Social Mobility Paper

Regardless of social class, the majority of Americans all expect it’s nation 's colleges and universities to uphold the goal of upward social mobility. Though there are many factors that affect social mobility, such as the various opportunities that arise in terms of moving within different social classes in the United States, the pursuit of education has become a primary means of achieving upward social mobility (Reeves 2014). As the income gap continues to expand between the upper and lower classes, accessibility and success in higher education is becoming more of a distant dream for many. Opportunities to earn a college degree have and continue to become limited for the lower quintile of American families, while those in the top-earning

The Piedmont community median household income ranges at $207,222 compared to the significantly lower $56,944 of the Castlemont community (CDE 2013). Piedmont’s community median household income is one of the many factors that assists in providing the necessary resources to continue investing in better education. In contrast, Castlemont’s low-income earning families are not able to directly invest in their children’s education and have to rely on government assistance and investment which is scarce. The increasingly prosperous higher income community of Piedmont High School allows many to invest time, money, and influence to ensure their children 's academic success at various levels of education. As stated in lecture, public resources fund the expansion of post-secondary education and it is obvious that investment in our public education is necessary (Kelsey, 9/28/15). Difference between Piedmonts and Castlemonts communities have led to the variations in childrearing previously

One factor comes from the result of an expanding higher educations system between 1945 and 1970. A time where whites were able to achieve higher education that ultimately helped them move up in social class while depriving those of color with the same opportunity (Kelsey, 10/05/15). Another aspect that may have kept these two communities segregated was redlining. Through “redlining,” cities were divided into districts of Black/Latino/Asian neighborhoods that were “redlined” as “economically unsound” areas for investment and the residents could not get housing loans making it harder to pay off their mortgages (Kelsey, 9/28/15). Lastly, “restrictive covenants,” prohibited the sale of hosing to people of color in the suburbs (Fischer et al. 1996). This also preserved a separation within communities and significant government investments that only reached the new suburbs which are reflected through the difference in house values. One example, is in the Oakland Hills, where the houses were valued over 1 million dollars, while in East Oakland houses are valued at $366,400 (CDE 2013). The higher value in houses resulted in high income taxes that created significant amounts of money that could be invested in education. Glaring differences in academic investment and performance is also reflected by the dropout rates