Why America's disadvantaged communities need twenty-first century learning

NEW DIRECTIONS FOR YOUTH DEVELOPMENT, NO. 110, SUMMER 2006 © WILEY PERIODICALS, INC.Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) • DOI: 10.1002/yd.166 47

The nation’s achievement gap must be examinedwithin the context of the increasing economicdemand for higher-level skills.

4Why America’s disadvantaged communities need twenty-first century learning

Blenda J. Wilson

in most contemporary discussions about the achievement gap—between rich and poor students, and between Asian and white stu-dents on the one hand, and African American and Hispanicstudents on the other—the underlying assumption is that educa-tional reform can eliminate it. Educational reform efforts, focusedon testing and data-driven accountability, including the underlyingprinciples of No Child Left Behind, have certainly enabled us tounderstand the pervasiveness and dimensions of educationalinequality. Requirements to disaggregate scores by income, race,and ethnicity now enable us to document the correlation betweenacademic attainment and income.

Research indicates that the achievement gap begins beforekindergarten.1 Disadvantaged children have less access to booksand libraries than children growing up in more economically

Thanks to Laura Su and Philippa Mulford for their research assistance.

new directions for youth development • DOI: 10.1002/yd

48 THE CASE FOR TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY LEARNING

advantaged families. Poor children, particularly minorities, do notenter school with the same level of language mastery or social andcommunication skills as their middle-class peers. Because lower-income parents often feel alienated from the school culture, theymay not be as effective in advocating for quality education for theirchildren. From the earliest years of schooling on, disadvantagedstudents continue to fall behind, in part because they lack access tothe enriching environments that children in middle- and upper-class communities do.2

The consequences of these differences are revealed in the gap ineducational and economic attainment of poor students. Low-incomestudents are six times more likely to drop out of high school thanupper-income students.3 Moreover, half of the heads of householdson welfare and half of the prison population are headed by highschool dropouts.4 These patterns of inequity are exacerbated whenapplied to populations that are both poor and African American orHispanic.

It is important to place the discussion of the achievement gapwithin the larger context of the increasing demand for higher lev-els of learning for everyone. Wages for high school dropouts andhigh school graduates with no college have declined over the pastgeneration, while wages for the most educated workers are risingsharply. We can document the increasing economic premium of acollege education versus just a high school education. In 2003, theaverage full-time year-round worker with a four-year collegedegree earned $49,000—62 percent more than the $30,800 earnedby the average full-time worker with only a high school diploma.5

For blue-collar workers, maintaining a middle-class standard of liv-ing requires two breadwinners to support a family.6

When we talk about the achievement gap without taking intoaccount the dramatic change in society’s needs and expectations foreducation, we tend to ignore the fact that schools are not only fail-ing to educate disadvantaged students but are also failing to edu-cate all students to the level of international excellence to whichour country aspires.


49COMMUNITIES NEED TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY LEARNING

Researchers Richard Murnane and Frank Levy, in Chapter Fivein this volume and in their previous work, highlight the necessity ofmore fundamental changes in our education systems by defining thenew basic skills essential in the twenty-first century technology-based economy. These skills include the ability to solve new prob-lems that cannot be solved by a set of rules; the ability to transmit,interpret, and communicate information to others; reading andmathematics competency at the ninth-grade level; and the ability toform and test a hypothesis in order to solve semistructured prob-lems. In addition, the workforce demands employees who can workwell in diverse groups, communicate effectively orally and in writ-ing, and use computers for a wide range of basic tasks.7

What is most damning about Levy and Murnane’s research istheir estimate that as many as half of U.S. students who do gradu-ate from high school enter the workforce lacking the skills neces-sary to succeed. What happens to young people who do notgraduate from high school or graduate but fail to master both thetraditional skills taught in high school and the new skills requiredin today’s workplaces? They are relegated to service sector jobs thatdo not pay enough to support families.

The logical conclusion is that our country is producing a gener-ation of citizens who may not make it into the middle class.8

America’s disadvantaged communities need twenty-first centurylearning because all children need to be better educated. Moreover,some of what we have learned by seeking improvements in learning fordisadvantaged students can provide models for engagement in learn-ing and development of new skills that will better serve all populations.

A growing movement in support of academically and sociallyenriched out-of-school-time programs is providing powerful evi-dence that society can overcome gaps in opportunity that lead togaps in achievement. The movement has been spurred in part bychanges in the structure of families: Americans are working morehours and have less vacation time than workers in other industri-alized countries, and almost 74 percent of employed women withchildren under eighteen worked full-time.9



Another factor is related to the new imperative for all childrento meet the requirements of standards based educational reform.This has forced educators to acknowledge that children are inschool only 20 percent of their time—180 days per year for six orseven hours a day. The remaining 80 percent of their time revealswide and significant differences in the experiences of poor andadvantaged children—what we call the opportunity gap—sufficientto explain some, if not all, of the deficiencies in academic pre-paredness and achievement of low-income and minority children.

