Urban Education Policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Urban Education Policy - Essay Example It further recommended for equal funding between wealthiest and poor district schools so as to improve quality of education in the state irrespective of social and economic status. The court ordered provision of adequate education to children from these areas through implementation of certain reforms and standard education with parity support. Question 1: How would Anyon, Ravitch, and Tyack and Cuban analyze the limits and possibilities of Abbott at reducing the achievement gaps? Basically, Abbott aimed at reducing achievement gap that exists between children from wealthier districts and those from poorer or less privileged districts. Main argument of Abbott is provision of equal funding for the schools irrespective of economic or social status of the respective schools’ location. Abbott advocates for equal education provision. However, analysts such as Anyon, Ravitech, Cuban and Tyack found out certain limitations that might not effectively allow for effective implementation of the Abbott recommendations and narrowing of the achievement gap between less privileged or poor students and the wealthy or fortunate students in New Jersey State (Abbott and Burke, 1990, p 37). ... This can be achieved, but cannot adequately assist in closing the achievement gap to a greater extent. According to Anyon (2005, p 73), provision of equal funding and learning materials might not adequately close the existing achievement gap in the state. Furthermore, the author argues that this should be coupled with family support. According to Tyack and Cuban (1995, p 67), family support has a great impact in increasing chances of students achieving success in their education. Furthermore, Cuban and Tyack argue that the basic cause of achievement gap in education is the prevailing poverty levels in the urban areas. Therefore, educational policies ought to address the prevailing poverty levels in the urban areas to effectively close the achievement gap. This is because poverty greatly contributes to underdevelopment of students and minimizes their chances of achieving success in education. In urban setting, there are low-resourced and high-resourced learning institutions. This has led to differentials in cost of learning depending on the available resources in respective schools or learning institutions (Tyack and Cuban, 1995, p 92). Less privileged students may easily afford low-resourced institutions leading to the achievement gap. Furthermore, family income also assists in shaping behavior of individual student and attitude towards life and achievement. Privileged students’ perceptions are most likely to be positive leading to positive behavior in school too. This increases their achievement chances as opposed to those from less privileged families who have negative attitude leading to less chances of succeeding in studies. The author also argues that changes ought to be made in several areas for the