Family Background and School Achievement among Low Income Blacks

Although parents' socioeconomic status has large and important effects on their children's school achievement, it is clear that there are substantial variations in children's outcomes across families that are identical in parents' education and work history, family income, family size, and other standard measures of social and economic well-being. This paper finds evidence that much of the variation in academic performance of young children from low-income black families results from differences in behavior and attitudess among the families.