Week 12

 Explaining Unequal Achievement

This topic explains the factors that contribute to unequal achievement among school students in academic achievement at school. In this discussion, I will be focusing on the social class factor. Social class is defined as a set of concepts in the social sciences and political theory centred on models of social stratification in which people are grouped into a set of hierarchical social categories; upper, middle and lower classes. A huge gap in school achievement has been attributed by students socioeconomic background. Hence, this factor has reduced students' opportunities to excel in their studies. According to Bernstein, children from the upper and middle-class social background find it easier to adapt with the school system than the children from the working class. It is because the language used and the social norm at school serve better their comprehension. According to Connell (1994), children from working-class, poor and minority ethnics families continue to do worse than children from high and middle-class families on tests and examinations. Also, children from the working class are more likely to drop out of school earlier and are much less likely to enter college or university. This information proves that children from low-income families face higher risks in many areas of their development, especially in academic performance. However, we cannot deny the fact that there are some children from low-income homes that excel academically despite their disadvantaged environment.