“Recent enrollment projections compiled for the Austin Independent School District suggest the concentration of poverty in many of its elementary schools could increase over the next decade. And across the Austin metro area, many of the schools that are expected to grow the fastest draw their students from neighborhoods with higher shares of low-income households.
Scores of studies show that a heightened concentration of poverty in a school leads to lower test scores and overall student achievement. But groundbreaking new research into economic mobility takes the potential consequences a step further, showing that children’s test scores in kindergarten through 12th grade strongly predict how high they’ll climb up the economic ladder in the future.
So absent a sea change in the economic diversity of its neighborhoods and schools, the region could be raising future economic barriers for a large and growing portion of its youth population — and tying an anchor to future regional prosperity as a whole.”