This quotation from the article provides an interesting synopsis of the study's findings:
A mere 4 percent of the first-graders Alexander and Entwisle [the researchers] had classified as the “urban disadvantaged” had by the end of the study completed the college degree that’s become more valuable than ever in the modern economy. A related reality: Just 33 of 314 had left the low-income socioeconomic status of their parents for the middle class by age 28. ... The families and neighborhoods these children were born into cast a heavy influence over the rest of their lives, from how they fared in the first grade to what they became as grownups.The fact that those two things, families and neighborhoods, could have such an obvious impact on the success of a given child is a testimony of the inequalities in both parenting and in regards to the effects of growing up in a certain location within a city.
It is important to note, though, that the article is framed in terms of hope for getting out of the cycle of poverty. The stories here are all of children who were disadvantaged, but managed to succeed. While those are certainly the more uplifting, idealistic stories, they are the outliers. The bulk of the low-income children did not wind up living the "American dream," as we would like to believe, and therein lies the problem. We need to find a solution to help the children who were destined not to succeed right from the beginning of their lives.
Read the full article here: What your 1st-grade life says about the rest of it
