here that students from higher
socioeconomic environments score higher
on SAT scores than students from low
socio-economic environments take a look
at the chart that’s up here you can see
that students from higher socio-economic
environment certainly score higher
according to the College Board than low
socio-economic students in fact the
number one predictor of SAT scores is
parent income now I’ve been involved in
public education for more than 34 years
and so I’m more than well aware of the
impact of socio-economic diversity on
things like SAT scores but it’s only
been the last 18 months that this has
become very obvious to me and the reason
for that is I’ve moved from a rural
district in California to right here in
the center of the Silicon Valley to one
of the best school districts in
California this one and that experience
has opened my eyes to the impact of
socio-economic diversity and the
ultimate influence on things like SAT
scores I I want it so I I wanted to
offer some thoughts as I’ve examined
this phenomenon over the last year and a
half that have come to my mind and I’ve
noticed that there are three themes that
suggest to me that there’s a
socio-economic advantage that we should
all be aware of the first theme I’d like
to talk about is really obvious the next
two are not so obvious
the first one is students that have
wealthier parents have parents that
write checks to support their
socioeconomics we’re all aware of this
wealthier parents tend to spend more
money on academic enrichment than
parents that don’t have the means
there’s a way that we can sort of tease
this out I suggest to you
by asking students what did they do over
their summer vacation so students spend
a minute and think about what did you do
over your summer vacation did you go to
Europe perhaps you went to the Galapagos
did you have a sports coach that helped
you with your training did you have a
music coach to help you with your music
did you visit a college or colleges or
museums did you travel to other places
did you go to sports camp or coding camp
or science camp or students did you have
to work extra hours while you were
helping support the family because your
parents don’t have enough money to put
food on the table or perhaps you spent
the summer babysitting for your siblings
because there’s no one else to babysit
while your parents are at work I suggest
to you that the difference between the
socio-economic groups and how they spend
their summers indicates how
well-prepared those students will be
when they enter school and has a major
impact on their success in school so
parents writing checks not a surprise in
fact the research shows that enrichment
expenditures on children are seven times
higher for high socioeconomic parents
than they are for low socio-economic
parents the low socioeconomic parents
they don’t have the means and notice the
trend lines this gap appears to be
getting bigger and I suggest that that’s
a major influence on student success
during the school day and in school
experiences but there are two other
socio-economic advantages that I want to
share with you today themes that I’ve
discovered over the last year and a half
here’s number two parents and personal
connections
parents have an opportunity to help
their students based on the people that
they know it’s a little nebulous but let
me give you an example by talking about
an experience in my life it was about
two years ago and my son Dan who’s now
in his 20s had returned from a trip in
South America he was staying with us
between his travels and I invited some
friends over to to have dinner with us
as we were planning the dinner Dan said
to us he said dad how would you guys
like me to make a dish that I learned in
Chile it’s called ceviche and I would be
happy to make it for you that’s great so
Dan went out he bought a fish came back
he cut up the fish he put the citrus on
the top he made this beautiful dish and
he explained how he was making it was
really quite a showman my son is and at
the end of the meal the friends that
were there said to Dan Dan you are so
into traveling and you were so good at
food and wine hospitality what if you
sort of parlayed those two experiences
together and made it a career option he
thought that was great and he and their
friend said not only that but we have
good friends who own a cruise line and
they are always looking for people with
your skill set that was two years ago
there’s a picture of Dan last week he’s
in Panama and he’s in charge of food and
wine for a cruise ship in Panama now not
to take anything away from my son Dan he
got the job he did a good job he got
promoted everything’s terrific however
my son would have not gotten that job
had it not been for friends of mine who
happened to be good friends with people
who owned a cruise line that’s a
socio-economic advantage I suggest to
you that that happens every day when
parents know people that help their
children get internships that help their
children get first jobs in fact I have
four sons and three of them are involved
professionally as a result of people
that I knew and that happens in this
community all the time
it’s a socio-economic advantage it’s not
a bad thing it’s a good thing I said
their their words there were three and
this is the third one exposure to the
professional world as we go through
school the purpose is to prepare our
children to enter a professional world
how do they learn about it
well that’s what this one is about I
suggest that you learn about what it’s
like to be a professional students do
around the dinner table they watch their
parents students do they watch their
parents debrief their work day they meet
their friends they see what it’s like to
work in a professional environment so
that they are prepared and confident to
enter that environment when they get
older this number three came to light
for me a year ago when I accompanied a
group of students on a field trip this
was a field trip to Adobe the high tech
company in San Jose and I went on the
field trip a group of students from avid
class they tend to be students from
lower socio economics first-generation
college going students they were we were
taking them to two Adobe the folks at
Adobe had identified five employees
they’d had also come from avid type
environments low socio-economic some of
them had lived in the inner city and
these five employees had somehow managed
to earn themselves great jobs at Adobe
they had overcome obstacles and they
were very proud of their upward
trajectory so we brought our students
there they men in small groups they
processed told the story of how those
employees got there it was a great day
afterwards i debriefed with the students
the avid students and one student said
something to me that
I thought was highly significant she
said dr. Harding I listened to all five
of those employees and they all loved
their jobs she said I’ve never met an
adult that’s loved their job before and
I thought what a significant statement
to get to be a high school student and
not know that a professional work
environment is inherently satisfying how
would they have known my kids know that
because I’d come home every day and I
tell them around the dinner table and
they’d see our friends and that was the
experience so I suggest that that
socio-economic advantage is highly
significant in the motivation of
students from low socio-economic
environments compared to high as they go
through school so these are just three
suggestions there might be others I
don’t have a scientific study on this
this is the world according to me but I
think that those socio-economic
advantages help students be bold helps
them be confident helps them take
initiative and helps them be prepared
for a professional world that if they
don’t have that they don’t have those
qualities I think it’s important now
some people would say that’s just the
luck of the draw some people are born
rich some people are born poor it’s just
the way it is I disagree I would argue
that we have a societal moral imperative
a moral commitment to those students
regardless of the means of their parents
to provide the basic experiences so
every student can be successful in a
professional world when they leave
school that’s what I believe so what do
we do
how do we address these issues well I
think there’s a wide variety of things
that we can do but we have to start with
one premise there is a socio-economic
advantage and we need to know what it is
what do wealthy your parents give to
their students outside the school day
that helps those students with their
confidence and with their skillset
schools do a great job from 8 o’clock to
3 o’clock 180 days a year
but most of that economic advantage
comes outside the 8 o’clock to 3 o’clock
school school day so what can what can
we do now one thing we can do is we can
open our doors at schools beyond the
school day so all our students can have
a quiet and engaging place to work after
hours another thing that we can do is we
can offer avid classes like avid Lite
classes where students are exposed to
universities they are taken out and meet
professionals so we can address these
socio-economic advantage issues we can
offer summer programs that are highly
enriching like the wealthy students get
but we can offer it for all students not
just remediation but more than that over
the summer we can offer tutoring
programs and mentoring programs and
scholarship programs that bring
professionals into the school
environment that help build
relationships between our low
socioeconomic students and professionals
out there in the community that are
our country is based on a premise that
upward mobility should be available to
everyone that anyone who works hard to
be able to get wherever they want to go
and I suggest to you that that notion is
in jeopardy and that educational equity
is the key thank you [Applause]