Supra-individual factors that play a role in determining student success and ability to enroll in college are based on both cultural and socio-economic factors. Cultural factors include language, while socioeconomic factors include the ability to pay for costs related to receiving an education. Although the United States has a public school system that many can use for free, there are still associated costs with going to school, such as paying for extracurricular activities that give college applicants an advantage, or even costs associated with raising children such as day care, transportation and nutrition, all of which can have an impact on a child’s ability to focus and attend school.
The supra-individual cultural factor that most readily plays a role in education access is knowledge of the English language. Despite not being an official language of the United States, a native understanding of English is often essential for performing well at school and on standardized tests. Even though many primary schools offer education in other languages, such as the prevalence of Spanish-speaking primary schools in numerous regions, the most dominant language in the American educational system is still English. Many college entrance exams require essays written in English, and nearly all higher education itself is conducted in English. Therefore, a native understanding of English is often necessary to be considered for entry into more prestigious academic institutions, although this is not a formal requirement. The problem this creates is for individuals who do not speak English natively, college admittance becomes much more difficult. If children have parents who do not speak English at home, they are disadvantaged in their language skills when placed against children who do speak English at home (Kozol, 2012). Despite this inherent disadvantage, however, many entrance exams do not distinguish between non-native and native English speaking entrance exams, so there is an inherent inequality in how student potential is assessed. Affirmative action therefore seeks to even the field somewhat, although this remains an imperfect solution.
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"Racial Inequality and Affirmative Action Discussion".
The supra-individual socioeconomic factor that plays a role in education access is that raising children and funding an education costs significant amounts of money, even within a public education system (Thomas 2010). A privileged child will have access to paying for extracurricular activities; will not have to work as a teenager to support the family; and will often have proper supervision, particularly when the child is young. For the marginalized or disadvantaged child, none of these things are a certainty; the child may not be able to enroll in extracurricular activities such as sports or even non-sports teams and activities that require a traveling cost. Because extracurricular activities also play a role in how colleges perceive potential candidates, this is a disadvantage against college admission (Sociology in Focus, 2016). Children from low socioeconomic households will have less access to tutoring or other helpful services. Additionally, a teenager who has to work in order to help pay family bills will not have as much time to study, and his or her grades will suffer as a result despite the child’s natural intelligence. If young children lack proper supervision, or even parental support of schoolwork, then much of the child’s academic potential can similarly be wasted. There can even be health or behavior related problems caused by poor socioeconomic conditions the affect a child’s ability to learn.
Changes we can make at the local, state and national level would be to enact policies that seek to end socioeconomic disparities, as well as preserve programs such as affirmative action. These policies would include increasing funding for schools, so that they may offer more competitive wages to skilled teachers and provide for equipment and travel costs associated with extracurricular activities. At the local level, this can include fundraising measures and tax initiatives; at the state level, this would involve developing curriculum that is more readily understood by children, such as Common Core; and the national level can provide resources for the Department of Education, in order to boost funding for research. Of course, larger socioeconomic policies such as job creation efforts and tax breaks can help with some of the larger economic issues also affecting education. At the same time, programs such as affirmative action should remain in place, and there should be adequate funding spent on political resources that would protect or promote affirmative action in the educational system.
- Kozol, J. (2012). Savage inequalities: Children in America’s schools. Broadway Books.
- Sociology in Focus. (2016). Racial Educational Inequality and the Need for Affirmative Action. Accessible at http://sociologyinfocus.com/
- Thomas, R. R. (2010). From affirmative action to affirming diversity. Harvard business review, 68(2), 107-117.
