Socioeconomic Factors that Influence Black-White Achievement Gap Among Elementary Students

A new report from scholars at the University at Albany and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute has examined the most influential  socioeconomic factors that lead to racial disparities in educational achievement among elementary students, as well as disparities among the most high-achieving students. The report consists of data from two kindergarten cohorts of the federal Early Child Longitudinal Study for the 1998-1999 and the 2010-2011 school years, respectively. The authors examined a broad set of socioeconomic factors such a parents’ backgrounds, family finances, household structures, and household opportunity factors to determine which best explained the Black-White achievement gap among both kindergarten cohorts. According to their analysis, the authors found the broad set of socioeconomic factors explained some 34 to 64 percent of the Black-White student achievement gap, with the largest gap found in readings scores compared to other subjects like math or science. Among the most achieving students (those in the top quartile of test scores), the socioeconomic factors explained about 36 to 60 percent of the racial gap. Notably, the extent to which the socioeconomic factors explained the racial achievement gap has remained relatively unchanged from 1998 to 2011. When controlling for these factors, the gap significantly decreased. Out...