What does your book say about social class relative to income, education, behaviors, attitudes, cultural factors, school readiness, school achievement, race and ethnicity?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Social class indicates more than level of income and education. Along with social class goes a pervasive set of behaviors, expectations, and attitudes, which intersect with and are affected by other cultural factors. Students' social-class origins are likely to have a profound effect on attitudes and behaviors in school. Students from working-class or lower-class backgrounds are less likely than middle-class students to enter school knowing how to count, to name letters, to cut with scissors, or to name colors. They are less likely to perform well in school than are children from middle-class homes. Of course, these differences are true only on the average; many working-class and lower-class parents do an outstanding job of supporting their children's success in school, and many working-class and lower-class children achieve at a very high level. Social class cuts across categories of race and ethnicity. Although it is true that Latino and African American families are, on average, lower in social class than are white families, there is substantial overlap; the majority of all low-income families in the United States are white, and there are many middle-class nonwhite families. Definitions of social class are based on such factors as income, occupation, and education, never on race or ethnicity.