Middle- and upper-class children have ready access to a widevariety of enrichment activities. Those growing up in low-incomecommunities, urban and rural, are far less likely to have access tosuch activities, particularly if they take place outside school.10

The good news is that research shows that quality after-schoolprograms play an important and effective role in giving all childrenaccess to experiences, mentors, and the skills they need to con-tribute in today’s economy, to graduate from high school, and to goon to postsecondary education. In addition to helping students takeadvantage of networks and community-based learning resources likemuseums and libraries, after-school programs help to ensure thatall children are exposed to enrichment activities and opportunitiesto practice essential communication, thinking, and teamwork skills.

Critical Hours: Afterschool Programs and Educational Success docu-ments the correlation between effective after-school programs andacademic success. Research studies indicate:11

• Compared to students who spent five to nineteen hours perweek in school-sponsored extracurricular activities, students who hadnot were six times more likely to have dropped out by senior year,three times more likely to have been suspended in sophomore orsenior year, and twice as likely to have been arrested by senior year.

• A longitudinal study that began in seventh grade found thatamong at-risk students, the dropout rate was markedly lower forthose who had participated in extracurricular activities comparedwith those who had not.

51COMMUNITIES NEED TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY LEARNING


• Middle school students who spend three or more hours homealone after school are significantly more likely to use drugs andalcohol, have high levels of stress and anger, experience moredepression and behavior problems, possess lower self-esteem, andperform less well academically.

• Students who participate in extracurricular activities and com-munity service typically have higher academic achievement; behavebetter in school; and have better work habits, higher educationalaspirations, better relationships with parents, and a greater senseof belonging in the community.

Many after-school programs have been designed specifically tosupport improved academic outcomes for disadvantaged students.Those that provide help with homework and access to computers,in addition to the general benefits described above, also reduce edu-cational inequity, particularly for students who do not have com-puters at home or parents who speak English.

Effective after-school programs are not just “more school.” On thecontrary, the best programs increase students’ engagement in learn-ing; offer a variety of active, experiential activities students themselveschoose to participate in; strengthen students’ relationships with sup-portive adults; and provide the time necessary for students to mastertraditional academic skills as well as complex new skills. ReginaldClark, a prominent education researcher, has stated unequivocally,“We can accurately predict a youngster’s success or failure in schoolby finding out whether or not he or she typically spends approximately20 to 35 hours a week . . . engaging in constructive learning activity.”12

America’s international competitiveness and economic leader-ship is threatened by an educational system that fails to educate itsyoung people to international levels of excellence. At the sametime, the majority of the nation’s future youth will come from low-income, immigrant, and minority populations. Schools cannot doit alone. Quality after-school programs can contribute to improv-ing overall educational attainment and eliminating the achievementgap, helping young people develop skills for success.



Notes1. Lee, V. E., & Burkam, D. T. (2002). Inequality at the starting gate. Wash-

ington, DC: Economic Policy Institute.2. Miller, B. M. (2003). Critical hours: Afterschool programs and educational

success. Quincy, MA: Nellie Mae Education Foundation.3. Schwarz, E. (2004, November 10). Address to the Institute of Museum

and Library Services, Washington, DC.4. Citizen Schools. (2005, February 28). Mobilizing a community’s citizens for

high school success: Citizen Schools and the integration of in-school and out-of-schoollearning. Presented at Citizen Schools’ Executive briefing to funders.

5. Baum, S., & Payea, K. (2004). Education pays: The benefits of higher educa-tion for individuals and society. Princeton, NJ: College Board.

6. Schwarz, E. (2005, February). Realizing the American dream: Historicalscorecard, current challenges, future opportunities. Working paper developed forA Gathering of Leaders: Social Entrepreneurs and Scale in the Twenty-FirstCentury, Mohonk, New York.

7. Murnane, R., & Levy, F. (2004, April 29). Preparing students to thrive inTwenty First century America: The role for after-school. Presentation to Reimag-ining After-School: A Symposium on Learning and Leading in the TwentyFirst Century, Cambridge, MA.

8. Murnane & Levy. (2004).9. Loupe, D., and Morrison, A. (2006, May 7). Fair play: If mom got a

salary, what would it be? (And don’t skimp on overtime). Sunday Paper.10. Miller. (2003).11. Miller. (2003).12. Clark, R. M. (1998). Critical factors in why disadvantaged children succeed or

fail in school. New York: Academy for Educational Development.

blenda j. wilson is president and CEO of Nellie Mae EducationFoundation, New England’s largest public charity dedicated exclusivelyto improving academic achievement for the region’s underservedcommunities.

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Why America's disadvantaged communities need twenty-first century learning