The Quality of Attention: How Low-Income Parents Assess High- and Low-Poverty Schools

• In Event: Causes and Effects of School Stratification by Income and Race

Abstract

Concentrated school poverty has negative consequences for children’s outcomes, but evidence on the benefits of enrolling in lower-poverty schools for low-income families is mixed. Longitudinal interviews with 43 parents in an experimental housing intervention reveal that families who moved from high- to low-poverty schools often saw this change as providing the quality of attention, or a greater capacity on the part of schools to recognize and meet their children’s needs. Significantly, some parents also described an expanded sense of their children’s potential following this school change. These findings expand our understanding of how concentrated disadvantage matters for schooling as well as parenting, shed light on how low-income parents assess school quality, and advance long-standing debates over policies aimed at reducing educational inequality.

Author

• Joseph L. Boselovic, Johns Hopkins University
  Presenting Author