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.