Five Facts About the First-Generation Excellence Gap

Uditi Karna, John List, Andrew Simon and Haruka Uchida

No 34228, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: 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 re-flect 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.

JEL-codes: I21 I24 I30 J08 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-09
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