Inequality of Educational Opportunity, Persistence of

One of the advantages of being a United States citizen is having the right to receive a free public school education. Education is viewed as a key path to socioeconomic mobility and as a way to escape from poverty. Decades of research and school reform efforts, however, have consistently revealed that public school students can have very different schooling experiences. Where students attend school, with whom they attend school, and students' race and gender are factors that can affect the quality of education they receive. Large numbers of K–12 students, especially African Americans and Latinos, are adversely affected. The term inequality of educational opportunity refers to the substandard education that some students receive. Teacher quality, teacher expectations, the availability of Advanced Placement (AP) courses, and ...