Education and the Inequalities of Place

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Education and the Inequalities of Place

Summary:
Roscigno et al (2006) talk about spatial inequalities in educational achievement and attainment in this article. Local conditions shape family and school resources. Therefore, the availability of family and school resources vary in rural areas, inner city, and suburban areas. Disparity in resources influences educational investment at the family and school levels. At the result, achievement and attainment are different in those places. More family and school resources we see, higher achievement and attainment we have. Therefore, students in suburban areas achieve higher education and attain higher educational level because they have more family and school resources. In contrast, deficits in family and school resources in rural and inner city produce low achievement and attainment.
Authors mention that family socioeconomic background affects students’ achievement and attainment. They remind us students with higher socioeconomic background end up with higher achievement/attainment because their parents may invest higher amount of time and money in theme. Because of the high rate of poverty in inner city and rural areas, parents in these places do not invest enough amount of money and time in their children as their counterparts do in the suburban areas. Therefore, low achievement and attainment in inner city and rural areas are expected. Family structure is also affected by local economic opportunity through family economic distress and unemployment. The high rate of single parent is seen in inner city, non-marital childbearing and family dissolution increase in rural areas. It is proven that students with single parent or step-parent families do not do schooling well ...

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...and its effects on educational outcomes last week. For example, Zhou (2003) talks about existing public facilities in these places such as the library, park, and other recreation facilities. He mentioned that these public facilities may reduce the inequality in education.
Commentary:
The authors indicate that “parental involvement, however, has no direct impact on achievement, but does reduce the likelihood of dropping out.” Lareau (1987) mentions that “Increasing parental participation in education has become a priority for educators, who believe it promotes educational achievement.” Between these different perspectives about parental involvement, one of them should be right. I do believe that parental involvement increases achievement because it is kind of encouragement and it helps students to achieve now in order to have a better life in the future.

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