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ABSTRACT The relationship between the socioeconomic status (SES) of peers and individual academic achievement was examined in this study. This question was investigated while a variety of sociodemographic factors were being controlled, including a student's own SES. Student SES was measured by using participation in the federal free/reduced–price lunch program as an indicator of poverty status, and parental educational and occupational background as a measure of family social status. These measures were aggregated to the school level to define the SES of the peer population. Student achievement is a factor score of the three 10th–grade components of the Louisiana Graduation Exit Examination. Peer family social status in particular does have a significant and substantive independent effect on individual academic achievement, only slightly less than an individual's own family social status.
Caldas et al. (Thu,) studied this question.