Lower-income U.S. students were less likely than higher-income peers to retain top math standing through fourth grade, while also making up a smaller share of the highest scorers, education research group NWEA said Oct. 29.
NWEA said it examined MAP Growth math results from nearly 1 million U.S. students between 2021 and 2025. It defined high achievers as students whose scores were at or above the 95th percentile.
Although lower-income students represent more than half of the U.S. student population, they accounted for 20% of students in that top-scoring group, NWEA said. The figures show a gap in representation among students reaching the highest math scores.
The analysis also followed students who qualified as high achievers in kindergarten. By fourth grade, 26% of lower-income students in that group still met the threshold, compared with 41% of higher-income students.
Lower-income students who slipped below the high-achiever threshold still ranked among the top 20% of scorers, NWEA said. Within that group, lower-income students tended to fall a little farther in the distribution than higher-income peers; the announcement did not quantify the difference. The findings identify differences by income but do not establish what caused students’ scores to change.
NWEA’s research brief considers whether students with strong early math performance are identified and supported, and whether unequal access to advanced learning opportunities may affect their paths into advanced math and STEM education. The organization said its findings point to “potential to score at the very top” among many lower-income students, Megan Kuhfeld, NWEA’s director of Growth Modeling and Data Analytics, said.
NWEA recommended that schools identify advanced achievement in school settings, monitor students’ access to challenging coursework over time and provide lower-income students with consistent opportunities to study rigorous math.
