Inequities of Education

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Recommended: The High School Experience Essay

The education system that I went through in my high school career felt like an experience that every child underwent. I saw other teens, as well as myself, struggle to complete the assignments and projects given to us by our teachers. We had a hard time reading and writing essays that evolved over learning a philosophical insight. We gave it our best effort to convince our parents or families to “chip in” money into our lives, so that way we can buy school supplies. The reality that I lived my entire high school career was brutal in every way. I lived in a poor neighborhood, and the school I attended was of low quality. During high school, I learned that not all students went through the same experience as I did. Some students have an easier time in high school, while some students including me have a brutal time. The difference between students’ experiences evolved over the inequalities of wealth. Wealth plays an important role in education, and it interrelates with crucial learning requirements, such as test scores, cognitive development, academic performance, grades and GPA. High schools are sometimes judged by the test scores that their students reflect. New York Times journalist and Stanford professor, Sean F. Reardon, claimed that many of the tests that critique high schools are heavily focused on mathematics and English reading skills. He also said that not only is it tests that high schools give to their students, but also college-level tests, such as the SAT, ACT and EAP. With those tests comes a diversity of scores, which forms a barrier on students. This barrier is recognized as dividing students into two separate categories: “rich and poor students” (Reardon, 2013). Reardon said that this barrier has been affecting t... ... middle of paper ... ...colleges. Works Cited Bergland, Christopher. “Tackling the "Vocabulary Gap" Between Rich and Poor Children.” Psychology Today. 16 Feb. 2014. Web. 18 Mar. 2013. Duncan, Greg J., and Richard J. Murnane. “Economic inequality: The real cause of the urban school problem.” Chicago Tribune. 6 Oct. 2011. Web. 18 Mar. 2013. Grove, Allen. “High Grades or Challenging Courses? Which Matters More?” About.com. Web. 19 Mar. 2013. Lowrey, Annie. “Wealth Gap Among Races Has Widened Since Recession.” The New York Times. 28 Apr. 2013. Web. 18 Mar. 2013. Lui, Meizhu, et al. The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide. New York: The New Press, 2006. Print. Reardon, Sean F. “No Rich Child Left Behind.” The New York Times. 27 Apr. 2013. Web. 18 Mar. 2013. “Social Inequality and Educational Disadvantage.” Russell Sage Foundation. Web. 18 Mar. 2013.

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