Wealth, race/ethnicity, and children's educational outcomes

We examine the extent to which disparities in wealth by race/ethnicity are related to gaps in children's educational outcomes, and find that family socio-demographics and parental resources account for a substantial proportion of black/white and Hispanic/white disparities in children's participation in gifted programs, extracurricular activities and grade retention. Black children, however, continue to face high risk of expulsion or suspension from school relative to white children even in models that control for a rich set of socio-demographic and economic characteristics. The adjusted risk of expulsion and suspension faced by Hispanic children is found to be lower than that for white children. Indicators of wealth, after controlling for all other factors, had statistically significant associations with all outcomes except a child's suspension or expulsion from school. Having a checking or savings account was independently associated with participation in gifted programs and extracurricular activities.