Parent's Wealth and Social Capital on SAT scores

American Educational Research Journal, Vol. 45, No. 2

"Nevertheless, their primary point is persuasive: that the social capital of parents, in terms of both its availability and its utility, is circumscribed by broad social class categories so as to benefit especially those who are already materially advantaged and socially connected"  (Ream and Palardy 2008:245).

The first graph shows the various ways in which a parent's social capital can help a child in school from a young age. People with a high social capital are typically people from an upper class background, and thus have more wealth than those with a low social capital. People with a high social capital have the ability to help their children in various ways and are more involved in their school life, such as helping the child in school work, visiting the school, being a part of the PTA, etc., leading to higher test scores. So when these children start high school and eventually take the SATs, the children with a high social capital, and thus a higher economic status, have a head start on the children who have low social capital and will generally do better on the SATs than low social capital/lower class children. One way to show this is with data showing the different average SAT scores of students based on their father's jobs.

American Educational Research Journal, Vol. 21, No. 2

"Specifically, children with fathers in cultural occupations, which include the transmission of heritage such as education or journalism, had the highest mean verbal scores. Children with fathers in science occupations (concerned with theory and application across disciplines with levels ranging from technician to PhD) scored high on both scales" ( Belz and Geary 1984:477).

We can see the difference between the average SAT scores of children with fathers who work in a higher paying job such as technician (science)  versus children with fathers who work in the service sector which would be a lower paying job. One reason that these children perform better is the ability to pay for tutors. "In 2007, Princeton Reviews classroom courses cost $1,000 to $1,200, and private tutoring ranged from $1,500 to $6,900" ( Buchmann, Condron and Roscigno 2010:440). Lower income families can't afford that kind of help for their children, whereas for higher income families, its a price they are willing to pay. Another factor is the ability to retake the test. The SATs currently cost $52.50. Lower income students can waive the fee twice, meaning if they want to take the test again and get a better score, they have to pay for it. Students from a higher income family can afford the costs to take it more than two times and get a better score. Thus students from a more affluent family will generally do better on the SATs than students from a less affluent family.