How do you define success? If you\u2019ve been following #SuccessTogether, you\u2019ve heard from young people all over the country sharing their definitions of success. A loving family, a nice home, supporting myself and others. These are some of the goals we\u2019ve heard from the 13.7 million children, 8.6 million of whom are children of color, in StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network communities.<\/p>\n

Hearing all of these individual aspirations begs an important question: How do we know if we\u2019re making progress as a system, as a society, in ensuring the success of every child toward economic mobility? At the opening plenary of the Cradle to Career Network Convening, network members heard from two experts on the state of opportunity in America: Richard Reeves, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution<\/a>, and David Williams, policy director at Opportunity Insights<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here are a few highlights from their conversation:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe myth of meritocracy\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n

Reeves shared a stark perspective on the class system in the U.S. and, as he described it, \u201cthe myth of meritocracy.\u201d This myth camouflages the structural inequities of our economic system. As Reeves described the \u201cruthless machine\u201d of the American class system that produces economic inequity across our country, I was reminded of the idea that there is no such thing as a broken system \u2014 all systems are perfectly designed to produce the outcomes they achieve.<\/p>\n

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Race and place matter.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re black and were born into bottom 20% of the economic ladder, you have a 50% chance of staying there, while white Americans born into same quintile are half as likely to stay. In addition to race, as many of us have suspected, place matters, too. Reeves described this as \u201cthe Baltimore effect,\u201d explaining that if you grew up in Baltimore, controlling for all other factors possible, you\u2019re likely to earn 15% less over your lifetime than the average American. This impact is even more pronounced for boys.<\/p>\n

Data from Raj Chetty and Opportunity Insights shows the impact of the place where you grow up. While this insight represents a huge shift in social science, we still don\u2019t understand the \u201cwhat\u201d or \u201cwhy\u201d of how place affects outcomes. I believe Cradle to Career Network members are ready to dig into the data and answer these questions for their own communities.<\/p>\n

Investigate the factors specific to the neighborhoods that have provided opportunity in your community. What are the challenges and what have been the bright spots in those neighborhoods?<\/p>\n

Disrupting education inequality<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reeves highlighted that education inequality is passed on even more strongly than wealth. Standardized tests like the SAT are often used to perpetuate these inequities over generations. We as a network have an opportunity to identify equitable system measures \u2014 like equitable funding flows, diversity of the educator workforce and more \u2014 to measure not only child-level outcomes but system performance to address disrupt this accrual of privilege over time.<\/p>\n

Our work must involve elevating the human capital in the education and economic mobility space and ensuring that talent is representative of the communities we seek to serve. Watch how Cradle to Career Network members Generation Next and Milwaukee Succeeds are collaborating with partners to take on this challenge:<\/p>\n