Poverty Negatively Impacts Educational Attainment

Poverty Negatively Impacts Educational Attainment

Introduction

Hunger is an uncomfortable feeling in the stomach due to lack of food. Almost every human knows what hunger feels like and fortunately many people are easily able to stop their hunger by having food at their disposal. It is not about just putting food in the stomach, it is about living a healthy lifestyle, as well. Kids who are not getting proper nutrition tend to have physical and mental health impacts (Skolnick, & Skolnick, 2007). Often People living in poverty are willing to commit a crime in order to fulfill necessities of their life. When people are desperate to feed their families, they go for extreme measures to provide food to their families, and this is one of the major reasons behind the increase in criminal activities in developing countries.

The purpose of this study is to examine the negative impact of poverty on the Educational Attainment. There are several reasons indicating a need for this study. First, decades of research have shown poverty to have such a consistent and compelling influence on educational attainment that accountability initiatives cannot afford to ignore its impacts. Educational mandates required of states under NCLB do not account for the impact of poverty on attainment when determining adequate yearly progress of schools. As a result, many states have incorporated the requirements of NCLB as a major element in their state accountability systems do not consider the influence of poverty in schools when assessing and reporting on attainment and implementing accountability (Orr, & Stumbo, 2002).

Key words: Poverty, family income, achievement gap, academic gap, poverty impact, educational achievement and education, relationship between unemployment and educational impact.

Discussion

Poverty

Poverty is a puzzling fact. There are two kinds of poverty, absolute, or lack of basic needs like food, water, education, information, technology and infant mortality and relative poverty, which is measured according to how poor we are in relation to others. There are many people lucky and blessed who are able to have food whenever they feel like having it, they are blessed to have such a wonderful and health life. At the same time, we also have bitter facts about poor people; they are not able to fulfill daily necessities of life. Those people, families are not miles away from us, but they are right here among us. In developing countries, there are children, who we see every day out in the street, hungry with no warm clothes, and we are busy living our own lives. Hunger and poverty is an important issue that cannot be ignored anymore(Filmer, & Pritchett, 1999).

Causes

There are many causes that can lead to poverty. Some of the causes that can lead to poverty are; raised in unfavorable economic conditions, mental illness and disability, lack of educational attainment and skill, substance abuse, childbirth at a young age, domestic abuse, natural or other disasters, unable to find or hold a good paying job, divorce, widowed spouse, and crime (Filmer, 2001). Although, all of these things can ...