By Khadija Allen
The mounting Chicago crime rates have inflicted neighborhoods, schools, and families, but overall the number of children exposed to violence, have devoured their chances of academic success in the school system.
Their academic performance have hindered their ability to learn at the same rate of their peers who live outside the city limits, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Reading and vocabulary assessments in Chicago were used to sample children, particularly African American children who scored drastically lower on the tests within a week of a homicide in their neighborhood. And the crimes usually affected the children on a physical or emotional level, which could heighten stress levels, disrupt sleeping habits, and the learning process, the study reported.
According to the Chicago Tribune:
Neighborhood homicides can have a detrimental effect on Chicago schoolchildren’s academic performance, whether they witness the violence or not, according to a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Using Chicago crime reports and the reading and vocabulary assessments of a sample of Chicago children, sociologist Patrick Sharkey of New York University found African-American children scored substantially lower on reading and vocabulary tests within a week of a homicide in their neighborhood.
The effect on performance was seen regardless of whether the children were physically harmed, were witnesses to the crime or had merely heard about the violence, the study reported.
SMH. We still cringe watching this from last year:
