Bridging Equity in Education-A Study between Low and Middle Income Students

DENVER - Nov. 17, 2014 - PRLog -- Boulder, CO - Which skills do low-income, inner-city high school students lack compared to their higher-income, suburban peers?  Based on a recent study, low-income high schools students fall short in Problem Solving, Persuasion, Self-Management, and Creativity.

These are a few of the findings from a program implemented by The Indigo Foundation at a Colorado-based inner-city high school and suburban charter school.  The Indigo Foundation, a non-profit arm of the Indigo Project dedicated to educational equity, administered a non-academic assessment to an entire grade level at each school.  The main conclusion from analyzing comparisons between the two group data sets is that gaps between middle class and low-income students are stark.

Students at the suburban school scored 23% higher than the inner-city kids in Self-Management skills, indicating that there is a large gap in the way low-income students are taught to manage and control their time. As curricula demands more independence and self-motivation from high school students, the ability to manage priorities is becoming more important. There are many strategies to increase this skill, such as having teachers insist students take the time to prioritize tasks from the class syllabus.

Finally, the most striking skill gap from this study appears in Creativity, where suburban students scored over 40% higher than their inner-city peers.  In other studies done by the Indigo Project and their technology partner, Target Training International, Creativity is a primary success component for all entrepreneurs.  If low-income students are taught at an earlier age that thinking outside the box is critical for their future career success then we may see more of these students becoming future leaders and business owners.

For more information on this study and the Indigo Project / Indigo Foundation, please visit www.indigoproject.org or email Jahla.seppanen@indigoproject.org