Final answer:
Working-class students as a group tend to underperform middle-class students due to disparities in socioeconomic status, familial support, and access to resources. Middle-class parents are able to provide better educational opportunities and support, leading to their children's higher academic achievement.
Step-by-step explanation:
In terms of school achievement, working-class students as a group tend to underperform middle-class students. This trend can be attributed to various factors including the disparities in access to resources, familial support, and educational opportunities. Middle-class parents are usually able to provide their children with high-quality education and healthcare, support specialized needs such as tutoring and extracurricular activities, which can lead to greater social mobility. Consequently, their children often excel in standardized test scores, graduation rates, and college entrance rates.
In contrast, working-class students face more challenges. They may have to contribute to family income, assist with household duties, and deal with inadequate study environments, all of which can hamper their academic performance. Many working-class families lack resources such as computers and the necessary support from family members due to various reasons, which makes it difficult for these students to excel academically in a traditional education system that tends to favor those from higher socioeconomic backgrounds.
Therefore, we see a persistent achievement gap that has been documented by educational research, such as the Coleman Report, where students from lower socioeconomic status enter school with learning deficits compared to their more affluent peers, deficits which they often struggle to overcome throughout their education. These challenges make it less likely for working-class students to outperform or equal the academic achievements of middle-class students.