Looking at Education “Through a Wider Lens”

Increasingly, researchers, the media and the general public are acknowledging that education cannot be viewed as a series of independent, short-term goals, separate from a child’s life either before or after school. The most recent in Education Week’s annual Quality Counts report series, released this month, emphasizes this point by suggesting that education must be viewed as a continuous, seamless process that stretches “from cradle to career.” A focus on K-12 schooling causes policymakers to overlook some of the facets of society that have just as great an impact on education as schools. Preparing children for academic success requires looking at education, in the words of Education Week, “through a wider lens.”

Measuring Chance for Success

To expand its view in this fashion, EdWeek developed a “Chance for Success Index,” a set of 13 indicators that it uses to rate states on children’s chances for academic and economic success. Included in the Chance for Success Index are measures ranging from family income and education, to elementary school NAEP scores, to percent of residents with high school diplomas and stable employment. EdWeek also provides an Achievement Index for each state.

Not surprisingly, one measure roughly predicts the other. Of the states in the top third on the Chance for Success Index, 14 of 17 are in the top third on the Achievement Index. Of the states in the bottom third on the Chance for Success Index, 11 of 17 are also in the bottom third on the Achievement Index. This relationship holds when one takes into account only those factors of the Chance for Success Index that affect children before they ever set foot in a school.

“Front End Investment”

Charles Kolb, president of the Committee for Economic Development, a business-led public-policy organization, argues that Americans need to improve our “front end investment” in education. Currently, we target funds at remediation for academic failures late in a child’s educational career while ignoring the more effective investments that we can make early in a child’s life. He argues in Quality Counts 2007 that high-quality preschool is necessary for closing achievement gaps, but that “it is also part of a continuum of necessary childhood investments, beginning in the prenatal months and spanning the infant, toddler, and later school years.”

That factors in a student’s childhood affect success in school is not a new idea. Richard Rothstein argued in his 2004 book Class and Schools that “social class characteristics,” such as nutrition, access to health care, housing quality and stability, parental occupation, and exposure to environmental toxins, can have strong influences on a child’s academic achievement. The influence of these factors “is probably so powerful that schools cannot overcome it, no matter how well trained their teachers are.”

Similarly, Valerie Lee and David Burkham, in their 2002 book Inequality at the Starting Gate, argue that while we expect schools to education all children regardless of background, children from disadvantaged backgrounds arrive at school with significantly lower cognitive skills, and that formal schooling is not closing this gap. Given the inequalities with which children start school, schools in the U.S. are “underfunded and overchallenged,” Lee and Burkham assert.

Unique Challenges

When education is considered through the lens of front-end investment, the United States has created large – even unique – educational challenges for itself. Seven million children in the United States – one in every nine – have no health insurance coverage; this stands in great contrast to nearly all other industrialized nations. Almost one in five children in the U.S. lives in poverty. This figure alone is higher than all other comparable nations; among blacks and Hispanics, child poverty is one in three. These children face enormous disadvantages when they don’t start school until kindergarten, and the U.S. lags behind most other industrialized nations in its access to preschool.

Furthermore, we face the growing need to educate students who are not native English speakers. Across the country, 16 percent of children have parents who are not fluent in English. Along the Mexican border, that number is much higher, reaching 38 percent in California.

An International Perspective

Given these challenges, how does the United States stack up against other countries in education and education spending? Quality Counts 2007 looked at the members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which comprises 22 European nations, Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Turkey, and the United States – 30 nations in total. Among these countries, the U.S. ranks 25th in international math test scores and at first glance appears to rank fourth in per pupil spending – a juxtaposition often cited by critics of public education.

However, reporting these figures alone is misleading. Education expenditures in the U.S. include hidden costs. As a 2004 report from the Education Commission of the States noted:

It is important to remember there are differences among countries that may make direct comparisons [of spending data] difficult, if not impossible. For example, school districts in the United States pay for the healthcare cost of their employees, where the other countries rely…on national health care systems. This one difference could account for up to an 8% variation between expenditures on American schools as opposed to other nations’ schools.

In addition, Quality Counts 2007 also ranks education spending by percentage of GDP, a measure under which the United States falls to 19th for preprimary through secondary spending (unadjusted for health care costs). Despite the challenges facing the American education system, the U.S. spends less of its wealth on preK-12 education than most other industrialized nations.

A Holistic View of Education

As the nation enters into debates over the reauthorization of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, it is important to view holistically the factors influencing a child’s academic success. A focus on improving schools is important, but it does not capture all of the sources of educational inequalities. Children from low-income families, children whose parents do not speak English, and children who lack decent health care or housing are at enormous disadvantages when they begin school, and schools alone cannot overcome these disadvantages. When it comes to improving education, the best investment comes from improving the opportunities children have at every point in their lives and ensuring that children have everything they need to stay on the path to success.

Prepared by Matthew Samberg, January 16, 2006