Kids' social class Plays Big Role In School Success, Experts Say
Vancouver Sun/Canwest News Service
By Shannon Proudfoot
August 30, 2009

Whether it's their first day of kindergarten or final year of university, students will head to class this fall carrying something that could influence their success more than anything in their backpacks: their family's social class.

Generally measured by parents' education, income and type of occupation, many researchers say that in Canada, socioeconomic status is the single most important factor in determining a child's educational path - and their prospects in life.

"We don't often talk about social class anymore," says Wolfgang Lehmann, a sociology professor at the University of Western Ontario. "It's true for essentially all Western industrialized countries that class has continued to be the most reliable predictor of educational attainment."

Even from the earliest days of kindergarten, a Quebec study suggested that children with less educated mothers fared more poorly in "school readiness" than their peers, with lower scores in language and cognitive development, physical health, general knowledge and communication skills, such as the ability to tell a story.

There were similar links with low parental income and such disadvantages persisting in later grades, the study concluded.

Statistics Canada research finds that among older students, those whose parents had a post-secondary diploma were nearly three times as likely to go to university than those whose parents had less education. Post-secondary enrolment rises with parental income, too, the federal agency noted.

Lehmann has spent the last four years tracking a group of working-class, "first-generation students" - those first in their families to go to university. These students face disadvantages, he writes in a newly published paper, including constant worries about money and managing part-time jobs alongside their studies, anxiety over whether they'll be able to fit in and keep up in class, and families who can't offer advice based on experience or fully understand campus life.

And then there's the "What do your parents do?" conversation….

"They said all their parents were hoping for a better life for them," Lehmann says. "But if you achieve this better life, it often has to mean turning your back on where you're coming from, on your family.

"If you don't achieve it, if you fail in it, then you've let your parents down. It's almost a lose-lose situation."

While research shows it to be the strongest predictor of educational paths, others insist social class doesn't spell destiny in the classroom.

When Caroline Krause took the reins as principal of Grandview Elementary on Vancouver's notorious Downtown Eastside in 2000, the school had abysmal academic results, a playground dotted with discarded needles and condoms and a troubled student population living in poverty and instability.

With the support of corporate donations, Krause and her staff started an after-school sports and homework program, an outdoors program and literacy classes for parents. … "There was a transformation that took place, and it was not something that happened overnight," Krause says. "It was not any one person or any one program, but it was a journey over time."…

"The relationship between family characteristics and student performance is not etched in stone," he says. "You take anybody in the front door and you ensure they all - not just the rich ones - acquire the skills and knowledge they need to go on to the next step, whatever that might be."…

David Johnson, an economics professor at Wilfrid Laurier University who works on the reports, says this paints a more comprehensive picture of how teachers and schools are faring with comparable student populations.

"It tells you, in your particular setting, where teachers are overcoming demographic obstacles," he says. "And it also tells you where, for kids who are coming in with many advantages, teachers are doing an exceptionally good job at helping those kids get even better."

The Surrey school district, just outside Vancouver, runs two programs aimed at pouring resources into needy schools, says assistant superintendent Bob Coventry, including subsidized school supplies, field trips and all-day kindergarten for vulnerable students.

"Kindergarten to Grade 4 is more important in setting the foundation than any other grades," he says. "What you do in Grade 12 is important, but it's not nearly as important as getting the foundation - it's like any building."

In Toronto, an initiative called Model Schools for Inner Cities is aiming to fill the gaps for low-income families at 111 schools by offering vision clinics and free eyeglasses, funds to buy ice skates and helmets, and food programs that help students focus on lessons instead of empty bellies, says lead principal Vicky Branco.

"Just because they come from inner-city communities doesn't mean they can't learn," she says. "They're very bright kids and they can learn, it's just that we have to find what it is that's going to make them successful."