Axia College Material Appendix D Educational Implications of Socioeconomic Status Matrix Directions: Based on your personal experiences and on the readings for this course, answer the questions in the green section of the matrix as they apply to each of the listed socioeconomic classes. Fill in your answers and post your final draft as an attachment to your Individual forum.
| Socioeconomic Classes| Questions| Unemployed and Homeless| Working Class| Middle Class| Upper Middle Class| Upper Class| Who is most likely to be a part of this socioeconomic class? The portion of the population who suffers the most from the lack of a stable incomeor other economic resources| People at the low end of the wage scale are the working poor. They do the jobsthat most persons with more education refuse to do. | Professionals, managers, and administrators are accorded higher prestige in societythan other white-collar workers. A major difference between these two groups isthe amount of control they have over their work and the work of others. White-collarclerical workers, technicians, and salespersons are usually supervised by theprofessionals, managers, or administrators.
Professionals, managers, and administrators are the elite of the middle class. They representthe status that many who are concerned with upward mobility are trying toreach. Their income level allows them to lead lives that are, in many cases, quite differentfrom those of white-collar and blue-collar workers. | The upper class is comprised of two groups. One group includes the individualsand families who control great inherited wealth; the other group includes top-leveladministrators and professionals. | How do teacher expectations positively or negatively impact this socioeconomic class? Many stereotypical notions about the poor need to be overcome for teachers toeffectively serve students who come from this background.
Such students shouldnot be blamed if they show acceptance, resignation, and even accommodation totheir poverty as they learn to live with their economic disabilities. | Rather than provide equal educational opportunity, many schools perpetuate existingsocial and economic inequities in society. | Most classrooms are heterogeneous in terms of student ethnicity, gender, religion, andability. Unfortunately, many teachers assign academic expectations to students on thebasis of their membership in these groups.
Students not classified as middle class areoften viewed as not able to achieve at high academic levels. | students from the upper middleclass usually benefit from a teacher’s judgments because they are expected to performbetter in school, are treated more favorably, and perform at a higher level inmost cases. | How does tracking positively or negatively impact this socioeconomic class? | Most homeless students are in school and regularly attending classes. | Some studies report that blue-collar workersare more likely to separate work and social activities than workers at other levels.They tend not to socialize with coworkers to the same degree as other workers butmaintain strong kinship ties with parents and siblings for social life.
| Although they are only slightly better off economicallythan their blue-collar counterparts, they live or try to live a more affluent lifestyle. | The incomes and opportunities to accumulate wealth are high for this groupcompared with the bulk of the population. Members of this class play an active rolein civic and voluntary organizations. | Wealth and income ensure power.The extremely small portion of the populationthat holds a vastly disproportionate share of the wealth also benefits disproportionatelywhen resources are distributed.
| How is financial support for schools serving this class different from or similar to from the other socioeconomic classes? | The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act requires public schools to provideeducational rights and protections for homeless children and youth, includingstudents who are living with relatives or friends because they have lost theirhousing. | Education is supported by local property taxes,which supply about 44% of all school funds. Same as working class| Same as working class| The few U. S.
students who live in high-income communitieswithin generous states attend public schools funded at $15,000 or more perstudent per year, whereas other students in poor communities within stingy statesare supported by $3,000 or less per year in funding for their schools. | How well does the curriculum reflect this socioeconomic class’s experience? Explain your answer. | Students from low-income families begin kindergarten with lower cognitiveskills than their peers in families with middle and high incomes. indergartners begin their schooling in the worst publicschools with low-quality teaching and discriminatory practices| The needs of business and industry are metby preparing students from low-income families for low-wage jobs that will bemanaged by college graduates from middle- and high-income families. | Students not classified as middle class areoften viewed as not able to achieve at high academic levels.
| Same as middle class| students from the upper middleclass usually benefit from a teacher’s judgments because they are expected to performbetter in school, are treated more favorably, and perform at a higher level inmost cases. What changes need to be made to the curriculum for this socioeconomic class to receive an equal educational opportunity? | The socialand economic conditions of their lives must be improved through higher wagesand social policies that support low-income families| Slavin (1995) recommends smaller class sizes, prekindergartenprograms for four-year-olds, tutoring for students having difficulty, cooperativelearning, family support systems, and extensive staff and teacher developmentfor delivering effective programs. Same as working class| Same as working class| Same as working class| 350- to 500-word Summary: Summary of current education socioeconomic classes and equality in the classroom. After reviewing the matrix and chapter 2 it seems that most schools and teachers are geared to the middle and upper classes. Ethnographic studies of schools document how students are classified, segregated, and taught differently, starting with their first days in school.
Most teachers can identify the personal characteristics of students that will lead to academic success.I agree the economic conditions of the unemployed and working class need to be improved through higher wages in order for them to become more productive in society. Smaller classrooms are a definite must and helping underdeveloped children through tutoring programs is must needed. If the teacher’s goal is to spend time with students in the lower group to ensure that they develop language and reading skills they will need to be successful in the first grade and their skills become less distinguishable from students in the higher groups, this grouping strategy would be successful.When teachers make such judgments about students, they are taking the first step in preventing students from having an equal opportunity for academic achievement. Rather than ensure that students have access to an egalitarian system, such classification and subsequent treatment of students ensures the maintenance of an inequitable system.
This action is not congruent with the democratic belief that all students can learn and should be provided equal educational opportunities. In helping to overcome the stigma of being poor, educators must consciously review their expectations for students.They should not further exacerbate students’ feelings of low esteem that often result because students have already learned that they do not have the same status as their middle-class peers. Seeing students as individuals, rather than as members of a specific socioeconomic group, may assist educators in overcoming the classism that exists in the school and the community.
Seeing the positive in a student and his or her hidden abilities or talents is something all teachers need to try and find in order to maintain an equal footing in the classroom.Realizing that all students have the ability to learn and that the teacher must find the right way to teach them is another way equality can be achieved. The financial aspect is to try and spread the money evenly through the poor and rich neighborhoods take away some of the competiveness that is present. Competition is good but only in certain cases not when it comes to education. References Gollnick, D. , & Chinn, P.
(2006). Multicultural education in a pluralistic society. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall.
