Five Facts About the First-Generation Excellence Gap / Uditi Karna, John A. List, Andrew Simon, Haruka Uchida.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Karna, Uditi.

Contributor:

List, John A.

Simon, Andrew.

Uchida, Haruka.

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w34228.

NBER working paper series no. w34228

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2025.

Summary:

Parents are crucial to children's educational success, but the role of parental education in fostering academic excellence remains underexplored. Using longitudinal administrative data covering all North Carolina public school students, we document five facts about first-generation excellence gaps. We find large excellence gaps emerge by 3rd grade across all demographics and persist through high school. Yet, socioeconomic status and school quality explain only one-third of the gaps. The overarching facts reveal that excellence gaps reflect deeper challenges rooted in parental human capital that manifest early and compound over time, rather than merely consequences of socioeconomic disadvantage or school quality differences.

Notes:

September 2025.

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