Socioeconomic Status Matters in Student Achievement—But It’s Not Everything
Data suggests socioeconomic factors play an important role in explaining the gaps in knowledge and skills that emerge between different racial groups as early as kindergarten—but that class doesn’t explain everything. That’s according to new research from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative Washington think tank.
The report, released Aug. 21, builds on extended research from two decades ago that analyzed the achievement gap between Black and Hispanic students and their white peers, which suggested that a family’s socioeconomic status accounts for a large swath of the achievement gap. But it also isn’t the whole story.
“To us, there’s sort of two big takeaways,” said Paul Morgan, a professor at the University of Albany, one of the researchers for the report. “One: Class does seem to matter in terms of explaining racial and ethnic achievement gaps. And, two: Class, while important, doesn’t explain everything.”
