The gulf between students is widening
Good morning, afternoon, or whenever it is that you read this.
Every day in education is a different misadventure. I think this is common across most jobs in the service sector: you’re working with people every day and you never know what drama they’re bringing with them. Shit is hard as a teenager these days, and the peer pressure that comes from being at school often persists on Instagram, Discord, or whatever form of social media students are on.
I teach mostly Advanced Placement classes, but I also teach a general education class, and a co-teach class (a class that has a co-teacher to help manage accommodations of students who receive special education services). Over the past ten years I've been teaching in public education in Texas, I've gotten to see how students generally have shifted across all levels of academic rigor.
Mind you, these are just my observations. I will link to some supporting articles, but this is all anecdotal, based on my experiences and the experiences of other teachers I've spoken to. These observations are from a high school perspective.
Gaps Pre-COVID
You have always had gaps before the COVID pandemic. You could easily see this divide in class enrollment.
Advanced Placement and Honors students consistently turned in more assignments, were more likely to put effort into grade repair, and less likely to be disruptive in class. Most of the class will pass a test. AP students could be given a multi-page article to read and answer questions over in the course of a 50-minute class period. They would participate in class discussions and were willing to engage with the material. I regularly got full-length papers out of them. A few of them received free or reduced cost lunches. A lot of students are using their phones, but will generally put them away.
On-level students were a little more sloppy with getting work completed. Failure rates were usually between 10-20% at a six week period. About 60% of students would pass their tests, with most of the failures sitting around the 50s. Students would occasionally answer questions, and most would do their assignments. They could handle a one page assignment in a class period without too much difficulty. We had to make them write most of a paper for TELPAS (testing for students who receive language based services). Many of them (but not all of them) also received free or reduced-cost lunches. Students are glued to their phone, and often need to have them confiscated.
Gaps Post-COVID
AP students and Honors students generally turn in work, with about half of them completing an assignment on time, and the other half turning it in within a few days. Grades for these students have slowly recovered Post-COVID. These students are more likely to seek grade repair, and can generally complete a multi-page article assignment, but will get more of it incorrect. A few of them receive free or reduced lunches. Some of them try to use AI, and I'm sure some of them do, rather than engage with the material. Students still try to use their phones or technology inappropriately, but tend to play games like Wordle or Chess in higher numbers.
On-level classes generally maintain failing grades until the end of the grading period, when some of them manage to squeak into a 70. Around 20-25% of them consistently are not passing by the end of the marking period, with some of them managing to average out to passing at the semester. Calling home to try and get parent intervention on these cases often results in no answer. Some students just stop coming to school. The students balk at reading more than a paragraph, and struggle with any kind of creative output. A high proportion of these students receive free or reduced lunches. Students need to be redirected on phones constantly, and are often consuming AI slop.
Final thoughts
Performance gaps are nothing new and well documented. Quite a few kids are still decently motivated to engage with content and question the world around them. The education gap between students has only grown wider as time has gone on. You have students struggling to construct a basic sentence graduating along with students who have an associate degree before ever leaving their high school campus.
These numbers can fluctuate between different schools, but the results seem consistent: poverty has driven a huge gap between student achievement. Students who receive free or reduced lunches are less likely to read for leisure, less likely to try at school, and less likely to explore beyond their comfort zone intellectually. This is not due to an inherent lack of ability, but lack of access. Students from lower-income backgrounds are less likely to receive intellectual enrichment outside of school. This means fewer opportunities for exploration-based learning, exploring beyond their immediate surroundings, critical thinking, or interacting with differing cultures.
In addition, there is a digital divide even still today. There tend to be fewer computer or home internet access, with most internet interaction happening through a smartphone.
These families are less likely to have after school programs or expensive summer camps.
These disparities are found in both urban and rural schools. Rural students, however, also struggle with weaker internet infrastructure, lower school funding, and reduced access to higher education programs.
Ways forward
A lot of these problems are systemic in nature, caused by widening disparities between those considered 'economically disadvantaged' and those who are not.
There are some ideas of how schools could play a role in equalizing some of these disadvantages. Mississippi and some other southern states have had promising results with switching back to phonics-based instruction, identifying problems early, retaining students who are not able to pass a reading test, and using aggressive interventions to tutor students.
While these interventions have had success with lower-income students, they do not erase the education gap between students. Poverty correlates with reduced accessibility, which greatly harms student outcomes. Sweeping changes need to be taken to address these inequalities, or the specter of generational poverty will never be shaken.