Educational Attainment Culture plays a significant part in education as it serves as the background of a student’s experience, the foundation of the student’s ideas and beliefs, and the lens that shapes the student’s outlook. By taking culture into consideration, a teacher can better connect with students and provide an atmosphere in the classroom that is conducive to sharing, responding and learning (Saifer, 2011). Educational attainment requires that students engage with the information that is presented to them in their lessons, and one of the best ways to get students to want to engage is to connect the lesson to their own backgrounds and cultural experience (Kea, Campbell-Whatley, Richards, 2006).

The role of cultural responsive teaching in educational attainment is to be the pathway towards cultural diversity. The teacher helps students to define the learning goals, question traditional concepts, understand student diversity, engage with the material and effectively work towards knowledge acquisition through participation (Kea et al., 2006). Yet numerous factors can impact the educational attainment of students. These factors must be addressed by the culturally responsive teacher so that all the issues that might affect a student’s capacity to learn are addressed.

Three factors that can impact educational attainment are: 1) socio-economic background, 2) parental involvement, and 3) school structure. These factors can impact students in various ways. As each student is different,...

One way to do this is to make “home visits,” which can really facilitate and foster strong relationships between students, their families and the teacher (Stetson, Stetson, Sinclair, Nix, 2012). By making such visits, the teacher can also develop a better sense of the student’s socio-economic background, and the level of parental involvement. The third factor (school structure) is one that may be outside the control of the teacher, but will have an impact nonetheless.
Socio-economic background can impact educational attainment by causing stress for students if the socio-economic life of the student is subpar (Thompson, Corsello, McReynolds, Conklin-Powers, 2013). This factor could be determined by the neighborhood in which the student lives, the family status of the student, the family’s income, the family’s place in the community, and so on. If these elements contribute in a positive manner to the student’s life by providing stability and support, they can be very helpful to educational attainment. If they are lacking, however, they may serve as obstacles to the same.

Parental involvement is another factor that can impact educational attainment. The level to which parents involve themselves in their child’s life will have an effect on that child’s success in school. Involvement can range from listening to the child, offering advice…