Poverty and Student Achievement in Chicago Public Schools

Abstract

Family income has long been linked to child outcomes such as educational achievement. Here, we address how poverty relates to student test scores in 495 Chicago public schools, controlling for school demographics. Focusing on recent data for Chicago public schools, one of the largest and poorest school districts in the United States, we gain a representative view of the role that poverty plays in urban education. We find that poverty varies greatly with student achievement, and results are robust to two measures of poverty. In addition to relatively large poverty effects, we find that school size and attendance rates are also important determinants of student achievement.