Issue of the Week LXXVIII: National Study Gives States Low Marks for Children and Youth Well-being

These statistics are horrific as they accurately display the educational levels between races which should be on the same level and not so wide spread. As one of the other comments had previously suggested, states should get together within the communities to figure out how to eliminate the poor educational levels that these students are receiving.

What the study is revealing is shocking, especially since there is a significant drop from White to Latino children. That the well-being of children is that bad in many states calls for action. Factors(here referring to the list of things listed in the article such as poverty of neighborhood or employment prospects) are, of course, not everything that boosts one well-being but these are the things a state and its government can influence and improve. The other part including love, friendships, and family circumstances, has to be solved by each family alone. But the state has to take action in areas they can make a difference so that children to better overall.

It is extremely unfortunate that not everyone has the same opportunity to succeed in school as middle and upper class white students do. It is disappointing to have such a low composite score for black students; however, Asian students are also a minority and they clearly outperformed white students. This is probably due to family background and family values, but they still had the ability and opportunities to succeed.

I think from the report released Casey foundation as in national wide as it seem Asians and white are in more advantageous position than black, Latino and Native American children. Its find of unfair to me because I do not think if they do have more capacity of intelligence than the rest. But it seems that they have not be given with more emphasis on their studies and learning and there is biasness which make other ethnic group to make the high score than other groups. as we can see Asians are leading in scoring higher followed by the whites. I think all of the students have the equal opportunity to perfume well and got the high grades.

So i'm not really understanding what they are doing in this article. It just seems like I read statistics on how certain races scored on a child well-being report.

I would like to know what the other factors were in consideration of how they ranked states. What exactly are these groups not receiving? Is it access to teachers, technology, or some other function that the government could intervene with and provide? Or is the root cause a lack of family involvement and the circle of poverty? This research is important but reading the article made me feel like I did not have all the details and am unsure what could be done to fix the situation.

I think these scores are a reflection of education and opportunity. Education is apparent in many of the measurement criteria and I think a higher standard of education, especially in districts of minority race students. This education could change generations of families. The opportunity for success needs to be present prior to an individually achieving their goals.

Many of the comments emphasis parents being there for their children and encouraging them to do well, to include checking their homework. Yes, this is an important foundation for children, and in many cases the parents are doing this, in some cases the parents may be working jobs that require them to be out of the house when the children are home or night shifts because these are the only jobs available. Children are in school approximately 6-8 hours a day, so it is the academic institutions that also need to be examined, which includes teachers. Access to resources, sure computers might be in the schools but many students do not have them in their homes. Another factor is as the children get older the environment plays an important part, what do these children see every day? That their parents and friends parents are working minimum wage jobs, even after studying hard and have gotten good grades. What jobs are available to them in their areas? Are their ‘role models’ of other Native Americans, Latinos and African Americans that are visible in the fields that are considered ‘better’ or make more money?

And in the case of Native Americans, they understand they are on a ‘reservation’, their ancestors forced to live there by whites. Yet in their history lessons they learn how generous the white Christians were to ‘give’ them a small section of land. History classes do not teach how they (white Christians) invaded and exploited the resources off the majority of the land their ancestors had lived on for thousands of years, and prospering more than any other race in America due to the resources they took from the Native Americans. Living on the reservation, away from white society… unless the Native Americans converted to Christianity and learn English and stopped practicing their tribal beliefs, and stop speaking their native language. Then some of them over time have been able to live in white society through the 20th century. However, every day Native American children see they are still segregated more so than any other minority today. And yes, grown Native Americans have the opportunities to move away from the reservation and live among whites, Asian Americans, African Americans, Latino Americans, etc… whereas non-Native Americans cannot live on the reservation, another topic of discourse.

The point is the impact of what children experience around them and/or see in the media makes just as big as an impact as their parents encouraging, demonstrating studying hard, working hard, being honest and fair. American society says one thing but demonstrates another; if you study hard you’ll get good grades and succeed, well, if the student does not have the resources or even updated books (not that the history books are even correct) no matter how hard they study they won’t be able to achieve what the students with the resources do, i.e. laptops, understanding computers, utilizing them to find information faster than going to a library and checking out 12 books for one project. And having science equipment to do the experiments, rather than just looking at an outdated textbook with pictures, because the schools with better grades in a predominately white area received the funds. (Don’t get me started on NCLB (no child left behind)).

