Income Inequality In Education

Barack Obama’s administration has “focus[ed] all efforts” on the rising income inequality that is affecting the United States economy. Income inequality refers to the extent of unequal distribution of income across a population. According to Emmanuel Saez, an economics professor at UC-Berkeley, “U.S. income inequality has been increasing steadily since the 1970s,” partly due to the rise of single-parent families, but mostly from a rise in demand for highly-educated workers following the post-industrial era. This shift from the individual consumption of material goods toward services has resulted in the growing employment in the tertiary sector (service sector) paired with an increase in postsecondary education.// Since research has shown that parental involvement in education is beneficial for students, regardless of income, with the help of government policies aimed towards better education, we may be able to slow the growing income
Higher achievement can be measured through student grades, attendance, retention rate, graduation rate, and attendance in advanced courses. In addition, parental involvement is linked to motivational, cognitive, social, and behavioral benefits such as: “personal competence and efficacy for learning[,]...perception of personal control over school outcomes[,]...and beliefs about the importance of education.” However, despite the proposed benefits of parental involvement in students education, “researchers agree that rates of parental involvement are lower in low-income communities than in higher income school’s,” and thus low-income students are not experiencing these proposed