Burlington Educational Achievement Above National Average, Study Finds

By JOE LIPOVICH (Patch Staff)

BURLINGTON, MA - A recent study by the Stanford University Center for Education Policy Analysis, published by the New York Times, investigated just how large the achievement gap between students in America's richest and poorest communities truly is.

Overall, the study showed that the yearly income of families was correlated to student performance. The study indicates that the most highly impoverished school districts achieved at levels four grades below children in some of the country's richest school districts.

The study analyzed several thousand school districts across the country and found that the strongest correlates of achievement gaps are racial/ethnic differences in parental income, parental education and racial/ethnic segregation.

According to the data, Burlington families earn a median income of $113,000 per year. Students in Burlington performed at 1.6 grade levels higher than the national average.

Conversely Fall River, which is one of the Greater Boston area's poorest communities on average, achieved at levels 0.3 grade levels below the national average.

Correlation does not necessarily show causation across the country, as some communities with low median incomes have been shown to have high performance in their school districts. Steubenville, OH has a median income of $19,000 per year, but its students are performing at 1.1 grade levels above the national average.

In addition, Newport, TN has a median income of $19,000 per year, but its students are performing at 0.6 grade levels above the average.

Click here to view the full study by the University of Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis.

Click here to see the full New York Times report. You can also follow The Upshot, a division of the New York Times on Twitter @UpshotNYT.