The Wall Street Journal reports on a new research paper that highlights the impact of the recession on student achievement. The article is titled “As Unemployment Rises, Kids’ Future Dims”. It provides more evidence supporting one of the key points of our book — that as part of a parent engagement strategy, it makes sense for schools to work with parents on issues beyond the schoolhouse walls.
Here’s an excerpt from the article:
A parent’s job loss increases the probability that a child repeats a grade in school by roughly 15%, according to a new paper from two economics professors at the University of California, Davis.
It goes on to say:
“More attention should be paid to the potential role of external factors in affecting school level outcomes,” they [the report’s writers] conclude. “Schools in areas with large concentrations of displaced workers…may face particular challenges in maintaining achievement standards during times of economic hardship.”
This is a huge issue here in the UK too. We have a major problem with the young unemployed, but people are beginning to realise that it takes a whole community to deal with these issues. Not everything can be left to schools and teachers alone (although they do seem to be increasingly left to deal with the world’s ills).