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This week's snapshot comes from the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Senate.
In The Classroom
Questions and content to explore with students could include:
Describe the pattern of growth for White/Black families from less-than-HS through post-grad in mathematical terms. What is the total growth? Percent growth?
What is the total/relative difference between White/Black family wealth as educational attainment grows?
This graph includes data of median family wealth. What does 'median' refer to in this context? Why use the median and not another process for calculating averages?
How does the content of this graph justify the title that the researchers arrived at?
What are the reasons why these gaps exist? In other words, why do people of different races with the same level of educational attainment have such different wealth?
Extension opportunities
Compare this chart to one 10 or 20 years earlier. How do current gaps compare to historic gaps?
Deeper dive -- what happens when this data is parsed along gender lines in terms of wealth?
Explore income, not just wealth, based on educational attainment.
How Would You Use This News?
How would you use this graph in your classroom? What math content could it help students explore? Share your ideas in the comments.
I suspect neither of the previous commenters don't understand what median means. This is why math education is so important. Nor do they understand the difference between income and wealth.
Yes, I agree with the above comment. There seems to be some missing data; for example the source included White, Black and Hispanic but only focuses on two of them.
This graph is poorly constructed. Two people could both have post graduate degrees but are for very different jobs. For example a masters in math education versus a ph.d. medical doctor will make very different salaries and yet both be classified as post-graduate. You are not comparing apples to apples. This is not a race comparison as it is a comparison to choice of work.