Giving Our Children a Fighting Chance: Poverty, Literacy, and the Development of Information Capital

As an urban teacher currently living in Philadelphia, I was drawn to Giving Our Children a Fighting Chance, a book by Susan B. Neuman and Donna C. Celano. Set in two drastically different communities within the same city limits of Philadelphia, this ten-year research study works to answer a commonplace urban education question: Why is there an achievement gap based on race and class and what can we do about it? Many studies of this nature focus on urban versus suburban communities and look within schools themselves. This unique study analyzes two Philadelphia communities: Chestnut Hill, a community many consider a suburb within a city, where 93% of residents have graduated from high school and 63% have a bachelor’s degree; and the North Philadelphia “Badlands,” a community with a controversial name where fewer than half of the residents have their high school diploma and only 3% have a bachelor’s degree. The central thesis of the study is that geographical segregation by class leads to a differential access to print for children of these communities. This, in turn, leads to an unequal development of literacy skills, either limiting or increasing the development of information capital, ultimately solidifying the Matthew Effect where the rich become richer and the poor become poorer.