According to the article by Reardon, while in the past years (i.e. 1950s, 1960s, etc.) there was a bigger gap in educational outcomes for students of different ethnicities. However, the current trend suggests that there is a bigger gap in achievement between students of different socioeconomic levels. 

Racial vs Socioeconomic Gaps

It could be said that there seems to be a one-sided Matthew Effect where more and more high-income students are chosen to enroll in prestigious colleges and are more likely to complete it as well. Meanwhile, low-income students are less likely to be chosen by selective colleges and the rate of low-income students that graduate from college has not apparently changed from past decades.

College Enrollment and Completion

There appear to be several reasons why this achievement gap/Matthew Effect in education exists for high and low-income students:

- rise of income inequality for the last few decades
- difficulty in rising social mobility for low-income families
- education success decides high or low-income job (no middle-class wages)
- more emphasis on test scores in education than any other aspect
- family income is more correlated with child development, especially in education

Reasons for Income Achievement Gap

This article notes that the schools students attend might have a low influence in the existence of the achievement gap between high and low-income students. It describes a study in which students from kindergarten to high school were tested in literacy and math. There is a large achievement gap between the two groups from kindergarten and that gap does not increase significantly in the following school years. The results seem to suggest that the income level may have a bigger influence in educational outcomes compared to the school the students attend. 

The Income Achievement Gap From K-12th Grade

Students from lower-income families consistently underperform compared to their peers from middle- and high-income backgrounds across several key educational metrics. These disparities include lower scores on standardized tests, reduced rates of high school graduation and college admission, and significantly higher rates of dropping out of school.

Educational Outcomes Affected by the Income Achievement Gap

Both state and federal governments have enacted legislation in an attempt to mitigate and correct the persistent achievement gap among students.

Government Legislation and the Achievement Gap

A significant question in achievement gap research is whether contributing problems originate before children begin formal education. This hypothesis suggests that factors in early childhood, such as disparities in language exposure and parent-child interactions, are fundamental to observed academic gaps. Seminal research by psychologists Betty Hart and Todd Risley provides strong evidence for this idea by demonstrating a significant 'word gap' between children from different income levels before they enter school.

Hypothesis of Pre-School Origins for the Achievement Gap

Consider two children entering kindergarten. Child A comes from a high-income household with access to a large home library, educational travel, and parents who have ample time for reading and complex conversations. Child B comes from a low-income household with limited access to books, and parents who work multiple jobs, reducing the time available for shared educational activities. Based on studies of the academic achievement gap, which statement best analyzes the most likely outcome for these two children?

Based on the provided profiles, analyze the likely differences in the long-term educational trajectories of the two children. In your analysis, identify at least three specific factors from their early life experiences that contribute to the probable divergence in their academic achievements.

Analyzing Educational Trajectories

Of the many kinds of achievement gaps that exist in education, there is one in particular between high-income students and low-income students. It has been documented in past and recent studies that high-income students tend to do better than low-income students in education, from test results to completion of college. 

University of California, Berkeley

Google

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Persistent and significant gaps in academic performance and/or educational attainment between high- and low-income students.

Income Achievement Gap

The Matthew Effect describes the phenomenon that in societies the rich tend to get richer and the strong even more powerful. The concept today describes the general pattern of self-reinforcing inequality related to economic wealth, political power, prestige, knowledge or in fact any other scarce or valued resource. 

The Matthew Effect

"In economics, a poverty trap or cycle of poverty are cause by self-reinforcing mechanisms that cause poverty, once it exists, to persist unless there is outside intervention." 

Cycle of Poverty / Poverty Trap

Reardon, S. (2013). The Widening Income Achievement Gap. Educational Leadership, 70, 10-16.

