Poverty, Intersectionality, and Educational Aspirations: A Quantitative Study of Black Students’ Experiences

The impact of poverty on educational expectations has been well documented; but few quantitative studies have utilized nationally representative data to explore the longitudinal impact of near poverty status, educational context, parental expectations, and engagement, on the academic expectations of Black students; and then conducted that analysis separately for both genders. The current study seeks to fill this lacuna by exploring the impact of being near-poor on academic expectations utilizing an intersectional analysis. Since near-poor families have household incomes above the federal poverty-line they are often unable to access welfare state programs (i.e., housing, food and health) these households are not technically classified as poor. Our findings highlight that near poverty status has a significant and robust negative impact on educational attainment expectations while also pointing to the role of America’s durable racialized structures in undermining the capacity of too many Black students’ access to quality education.