It seems obvious. Students who live in poverty experience significant hardships and are not given the resources to succeed that wealthier students get.
But does that trend hold across all ethnicities? And is there any ethnic group that is closing the gap between rich and poor?
Luckily, the CAASPP test has data markers that mark the ethnicity based on socioeconomic status. Below are the percent of students who met or exceeded standards on the 2015 CAASPP by ethnicity and socioeconomic Status.
No matter your background, if you are poor, then you do not perform as well as wealthier peers of the same ethnicity. Furthermore, all ethnicities are generally at about the same gap level between rich and poor. In English, wealthy students average 20% higher difference against similar ethnicity peers, and in Math it is 19%.
In both subjects, the biggest gap is for white students and students with more than one race. Economically disadvantaged white students perform a full 26% lower than their wealthier peers in Math and English. However, economically disadvantaged white students perform about the same as wealthier Latino and African American students.
I think most people would look at this data and confirm what they already know to be true: students of color and students of poverty experience many difficult hurdles toward success in education – and when those demographics are combined, the gap widens.