SeeTheGaps is an interactive, multi-disciplinary resource and commentary platform for researchers, practitioners and donors focused on inequality gaps in basic living matters and education by class, socioeconomic status (SES), and race.
SeeTheGaps is an interactive, multi-disciplinary resource and commentary platform for researchers, practitioners and donors focused on inequality gaps in basic living matters and education by class, socioeconomic status (SES), and race.
Click on any of the orbiting topics or educational timeline components to learn more and see how they are all connected.
The health of a child is important not only for future adult health issues, but can correlate with cognitive and developmental milestones. Early childhood health care is an instrumental input factor for a support structure approach to early childhood intervention programs that yield positive lifelong gains and measurable returns on investment.
Read MoreWhere people live has become a strong predictor of their academic success and socioeconomic status. Neighborhoods, housing and schools have also become highly geographically segregated by race and class.
Read MoreOne's occupation is often influenced by close family and friends as well as level of education.
Read MoreThe first three years of child's life are significant for early cognitive and social development and can affect a person's academic and SES achievement.
Read MoreEducation Timeline
Researchers and communities now support free, formal pre-K early childhood education programs that can help socialize young children and prepare them for elementary school.
Read MoreGaps persist in kindergarten and elementary school readiness by race, class, and SES.
Read MoreMiddle School years are a time of frenetic social and academic development where differences in background and elementary school preparation can deepen gaps.
Read MoreBy the time students are in high school, life path trajectories for further education and occupation are relatively formed.
Read MoreInstitutes of higher education remain underpopulated by minorities and first-generation college attenders. The prestige by acceptance rate and reputation of these institutions are highly stratified by class.
Read MoreProfessional Education includes Medical School, Business School, and Law School.
Read MoreBeyond college, more and more people are enrolling in graduate education, primarily masters programs. Ph.D. programs, however, remain a small sliver of graduate education and stubbornly exclusive.
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Read MoreMauris lacinia eget sem sed vulputate. Praesent eget erat a massa malesuada suscipit in at nibh. Nunc congue pharetra nisi id accumsan.
Read MoreMauris lacinia eget sem sed vulputate. Praesent eget erat a massa malesuada suscipit in at nibh. Nunc congue pharetra nisi id accumsan.
Read MoreMauris lacinia eget sem sed vulputate. Praesent eget erat a massa malesuada suscipit in at nibh. Nunc congue pharetra nisi id accumsan.
Read MoreMauris lacinia eget sem sed vulputate. Praesent eget erat a massa malesuada suscipit in at nibh. Nunc congue pharetra nisi id accumsan.
Read MoreMauris lacinia eget sem sed vulputate. Praesent eget erat a massa malesuada suscipit in at nibh. Nunc congue pharetra nisi id accumsan.
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Gaps are the seemingly insurmountable differences between poverty and privilege. They are measured treatments and outcomes between demographic groups on school disciplinary charges, standardized test scores, and rates of incarceration. Gaps can be seen in access to healthcare, the amount of financial reserves a family has saved, the number of books in a home, and words that a child hears by age three. Gaps are subtle, like the availability of public transportation and childcare for working parents, and they are obvious, like segregated housing and schools. Gaps are everywhere and primarily fall along racial and class lines.
We are at the beginning edge of a burgeoning intersection area for genetics and social science. Some scientists take the view that in gene-environment research, it is not the environment that reflects genetic effects, but that due to “population stratification” these measured behavioral trait genes “may be acting as proxies for social environments.” “[G]enes shape not just behavior, but also the environment that contextualizes and constrains behavioral choices” citing Plomin & Bergeman (1991). Critics like Conley argue that many of the studied gene-environment relationships are more associational than causative or even correlative, and that it is impossible to study the effect of one gene in isolation due to the complexity of the gene-gene interactions in humans and the variety across the global population .
More studies need to be done to test correlations and effect size in other, larger, and more diverse sample groups. Genetics research is just starting to identify the polygenic components related to intelligence, only accounting for less than five percent of variations in measured intelligence. See [Skiekers et al., Genome-wide association meta-analysis]. Questions arise such as: What kinds of environmental factors translate to epigenetic markers that in turn affect academic and other kinds of measured achievement? How can the effects of positive genetic markers be enhanced for children born into lower privileged families? For children with lower polygenic scores, how can interventions help reduce cognitive and other differentials between them and children born with higher polygenic scores? What are the ethical implications of knowing whether a child has these genetic markers?
Why is it that “low-birth-weight black infants have a lower mortality rate than low-birth-weight white infants” even though the prevalence of low-birth rate infants is much higher for black mothers than it is for white mothers, even with similar education levels? What other factors are not being controlled for in studies that find gaps based on race? What is it about being black that contributes to higher infant mortality rates?
Many prenatal factors that effect how a child develops in the womb also can contribute to predisposition and ability to learn and read. Poverty and race have strong correlations with low birth-weight, which can lead to infant mortality or later cognitive developmental and health issues. Scientists are discovering that it no longer takes generations for humans to change based on environmental factors (pollution, type of food availability, etc.). They are finding that environmental effects, like the stress of living in extreme poverty and constant racism, can cause changes in the fundamental genetic composition of humans within a single generation. The study of these effects is called epigenetics.
Research is also developing to better understand the genetic correlates for intelligence, measured by test scores, academic attainment, and socioeconomic outcome.
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