I’ve written enough, but hopefully the point has been made and other areas are the cause of why minority students are not doing well in their schools, not just the parents.

This article was very reassuring, to me at least, that our nation has become extremely confused. In my opinion this article makes it clear that our society has become more involved with the economic factors and simply rising in society. This article shows that certain states are simply looking past the educational institution and allowing schools to go down the drain if they are not placed in high income level neighborhoods. I think this article is important to look at because it analyzes childrens well being by using multiple factors and the factors used were extremely relevant and helpful in finding an accurate number.

This article clearly shows the racial disparities between children of different races and their success in life from birth to adulthood. I am surprised that there is such a wide gap between white children and black children, as well as all the other racial groups in between. This topic makes me think about the no child left behind law. Now I do not know much about that law and if it is practiced nationally, but it makes me curious as to why the law is put there in the first place if we are still having such difference in the success of racially different children. With this report coming out and putting a few select states under the bus for their ratings, I think that it is a more positive thing than a negative thing. Do not get me wrong when I say this because these numbers are horrific and there shouldn’t be such a big difference to begin with, but this helps bring forward and attention to society that racial disparity still exists in our society and this is our chance to change it. I think those states are going to be under the hot seat for awhile until they get their numbers back up. I also believe that we should take this information with a grain of salt because there is a lot more that contributes to the success of a children than just the things listed in the report. I think that more studies need to be done on stability in the child’s life to conclude these results. I think that parents and a child’s stability are enormously important for the success of a child and should be taken into consideration with these results.

I think that this is a very shocking article, I have no idea White and Asian children have a better chance at anything than the rest of the races. It almost sounds like maybe they don't want to help the rest of us achieve and get better in school but they want to make it seem like they do. I think it also depends on how your being raised at home and how you handle issues at home and school at the same time.

There could be many reasons as to why there is such a huge difference in the scores. That is what the individual states need to look at, what is directly causing these huge score differences. This could be depending on what is happening at home such as, are the parents involved in their kids school and are they helping with school at home. Is it something that the school is doing by not involving everyone, or not giving every kid the same equal opportunities. It could also depend on what school they going to, such as does the school have the same new technology, and funding as the other schools do. There could be many factors that influence these scores and to fix this the schools need to look at everything and try to fix it. They should not just let it go and pretend like nothing is happening. This article should open the eyes of many states to show that there is a differential between different races when it comes to schooling.

I believe that we already had read something like or about this before. Chineses and whites are the higest scores while latinos, native americans and black are the lowest. Of course this is a cultural problem as well because to white people and chinese people the education is something really important to succed while others do not care much. It is also related with poverty and the way that they have been raised and the goals that certain people have to life. Of course it is not something to be proud of and the goverment must do something about it. Into this article there was a solution metiones and it was the initiatives on some of the reservations that could help children and families. Everything would help and I am glad that institutions are already working to fix this huge problem.

The children of minority groups seems to be less well-off than that of the white majority. Well, what can be done?

This article opens up light I think to the educational system and how unfair it is to the children around the United States. I think for any one state to be ostracized like such is un called for. As for the statistical findings of Native American children, intersectionality really needs to be looked at. Because a good majority of Native students are taught on their reservations, they do not receive the same education as most children in the U.S. So to test Natives with the same tests that would be given to a child in a private sectors is ridiculous. I think this is also prime example of our education system and the huge loss of funds we have lost over the last several years. With funds disappearing and good teachers getting let go, it only goes to show the reality of education and the motivation to teach young children. Undoubtedly, class plays a huge role in education scores as well. Race should not be the only factor that ties these scores to children and their state. With these results I think not only do we need to work on the motivation of our students but also look into the overwhelming other factors that also play into these scores.

The root of this problem is in the relationship between property taxes and education quality. Ever since the pre-civil war era, we have seen a social phenomenon called "white flight". This basically means that if a black family moves into a white neighborhood, everything is fine... but when the 3rd or 4th move in, you see an evacuation of white people to different areas. Due to the fact that the black population has a mean income that is lower than that of the white population in America, specific "black areas" generally, certainly not always, have less income than white areas. Schools are funded by property taxes. Therefore, in areas where less property tax is collected, the quality of the schools goes down due to lack of funding. These issues in Wisconsin, Mississippi and other states are linked to this issue.

I'm curious as to why these three states are the lowest. And also what they are doing to improve their scores.