Socioeconomic Status Achievement Research Articles

Selection and the economic value of education: A barrier to reducing the SES achievement gap?

AbstractDue to the role that schools play in determining the status of the future occupations of their children (i.e., the selection function of education), high socioeconomic status (SES) parents may not always be supportive of interventions that would reduce the SES achievement gap. In four experiments, we measured the support of parents (Ntotal = 1966) for implementing an equalizing (and, in Experiments 2 and 3, an inequality‐maintaining) intervention. In Experiments 1 and 2, a negative association between subjective SES and support for the equalizing intervention was found when the selection function was made salient, an effect that was also observed in Experiment 4 but only for Right‐leaning participants. In Experiment 3, where the salience of selection was held constant, we found a negative association between subjective SES and support for the equalizing intervention, but not the inequality‐maintaining intervention.

Inequality in the shadow: The role of private tutoring in SES achievement gaps

Despite the rapid growth of private tutoring, previous studies have not systematically addressed its implications for socioeconomic status (SES) disparities in education, as they have only separately examined differential access to and the effects of private tutoring. This study directly estimates the causal contribution of private tutoring to SES disparities in educational achievement and cognitive ability among Chinese middle school students. Using nationally representative longitudinal data and a novel gap-closing approach, we find that unequal access to private tutoring does not uniformally result in significant learning gaps between high- and low-SES students. When comparing disadvantaged students with their most socioeconomically advantaged peers, we find that the proportions of SES disparities attributed to differences in participation in and intensity of private tutoring increase with these differences. These findings have important policy implications for reducing SES disparities in learning outcomes.

The impact of family socioeconomic status on parental involvement and student engagement during COVID-19 in promoting academic achievement: A longitudinal study in Chinese children

With a three-wave longitudinal design, the current study examined the impact of family socioeconomic status (SES) on parental involvement and student engagement in promoting children’s academic achievement during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We recruited data from 246 mother–primary school student dyads, and the mean age of children at Wave 1 was 10.57 ± 0.97 years (range = 9–13 years). The academic achievement of these children was measured both before and after school closures. Family SES, parental involvement, and student engagement were assessed during the school closures. The results indicated that family SES could predict children’s later academic achievement after accounting for their prior academic achievement and other demographics (i.e., the significant total effect in the model). Moreover, parental involvement and student engagement played chain-mediating roles in the effect of family SES on children’s later academic achievement. Neither parent involvement nor student involvement alone mediated the relationships between family SES and subsequent academic achievement. Suggestions are provided to minimize the negative impact of low family SES on children’s academic achievement during pandemics.

Exploring the mediating role of promoting school physical activity on the relationship between low socioeconomic status and academic achievement and school climate: evidence from 4,990 Chilean schools.

There is evidence that promoting school physical activity (PSPA) benefits children and adolescents, but little is understood about how this promotion may relate to academic achievement and school climate across varying levels of socioeconomic status (SES). Hence, the study aimed to address this knowledge gap by examining two main objectives: (1) determining the association between PSPA and academic achievement and school climate according to schools' SES and (2) exploring the potential mediating role of PSPA in the relationship between schools' SES and academic achievement and school climate. This cross-sectional study at the school level focused on 4,990 schools (including public, subsidized, and private schools) that participated in the National Educational Study 2018 (Chile), which was applied to primary schoolchildren (4th grade, aged 8-10 years). Schools were divided into non-PSPA (n = 4,280) and PSPA (n = 710) during the year 2018. Changes in academic achievement from 2017 to 2018 and school climate were considered. PSPA was associated with improvements in maths (low-SES OR: 1.80, p < 0.001) and reading (middle-SES OR: 1.45, p = 0.029; low-SES OR: 1.47, p < 0.001). The indirect effect (IE) showed that PSPA partially mediated the relationship between SES and academic achievement in reading (IE = 1.017; SE = 0.12; 95%CI, -1.27, -0.77), maths (IE = -1.019; SE = 0.12; 95%CI, -1.25, -0.78), and school climate (IE = -0.46; SE = 0.52; 95%CI, -0.56, -0.35). In conclusion, PSPA was linked to positive changes in academic achievement, especially among low SES, and PSPA presented a potential mediating role in the relationship between SES of schools and academic achievement and school climate.

