Kofi Hodge
Critical Perspectives in Urban Education
Professor Bristol
December 10, 2013
The Parenting Gap: A comparison of parenting and academic achievement:
The institution of schools does not act alone it encompasses the school itself, teachers, parents, students among other factors that work simultaneously with one another. Up until just recently, I placed much of the blame for teachers’ inability to be successful with minority students in a classroom, on the teachers' inability to communicate and relate to and with students. The students' own self-victimization and the ideology that a student of a particular race or ethnicity cannot perform well because of the stereotypes that come with that race or ethnicity also plays a role. Of the many factors, the role parents play in educational achievement is often overlooked, because many believe that the task of educating solely rests with the school and the teachers. Parental involvement in students’ education gradually decreases as early as the first grade. In addition with the implementation of test based accountability, lack of student achievement is being placed on teachers because tests don’t consider factors such as if a student “pays attention in class” or “attends school regularly” (Ravitch 2010). The decrease of parental involvement results in a decrease of parent expectations of the student and allows students to matriculate through school receiving mediocre grades and their parents never know. Seeing as though the many schools only contact parents when there is an issue, parents assume that if they don’t get a call then their child is doing well. In comparison to Asian American parenting, child rearing methods implemented by African American parents contribute to the lack of academic achievement found among African American students.
Many working class African American parents of have been classified as being “power assertive” and using physical punishment as a disciplinary method (Bluestone 1999). Less time is spent reasoning with children and the hierarchy between parent and child is clearly established. Many studies have found these to be attributed to parental depression. Depression is due to the many stress factors that plague working class African American parents such as the pressure to keep a job, and pay bills among other things. Bluestone asserted that positive forms of parenting can be found within families living with low risk factors and that depression in the context of other risk factors may exacerbate harsher forms of parenting.
In addition, the community and environment play a big role in parenting. Many working class African American parents rely on the community to help raise the child, similar to what is seen in the Kindezi Kongo Art of Babysitting book. In the book, Bunseki (1988) illustrates how adolescence have the responsibility of taking care of the younger children while the parents work and attend other duties. This resembles the natural growth methods seen in many of the lower income families in Lareau’s “Unequal Childhoods”. With Natural growth children experience a life that is less structured, and embraces an extended family dynamic which helps them to develop their own independence (Lareau 2003). This independence gives the child autonomy to do much of what they want without the supervision of a parent due to the parent being at work or handling other matters. Financial constraints are a characteristic found among working class parents which makes it difficult for them to enroll their children in sports and other activities. Instead many engage in child initiated play (Lareau 2003) which isn’t exclusive to any particular setting. Children will play inside, outside, or anywhere that is available. With this absence of the parent one can infer that they will also be very detached from their child’s education. This lack of parent accountability detrimentally affects students’ academic achievement.
According to Stevenson and Stigler’s “The Learning Gap”, American children do better than Asian students at the younger stages in life because the effort American parents put into their child’s early education and cognitive learning is much greater than that of Asians (Stevenson, Stigler 1992). American families have higher statistics concerning at home reading, and alphabet & number learning, while parents in other cultures, such as the Chinese and Japanese, usually contradict those of their American counterpart in similar areas. In addition, American parents have been known to purchase toys and games to stimulate the child's mind. One might buy a toy that hangs over an infant’s crib, or a book that talks, all of which aid the cognitive learning experience. The early cognitive exposure American parents give to their children between infancy and middle childhood leads to much success on the pre-school level.
Despite this early success, statistics from an international assessment taken in 2009 show that students, age 15, in the US rank 14th in reading, 17th in science and 25th in math, behind countries such as South Korea, Finland, Japan, and China. The US’s statistics on the national level are a reflection of their statistics on the international level. Asian students excel past American students on the international level and Asian-American students excel past White, African-American and Hispanic students on a national level. Asian-American students show higher proficiencies than other students, as early as the first grade. This achievement gap is consistent from first grade to the collegiate level and can be attributed to many factors including parenting methods, socio-economic status, and school availability of resources. Among those factors, parenting methods used by Asian parents have the most significant effects on long term academic achievement.
Most would think the early parenting methods of typical American parents would yield much long term academic success. In addition to the aforementioned statements, American parents also are more likely than parents in other cultures to take growing infants out into large social settings and enroll their children in day cares and pre-kindergarten programs as a head start. Studies of African American parenting methods revealed that their parenting tactics “portrayed them as expecting unrealistic levels of obedience, engaging in high levels of power assertions and low levels of reasoning, and having low tolerance for child input” (Bluestone 1999). With the brain consuming more in the first three years of life than any other, it is reasonable to believe that a child’s earliest experiences will affect him or her in the latter stages of childhood development. This raises debate as to how much of a child is to be expected and how high of the level of expectations should be imposed on a child by his or her parents. By imposing early cognitive learning through repetition with numbers, alphabets and etc., the brain of American students is trained to respond to drilling and more systematic ways of learning but not necessarily understanding and being able to apply what they have learned. For example, one study tested the effectiveness of mathematic automaticity. Two approaches were used in order to test, one where students are “grounded in the use of strategies for teaching facts, the other emphasizes the use of timed practice drills” (Woodward 2006). Students who used the first approach were better at explaining the processes and application than the students who were given the second approach. This early cognitive learning is in no way detrimental to students’ long-term achievement but the absence of this rearing long term takes away from the students’ continued success. America stresses the importance of early childhood education and early rearing but fails to apply an equal emphasis on children's' long term academic expectations. Although this problem exists, a shift in culture and economy would be necessary to make changes. America’s economy flourishes from land, labor, and capital, more specifically its industries and businesses. With the country so industrialized, having goals of only becoming more industrialized, it has become known as a place off opportunity where most people work. According to the United States Department of Labor, over 5% of American Citizens work multiple jobs and work on average 42.5 hours a week. This doesn’t leave much time for parents to get involved in their child's education.
