Recent analyses of long-term studies show that the educational achievement gap between white and black students has narrowed over the past 60 years, but the gap between rich and poor students has widened substantially over time.
The studies, highlighted in today’s New York Times, discuss possible reasons for the large gap in academic performance between socioeconomic groups. One possible explanation is that higher-income parents have the means to invest more in children’s extracurricular activities, such as musical instrument lessons and academic tutoring, which can contribute to increased educational success.
Kidsdata.org offers a number of education-related indicators including reading proficiency, by socioeconomic status.