School outcomes of “bright” 5-year-olds from poor backgrounds
Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2025 8:15 am
Back in 2011 I wrote a paper about academic progress made by “bright” children from poor backgrounds.
It caused rather a stir at the time. This america rcs data is because it was previously believed that – in the words of Michael Gove – “rich, thick kids do better than poor, clever children before they go to school”. My paper showed this was unlikely to be the case, and was probably being driven by a statistical artifact known as regression to the mean.
One limitation is that – at the time – we could only track the outcomes of those smart, poor kids through to age 7. Now, however, we can observe their progress through to age 17.
In a new academic working paper published today – funded by the Nuffield Foundation – my co-author Maria Palma Carvajal and I have updated the evidence about this group. In this, we explore a whole range of outcomes for this group from age 7 through to age 17.
This also coincides with when these groups seem to really start to differ in their engagement in school. For instance, at age 14, children from low-income backgrounds with strong early test scores are 11 percentage points less likely to say it is important to work hard as their high-income peers.
It caused rather a stir at the time. This america rcs data is because it was previously believed that – in the words of Michael Gove – “rich, thick kids do better than poor, clever children before they go to school”. My paper showed this was unlikely to be the case, and was probably being driven by a statistical artifact known as regression to the mean.
One limitation is that – at the time – we could only track the outcomes of those smart, poor kids through to age 7. Now, however, we can observe their progress through to age 17.
In a new academic working paper published today – funded by the Nuffield Foundation – my co-author Maria Palma Carvajal and I have updated the evidence about this group. In this, we explore a whole range of outcomes for this group from age 7 through to age 17.
This also coincides with when these groups seem to really start to differ in their engagement in school. For instance, at age 14, children from low-income backgrounds with strong early test scores are 11 percentage points less likely to say it is important to work hard as their high-income peers.