Role of Socioeconomics in Education

Abstract Public schools have been reviewing the disparaging statistics relating to achievement gap within the school systems. Giant strides in education reform have been taken in the past few decades in attempt to alleviate the problem. With the goal to raise the achievement levels of all students, especially underperforming groups, and to close the achievement gap that parallels race and class distinction, legislation such as No Child Left Behind has been developed. Even with these vast initiatives, the gap still seems to grow. Certain uncontrollable barriers still and always will exist and no matter what standards are put into place; teachers will not be able to overcome their influence. This study will research and illustrate the affects socioeconomics has on students’ achievement levels. Students from low-income families oftentimes have poor living conditions, poor health and hygiene, poor nutrition and hunger, experience lack of sleep and have limited access to technology. These distinct issues caused by socioeconomics inevitably impact a child’s ability to learn, thus causing their academic performance to be lower than that of their peers from higher socioeconomic classes