Effect of School Population Socioeconomic Status on Individual Academic Achievement

Background of study
What is socio economic status? Socio economic status (SES) is an economic and
sociological combined total measure of a person’s work experience and of an individual’s or
family’s economic and social position in relation to others, based on income, education and
occupation.
Socio economic status is typically broken into three levels (high, middle, and low) to
describe the three places a family or an individual may fall into.
Socio economic status (SES) encompasses educational attainment, financial security,
and subjective perceptions of social status and social class. Socio economic status (SES) can
encompass quality of life attributes as well as the opportunities and privileges afforded to
people within society. Poverty, specifically, is not a single factor but rather is characterized by
multiple physical and psychosocial stressors. Further, SES is consistent and reliable predictor of
a vast array of outcomes across the life span.

Statement of the Problem

This study focused on how socio economic status affects the academic performance of
students.
1. What is the of the students-respondents in terms of:

1.1 Age
1.2 Monthly family income
1.3 Educational attainment of parents

2. How many of the performance of the students be described in terms of:

2.1 Score in the first monthly test.
2.2 Score in the first periodic examination.

The relationship between the socio economic 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.
Abstract
Critics of educational admissions tests assert that tests measure nothing more than
socioeconomic status (SES) ant that their apparent validity in predicting academic performance
is an artifact of SES. The authors examined multiple large data sets containing data on
admissions and related tests, SES, and grades showing that (a) SES is related to test scores (r=
42 among the population of SAT takers), (b) test scores are predictive of academic
performance, and (c) statistically controlling for SES reduces the estimated test grade
correlation from r = 47 to r = 44. Thus, the vast majority of the test? Academic performance
relationship was independent of SES. The authors concluded that the test grade relationship in
not an artifact of common influences of SES on both test scores and grades. (PsycINFO
Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
Sackett, P.R., Kuncel, N. R, Ameson, J.J., Cooper, S.R. & Waters, S.D. (2009). Does
socioeconomic status explain the relationship between admissions tests and post-secondary
academic performance? Psychological Bulletin.