This time spent working takes away from the reading time and other things that the parent was able to offer to the child before. Parents aren't able to get involved, and in some cases, simply don’t assert themselves enough to attempt to. Many American parents involve themselves with their children's education as a response of disciplinary action, usually as a result of a phone call home or when the child receives a bad grade. Parents assume nothing is wrong if they aren’t contacted by the school, and are content with their children's grades so long as they don’t receive a bad report. There is no push to excel, so long as the student is not failing.
Since the expectations for academic achievement have not been raised and parents have not been held accountable, it becomes more than plausible for one to think that a student could matriculate through school receiving mediocre grades at every level and the parent not know. This parental involvement has become something that is foreign in American culture, and has been a task given to the school and teachers to handle. Results from a study on students in early secondary school concluded that "achievement gains are significantly higher in schools where teachers take collective responsibility for students success or failure rather than blaming students for their own failure" (Lee and Smith 1996). While it is important for teachers to take responsibility for their students’ achievement, this collective responsibility must also be shared with the parents.
The lack of parental involvement is detrimental to not only to students’ ability to achieve, but also the teachers ability to relate to students. Although the lack in connection between student and teacher does not always hinder the teacher’s ability to instruct, it does however, make it difficult for them to help students learn. This results in subpar grades and is usually seen as a reflection of the teacher’s abilities, when it should also be assessed as a reflection of the level of parental involvement.
American parents expectations are more driven by their children’s ability to “be successful in other ways including social acceptance, appearance, prowess in sports, and thinking skills” (Stevenson and Stigler 1988). Social acceptance, appearance and the like have all been put on pedestals in American media, and portray unrealistic imagery that can only be reality on the screens or on the pages. Many emulate the characters they see or read about because many are more comfortable being accepted than being educated. Wanting to feel more inclusive in social circles has its drawbacks, particularly in levels of education and the ability to exceed in academic areas. This is seen more in African American students, but is a trend among many Americans. Asian parents’ methods are different. They believe that children during what they call “The Age of Innocence”, which is from birth to six years, are “angels” and allow early cognitive learning that “maintains a child’s interests and curiosity rather than teach a particular fact (Stevenson and Stigler 1988). Asian parents allow students to build the social aspects of their lives during the age of innocence because they assume young children lack cognitive competence and the ability to simply learn from abstract concepts (1988). When the age of innocence is over though, Asian children, Chinese and Japanese in particular enter the “age of reason” which starts with an abundance of controversy for the children. They must change from having a life of freedom and indulgence, to learning more routine mannerisms and disciplines. When Asian Parents begin to get involved in their child’s education the “American parents believe the school should take on many of the responsibilities they had previously assumed themselves” (1988). The demand for American students to do well doesn’t progress as they do. They transition on but don’t excel past Asian students anymore because the expectations parents have for them are still at the level of the kindergarten foundation they received earlier.
While Asian Americans have adopted some of American culture, the traditional values of "family over self, self-control to achieve societal goals, and appreciation of one’s cultural heritage"(Julian 1994) all remain intact. The fact that Asian Americans value their culture so much allows them to keep a strong grasp on the traditional parenting methods. Asian students’ long term academic achievement can be attributed mainly to the persistence of Asian parents’ involvement beyond the first grade. "Asian parents regard doing well in school as the single most important task facing their children", (Stevenson and Stigler 1988) which is why they invest so much time into making sure their children are academically successful.
The difference in culture and lifestyle is what drives Asian parents to invest in their children's' education. In traditional Asian culture, mothers are primary caregivers and fathers are breadwinners. More specifically, in Japanese culture, the father works almost every day while the mother takes responsibility for the child's education. Rather than "urging him to study, or attempting to teach academic skills" (Stevenson and Stigler 1988), Japanese mothers guide the interest of their children, which allows the child to understand content better. It is no secret that one will excel more in subjects that one is more interested in, and by guiding that interest rather than simply helping them with everything, one is able to retain more of what they are learning. Although the mother is a "provider of a nurturing and protected atmosphere for learning" (Stevenson and Stigler 1988), they may still work. Regardless of the time spent at work, mothers still sustain a level of responsibility for their children's education. This initiative taken by the families is what leads to long term academic success for students and is the same initiative that many African American families lack.
Lastly, the quality of public education in America is not as stellar in comparison to those in other countries. The teaching profession in America has simply become a job, and has diminished from the prestige it once had. The task of being a teacher should be put on a high pedestal because the education of the leaders of the future should be taken more seriously. Parents believe the task of educating solely rests with the teacher and school, due to the fact that the profession is seen as a just another job. America employs many teachers who are degree qualified, but lack experience and many of the other intangibles necessary to be an effective teacher. Because parents aren't held accountable, teacher quality is seen as the single most important variable influencing student achievement (Goldhaber 2005). In addition, America has not made the teaching profession one that is desired. The growing economy of America has made its citizens build a reliance on money, and the teaching profession has become less desirable because of the ideology that teachers don't receive adequate pay. The pay teachers receive depends on the resources available. Due to cuts in the budget for education, the scarcity of resources has become a problem in many school districts. This results in the lack of updated textbooks, the ability to integrate technology, and the inability to pay for quality teachers among many other things.
Based off cultural norms, and parenting tendencies across nations, the American student is disservice by many of the patterns American parents follow in regards to education. As parents seek to balance work and home life, the African American student is often left alone to mature academically, and parental involvement only comes as a means of disciplinary actions. The parenting practices of working class African Americans illustrates why the responsibility of educating cannot solely rest with schools. It is very important that the parent accountability among other factors be sustained throughout the lifespan of a child’s education.