Education Research Report: Areas with relatively high levels of economic segregation exhibit the highest school test-score gaps between low-income students and other students

Education Research Report: Areas with relatively high levels of economic segregation exhibit the highest school test-score gaps between low-income students and other students:

Areas with relatively high levels of economic segregation exhibit the highest school test-score gaps between low-income students and other students

by Jonathan Kantrowitz

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Housing Costs, Zoning, and Access to High-Scoring Schools: Metropolitan Profiles


An analysis by The Brookings Institution of national and metropolitan data on public school populations and state standardized test scores for 84,077 schools in 2010 and 2011 reveals that:

- Nationwide, the average low-income student attends a school that scores at the 42nd percentile on state exams, while the average middle/high-income student attends a school that scores at the 61st percentile on state exams. This school test-score gap is even wider between black and Latino students and white students. There is increasingly strong evidence—from this report and other studies—that low-income students benefit from attending higher-scoring schools.

- Northeastern metro areas with relatively high levels of economic segregation exhibit the highest school test-score gaps between low-income students and other students. Controlling for regional factors such as size, income inequality, and racial/ethnic diversity associated with school test-score gaps, Southern metro areas such as Washington and Raleigh, and Western metros like Portland and Seattle, stand out for having smaller-than-