Achievement Gap=Income Gap?

Rising income inequality in the U.S. has exacerbated the academic achievement gap, according to a new study by Sean Reardon of Stanford University’s Center for Education Policy and Analysis. Although the link between poverty and low academic achievement has long been recognized, Reardon’s analysis shows that the so-called “income achievement gap” (the difference in academic achievement of children from families in the 90th vs. the 10th percentile of family income distribution) is 30% to 40% larger among children born in 2001 than among those born in 1976.

Reardon also found:

• The income achievement gap is now nearly twice as large as the gap between blacks and whites. Fifty years ago these two factors were reversed, with the racial gap being 1.5 to two times larger than the income gap.
• The income gap is large when children enter kindergarten and remains relatively constant as they progress through school.
• Family income is now nearly as strong a predictor of children’s educational achievement as their parents’ educational levels.
• Much of the income gap appears to stem from a 30% to 60% increase since the 1970s in achievement among children from families above the median income. This growth appears to stem from higher-income parents’ increased investments in their children’s cognitive development.

Reardon’s study will appear as a chapter in the upcoming book Whither Opportunity? Rising Inequality, Schools, and Children’s Life Chances (Russell Sage Foundation, 2011).