The Association Between Attitudes Towards Mathematics, Students’ Background and TIMSS Mathematics Achievement

The overall aim of this study is to examine the association between Swedish students’ attitudes towards mathematics, mathematics achievement as measured by the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), socioeconomic status (SES), and educational background variables. A further aim is to investigate whether students’ attitudes towards mathematics have a mediating role between their mathematics achievement and their background. Several indicators of students’ SES and background, taken from both the TIMSS 2015 database and from Swedish official registers, were used. The overall results show that there were differences in attitudes towards mathematics in relation to the different SES and educational background measures. There are also associations between students’ SES and both TIMSS mathematics achievement and their attitudes towards mathematics. The students’ attitudes towards mathematics only had a small mediation role between the students’ backgrounds and TIMSS mathematics achievement. Finally, although the mediation models had a better fit when including other information, the mediation effect was lower. Practical implications of the obtained results are discussed.

Understanding the relation between socioeconomic status and elementary science achievement: A quantile regression approach

AbstractA student's socioeconomic status (SES) has a significant relation to their academic achievement. Much of this work has explored this in math and reading, but less is known about how SES relates to science achievement, particularly in the early grades. Using quantile regression with nationally representative data, we explored this relation in 12,676 kindergarten students (51.2% boys, 52.2% White, 21.8% Hispanic, 12.7% Black and 6.6% Asian) and 10,339 fifth‐grade students (51.3% boys, 49.4 White, 27.2% Hispanic, 9.4% Black and 8.2% Asian). We found less variability in science achievement scores for those high on SES than those low on SES. The scores of the high SES students cluster together on the high end of science achievement, whilst those from low SES score across the distribution. These findings highlight the need to explore what can mitigate the relation between SES and science achievement and where resources to support science achievement are most needed.

The Relationship between Socioeconomic Status and Academic Achievement is Mediated and Moderated by Executive Functions.

Executive function is an underlying mechanism linking family socioeconomic status (SES) and academic achievement. Previous studies mainly investigated either the mediating or moderating role of executive function within this relationship, which either overlook the individual differences that are independent of the environment or neglect the influence of the environment on shaping personal factors. To avoid a piecemeal approach to theory, the current study aimed to test the mediating and moderating roles of executive function in a single analytic model. Two hundred and thirty-six Chinese fifth graders (Mage = 10.70 years, SD = 0.49, range = 10.23-11.75 years, and 40.30% girls) were recruited. Their executive function performance was measured using eight different tasks, and their Chinese literacy skills and mathematics achievement were assessed by routine school evaluations. One year after the initial assessment, children's academic achievements were evaluated again. Results demonstrated that parental SES positively predicted children's academic achievement when controlling for prior academic achievement, and children's executive function mediated this relationship. Also, executive function moderated the association between SES and academic achievement in that, the negative predictive effect of low SES on academic achievement was only significant for children with lower levels of executive function, which is not shown in children with higher levels of executive function. By demonstrating the dual roles of executive function in the SES-achievement link, this work provides evidence for supporting the optimal development of children from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds and emphasizes the significance of developing individualized intervention strategies on executive function to mitigate the negative effect of low SES on children's academic achievement.

The association between socioeconomic status and Chinese secondary students’ English achievement: mediation of self-efficacy and moderation of gender

Abstract This research explored the mediation of self-efficacy and moderation of gender between socioeconomic status (SES) and foreign language (FL) achievement. A total of 8,906 Chinese secondary students (50.7 % males) completed socioeconomic status (SES) questionnaire, English self-efficacy scale, English achievement test, and demographic questionnaire. Multilevel regression model showed that SES was positively associated with English achievement both at student and school levels. The multilevel mediation model demonstrated that English self-efficacy partially mediated the link between SES and English achievement only at student level, and the mediation effect accounted for 30 % of the total effect. Moreover, the link between SES and English achievement was moderately influenced by gender. Specifically, boys’ English achievement was more significantly impacted by SES compared to that of girls. These findings underscore a gender disparity in the impact of SES on FL achievement, advocating for targeted interventions specifically aimed at students from low-SES backgrounds, particularly males.

