Welcome to the second stage- elementary school!
As you read these statistics, think about how these experiences could affect young kids and their later lives.
Black students are treated worse by students and administrators and are less likely to be put in gifted programs compared to white students with the same academic performance. There is also evidence that quality of instruction can be affected by the race of students. Black students are nearly 4x as likely to be suspended. (https://www.apa.org/monitor/2016/11/cover-inequality-school)
Latino children are more likely to be misdiagnosed with learning disabilities than any other racial/ethnic group when they attend schools that are predominantly white. They face harsher punishments for minor infractions, and their abilities are often underestimated by teachers. (https://salud-america.org/latino-students-misdiagnosed-with-learning-disabilities-raises-questions-about-discrimination-bias/#:~:text=Latino%20children%20often%20face%20discrimination,on%20their%20health%20and%20wellbeing.)
Teachers treat boys and girls differently from a young age. Boys receive more discipline, but they also get more praise and feedback. Girls’ feedback tends to be more based on aesthetics than content. Girls get more attention in areas that are considered to be feminine, such as language arts and art, while boys get more attention in classes like math and science. (https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/how-gender-disparities-affect-classroom-learning)
By age 6, girls are less likely to believe that they can be brilliant (“really, really smart”) despite the fact that girls do better in school. At 5, boys and girls believe that they can be brilliant at roughly the same rate. (https://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-girls-boys-brilliant-20170126-story.html)
Children from low class families start elementary school very far behind their wealthier peers, and race can compound this effect. The effect of race is largely due to social class and discrimination. (https://www.epi.org/publication/early-education-gaps-by-social-class-and-race-start-u-s-children-out-on-unequal-footing-a-summary-of-the-major-findings-in-inequalities-at-the-starting-gate/)
Children with dyslexia often go undiagnosed for a long time, and many public schools do not have the resources/training to accommodate their needs. The government only covers 40% of extra costs of educating disabled children (15% federal, rest = local + state). (https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2017/09/11/hard-to-read)
Speech delays can cause difficulty with socialization, attention, reading, and writing. This can affect children’s performance in elementary school and in later education. (https://www.aafp.org/afp/2011/0515/p1183.html)
Adopted students are more likely to have trouble in school. They are more likely to have teachers contact their parents over their schoolwork, have behavioral problems, repeat a grade, and be suspended or expelled. They are also more likely to have health problems, including ADD, learning disabilities, speech impairments, and developmental delays. They are also more likely to be diagnosed with psychological/physical conditions, such as severe emotional disturbance, severe intellectual disabilities, autism, deafness/hearing impairments, blindness/vision impairments, and other health conditions. These effects are caused by the higher levels of stress, deprivation, and loss in early childhood, and they can impact children’s abilities to perform well in school. (https://ifstudies.org/blog/the-adoptive-difference-new-evidence-on-how-adopted-children-perform-in-school)