Georgia’s 80-80 Schools: The Harm of Concentrated Poverty and How to Undo It
Resources → Georgia’s 80-80 Schools: The Harm of Concentrated Poverty and How to Undo It
The connection between poverty and school performance is well documented nationwide and in Georgia.
Low-income students are much more likely to deal with housing and food insecurity, poor transportation and healthcare, community violence, exposure to lead poisoning or air pollution.¹ High-poverty schools frequently experience higher rates of teacher and leader turnover. They are less likely to offer advanced coursework and more likely to employ discriminatory disciplinary policies.
For these reasons high poverty schools perform much worse on average than their counterparts. This connection leads many to believe that on balance poor kids are predestined to poor grades regardless of the school.
Evidence in Georgia complicates that belief, and research shows the connection can be disrupted.
Data shows that low-income students in Georgia do measurably better in schools with a strong mix of students across economic lines — a fact supported by a strong body of research.²
To better understand the problem, we created two identical students: Riley and Peter.
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