Factors that May Make Low-Income Students Perform Less Well
Level of income has both positive and negative effects on a student’s performance. Students from middle and high income families have a lot of social and economic advantages over their poor counterparts. The differences in social classes in the society translate to the classroom in which they influence students’ performance.
Children from low-income families start school when they have really gone past the minimum age. The age at which a student starts going to school maters a lot. The brain develops in different stages and thus there are cognitive skills that are appropriate for every stage. On the other side, students from middle class families are exposed to early childhood education at the right time. Besides, these middle-income students are carefully taken through all the cognitive development stages. By the time they reach advanced levels, they are cognitively smarter that their low-income counterparts.
Low-income families do not have enough finance to access high quality education and thus children from such families go to low quality schools. In such schools, there are few facilities and equipments. This implies that the students are overcrowded and keep on scrambling for the few resources. In this situation, these children are not comfortable enough to enjoy their learning. A part from the facilities and equipments, the teacher students’ ratio is unfavorable. In some cases, one teacher may serve up to 50 students. With this kind of work load, the teacher’s efficiency is seriously lowered. All these factors impact negatively on the student’s knowledge acquisition, retention and retrieval.
A private study that includes homework is a very essential component of the curriculum. Students from low-income families do not have access to good educational resources such as text books and other stationery. School going children have a lot of needs that must be fully met to ensure that they are settled and are ready to learn. This situation is totally different from what happens to the middle-level students. These students have home libraries, home tutors and a highly conducive environment for learning.
Reference
Leslie S. Kaplan and William A. Owings. (2010). American Education: Building a Common
Foundation. USA: Cengage Learning.
