The Need
The intractable “achievement gap” is one of the nation’s most critical education challenges. In the United States, 16% of all children are living in poverty. In Georgetown County, 25% of children aged 0-17 live in houses below the poverty line. Research has firmly established that a child’s social class is one of the most important predictors of their academic success, if not the most important predictor. It has become increasingly evident that these performance gaps based on social class begin to form in the early years of a child’s life and, unfortunately, do not diminish in the years that follow. Children who start off behind their peers tend to remain behind and are rarely able to catch up.
Why does this matter? These performance gaps indicate unfulfilled needs and wasted potential among children from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Strong cognitive and non-cognitive skills development is crucial for success in school and beyond, and low academic achievement leads to reduced economic opportunities later in life, perpetuating a lack of social mobility across generations. It is also a loss to society when talented children are not given the support they need to thrive.
