Public education was originally designed to be a great
equalizer in American society, redistributing opportunities to children
from less advantageous backgrounds and thus increasing
social mobility. From the Common School movement of the 1840s to the
GI Bill of the 1940s, reformers sought to level the
playing field, enhance economic productivity, and strengthen democratic
citizenship by making education available on a mass
scale. Despite these hopeful beginnings, recent evidence suggests that
schools may no longer be narrowing the gap between the
“haves” and the “have-nots.”
Over the past two generations, the difference
in educational achievement between the children from poor families and
that
of children from wealthy families has grown
substantially. Whether we look at standardized test scores, college
admission,
or college graduation, the achievement gaps between
children from upper-middle-class families and children from
working-class
families are steadily increasing. Today, the income
gap in test scores is 40 percent larger than it was three decades ago
(Reardon 2011).
For high-income students, the college graduation rate increased by 18
percentage points over the past two decades; in contrast,
the graduation rate of low-income students grew by
only 4 percentage points (Bailey and Dynarski 2011). Moreover, wealthy students make up an increasing share of the enrollment at the most selective and prestigious four-year
institutions (Reardon, Baker, and Klasik 2012), while low-income students with similar test scores and academic records are more likely to attend two-year colleges (Alon 2009; Hoxby and Avery 2012).
Discussions and debates about the state of
education in America often focus on standardized test scores and “core
competencies,”
but a great deal of evidence suggests that it is not
only what happens inside the classroom that matters for children’s
outcomes.
That is, participation in extracurricular activities
(e.g., chess club, yearbook, soccer) has been shown to be no less
important
than test scores for predicting educational attainment
and accumulated earnings 10 years later (Lleras 2008). Simply put, participation in extracurricular activities is closely correlated with children’s futures
Activities, such as chess clubs, yearbook
committees, and soccer teams, promote important noncognitive skills—in
particular,
teamwork, “grit,” and leadership—that are associated
with educational attainment and higher returns in the labor market (Kuhn and Weinberger 2005; Cunha, Heckman, and Schennach 2010; Borghans, Ter Weel, and Weinberg 2014).
Moreover, participation in activities has become an important proxy for
qualities that are hard to measure, such as ambition
and curiosity. Colleges seek to admit students who not
only test well but who also exhibit a diversity of interests and
willingness
to learn new things. Being part of the synchronized
swimming team and playing a friction harp reflect a diversity of
interests
and thus are rewarded by university admissions
officers. Playing lacrosse or squash is indicative also of cultural
capital,
because it signals that a student will fit well at an
elite institution (Rivera 2012).
In theory, public schools provide equal
opportunities for civic engagement and character building for all
children in the
form of extracurricular activities. In reality,
participation in these voluntary activities varies widely across social
class.
Children from upper-middle-class families are much
more likely to join school clubs and sports teams than their
working-class
peers (Beck and Jennings 1982; Marsh 1992; Marsh and Kleitman 2002).
It is troubling but hardly surprising that students from wealthy
families are more likely than other students to participate
in organized activities. However, it is alarming that
this class gap in civic and social engagement has grown over the past
two decades.
Examining the differences among high school
students with respect to extracurricular activities offers a glimpse of
tomorrow’s
socioeconomic and civic landscape. Given that these
factors predict important outcomes—including educational attainment and
civic and political participation later in life—the
consequence of the current gaps might be an even more polarized and
unequal
society than we have now, where children from
upper-middle-class families become more socially and civically engaged
while
working-class children become more disconnected and
disengaged (Silva 2013; Wright 2014).
Furthermore, if class increasingly predicts participation in activities
that in turn predict educational attainment and
future income, in effect we may be witnessing a
vicious cycle that shapes patterns of intergenerational mobility.
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