Inequality in Children's Cognitive Development and Social-Economic Status - Assignment Example

Running Head: Absenteeism Rates Absenteeism Rates Customer’s Name: Customer’s Course: Tutor’s Name: August 6th, 2012 Introduction Over the years, school psychologists have had a great problem while dealing with student absenteeism involving individual and school level. The increasing rate of students being absent from school has caused a great impact on the students attainment being weak. This has also been attributed to the social economic gap that exists between the high and low status groups (Entwisle, Alexander &Oslon. 1997).Over the past years, research conducted indicates that there is a strong relationship that exists between children cognitive abilities and the social class. This is usually noted at the early stages of school life and as a child progresses in school, their academic development starts to decline due to their frequent absenteeism. Absenteeism can be termed as a situation in which a student is absent from school due to both reasonable and unreasonable cases. In this literature review, we are going to sample the reasons and effects of absence in class and examine the relationship between links associated with children’s social class, absenteeism in class and whether it affects the overall academic growth of a child (Ready, 2010). In this review we will take a broad look at the way National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests is applied in Perth primary schools and in this we are going to make a comparison on the absenteeism rates in the low social economic and high social economic primary schools (Entwisle, Alexander & Oslon. 1997) The article concludes by considering how various authors take absenteeism rates according to the research conducted in various schools in dealing with absenteeism problems. In all this the aim is to know the applicability of NAPLAN as a testing procedure and if it is proving to be successful as a tool for teachers. Discussion From the literature provided, it is evident that there are differences between the attendances of school during test (NAPLAN) based on the socioeconomic background of the pupil. Causes of school absenteeism in Perth during tests The major cause of absenteeism is the socioeconomic background of the pupil. It is observed that those learners who come from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds have a tending of skipping school during the examination time (Entwisle, Alexander & Olson, 1997). Though such a cohort of learners is associated with high literacy levels as compared to their counterpart with high socioeconomic backgrounds, they fail to sit for the test due to a number of facts. The most outing cause is the fact that due to the repeated absenteeism from school during normal learning days, pupils gradually loss their literacy levels. Due to this, they are either willingly or unwilling made to skip the tests so as to avoid pulling down the average results for other students. Nevertheless, not all the parents of such pupils concur with such proposals. The reason for this “compulsory” skipping of test mostly the NAPLAN test is because; the NAPLAN is used to grade all the schools within Perth during the year. Therefore, if teachers feel that some students are not performing well in some of the subject (like math); they send a letter to the pupil’s parent/guardian requesting him or her to allow the student to sit for test for the subjects that the pupil is proficient with (Klenowski, Wyat & Smith, 2011). By so doing, the teachers make sure that the results published by My School website are not low. Though not every parent/guardian concur with the proposal, majority of them agree. These practices are mostly exercised by private and Catholic schools in Perth; a clear difference between the low and high socioeconomic backgrounds. It is however noted that, not only do pupils miss school because of socioeconomic background but also because of lack of interest with learning. Sociological and psychological perspectives of absenteeism both indicate that pupils’ lack of interest with schooling or some of the subjects learnt in school is a contributor to school skiving. In particular, regardless of the socioeconomic status of the pupils’ family, some of them will miss school because of reasons associated with schooling practices (Ready, 2010). However, more concern is given to pupils who do not attend to school because of socioeconomic status. It is well noted that socioeconomic status of a particular family dictates the kind of lifestyle they will associate with. This means that, the higher the economic status the higher the lifestyle. The lifestyle again dictates the school which the children will attend to. More often than not, high economically families will enroll their children to good (high ranking) schools while low economically families will enroll their children to public school. It is evident that school differ in performance depending on whether they are; private, public and Christian schools. Those who attend to private and Christian schools have a high tendency of excelling well than their colleagues in public schools (Ready, 2010). Though there is a criticism that both private and Christian schools train their pupils the concepts that will be assessed in the main exams, much emphases is been put to critically reveal the differences based on the syllabus coverage. With low socioeconomic status, pupils tend to miss school because they do not receive health services that are of high standard. This eventually contributes to missing in school not only in learning sessions but also during tests and examinations. Another major cause of absenteeism in school during test is the fear of examinations. Most pupils who feel that they are not properly prepared for examinations skip school to avoid the embarrassment of sitting for the test and failing. This fact added to the fact that some teacher are requesting some pupils not to sit for test have contributed allot to the absenteeism in school (Entwisle, Alexander & Olson, 1997). Test absenteeism is also caused by the perception of principal that NAPLAN is an unfair educational assessment tool. Likewise, this attitude is picked up by socially disadvantaged parents who would not want their children to undergo a stressing test Finally, though disability is not inability, children who are disabled regularly miss school due to lack of proper assistance and encouragement from both parents and teacher. It is not a wonder that a disabled pupil spends his/her day at home just because she/he did not have someone to take her/him to school (Klenowski, Wyat & Smith, 2011). Most of such cases are common among the disabled pupils’ whose families are not economically stable. Nevertheless, there are special schools for persons with disability and which offer transportation for their pupils. However, as