Integrating resource-based and person-based approaches to understanding wealth effects on school achievement

Wealth and assets have a reliable positive relationship with the achievement outcomes of students. Various approaches to understanding student achievement may inform the understanding of how wealth seems to influence children's educational experiences. This paper describes several perspectives from the student achievement literature within the fields of economics and psychology that are categorized as either resource-based or person-based. Resource-based approaches prioritize the importance of investments that are made in youth to enrich contexts, expand opportunities, and improve outcomes. Person-based approaches, on the other hand, focus on how beliefs, values, and perceptions shape achievement. To better understand wealth effects, an integrative framework presents identity as a unifying construct that is contextually-constructed through a combination of resource- and person-based influences to drive student motivation and achievement.

► A framework shows that identity integrates perspectives on wealth and achievement.
► The model expands upon resource-based approaches from economics.
► The model contextualizes person-based perspectives from psychology.
► Identity-based experiments relevant to wealth can cue motivational processes.