Economically Disadvantaged Students Score Lower on Math 1 in Georgia

In Georgia, students eligible for either free- or reduced-price lunch are considered "economically disadvantaged" (see http://www.gaosa.org/reportinfo.aspx#D6). I was interested in learning how economically disadvantaged students in Georgia perform alongside students who are not economically disadvantaged. To do this, I looked specifically at Georgia's End of Course test (EOCT) in Mathematics 1. Typically, students in 9th grade take Math 1 which combines algebra, geometry, and statistics. In 2010, a total of 610 schools in Georgia offered Math 1. Of those schools, 382 had enough students in both the economically disadvantaged and non economically disadvantaged categories to count. Of the 382 schools, more economically disadvantaged students than non failed the Math 1 EOCT in 343 schools. On average, 46% of the economically disadvantaged students failed the Math 1 EOCT whereas 24% of the non Economically Disadvantaged student failed.

That year, 53% of the students in Georgia were "economically disadvantaged."

How is it that economically disadvantaged students are less intelligent than those with more money? What happens in the lives of the economically advantaged that enables them to pass at higher rates?

Interestingly, 39 schools appear to have economically disadvantaged students who outperform non economically disadvantaged. On further inspection, we see that in 17 of these schools all students passed the Math 1 EOCT (certainly worth celebrating!). Of the remaining 22 schools, the two groups in 19 of these schools are within 10 percentage points of each other. Of the remaining three schools, the number of economically disadvantaged students is over 100 while the number of non economically disadvantaged students is 20 or less.

Overwhelmingly, economically disadvantaged students appear to also be educationally disadvantaged.

Data were downloaded from:
http://www.doe.k12.ga.us/ReportingFW.aspx?PageReq=102&StateId=ALL&T=1&FY=2010
The specific file downloaded was "EOCT Mathematics 1.xls" on 1/2/2011. According to the website, the file was last updated on 11/18/2010.