The Widening Income Achievement Gap- Citation Reference

Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020, April 22). Psychology (2nd ed.). OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/1-introduction

OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook

According to one article, the already existing achievement gap between students from high and low-income families could be impacted by the current 2020 pandemic. It discusses the negative effects that both socioeconomic status and school closures have on the educational outcomes of students. Then it goes into detail about how the socioeconomic achievement gap could be made worse by the effect of the pandemic closing schools. 

Socioeconomic Achievement Gap During The Pandemic

The effects of poverty on academic achievement

Using student performance data gathered from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in the last 50 years, Hanushek et. al has observed that the achievement gap has failed to close. By plotting standard deviations observed between the 90th-10th percentiles and the 75th-25th percentiles in socioeconomic status, the following trends were observed:
- For both comparisons, the gap in achievement has remained relatively consistent. 
- When comparing free/reduced-price lunch students and students ineligible for free/reduced-price lunch, the gap in achievement has also remained relatively consistent.
- When factoring in ethnicity, the gap between African American and White students decreased.
- Students between the ages of 13 and 15 (8th grade) have made improvements in learning gains over the last 50 years, while students older than 17 (12th grade) have slowly made less gains over the same period.

Overall, Hanushek et. al posit that while achievement gaps in education has failed to close, the effect observed is closer to a relative Matthew Effect, rather than an absolute one.


Hanushek et. al - The Achievement Gap Fails to Close

Combining socioeconomic data from the Panel Study on Income Dynamics (PSID) and student achievement data from the Child Development Supplement (CDS), Owens finds that income disparities can exacerbate the achievement gap. In addition, families with low income face different outcomes based race and ethnicity. Using multilevel regression models, Owens comes to the following conclusions:
- The larger the income disparity between families, the larger the gap.
- Low-income white families are less affected by both income disparity and their own income when compared to African American families.
- The more homogenous a district is, the stronger the effect becomes.
- Homogeneity-inducing behaviors, whether intentional or unintentional (redlining, seeking better districts, "white flight"/self-segregation), is likely to translocate income disparities and gaps over to achievement gaps.

Income Segregation and Achievement Gap

Research suggests that certain differences in brain structure between students may correlate with differences in their economic statuses. 

Neuroanatomical correlates of the income achievement gap

 Income segregation creates very wealthy school districts and impoverished school districts, which can greatly impact future outcomes for students by impacting their levels of achievement. Owens argues in the reference paper that income segregation is a reason behind the achievement gap between low and high-income students.

The Impact of Income Segregation on the Achievement Gap

The Income Achievement Gap Between Students

Read the following scenario. Based on the details provided, analyze the key factors related to the students' family income levels that are likely to contribute to a significant difference in their academic achievements.

Analyzing Factors in Academic Performance

The Matthew effect exists in education, in which students seen as low performing  will continue performing at low levels, while high performing students will continue to perform at high levels. 

The Matthew Effect in Education

Two of the most noticeable versions of the Matthew Effect are the "Absolute" and "Relative" versions.
- The "Absolute" Matthew effect is the more commonly known one; when the party with the resource advantage (the rich) continues to gain more resources, while the party with the resource disadvantage (the poor) continues to lose more resources.
- The "Relative" Matthew effect is more subtle; when *both* parties continue to gain more resources, but the party with the resource advantage compounds their advantage, thus getting further ahead over time.

Absolute and Relative Matthew Effects

- The Matthew Effect by Daniel Rigney
- The Matthew effect in empirical data
- Matthew Effects in Reading: Some Consequences of Individual Differences in the Acquisition of Literacy
-  Emergence of Scaling in Random Networks

The Mathew Effect References

One potential manifestation implies that the environment has a fixed amount of resources. Given that this is the case, the progress made by one party is made at the expense of all the others. This results in an "Absolute" Matthew effect, where the party with the resource advantage gains more because their advantage allows them to take resource from the disadvantaged party more easily.
- A complex example of this are two neighboring towns; a factory shuts down in one and relocates to the other. In doing so, the town that gains the factory gains jobs and affluence, while the town that lost the factory experiences the opposite.

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