Poverty and Standardized Test Scores

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at the effects of poverty on standardized testing and education in general. It looks at how there are many causes and effects of poverty, and many other factors to be considered when taking poverty into account in analyzing test scores. Some of the other factors include race, state of the schools, teacher availability, overcrowding and the inferior conditions of the school buildings. The paper determines that overall poverty has a negative effect on education and testing.

From the Paper:

"When you think of kids who score extremely well on high-stakes tests like the California Achievement Test, the SAT, and others, do you think of poor non-white children in overpopulated run-down inner-city schools with insufficient books and supplies and a harried, underpaid, under-appreciated teacher? No. It is not actually surprising to learn that standardized test scores are lower in areas with lower incomes and higher poverty rates. It does not take a National Merit Scholar to understand that "bad" schools do not produce many academic overachievers, but the complexity of the issue might not be so readily apparent. The overwhelmingly negative effects of poverty on standardized test scores result from a variety of sources, ranging from the school facilities and supplies, to the teachers, to the parents, to the surrounding environmental factors, all of which are tied up in issues of race, economics, corporations and politics."

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