Kids at Risk -- Can Educators Help?

A new government report indicates that kids in the United States are generally OK. Many indicators show an improvement in their overall well-being. Not all the news is good, however. Today, Education World highlights some findings from a collaborative effort by 20 federal agencies. What do the report's findings say to educators?

A Handful of Report Highlights About 8 percent of all children lived in families (four people) whose incomes were less than half the poverty level, or $8,330, and 29 percent lived in families whose incomes were less than $24,900. More children lived in single-parent households --up from 20 percent in 1980 to 27 percent in 1999. Nearly half the children residing with a single mother lived in poverty. About 4 percent of children lived with their single fathers. About 36 percent of children lived in households that experienced one or more housing problems, such as physically inadequate housing, overcrowded housing, or housing that cost more than 30 percent of the household income. Children living in households that had the lowest incomes were four times as likely to drop out of high school as children living in households from the top 20 percent of income distribution. About 38 percent of kindergartners whose mothers hadn't completed high school had emergent literacy, the ability to recognize letters, compared with 86 percent of children whose mothers had a bachelor's degree or higher.

A new government report assessing the status of the 70.2 million children in the United States is mostly good news. A collaborative effort by 20 federal agencies, the report was released last week by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics.

America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2000 is the fourth annual summary of children's well-being. The finding are based on 23 key indicators, such as children's economic security, health, behavior and social environment, and education. National surveys and vital records were the basis of the report's data.

The findings are expected to be helpful to educators. The report provides insight about the number of children who may be in danger of failing in school, based on commonly established factors that affect student achievement, such as poverty levels and household environment.

BEST INDICATORS IN YEARS

"The most remarkable aspect of the report is that more of these indicators are the best we've had regarding the status of children in years," according to Duane Alexander, director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The lowest teen birth rates; the lowest infant, child and adolescent mortality rates; the highest immunization rates ever; and the lowest percentage of children living in poverty are all really "good news," he said.

The rate of violent teen crime was the lowest since 1973, which was somewhat surprising given the number of media headlines about incidents of teen violence, Alexander said.

Although the percentage of children living in poverty is the lowest in 20 years, it is still the highest among industrialized nations. "I think it is unacceptable in our society," Alexander told Education World.

U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley was pleased with the overall findings of the report. "This is a good-news day for America's children," he said two weeks ago in a speech at the Knowledgeworks Foundation, in Ohio. The prosperity of the last eight years is making a real difference in the lives of our children, Riley noted.

"Although [most] of this is positive, we still have our work cut out for us," Riley said. "We still have millions of young people living in poverty, and poverty makes it so hard for a child to get a quality education."

RACIAL AND ETHNIC DISPARITIES

The report found significant racial and ethnic disparities in child well-being, said Alisa Jenny, who worked on the report. She is a statistician for the National Center for Health Statistics.

For example, the infant mortality rate for black, non-Hispanics (13.7 deaths per 1,000 births) was more than double the rate for whites (6.0 deaths per 1,000 births). "Although the overall infant mortality rate is 7.2 (per 1,000 births), that's good, but there are areas we can still improve," Jenny told Education World. "We hope other agencies or private institutions can do something with the report."

THE FINDINGS

Among the report's findings that may be helpful to educators are the following:

• The number of children in very good or excellent health remained stable between 1984 through 1997. About 81 percent of children were reported by their parents to be in very good or excellent health. Children living below the poverty line, however, were less likely than children from higher-income families to be in "very good" health.
• The percentage of children living in poverty fell slightly --from 19 percent to 18 percent --between 1984 and 1997. About 12.6 million children still lived in poverty, however.
• Of the children who lived in poverty, 2.6 million experienced hunger. They lived in households without enough food to nourish an active, healthy life. The number of children living in food-insecure households was much higher --13.1 percent. According to the report, children living in food-insecure households generally do not experience hunger themselves because the adults go without food so the children won't go hungry.
• The context of family has changed during recent years. More children lived in single-parent households --up from 20 percent in 1980 to 27 percent in 1999. Most children who lived in households in which the adults were married were much less likely to live in poverty than were children who lived only with their mothers.
• Another change was the number of children who lived with single fathers. About 4 percent of children lived with their single fathers, and about 16 percent of them lived with a father and his cohabitating partner. About 9 percent of children who lived with a single mother also lived with her cohabitating partner.
• About 36 percent of children lived in households that experience one or more housing problems, such as physically inadequate housing, overcrowded housing, or housing that cost more than 30 percent of household income.
• Teen health behavior was static during the past four years. In particular, 31 percent of children reported regular alcohol use.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO EDUCATORS

"Most educators would agree that because of these changes, schools have a greater challenge now than before in educating children," said Laura Lippman, one of the writers of the report and a statistician at the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

"An indicator with important policy considerations is the high school completion rate," Lippman told Education World. "Although the overall rate has been fluctuating between 84 percent and 86 percent since 1980, this stability masks changes in underlying components of this rate. The rate at which students obtain a regular diploma declined from 81 percent in 1990 to 75 percent in 1998, while the rate of students who obtain an equivalent, such as a GED, increased from 4 percent in 1990 to 10 percent in 1998."

In 1998, 3.9 million young adults were not enrolled in high school and had not completed high school, according to a NCES report, Dropout Rates in the United States: 1998. Again, poverty played a roll in student achievement. Children living in households that had the lowest incomes were four times as likely to drop out of high school as were children living in households from the top 20 percent of income distribution.

Another important indicator included in the report, based on the NCES Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, found that children's literary skill levels varied significantly, based on the level of education of their mothers. About 38 percent of kindergartners whose mothers hadn't completed high school had emergent literacy, the ability to recognize letters, compared with 86 percent of children whose mothers had a bachelor's degree or higher.

Lippman said that component of the report illustrates the diversity of cognitive and social skills among incoming kindergartners from the first national picture we have of kindergarteners.

Diane Weaver Dunne
Education World®
Copyright © 2000 Education World

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