I live in a fairly affluent section of America. Our high school is the largest in the Commonwealth, with 3400. With a wide range of aptitudes and ambitions. Many of our graduates attend the Ivies (and the elite state schools like Michigan, Virginia, etc.)… and some are recent (legal and illegal) immigrants lacking formal schooling and/or a foundation in English. Some are among the 1%… both at the top and bottom of the spectrum.

Our school system is also one where we spend an inordinate amount of money on education. On the order of $18K per student (in case you don’t know, the national average- including Mississippi and Louisiana [the worst spenders and educators] is closer to $ 11k), we also have the dubious distinction of being ranked by Forbes as the worst bang for the buck among school systems in the US. Part of that is due to the fact that we teach kids in a plethora of languages forever- because there is no rule they have to learn to read and speak English well. (OK. There may be a rule- but it’s not enforced.)

Yet, we have entire segments of our population – as does the rest of the US- that simply fail to master the basic skills we teach in school. It’s not the size of the class, the quality of the teachers, or the books and methods we use. (No, I am not saying they don’t count at all. It’s just that they don’t count as much.)

The first handicap- and the one issue we’ve heard since I was a tyke- is parental involvement. It’s not just caring about your kids- because most parents do. It’s being involved to make sure homework is done. It’s having the time- and the energy- to read to kids, to talk with them and listen.

Affluent adults spend about 1/3 more time reading to their kids than do the poorer parents. The affluents (yes, I’ll use that fake term) work with their kids to develop literacy skills. They tend to be less authoritarian, leaving their kids with more choices- and to learn to be responsible for those choices.

I didn’t invent these statistics. Leila Morsy and Richard Rothstein of the Economic Policy Institute have published their study, Five Social Disadvantages That Depress Student Performance: Why Schools Alone Can’t Close Achievement Gaps.

Another aspect has been discussed ad infinitum. Lead exposure. I can’t believe this is still a factor- yet it continually keeps popping up. While only 1% of all US kids have excessive lead levels in their blood, it still is higher in the poorer neighborhoods (4% or so). It’s not just from paint on the walls (and it’s no longer in automotive exhaust, either, due to changes in our gasoline formulations), but from the lead in the water pipes that haven’t been upgraded in those neighborhoods. So, it permeates the drinking water the kids have each and every day. And, that leads to brain damage.

The next factor is (in my mind) related to parenting. Those kids from poorer homes have folks with erratic job schedules. I’ve written about this– with the employers using just-in-time scheduling, which means the kids have no consistent routine, problems with in-home care, etc.

Which is compounded when so many of these at-risk kids are in single parent households. Even with erratic scheduling, if there are two parents, there’s a chance for consistency, a chance for parental care and involvement. But, in single parent homes, the kids are more likely to drop out of school, have lower test scores, and other problems. Let’s remember, that when affluent women decide to have kids without being married, they have the funds for nannies, for extra care. The poorer households lack these capabilities.

Finally, the last factor is health care access. While Obamacare (PPACA) may be making this less of an issue, it still factors into the educational capabilities of the child. A child’s illness- and the inability to obtain proper care- means days missing from school. And, those absences- given all the other factors above- hurt their chances. It’s one of the reasons why HeadStart is still better for kids than Sesame Street, as I discussed two Fridays ago.

So, no matter what we do with our schools and our books, if we don’t address these issues, we still won’t get those scores where we want them for all our kids.