Educational Inequality

Inequality is a prevalent element of American society that is seriously damaging to the United States. What is a large driving force of inequalities present in America? Educational inequality plays a detrimental role in the overall inequalities within America. The achievement gap, a well-known gap in American education, is a contributing factor to the continuous educational inequality in the United States. The achievement gap is essentially the continuous disparity between groups of a certain race, ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic status. The good news is that the achievement gap is improving. However, the improvement is very slow as the achievement gap is stubborn and persistent. This paper will discuss the significance of the achievement

As the achievement gap is very complex, there are numerous underlying factors that play a role in contributing to the gap. Some factors that contribute to the achievement gap include environment, teachers, parents, and time. Environment contributes to the achievement gap as different environments will produce differences in levels of academic achievement. For example, children who live in a healthy environment, with resources, access to health care, and supportive parents will have a better chance at receiving high academic achievement than children who live in an unhealthy environment. Another contributing factor to academic achievement is teachers as they play a significant role in teaching and providing a healthy learning environment for children. Teachers who are biased and treat children differently based off of ethnicity are contributing to the achievement gap majorly. Parents are another contributing factor to academic achievement as they play a significant role in supporting and encouraging their children. Lastly, time is also very meaningful for academic achievement as children do need the time to do homework and

There are many factors that contribute to the achievement gap such as environment, parents, teachers and time. These factors are all extremely complex and intertwine to affect equal academic achievement. Two main contributions to the achievement gap include lack of resources within ethnic minority families and obligations within ethnic minority families. The achievement gap is steadily reducing but still needs major improvement. There are generational differences in the achievement gap as third generation ethnic minority children do significantly better than first and second generation ethnic minority children. Some suggestions for minimization of the achievement gap include more funding for education and extra support for ethnic minority families, more involvement of parents, continuous monitoring of progress, and teacher training to reduce implicit bias. Hopefully, some of these improvements are already taking place and in action as America greatly depends on its people, and ethnic minority individuals do make up a large proportion of the American population.