The Socioeconomic Achievement Gap in the US Public Schools

“Key Takeaways:

  • The socioeconomic achievement gap in public schools is a social issue that has evolved over time and affects the whole country.

  • Poverty affects all aspects of child development, emotional and physical, which limits an impoverished child’s ability to learn and perform well in school.

  • Insufficient funding, lack of resources, and poor teacher training in low-income schools also contribute to the gap between lower-income and higher-income students.

  • The achievement gap reduces the potential of thousands of profitable workers and damages the US economy.

  • Poor school performance in lower-income students perpetuates chronic poverty through higher dropout rates and impeded employment.

  • Early childhood education provides structure during cognitive and social development, which can minimize the socioeconomic achievement gap.”

Ballard Brief

Discussion from Article

  • A: An achievement gap occurs when any group of students performs at a statistically significantly lower rate than another group of students. This gap can appear at the individual student performance level as well as at the school test level. Achievement gaps can be measured by race, ethnicity, gender, or social class. When lower-income students perform lower than their higher-income classmates, there is a socioeconomic status (SES) academic achievement gap.

  • A: As defined by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a congressionally mandated program overseen by the Department of Education, socioeconomic status is the combination of social and economic factors that indicate a child’s household income or opportunity. A variety of data is used to calculate SES as accurately as possible, including household size, family income, parental occupation, and parental level of education. For example, one common standard of measurement is that a child is considered impoverished if their guardians earn less than $25,926.00 per year. Globally, SES is measured through the child’s parents or guardians’ education and occupation as well as the number of books in the home.

  • A: Geographically, 17 states have higher child-poverty rates than the national average poverty rate for children. Of those 17 states, 13 were located in the South. For children living in poverty, the highest poverty rate is in mother-only households, while the lowest is in married-couple households. It is highest within families where parents have not completed high school and lowest where either parent has completed a bachelor’s or higher degree. In 2018, 32% of Black children were living in poverty, 31% of Native American children, 25% of Hispanic children, and 25% of Pacific Islander children.

  • A: Though the SES achievement gap has existed since the Industrial Revolution, it has been documented since the late 1930s. Due to racism and biases, no action was taken to address the SES achievement gap for many years because of the high correlation between race and low SES. As late as 1995, some scholars falsely attributed low school performance to biological inadequacy among different races and ethnicities. However, the SES achievement gap was still monitored throughout the years. Among a 1950s cohort of schoolchildren, low SES children were 4 years behind their high SES peers.

  • A: The first federal policy intended to aid low SES students was Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s “war on poverty” in 1965. The act offered grants to lower-income school districts. This is why schools that receive federal funding today are called Title 1 schools. Measurements and studies of the achievement gap as it is known today began in the early 80s and 90s. Twenty years later, the No Child Left Behind Act was instigated as an attempt to reduce the achievement gap and help low SES students improve their academic proficiency. The NCLB Act focused heavily on standardized testing, Title I spending, and school choice. If schools consistently failed state and national standards for at least 3 consecutive years, then the schools had to use Title I funding to help lower-income students find resources or other options in the public or private sector.46 The NCLB act focuses on literacy rates, assessment of Title I, and dropout prevention among disadvantaged students. At the end of 2015, the Department of Education passed the Every Student Succeeds Act, which focused on the equity of opportunity and allocating resources more equally across schools in order to decrease the achievement gap. Despite these policies and acts, there has been no significant nationwide decrease in the SES achievement gap.

  • A: International Trends

    The socioeconomic achievement gap exists in all countries to varying degrees; low SES students perform worse than their high SES peers in each country. Additionally, a study comparing the international exams from 1964–2015 found that the SES achievement gap is increasing globally. For instance, low SES high school students in Canada performed 8% worse than their high SES peers in mathematics and 9% worse in English. However, for the purpose of this brief, we will focus on trends within the US.

    A: Regional Trends

    The research does not seem to indicate any significant trends by region in the US, although more children live in poverty in the South. The socioeconomic achievement gap is also larger in areas near or within Native American reservations due to the greater prevalence of poverty among indigenous reservations. Overall, low SES is an issue everywhere in the US.

    A: State Trends

    As mentioned previously, 34 of the 50 United States have shown no significant change in the SES achievement gap, 14 have indicated significant widening, and 2 states have significant decreases.

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