Mediating effects of motivation and socioeconomic status on reading achievement: a secondary analysis of PISA 2018

BackgroundResearch has shown that students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to have lower academic performance compared to children from better-off families. However, the way that socioeconomic status (SES) influences student learning outcomes has not yet been fully examined. Thus, this study explores the indirect effects of students’ SES on reading achievement through academic motivation. Specifically, the mediating role of the following three motivation elements is investigated: mastery-approach orientation of achievement goals,enjoyment of reading, and expected occupational status.MethodsStructural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to test the hypothesized mediation model in each European country (n = 38) that took part in the PISA 2018 cycle. Specifically, data was obtained from 237,366 15-year-old students. Common measures for SES, academic motivation, and reading achievement were employed to examine whether the selected academic motivation elements have similar effects in each country. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to validate the factorial structure of mediators and test their measurement invariance across the samples.ResultsWithin-country SEM analysis revealed that expected occupational status partially mediates the relationship between SES and reading achievement in all countries. Enjoyment of reading fitted well as a mediator in almost all countries (n = 37), whereas mastery-approach orientation of achievement goals only appeared as a mediator in 11 countries. The direct effect of SES on academic achievement was significantly reduced in all models.ConclusionsThis study provides evidence that enjoyment of reading and expected occupational status can be treated as mediators in the relationship between SES and reading achievement in European countries. Implications for research and theory for promoting equity in education are drawn. It is argued that schools and teachers should encourage students to participate in activities that foster their intrinsic motivation towards reading and raise their educational and occupational expectations, especially for those coming from socially disadvantaged backgrounds.

The Linkage between School Autonomy and Inequality in Achievement in 69 Countries: Does Development Level Matter?

Whether schooling systems with greater autonomy offset or reinforce educational inequalities remains debateable. Yet school autonomy is often advocated by different actors including donors and international organisations in many countries. This study examines the association between school autonomy and the inequality in maths achievement of 15-year-olds by socioeconomic status (SES), and whether this correlation differs by countries’ level of development. We construct a country-level panel using six waves of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) from 69 countries in 322 country waves. We first estimate the gradient of SES and maths achievement as a measure of achievement inequality at the country level and take the country mean of the relevant covariates including school autonomy. Results from weighted mixed-effects models suggest that the association between all autonomy variables and inequality in achievement is not significant. However, academic autonomy is linked to increasing achievement inequality in high- and upper-middle-income countries compared with low- and lower-middle-income countries. But the coefficients for budget and personnel autonomy do not differ by the development level. The results remain similar in several specification tests including country and year fixed effects, which leads us to suggest not to simplistically apply autonomy reforms regardless of context.

The Impact of Socio-economic Status on Academic Achievement

This study analyzes how Socio-economic status (SES) affects student academic performance. The study examines how Socio-economic background affects academic performance. This study can help explain how SES affects academic achievement and guide educational policy and actions to close achievement inequalities.300 varied secondary school pupils was sampled. Parental income, education, and occupation were used to calculate Socio-economic status. Standardized tests and GPAs measured academic performance. Data analysis used correlation and regression analysis. The regression study explored how SES predicted academic outcomes while adjusting for other factors like family engagement and school resources. Correlation analysis examined the relationship between SES and academic achievement. The Socio-economic position appears to affect academic performance. Higher-Socio-economic students fare better academically. However, parental participation and school resources may buffer the SES-academic achievement association. This study suggests focused treatments for low-income students. Policymakers and educators may reduce the achievement gap and promote fair education by understanding how Socio-economic status affects academic performance.

Mediation of self-concept and moderation of teacher support between SES and reading achievement: Evidence from China and the United States.

Socioeconomic status (SES) is important in students' reading development. The mechanism of how they are linked, however, is underexplored. This research aimed to explore whether reading self-concept mediates the link between SES and reading achievement and whether teacher support moderates the direct and indirect link between SES and reading achievement. Using PISA 2018 database, we selected 17,346 15-year-olds from 537 schools in B-S-J-Z (China) and the United States (U.S.). Multilevel linear models were calculated to explore the potential mediation of self-concept and the potential moderation of teacher support between SES and reading achievement. Results reveal that reading self-concept mediated the link between SES and reading achievement at student level both in China and the United States, and teacher support moderated the link between SES and reading self-concept both at student level and school level only in China, but not in the United States. Our research highlights the importance of self-concept and teacher support in improving students' reading achievement, especially for students of low SES, which has important theoretical significance and practical enlightenment for reading instruction.