noted above not every parent can afford to enroll his/her disabled child/children to such schools; so they are left with no other chose but to enroll them to local (low ranking) schools where there is chronic rates of absenteeism during learning days and examination/test time. Effect of NAPLAN test Absenteeism on students and the education system Research on absenteeism from schools show that prolonged absenteeism from schools may have a negative effect on a child’s educational attainment and future life. This follows then that higher absenteeism rates in Perth schools from lower SES during NAPLAN testing will mean the students involved in will not achieve a good level of attainment in their education (Carroll, 2010). The students will not feel the pressure that comes with national tests and thus will not be able to improve performance during the next NAPLAN assessment. In addition, missing of NAPLAN tests will also have a number of indirect negative effects on their learning and the Australian educational system. Caroll (2010) found out that between age 7-11 up to half a year of absenteeism resulted to more than 0.7 year reduction in mathematics and reading skills. According to Carroll (2010) the development of a student’s numeracy and literacy skill depends on the instruction the student receives at school. Thus, if a student misses out on a test he does not realize the objective of instruction intended by the curriculum. The student also has to sit for the NAPLAN test on another occasion while other students are receiving instruction. Additionally, teachers will not also feel the intended effects of NAPLAN testing as they will are less likely to assist weak students whose attainment won’t be tested. Intentional NAPLAN absenteeism has also been credited for soiling the image of the Australian educational system Australian education is viewed as discriminatory as students from other diverse cultures who do not speak English as their foreign language are the ones most likely to be faced by learning difficulties. Instead of assisting the students to overcome their handicap schools recommend their absenteeism on the day of the test. This state of affairs worsens Socio-economic inequality as students from more resource endowed background do not have to undergo this discrimination. Ready (2010) notes that students from low SES background start off better in kindergarten than peers from more advantaged background but later their educational attainment is lower. Even though Schools provide an excellent platform for socially disadvantaged students to catch up with peers from higher SES in educational assessment this never happens as the educational system through assessments like NAPLAN and unethical absenteeism for the test suggested by tutors undermine their capability to learn. These practices are contrary to Howes (2011) who proposes that schools should accommodate all people near their boundary. Lower grades for students who are absent from school is also related to the teachers perception of the students ability to learn. In a situation where a student is prevented from sitting a test because he will affect the schools overall grade negatively affects the student’s confidence. In future instances, the student is likely to perform poorly as his self-confidence is depleted. This apparent circumvention of NAPLAN’s assessment has also led to the discrediting of the assessment system. The system is accused of heavily relying on Literacy and Numeracy scores while ignoring other areas of a student’s life in school including sporting and art. Teachers have been at the forefront of opposing NAPLAN’s system of publishing school results and ranking schools as it does not represent a true picture of the schools performance. The Australian education system is also under threat as intentional absenteeism is the same as cheating which discredits the system. Requests for withdrawal of children from NAPLAN tests have also increased tension between parents and teachers making their working relationship harder. In a case where a teacher asks a parent to request that a student be withdrawn from the NAPLAN test any future interactions will be affected by the teachers perception of their offspring as a failure. This eventuality further affects the future performance of a student who misses a NAPLAN test. Conclusion With the above considerations in mind and the examinations undertaken, it is then true to say that the inequality experienced in children’s’ cognitive development is strongly influenced by the social economic position of the children. Using the lens of summer learning loss theory, it is evident that formal schooling has a strong impact on the academic growth of the socioeconomically disadvantaged children (Carroll, 2010). To equalize the effects of schooling, there is the need for public schools to narrow the socioeconomic differences in the academic outcome and the solution suggested would be to increase the rate of attendance in SES children (Ready, 2010). With an increase in socioeconomic separation there will be a tendency of children attending schools of their peers hence no development in interaction. In the research conducted, school absenteeism is most prevalent during early mathematics learning but this has no effect on the social class of the student. There is a great gap created by the two social classes but this can be mended by reconsidering the services offered to the needy children and this can be through increasing the attendance rate among the SES children where there will be improved and quality day care and medical services for children in kindergarten. This will bridge the gap of educational inequality by ensuring all students no matter the social status attend school (Ready, 2010). Using the NAPLAN testing to assess students has allowed comparison with other schools hence has been of great help in this literature review. References Carroll. H.(2010).The Effect of Pupil Absenteeism on Literacy and Numeracy in the Primary School School Psychology International 31: 115 Entwisle, D. R.., Alexander, K. L. & Olson, S.L. (1997). Children, Schools, and Inequality. Boulder, CO: West view Press. Ferrari, J. (2011, April). School urges students to skip tests, The Australian, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/education/school-urges-students-to-skip-tests/story-fn59nlz9-1226036879991 Klenowski, V., Wyat, C & Smith. T, (2011) .The impact of high stakes testing: the Australian story, Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, pp. 1-15 Ready, D. (2010) Socioeconomic Disadvantage, School Attendance, and Early Cognitive Development: The Differential Effects of School Exposure Sociology of Education83(4): 271–286 Wagner J (1997) The Unavoidable Intervention of Educational Research: A framework for reconsidering researcher-practitioner cooperation. Educational Researcher 26/7 pp 13-22. Read More