4113

The purpose of this study is to investigate the individual SES factors that contribute to achievement or lack thereof, something that most studies do not pay as close attention to. This study, however, focuses on students in Turkey rather than the United States. The study asks the question of which student, school, and household factors are more important for low-SES than high-SES students. The study found that several factors, including mother's education, perseverance, home educational resources, quality of school educational resources, class size, and total school enrollment, were significant predictors of student achievement in math, reading, and science. The study also found that home educational resources, reduced class size, and ICT availability at home are the three most critical factors that provide the greatest contribution to the achievement of low-SES students in all subject areas. 

- This study is important to my topic because, although it was not performed in the United States, it takes a look into the specific FACTORS that inhibit low-SES students or help them to succeed. I believe being able to hone in on certain factors will help me to provide a solution in my research paper and to dissect the root causes of lower achievement for lower-SES students. 

Blog Post #2

Topic: Confirmed 

My topic has not differed much, rather expanded. In my last blog post, I explored two different topics-- one about how the socioeconomic status and demographic of parents shaped their child's career in higher education and their social mobility or lack thereof. My other topic was about how the privatization of higher education jeopardizes the freedom of lower income students. I have now decided to combine the two because I realized they are essentially the same. I will stick with my first topic, and instead talk about how a lower income student's freedom is jeopardized BECAUSE of his or her parents' socioeconomic backgrounds.

I looked up a few sources online. The keywords that seemed most helpful to me in my search were socioeconomic, low income students, and privatization. One study by Jean-Claude Croizet and Theresa Claire seemed especially helpful, as well as books by JR Betts and another by DM Gollnick. The title of the article by Croizet and Claire was Extending the Concept of Stereotype Threat to Social Class: The Intellectual Underperformance of Students from Low Socioeconomic Backgrounds.

A few of the articles that I skimmed mentioned how the IDEA that those from lower classes are less capable and the stereotypes we still have about minorities in this country affect their chances of success-- just the way others THINK about them. I have taken sociology courses before and, statistically speaking, the lives of people coming from low socioeconomic backgrounds are pretty much planned out for them-- they will fall victim to the same fate as that of their parents. Reading things like this realize that this issue in education goes much deeper and is much more complex to solve than I originally thought (although I had an inkling).

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0146167298246003
This is the study I mentioned previously. This study talks about how stereotypes negatively affect low socioeconomic students more than we know. This study aimed to prove that low SES students were expected to claim more impediments to their performance before taking the test because of their apprehension for validating a negative stereotype. This did not prove true in the study, and the introductory parts of the study contained a lot of valuable information.

Blog #1: Potential Research Topics!

Mind Over Money? How Socioeconomic Factors Influence a Student's Career

The first topic that I am interested in exploring further is how a parent's demographic (class, age, income, ethnicity) affects his or her child's higher education experience. This is something that seriously interests me, as we've discussed in class how the further privatization of universities is affecting people from different backgrounds in very different ways. It may be difficult to find a large amount of research on this, but it would be a very interesting topic for me to present. 

(To expand on this topic, I would look into how the characteristics of the parents affect the child's social mobility post-college)

The second topic I am interested in researching, is how the privatization of college affects and, if further privatization continues, continue to affect the freedom of low income students. By freedom, I mean the choices that a low income student can make, during and after college. I know this is similar to my first topic, but I would like this one to be focused on how privatization jeopardizes freedom.