Long-run Trends in the U.S. SES—Achievement Gap

Abstract Rising inequality in the United States has raised concerns about potentially widening gaps in educational achievement by socioeconomic status (SES). Using assessments from LTT-NAEP, Main-NAEP, TIMSS, and PISA that are psychometrically linked over time, we trace trends in SES gaps in achievement for U.S. student cohorts born between 1961 and 2001. Gaps in math, reading, and science achievement between the top and bottom quartiles of the SES distribution have closed by 0.05 standard deviation per decade over this period. The findings are consistent across alternative measures of SES and subsets of available tests and hold in more recent periods. At the current pace of closure, the achievement gap would not be eliminated until the second half of the 22nd century.

The effect of karate interventions on the motor proficiency of female adolescents with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) from high and low socio-economic status

BackgroundThere is not a general consensus on the best type of intervention to improve the motor proficiency (MP) of adolescents with developmental coordination disorder (DCD). Considering the effect of socio-economic status (SES) in relation to the MP of adolescents with DCD, it is necessary to examine this issue further. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of Karate-Do interventions on the MP of adolescents with DCD from high/low SES.MethodsParticipants included 16 adolescent girls (12 to 13 years old) with DCD, and their classification into high/low SES groups was done by using appropriate previously validated questionnaire. A short form of the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, Second Edition (BOT-2), was used to assess fine motor precision, fine motor integration, manual dexterity, upper limb coordination, bilateral coordination, balance, strength, speed, agility, and overall MP level of the participants. Both high/low-SES groups completed a specifically prescribed Karate-Do intervention program for 8 consecutive weeks (3 sessions per week with each session lasting for 75 min).ResultsResults from this 8-week intervention showed that the pattern of change in manual dexterity, bilateral coordination, strength and the total MP score improved over time in both groups with varied socioeconomic backgrounds. Specifically, the high-SES group performed significantly better than their low-SES counterparts during the 8-week Karate-Do intervention (p < 0.05).ConclusionsFollowing participants’ completion of the Karate-Do intervention, the existence of significant changes in the MP of adolescents’ with DCD at high/low SES confirmed our hypothesis. Compared to the low-SES group, adolescents with high SES displayed superior MP following the intervention. It seems that karate (kata) training serves as a good alternative for rehabilitation MP programs, however, an important issue concerning social infrastructure is to create a suitable exercise environment for adolescents at lower SES. Until the SES achievement gap in female adolescent MP is stable, future work is warranted to discover more practical and meaningful interventions.

Socioeconomic status and reading outcomes: Neurobiological and behavioral correlates.

In this chapter, we examine reading outcomes and socioeconomic status (SES) using a developmental cognitive and educational neuroscience perspective. Our focus is on reading achievement and intervention outcomes for students from lower SES backgrounds who struggle with reading. Socioeconomic disadvantage is a specific type of vulnerability students experience, which is often narrowly defined based on parental income, education level, and/or occupational prestige. However, implications of socioeconomic status extend broadly to a suite of areas relevant for reading outcomes including a student's access to resources, experiences, language exposure, academic outcomes, and psychological correlates. Underlying this constellation of factors are brain systems supporting the processing of oral and written language as well as stress-related factors. We review the implications of SES and reading achievement, and their intersectionality, for the science and practice of reading instruction.

When Proficiency and Education Matter: The Mediating Role of English Proficiency and Moderating Effect of Parents’ Education in the SES–Academic Achievement Relationship During EMI

This study investigated how socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with academic achievement and English proficiency in an English-medium instruction (EMI) program at a state university in Indonesia. It also examined the mediating effect of English proficiency and moderating effect of parents’ education on the relationship between SES and academic achievement. Data for 234 EMI students were obtained from the academic office of the university. Based on mediation analysis, SES significantly predicted students’ academic achievement and English proficiency. However, it stopped being a significant predictor when mediated through English proficiency. The moderation analysis shows that the degree of increase in EMI students’ grade point average was affected by the level of parents’ education when associated with family income. The article also presents the implications of the findings in enhancing university EMI programs and suggestions for future research.

