Research Question

How much are student's educational outcomes determined by their familial background and how, as an educator, can I build a classroom that meets their wide range of needs while also giving them opportunities to excel? 

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Explanation of Question

I pose this question because I am perplexed by the inequality of our nation's educational system, and particularly in our own state. Although I have been in the same grade level for the past three years with students who are the same age, my experience has been vastly different just because of where I was placed. First in Lansing, then Haslett, and now Southfield, all different in their own right, but after having experiences in all the schools, what I noticed was that Lansing and Southfield, schools with majority minority populations and lower-income families had lower-achieving students. This isn't a fault of the student, nor do I believe it is completely the fault of the teachers, but more a systematic problem within education. However, I know as a teacher that the solution for the systematic failures will be an on-going process, so I need to know what I can do in my classroom right now to ensure that I am creating an equal playing field for all my students. So first, I believe I need to better understand how student's backgrounds foster their educational development and then I will need to research how I can use that knowledge to create a more inclusive and supportive classroom.