Generational Wealth and Income (GWI)

Both race (Black, White, Asian etc.) and class (rich, middle-class, poor) intersect in ways that make it hard to analyze data based on one without also considering the other (Kendi, 2019). Race is a strong predictor of GWI and minority students are disadvantaged on most GWI indicators (e.g. income, wealth, degrees, occupational prestige etc.) (Merolla & Jackson, 2019).

Unfortunately, GWI is one of the strongest predictors of academic achievement (Hertert & Teague, 2003). Children from low-GWI households typically perform much worse on average than those from high-GWI households (Hertert & Teague, 2003).  GWI can influence a variety of factors including neighborhood resources and safety, school/teacher quality, and parental practices (Kao & Thompson, 2003). Low GWI is also correlated with several risk factors including: 1) lack of high quality health care, nutrition, and housing, Black families earn about 40% less than White families, are more likely to be in poverty, and have accumulated less than a tenth of the wealth that the average White family possesses.2) living in single-parent households, 3) living where English is not the primary spoken language, 4) living in high crime neighborhoods, 5) exposure to substance-abuse at a young age, 6) lack of literacy and early exposure to reading, 7) reduced access to technology (e.g., household computers, high speed internet etc.) (Hertert & Teague, 2003), and 8) increased likelihood of experiencing psychological barriers (e.g., negative self-perception, emotional distress etc.) (Jury et al., 2017). Low GWI also exacerbates the problem of student debt, which is disproportionately high among African Americans (Fletcher, 2021). Black families earn about 40% less than White families, are more likely to be in poverty, and have accumulated less than a tenth of the wealth that the average White family possesses (Jones et al., 2018).  These differences in employment, salary, and family wealth may further exacerbate the achievement gap as they mean that the parents of AHN children are likely to have less resources at their disposal than parents of White children. Together these risk factors create a synergistic effect that can significantly lower student performance and achievement.

Substantial differences in academic achievement are observed between low-GWI and high-GWI students throughout their education in STEM (J. D. Miller & Kimmel, 2012; Mulligan et al., 2012; NSB, 2014; Schneider et al., 1998). Poverty, underemployed families, reduced levels of parental education, and single-parent families are much more common among AHN students than with White or Asian students (Kao & Thompson 2003). White students have access to more privileges and resources, which makes it easier for them to succeed in college. Poverty, which is correlated with lower levels of parental education, and which is disproportionately high among African American and Hispanic populations, is particularly likely to reduce students’ academic success (Hertert & Teague, 2003; Kao & Thompson, 2003). Most White students have access to more privileges and greater access to resources of all kinds (especially financial resources), which makes it easier for them to succeed in college (Kao & Thompson 2003).  In contrast, AHNs start school with fewer resources, and they accumulate resources at a slower rate (Merolla and Jackson, 2019); this early lack of resources can have a ‘snowball’ effect which affects each subsequent stage of education as well as future academic and career success. Intriguingly, numerous studies show that controlling for family GWI eliminates most of the racial achievement gap in science (Xie et al., 2015), supporting the idea that a low GWI is one of the prime causes of the achievement gap.