Achievement Trap: The Success and Struggle of America's High-Achieving Lower-Income Students
A Forum — Friday, September 28, 2007
The report, Achievement Trap: How America Is Failing Millions of High-Achieving Students From Lower-Income Families, written by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation and Civic Enterprises with original research by Westat, focuses on the educational experiences of high-achieving lower-income students from 1st grade through graduate school. A goal of the report was to examine the numbers of students considered low-income high achievers and to understand how these students were being educated. Using three federal longitudinal studies [Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K), The National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS), and The Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B)], students were categorized as high-achievers and further divided into either a higher-income or lower-income group. At this forum, presenters discussed results from the report, comparing the persistence rates, defined as students’ ability to remain in the top quartile of achievers, and improvement rates, defined as students’ ability to move from the bottom three quartiles to the top quartile of achievers, both from higher- and lower-income families.
Joshua Wyner, Executive Vice President, Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, said the Foundation felt that this report was needed because of the lack of attention given to high-achieving lower-income students. Wyner explained that a goal of the study was to learn “who these students are, where they live, and what happens to them educationally, over time.” Results from the study showed that there are approximately 3.4 million high-achieving lower-income students nationally, and that they are similar in demographics (i.e. gender, race/ethnicity, geographic distribution) to the general 1st grade student population of the United States. But despite parity in gender, race, and geographic distribution, at the start of first grade only 28% of all high-achieving students are from lower-income families. Furthermore, 44% of these students drop out of the top quartile between 1st and 5th grade,. When examining the percentage of elementary students in the top quartile, lower-income students persist at a lower rate than higher-income students (the research showed a statistically significant difference of 56% vs. 69% in reading during elementary school). Wyner also described the disheartening improvement rates of all elementary school students. In both reading and math, only 17% of high-achieving higher-income students move from the lower quartile to the top quartile between 1st and 5th grade, but only 7% of high-achieving lower-income students move to the top quartile in reading or math by the 5th grade.
The trend continues in high school where high-achieving lower-income students persist and improve at lower rates than high-achieving higher-income students. Significant differences (75% vs. 84% in math) in persistence rates between 8th and 12th grades underscore the notion that high-achieving lower-income students are having difficulty maintaining performance in the top quartile. Similarly, fewer lower-income students emerge as high achievers during high school.
“Students are lost before they have a chance to become high-achievers,” stated Wyner. For the group of high-achieving lower-income students that graduate high school, Wyner explained that only 59% of these students obtain some form of postsecondary degree. Furthermore, findings showed that college graduation rates were highly correlated with selectivity of the institution for high-achieving lower-income students. While higher-income high achievers graduate at high rates regardless of the selectivity of the institution they attend, graduation rates for lower-income students are significantly lower at less selective schools than at more highly selective schools. Lower-income students are also less likely to attend all levels of graduate school.
Wyner explained that the findings are a snapshot of what is happening to the group of low-income high achievers and that more research is needed. “Teachers, parents, policymakers, and students need to believe that low-income students can achieve. Proficiency is not a ceiling. Something needs to happen at all levels to make sure that we don’t lose advanced learners, as the data suggests is happening,” stated Wyner. In addition, Wyner suggested that K-12 accountability measures for advanced learners need to be put in place as well as better data collection at the federal and state levels. With respect to higher education, Wyner believes that there needs to be more focus on student retention to ensure that more high-achieving lower-income students graduate with a postsecondary degree.
Wyner also indicated that this study raises many questions and that further research is needed to answer them, but the Foundation’s goal was to initially draw attention to the needs of this population.
Kati Haycock, Director, The Education Trust, expressed her concern that all educators need to be concerned with “pulling all of our kids up at all levels” and not just pulling up the students at the bottom. Haycock also asserted that there are many low-income students that can and do achieve at high levels but too many students that enter as high-achievers or have the potential to be high-achievers are being lost. Despite the numerous factors influencing student achievement, Haycock stated that educators could do more and that “more attention for high-achieving students is not a zero-sum game.” She believes that more attention for high-achieving students does not have to mean less attention for other students. Haycock also spoke about changing the mentality that educators have towards lower-income students. “There are way too many educators that think these patterns are beyond their control. Let’s get beyond causation and solve the problems,” stated Haycock.
Referring to the data on attendance and selectivity in postsecondary education, Haycock stated that state flagship universities need to be engines of opportunity and examine how their financial aid is being used. Haycock believes that state flagship universities are important for building leaders but many potential students are not getting the chance to reach their potential due to low retention rates of lower-income high achievers.
Susan Traiman, Director of Education and Workforce Policy, Business Roundtable expressed her belief in the importance of analyzing data to understand student outcomes. “We need to get a better handle on the data so people know what is going on in the schools,” stated Traiman. Parents expect that their children will grow over the years, said Traiman and added, “we need to demonstrate that reality in our schools.” Her recommendations centered on disaggregating data so that both teachers and parents can identify “problem areas” and work to create solutions.
