Where should you live if you have a tight budget, but want your students to perform well in school? According to Education Cities and Great Schools, there aren’t many options. In the 300 U.S. cities with the largest school-age populations, only about 500 schools (or around 4 percent) have students from low-income families who are outperforming their peers from more affluent backgrounds, according to the group’s 2017 Education Quality Index.
The interactive data on the website compares cities based on state proficiency exams, the National Assessment of Educational Progress and the number of students on free or reduced lunch programs. Researchers say that although the results are bleak, it is important to highlight the schools and students that are doing well.
“The 2017 Education Equality Index helps identify where students from low-income families are on track to succeed, and provides good reason for both optimism and concern,” notes Carrie McPherson Douglass, managing partner at Education Cities, in a written statement.
The results show that in major cities such as Chicago, New York and Los Angeles students from low-income communities are performing higher than their more affluent peers. And Texas stands out as a state with several cities that have high-performing students from low-income backgrounds.
