The great sorting of the most talented young people into haves
and have-nots starts long before college, according to a new report from the
Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW) in
partnership with the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Born to Win, Schooled to Lose:Why Equally Talented Students Don’t Get Equal Chances to Be All They Can Be finds
that the most talented disadvantaged youth don’t do as well as the least-talented
advantaged youth. A child from a family in the highest quartile of
socioeconomic status (SES) who has low test scores in kindergarten has a 71%
chance of being above-median SES at age 25. However, a child from a low-SES family
with high test scores has only a 31% chance of reaching above-median SES by 25.This
disparity is even more severe by race. Black (51%) and Latino (46%) tenth
graders with top half math scores are more likely to earn a college degree
within 10 years than their peers with bottom half math scores (23% and 22%,
respectively). But, they are still less likely to earn a college degree than Whites
(62%) and Asian (69%) tenth graders with top-half scores.
“To succeed in
America, it’s better to be born rich than smart,” said Anthony P. Carnevale,
director of CEW and lead author of the report. People of all abilities and
backgrounds stumble throughout their academic journeys. But advantaged students
have safety nets to keep them on track while their less-advantaged peers do not
and as a result, are more likely to fall behind and stay behind. Among children
who show similar academic potential in kindergarten, the test scores of
economically disadvantaged students are more likely to decline and stay low
during elementary, middle, and high school than the test scores of their high-SES
peers.“Thefact that children’s test scores go up and down over time shows that
there is room for intervention,” said Megan L. Fasules, an assistant research
professor and co-author of the report. “With smart policy changes, education
can mitigate the effects of inequality.”
There is some good news. Students from
low-SES families who show academic promise do have higher odds of success,
particularly if they maintain high math scores in high school. If they score in
the top half on math assessments in high school, 10th graders from families in
the lowest quartile of SES are twice as likely to reach the top half of SES as
young adults.The bad news is that even talented poor students who make it
through high school and college cannot keep pace with affluent students in the
labor market, regardless of their academic success. Top-scoring kindergartners
from low-SES families who earn college degrees have a 76% chance of reaching
high SES by age 25 compared to a 91% chance among their low-scoring, high-SES
peers who earn college degrees.
The opportunity gaps between those with higher
and lower SES can be narrowed. The best chances to level the playing field lie
in the education pipeline. But, to help make this a reality, policymakers must consider
several options:
1.Interventions in early childhood education increases the
odds of success, but they are still not enough.
2.Continue academic
interventions throughout K–12.
3.Improve and expand high school counseling so
that more students have the information and social supports they need to
transition from high school to postsecondary education and training.
4.To
ensure that talented low-SES students, who have limited exposure to education
and career pathways, get the most for their education, integrate career
exploration and provide access to high-quality work experience at the high
school and college levels.
Other findings:
- The highest-SES families spend almost five times as much on enrichment activities as the lowest-SES families.
- Almost all children from the highest-SESfamilies have at least one parent with some postsecondary education, compared to less than a third of children from the lowest-SES families.
- Regardless of SES, Black kindergarteners with top-half math scores are more likely than other kindergartners to have bottom-half math scores as eighth graders.
- 10th graders from families in the lowest SES quartile are half as likely as their highest-SES peers to earn a college degree by their mid-20s—even when their test scores suggest they are equally prepared.
For the full report and a video highlighting key findings,
visit
.
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