What “Counts” as Educational Policy? Notes toward a New Paradigm

 What “Counts” as Educational Policy? Notes toward a New Paradigm 

By: Jean Anyon 

Argument: The author argues that low income levels can contribute to less success academically and primarily sets students up barriers in life. Firstly, mentioning urban schools have less resources and worse conditions compared to suburban schools. Through studies,  he explains a cycle of disadvantage commonly occurring in low income students, predominantly Latinos or African Americans. Various factors like poverty level wages and not enough income for college can leave them in the hole. He stresses that rules and regulations need to be put in place to increase minimum wage pay and housing segregation.  Furthermore, providing new research that families with financial assistance had a higher rate of their child carrying out college education as opposed to families without modest income.  

Demonstrates generation failure from schools 

Breaking the cycle of poverty

Chatgpt generated this image in with the two prompts “with my argument [inserted what I wrote] can you generate an image for me generations low poverty effecting what Anyon advocates for” and then “can you make it more like a cycle and less writing more education based” 

Reflection: Overall, this piece resonated with me deeply. Being a student, I have seen the behaviors and stress some of my peers like he was referring to. Having extreme pressure for me to have excellent grades made me vigilant in the classroom. On top of it, as an introspective thinker, I paid attention to injustices in my school. Also, I attended a high school with various income levels and ethnicities. At times, I could see underprivileged male students were predominantly ones to misbehave and act out in class. I truly believe that they act out because they are frustrated in their life circumstances, the cycle of disadvantage I described. In my heart, I believe they act out subconsciously to resist the system and unfair barriers in education it takes loads to overcome. Not to mention, lower income students have stress coming from home. In my own classes, I see teachers choose to remain ignorant to their struggles and their expectants shrink when they see the homework is not done, or they perform poorly on. Instead of urban based teachers giving up on their students, my take on this is that they should step up and advocate for their education. This reading reminded me of a research paper I wrote for my write 106 class, when I was in a different major. Which is such a truly full circle moment for me. And it shows me following my calling, ready to save lives.

Comments: The evidence pushing towards higher minimum wage pay was not strong in this piece. Using words like “not significantly” or a little higher did not convince me that increasing the minimum wage would not harm businesses or increase inflation. His idea was something I believed too and then after research for a project, I came to the conclusion it might not be feasible. However, the families that need it can qualify for higher minimum pay without discrimination in the hiring process. That way, young adults who come from a stable family do not wreck the economy.