Correlation Between Socio-Economic Status and CCSS Aligned Testing

With the recent release of testing data from last year's full roll-out of Smarter Balanced assessments, many have written about the implications of this data as it relates to student performance--as the bulk of this data showed relatively low scores across the board.

One especially noteworthy connection that many columnists and other education observers are exploring, however, is the potential relationship between economic status and student performance. This position is most poignantly articulated in a recent article published by the Sacramento Bee. While most should not find it surprising that a new test aligned with new and rigorous standards would yield less than desirable results, the correlation between low-income students and below-standard results is striking.

To explore this relationship, explore the following interactive chart also published by the Sacramento Bee. When looking at the data for San Diego, in particular, it is evident that a strong relationship exists between socio-economic status and student performance.

With this information in mind, here are some key questions to consider:

• Are lower-income students at an inherent disadvantage  as opposed to their peers when it comes to Smarter Balanced and Common Core testing? If so, how?

• What can we as educators and leaders do to ensure that these students have the resources and training needed to perform well on these assessments? What can the test creators do (if anything) to also level the playing field?