Teacher Practical Guidance:

High Family SES (Socio-Economic Status)

Category: External

Rank Order

41

Effect Size

0.59

Achievement Gain %

22

How-To Strategies

BENEFITS

  • High SES is a good indicator of past school achievement

 

  • Parents choose higher achieving schools.

 

  • Invest in early childhood education

 

  • Provide their children with school “code of speech”

 

  • Have higher expectations for current and future opportunities

 

  • Engage their children in more after-school activities

 

  • Provide more diverse resources and opportunities at home

 

  • Parent provide a set of language and cultural norms that match schooling. Hattie (2023) p. 129

 

 

 

IMPACT of High SES on Achievement (effect-size)

  • Verbal (0.64)

 

  • Math (0.70)

 

  • Science (0.54)

 

  • Preschool (0.38)

 

  • Elementary (0.54)

 

  • Middle School (0.62)

 

  • High School (0.52). Sirin (2015)

 

 

 

 

CHALLENGES

  • Some students show low intrinsic motivation because they see school as a credential to be obtained rather than meaningful learning.

 

  • Entitlement and consumer mindsets (expecting grades or special treatment because of status or fees) can undermine respect for teachers’ professional judgment.

 

  • Help‑seeking can be weaker; high‑achieving students may avoid asking for support because they equate it with failure.

 

  • Students often experience intense pressure to achieve top grades, load up on advanced courses, and build “perfect” résumés for selective colleges.

 

  • Rising perfectionism in affluent, competitive contexts is linked to higher anxiety, depression, self‑harm.

 

  • Fear of failure can make students risk‑averse, avoiding challenging tasks, creative work, or areas where success is not guaranteed.

 

  • High‑SES parents may exert strong pressure on schools and teachers, including grade disputes, complaints about workload, or demands for exceptions.

 

  • Boundaries can be hard to maintain when parents expect on‑demand access, rapid responses, or influence over curriculum and assessment decisions.

 

  • Competitive peer cultures can create social comparison, status anxiety, and stigma.

 

  • Students may prioritize individual success over collaboration.

 

  • Substance use, rule‑bending, or academic dishonesty can appear in contexts where achievement is prized but oversight is low.

 

  • Teachers can feel pressure to inflate grades, reduce rigor, or avoid controversial but important topics.  link

 

 

 

WHAT NOT TO DO

  • Do not assume students are fine because they are affluent; high‑SES settings can hide serious anxiety, depression, and perfectionism.

 

  • Do not adopt a consumer mindset where “the customer is always right” and student/parent preference replaces professional judgment about learning.

 

  • Do not stereotype all high‑SES students as entitled, shallow, or problem‑free; this blinds you to individual needs and assets.

 

  • Do not inflate grades, bend rules, or offer special favors to avoid conflict with influential families.

 

  • Do not equate rigor with nonstop workload and perfection; in achievement cultures this can intensify unhealthy perfectionism and burnout.

 

  • Do not rescue students from every struggle or inconvenience.

 

  • Do not allow parents to bypass your stated processes (emailing admin first, negotiating every grade).

 

  • Do not avoid hard conversations about ethics, academic honesty, privilege, and wellbeing just because families might push back.

 

  • Do not focus only on performance metrics in conversations; ask about curiosity, balance, and mental health, not just grades and college.

 

  • Do not tolerate disrespect toward staff or peers because of status or connections.

 

  • Do not design everything around competition, ranking, and prestige outcomes.  link

How-To Resources

ARTICLE

Link – ARTICLE (HomeWorld) From entitled to empowered

 

Link – ARTICLE (APA) SES fact sheet

 

Link – ARTICLE (Lightspeed) Hidden cost of academic perfectionism

 

Link – ARTICLE (PsyToday) When students talk about wealth and class

 

Link – ARTICLE (TFD) 6 honest questions and answers with a teacher at a rich-kid school

 

Link – ARTICLE (EduTopia) How letting go of perfectionism made me a better teacher

 

 

 

BOOK

Link – BOOK (Model) Blessings of a skinned knee

 

Link – BOOK (Marano) A nation of wimps: The high cost of invasive parenting

 

Link – BOOK (Levine) The price of privilege

 

 

 

RESEARCH / REPORT / GUIDE

Link – RESEARCH (NIH) High price of affluence

 

Link – RESEARCH (NIH) Are affluent youth truly “at risk”

 

Link – REPORT (APA) High stakes culture of success

 

 

 

VIDEO

Link – VIDEO (Ted) SES and achievement

 

Link – VIDEO (Finland) Why Finland’s schools outperform the world

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

American Psychological Association. (2017) “Education and Socioeconomic Status.” American Psychological Association.

 

Armsden GC, Greenberg MT. (1987) The Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment: Individual differences and their relationship to psychological well-being in adolescence. Journal of Youth & Adolescence. 1987;16:427–454. d

 

Bergen, E., Zuijen, T., Bishop, D., & Jong, P. F. (2016). Why are home literacy environment and children’s reading skills associated? What parental skills reveal. Reading Research Quarterly, 52, 147-160.