Traiman believes with the rapidly approaching 50th anniversary of Sputnik that the United States is searching for its next inspiration. Traiman said the need for innovation is clear and we cannot ignore our current pool of talent. Using a simple formula that is not scientific, Traiman calculated that of the 3.4 million lower-income high achievers, there are approximately 261,000 students in each K-12 grade. She believes that we need to encourage a percentage of these students to pursue a STEM-related field as a strategy to address our growing need for trained workers in these areas.
Highlights from Question and Answer Session
Panelists responded to a range of questions from methodology and implications of the research for both practice and policy. A sampling of the questions follows:
A participant asked a question regarding how price of the institution factored into selectivity and thus graduation rates. Wyner responded that one cannot assume nor does the data from the report indicate that the most selective schools are doing something extra for the lower-income students that results in better graduation rates. A comment was added that there are less selective schools that are doing a good job serving lower-income students.
Another participant asked a question about the validity of the study with regards to the dividing line that determined higher- and lower-income students, which split the income range into two halves. Wyner responded that a line had to be drawn somewhere and dividing the group into two halves was a good methodology given the purpose of the study, which was to draw attention to these students who have not traditionally been focused on.
Responding to a question on what to advise teachers of high-achieving students, Haycock stated that most teachers do not have good data on students they teach and their performance levels, but teachers should be given this information in a manner that is useful to inform instruction. Haycock said that teachers need concrete curricula to help them teach students and also practical ways to teach students that are above proficient levels.
Biographies
Joshua Wyner is Executive Vice President of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. The Foundation’s mission is to advance the education of exceptionally promising students with financial need. The Foundation fulfills its mission through direct scholarship and advising programs for high school, community college transfer, and graduate students; grant-making programs designed to increase college access as well as community college students’ access to highly selective four-year college and universities; and support for other educational programs that serve high-achieving students with financial need. Prior to joining the Foundation, Mr. Wyner was Executive Director of the DC Appleseed Center, a nonprofit organization focused on government reform; a private attorney with Beveridge & Diamond, P.C.; and a program evaluator with the U.S. Government Accountability Office. He has published numerous reports and essays on a variety of issues including public and charter school reform and higher education admissions and student aid. Mr. Wyner graduated from Vassar College; received an MPA from the Maxwell School, Syracuse University, and a JD from New York University School of Law.
Kati Haycock is one of the nation’s leading child advocates in the field of education. She currently serves as Director of The Education Trust. Established in 1992, the Trust does what no other Washington-based education organization seeks to do: speaks up for what’s right for young people, especially those who are poor or members of minority groups. The Trust also provides hands-on assistance to urban school districts and universities that want to work together to improve student achievement, kindergarten through college. Before coming to The Education Trust, Haycock served as Executive Vice President of the Children’s Defense Fund, the nation’s largest child advocacy organization. Haycock founded and served as president of The Achievement Council, a statewide organization that provides assistance to teachers and principals in predominately minority schools in improving student achievement. Before that, she served as director of the Outreach and Student Affirmative Action programs for the nine-campus University of California system.
Susan Traiman is Director of Education and Workforce Policy at Business Roundtable where she oversees the Roundtable’s work with chief executive officers of leading corporations interested in improving education performance and workforce competitiveness in the United States. Recently cited as “the most influential chief executive lobbying group in the U.S.” by the Financial Times, Business Roundtable members are at the forefront of public policy, advocating for a vigorous, dynamic global economy. Currently the Roundtable, working with fourteen other national business organizations, is leading the “Tapping America’s Potential” campaign to double the number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduates with bachelor’s degrees by 2015. Prior to joining Business Roundtable, Ms. Traiman was Education Policies Studies Director at the National Governors Association where she worked with governors on the first National Education Summit and the development of National Education Goals. She also was a senior associate with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement where she served on the staff of the National Commission on Excellence in Education and contributed to its landmark 1983 report, A Nation at Risk. Before coming to Washington, D.C., she worked at the state level for a regional technical assistance center and at the local level as a seventh grade social studies teacher. Ms. Traiman has a B.A. in American Civilization and M.S. in Education from the University of Pennsylvania.
This brief summarizes an American Youth Policy Forum that took place on September 28, 2007 on Capitol Hill, reported by Andrew Satanapong.
The American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF), a nonprofit, nonpartisan professional development organization based in Washington, DC, provides learning opportunities for policy leaders, practitioners, and researchers working on youth and education issues at the national, state, and local levels.
AYPF’s events and policy reports are made possible by the support of a consortium of philanthropic foundations: Carnegie Corporation of New York, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, WT Grant Foundation, James Irvine Foundation, C.S. Mott Foundation, and others.