Exploring the interplay between socioeconomic status and reading achievement: An expectancy-value perspective.

Socioeconomic status (SES) and motivation are both important predictors of student achievement. However, most studies have investigated these factors separately, and very few have looked into the interplay between SES and motivation as determinants of student reading achievement. We intend to bridge this gap by examining a model of SES predicting reading achievement through motivation (i.e., expectancy and value) at both student and school levels. We used the data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 of 26,281 students from four regions in Greater China (Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taipei). We used multi-group multilevel path analysis to test whether SES would predict reading achievement mediated by expectancy and value in student and school levels across four regions, with gender as a covariate. Results showed that at the student level, SES significantly predicted reading achievement indirectly through both expectancy and value across four regions. At the school level, the relationship between school SES and school reading achievement was mostly direct. The study was able to demonstrate the motivational gap as a pathway in which economic inequality can contribute to students' reading achievement gap.

Equal Opportunities in Learning in Diverse Groups in Nepal in the Pre-COVID Realm: Socioeconomic Status, Mathematics Learning, and the Diverse Groups

The article discusses the diversity and equity issues behind the learning outcomes of mathematics in the pre-COVID context in Nepal. The article intends to give a baseline for the further studies on the effect of COVID-19 pandemic in the educational realm. Datasets from the national assessment of student achievement in Nepal at grades 3 and 5 and grade 8 are reanalyzed based on socioeconomic status (SES), gender, caste-ethnicity, language, and geographical variables. In Nepal, where the society is customarily highly structured, gender-biased, and poverty-driven, SES influences remarkably in mathematics achievement. The datasets show notable relationships between SES and mathematics achievement (r = 0.35, 0.27 and 0.30 in grade 3, 5 and 8, respectively). In lower grades, the difference between the highest and lowest SES in the achievement of girls is wider than boys and it is reverse in grade 8. Nepali speakers had high scores when they had high SES but, when SES was very low, the non-Nepali speakers performed better in all grades. The advantageous castes tended to always perform higher irrespective of their level of SES. Nevertheless, it is difficult to know with certainty when average and marginalized caste/ethnic groups perform better.

Socioeconomic Status as a Multidimensional Predictor of Student Achievement in 77 Societies

We reassess the relation between students’ socioeconomic status (SES) and their achievement by treating SES as multidimensional instead of unidimensional. We use data from almost 600,000 students in 77 countries participating in the 2018 PISA assessment of student achievement in math, science, and reading. The composite measure of SES that PISA uses can be broken down into six component variables that we here use as simultaneous predictors of achievement. This analysis yields several new insights. First, in the typical society, two predictors (books at home and parents’ highest occupational status) clearly outperform the rest. Second, a new composite measure based only on these two components often reveals substantially larger achievement gaps than those reported by PISA. Third, the analysis revealed remarkable differences between societies in the relation between achievement and wealth possessions. In most societies, the independent effect of wealth possessions on student achievement was zero or even slightly negative—but in the least developed societies it was strongly positive. These findings have implications for how SES achievement gaps should be measured and interpreted.

Accounting for the SES-Math Achievement Gap at School Entry: Unique Mediation Paths via Executive Functioning and Behavioral Self-Regulation

Childhood socioeconomic status (SES) is strongly predictive of math achievement in early childhood and beyond. In this study, we aimed to further our understanding of the mechanisms underpinning the SES-achievement gap by examining whether two aspects of self-regulation—executive functions (EF) and behavioral self-regulation (BSR)—mediate between SES and math achievement. Using data from a longitudinal study in Singapore (n = 1,257, 49% males), we examined the predictive link from SES to math achievement at entry to formal education (age 7), and the role of EF (child-assessed) and BSR (child-assessed and teacher-rated) as mediators of the SES-math achievement relationship. After accounting for children’s non-verbal reasoning and prior math achievement, EF and BSR (both child-assessed) emerged as significant partial mediators between SES and math. A key contribution of our study is in demonstrating that both components of self-regulation play a small role in explaining SES disparities in math achievement. Our findings further suggest that a balanced focus on enhancing EF and BSR skills of children from low-SES families may help to attenuate the SES-math achievement gap. More generally, our research contributes new insights to the ongoing debate about the theoretical distinctions between EF and BSR.