 

Bradley, R. H., Corwyn, R. F., McAdoo, H. P., & García Coll, C. (2001). The home environments of children in the United States Part I: Variations by age, ethnicity, and poverty status. Child Development, 72, 1844-1867. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.t01-1-00382

 

Chetty, R., Friedman, J. N., Hilger, N., Saez, E., Schanzenbach, D. W., & Yagan, D. (2011). How does your kindergarten classroom affect your earnings? Evidence from Project STAR. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 126, 1593-1660. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjr041

 

Chzhen, Y., & Leesch, J. (2023). Why does school socio-economic composition matter to adolescents’ academic performance? Role of classroom climate and school resources. British Educational Research Journal, 49(6), 1291–1311.

 

Hattie, J. (2023). Visible learning: The sequel. Routledge.

 

Levine M. (2008) The price of privilege: How parental pressure and material advantage are creating a generation of disconnected and unhappy kids. New York: Harper; [Google Scholar]

 

Luthar SS, Sexton CC. (2004).  The high price of affluence. Adv Child Dev Behav. 32:125-62.

 

Luthar SS, Barkin SH. (2012). Are affluent youth truly “at risk”? Vulnerability and resilience across three diverse samples. Dev Psychopathol. 2012 May;24(2):429-49.

 

Luthar SS, Cicchetti D, Becker B. (2000) Research on resilience: Reply to commentaries. Child Development. 2000;71:573–575. doi: 10.1111/1467-8624.00164. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

 

Marano HE. (2008) A nation of wimps: The high cost of invasive parenting. New York: Broadway Books; 2008. [Google Scholar

 

Mogel W. (2001) The blessings of a skinned knee. New York: Penguin; 2001. [Google Scholar]

 

Muijs, D., Harris, A., Chapman, C., Stoll, L., & Russ, J. (2009). Improving schools in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas: A review of research evidence. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 15,149-175.

 

Munir, J., Faiza, M., Jamal, B., Daud, S., & Iqbal, K. (2023). The impact of socio-economic status on academic achievement. Journal of Social Sciences Review, 3(2), 695–705.

 

Orr, A. J. (2003). Black–White differences in achievement: The importance of wealth. Sociology of Education, 76, 281-304. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1519867

 

Perry, L. B., Saatcioglu, A., & Mickelson, R. A. (2022). Does school SES matter less for high-performing students than for their lower-performing peers? A quantile Regression analysis of PISA 2018 Australia. Large-Scale Assessments in Education,10(1).

 

Reardon, S. F., Valentino, R. A., Kalogrides, D., Shores, K. A., & Greenberg, E. H. (2013). Patterns and trends in racial academic achievement gaps among states, 1999-2011.

 

Sirin, S. R. (2005). Socioeconomic status and academic achievement: A meta-analytic review of research. Review of Educational Research, 75(3), 417–453.

 

Tan, Cheng Yong. (2024).ESocioeconomic Status and Student Learning: Insights from Umbrella Review. Educational Psychology Review, 36(3).

 

Tough P. (2011). What if the secret to success is failure? New York Times. 2011 Sep 17; Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/magazine/what-if-the-secret-to-success-is-failure.html?scp=2&sq=the%20character%20test&st=cse

 

Weissbourd R. (2011) The overpressured student. Educational Leadership. 2011;68:22–27. [Google Scholar]

 

White, K. R. (1982). The relation between socioeconomic status and academic achievement. Psychological Bulletin, 91(3), 461–481. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.91.3.461

High Family SES (Socio-Economic Status)

 

DEFINTIONS

High Socioeconomic Status (SES): “Socioeconomic Status (SES) relates to the family or households relative position in the social hierarchy and refers directly to the resources in the home. The three leading indicators of high SES are parental income, education, occupation…this is a notable influence on student achievement.” Hattie, p. 127 (2023)

 

DATA

  • 22 Meta-analysis reviews

  • 1,400 Research studies

  • 5 Million students in studies

  • 5 Confidence level.  Hattie (2023) p. 126

QUOTES

…regardless of the risks in a particular socioeconomic setting, some children will thrive even as others falter.  link

Teenagers from rich communities can manifest as much or more disturbance when compared with their counterparts in poverty, with particularly pronounced problems in the domains of substance and internalizing problems. link

 

 

Among teens in wealthy suburbs, just like those in urban poverty, socially deviant behaviors can be reinforced by peers’ positive attitude to them. link

 

 

Youngsters at the high end of the socioeconomic spectrum can experience as much isolation from parents as do those at the lowest extreme, and in both cases, deficits in parent–adolescent relationships are mirrored in children’s own vulnerability in emotional and academic domains. link

 

 

“Children from low-SES families enter high school with average literacy skills five years behind those of high-income students.” Reardon, et.al (2013)