A theoretical framework of the relation between socioeconomic status and academic achievement of students

Abstract

A socio-psychological analytical framework will be adopted to illuminate the relation between socioeconomic status and academic achievement. The framework puts the emphasis to incorporate micro familial factors into macro factor of the tracking system. Initially, children of the poor families always lack major prerequisite: diminution of cognitive stimulating resources. Hence, they are very likely to be assigned to the class of low caliber. The diminution of cognitive stimulating resources originates from stress coping strategy of the parents, parental expectation and parenting. As students advance to upper grade, a triad nexus of expectation among parents, students and teachers help perpetuate the vicious cycle among students of poor families. Students with low socioeconomic status bear entire brunt of the tracking system in a way that they get poor academic result and high school dropout rate.