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For many minority and lower-income students, it has been shown that
family backgrounds can significantly impact a student's scientific and
mathematical achievement, a consequence which in turn can affect
not only achievements in Computer Science, but also morale and
persistence in the field. As mentioned in the section on
How School Characteristics Affect Barriers to
Computing, a solid foundation in mathematics and science - disciplines
which are naturally more closely linked to Computer Science than other
fields - can play an integral role in a student's success in Computer Science.
That is why we examine it at great length in this document.
Many students in elementary school and secondary school do not get
adequate training in the field of computing, so it becomes necessary to
analyze achievements in more common denominators such as math and
science. Once evaluated, we can then use these results to interpolate
similar information about patters in Computer Science.
When it comes to participation and achievement in sciences and
mathematics education, it has been shown that family background
characteristics have a considerable influence on how a child performs.
Socioeconomic status - parental occupation, education, and income - accounts
for a substantial amount of the disparites in math and science
accomplishment. For instance, persistence in high school is strongly
associated with family backgrounds, as students from low-income families
are more likely to repeat a grade and completely drop out of school than
students from higher income families.
Other influential factors involve a parent's choice of profession. For
instance, it is common for children of mathematicians and scientists to
also pursue careers in math or science because their parents chose
to concentrate in those areas. Having them as positive role
models provides guidance, and hence the children are more likely to take
the plunge in the same direction if they are so inclined because they have
seen their parents do it. Similarly, we can imagine that for many
children whose parents are involved in computer related fields, there is a
substantially greater chance that the child will not be hesitant about
pursuing the field if he/she chooses simply because the parents can serve
as positive examples to their children. But for those children who cannot
directly look up to a positive role model, the path can be more arduous.
It goes without saying that the percentages of children in
lower-class families who have scientists and mathematician mentors
available is significantly less than their counterparts from middle-class
and upper-class sectors.
Perhaps the single most influential predictor of achievement and
participation in science and mathematics is the level of education parents
attain. Those most likely to go on to college or to graduate school are
those whose parents attended college or graduate school themselves. For
these children, the parents often serve as role models and mentors,
encouraging their children to have high educational asipirations.
Unfortunately, lower class students are more likely to have parents who do
not even go on to graduate from high school. Thirty-two percent of
Hispanic, 15 percent of black, and 12 percent of American Indian eight
graders had parents or guardians who did not finish high school. In
comparison, only 6 percent of white children had parents who did complete
high school. Moreover, students at all age levels whose parents had less
than high school education scored lower in science and mathematics than
students whose parents had higher levels of education.
The parallelism between low-income families and racial minorities is alarmingly
high. A large percentage of minority students come from families who live
below the poverty line. Black children, in particular, are more likely
than other children to live in impoverished, single-parent families. Only
thirty-four percent of black children under 18 live with both parents
compared with seventy-nine percent of white children. And there are three
times as many black children under 18 living in poverty than white children of
comparable ages. This means that many of the assertions made above not
only apply to lower-income classes, but to many minority groups as well
who fit both descriptions.
The results of these statistics are grave. They imply that children
coming from financially less distinguished families have less access to
positive role models which can play a crucial part in fostering
intellectual stimulation in particular fields such as math, science, and
computing. They imply that children from poor families will have lower
rates of high school graduation. They suggest that minority and
lower-income children will have less access to learning materials such
as computers than other children will, and that they will eventually
lag in college enrollment rates because family incomes cannot support
tuition costs. In general, these findings indicate that children from
families of racial minorities and lower-income classes will aspire less,
succeed less, and achieve less.
So why is achievement so important and how does it all relate to family
backgrounds? When there a good sense of scholarship is present, a student
feels good about themselves and feels confident that they can achieve
anything they set their minds to. When achievement is down, esteem is at
a low. Smaller college enrollment rates coupled with low self-esteem and
lack of direction will inevitable result in fewer numbers of from these
sectors pursuing academic studies, especially in programs like Computer
Science in which barriers like the ones mentioned above can easily deter
prospective students to turn another way.
Back to Specific Barriers to Computing Based on Race and Class