Living Situation

The Effect of Home Life on Academic Performance

If our goal is to create a student centered classroom we must understand that the student is the sum total of all of their life experiences.  Students are in school for only a fraction of their day and year, so understanding the living situation of students is an invaluable tool for teachers.  The many factors that affect students outside the school can have a significant influence on their academic success (Koppich, n.d.).  

Research by James Coleman in the 1960’s inspired decades of research into how student success is affected by factors outside of school.  They generally came to the conclusion that outside factors do exert a powerful influence on academic success, but that they are not necessarily deterministic of it (Koppich, n.d.).  Meaning here that students that seemed doomed by their circumstance can succeed academically and students that seem destined to succeed may fail (Koppich, n.d.).  In either circumstance, ignoring the living and home life of students is unwise at best and a detriment to learning at worst.  

In this section, we will look at three factors involved in living situation and school connection:

• Parental Involvement / Treatment

• Socio-Economic Status and Poverty

• The Digital Divide

Parental Involvement

Decades of research point to the fact that beyond many factors, parental involvement in a student’s academic life is a great predictor of academic success (Brooks, 2019).  Furthermore, what parents believe about the importance (or unimportance) of education has a direct effect on student academic achievement (Koppich, n.d.).  One study reported that 97% of students with A’s or B’s said they received encouragement from parents (Koppich, n.d.).  Here are some practical ways that Ashley Brooks (2019) recommends for useful parental involvement:

1. Be present at school when possible.

2. Show interest in kids’ schoolwork.

3. Keep a positive attitude towards education

Check out this video about rethinking parent involvement in schools:

Conversely, if positive interaction by and with parents provides a positive student outcome, maltreatment at home can have a notable negative effect.  In one study of public schools in Michigan showed that early childhood maltreatment was connected to significantly lower outcomes academically (Jacob & Ryan, 2018).  In that study, performance gaps were large between students that had been investigated for maltreatment and those who had not.  The figure below breaks down the information of what demographic groups reported maltreatment at home.

Socio-Economic Status and Poverty

The economic status and situation of students at home is intertwined to school performance.  

Poverty takes a toll on students' school performance. Poor children are twice as likely as their more affluent counterparts to repeat a grade; to be suspended, expelled, or drop out of high school; and to be placed in special education classes (Koppich, n.d., para. 11).

A report by The Children’s Defense Fund (2020) found that currently 1 in 6 children in America live in poverty making them the poorest group in the country.  Currently, 17% of children in the United States are living in poverty (Kids Count Data Center. 2019).  A full table of the last ten years of child poverty rates is shown below.

Here are some links that address teaching students experiencing poverty:

• Push, Don't Pity, Students in Poverty by Sarah McKibben (2018).

• For Teachers of Children Living in Poverty, The End of the Year Brings Mixed Emotions by Justin Minkel (2019).

• 5 Concrete Ways to Help Students Living in Poverty by Wynita Harmon (2018).
  
  

The Digital Divide

The digital divide is the term describing the gap between people and students that have access to modern communication and information technology and those who do not (Steele, 2019).  In general there are three main types of digital divides world wide:

1. A Gender Divide: According to a 2013 study, nearly 1.2 billion women in low and mid income countries have no internet access (Steele, 2019).  

2. A Social Divide: “ ...internet usage has influenced social stratification which is evident in societies among those that are connected to the internet and those that are not. Non-connected groups are sidelined since they don’t share in the internet benefits of the connected groups” (Steele, 2019, para. 7).

3. Universal Access Divide: Access to the internet and technology may be hindered by geographic location (as in rural areas), education and digital literacy, income levels, and accessibility issues for differently abled people (Steele, 2019).

Check out these videos about the digital divide in education:

References

Brooks, A. (2019, November 18). Experts Discuss the Importance of Positive Parental Involvement in Education. Rasmussen College. Retrieved from https://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/education/blog/parental-involvement-in-education/#:~:text=Research from the National Coalition,and adapt well to school.”

Children’s Defense Fund. (2020). The State of America's Children 2020 (Rep.). Retrieved https://www.childrensdefense.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/The-State-Of-Americas-Children-2020.pdf

Freethink. (2020, July 11). The Digital Divide, Explained [video]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMi3ky04XqY

Harmon, W. (2018). 5 Concrete Ways to Help Students Living in Poverty [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://theartofeducation.edu/2018/09/11/5-concrete-ways-to-help-students-living-in-poverty/

Jacob, B. A., & Ryan, J. (2018). How Life Outside of School Affects Student Performance in School. Economics Studies at Brookings, 2, 44th ser. Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/research/how-life-outside-of-a-school-affects-student-performance-in-school/

Kids Count Data Center. (2019). Child poverty statistics in the U.S. Retrieved from https://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/tables/43-children-in-poverty-100-percent-poverty#detailed/1/any/false/1729,37,871,870,573,869,36,868,867,133/any/321,322

Koppich, J. E. (n.d.). Out-of-School Influences and Academic Success - Background, Parental Influence, Family Economic Status, Preparing for School, Physical and Mental Health. Retrieved from https://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2306/Out-School-Influences-Academic-Success.html

McKibben, S. (2018). Push, Don't Pity, Students in Poverty. Education Update, 60(1). Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/newsletters/education-update/jan18/vol60/num01/Push,-Don't-Pity,-Students-in-Poverty.aspx

Minkel, J. (2019, April 30). For Teachers of Children Living in Poverty, The End of the Year Brings Mixed Emotions. Education Week. Retrieved from https://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2019/04/30/for-teachers-of-children-living-in-poverty.html

Steele, C. (2019, February 22). What is the Digital Divide? Digital Divide Council. Retrieved from http://www.digitaldividecouncil.com/what-is-the-digital-divide/

Tedx. (2019, June 26). How do we bridge the digital divide sustainably? | Mike Lindsay | TEDxThessaloniki [video]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwhhlNBnMrg

Today. (2020, June 8). Inequality In America: A Look At The Digital Divide In Home Schooling | TODAY [video]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6Th2UEsHZs

UIC College of Education. (2014, May 19). Parent Involvement in Education [video]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0973bx1bA8Y

Image Attributions

Living Situation image created by Design Circle from Noun Project.