The truly advantaged: racial inequalities of educational opportunities among the privileged in the United States

Abstract

This article pinpoints the mathematic performance gaps among high-socioeconomic background (SES) students from different racial groups in the United States. By doing so, it sheds light on how racial and socioeconomic privilege intersects thus creating different educational outcomes among high-SES children. In short, it illuminates who are the truly advantaged in the American educational system. Taken together, the results suggest that there are substantial racial performance gaps among high-SES children. First, white and Asian privileged children outperform their black and Hispanic counterparts. Second, black high-SES children appear to be the least advantaged among the privileged, and their mathematic performance lags over two years behind that of whites and Asians. What is more, low-SES Asians and whites are more likely to be high achievers than high-SES blacks are. Finally, Hispanics appear to perform better than their black counterparts, nonetheless, they lag about one year behind their Asian and white high-SES peers.