The Excellence Gap Is Growing

Because students from higher-income families have more educational opportunities, greater access to resources, and higher quality instruction, they’re more likely than their peers from lower-income families to reach the highest levels of academic performance. In fact, our new research found that the excellence gap is not only substantial, but growing. This is cause for significant concern if we are committed—as we should be—to ensuring that talented students with financial need realize their potential at the same rates as their better-resourced peers.

To better understand trends in the excellence gap, the Cooke Foundation examined student performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) — the gold standard for primary and secondary school achievement — with a focus on students earning the “Advanced” standard on the test. In both reading and math — at the 4th, 8th, and 12th grade levels—the percentage of students from higher-income families achieving an “Advanced” score is much higher than the percentage of those from lower-income families doing so. And the gap has widened substantially since 1996, when the NAEP was first administered.