Poor students have it tougher: academic performance by ninth-graders in two Mexican states

This paper explores the correlations that exist between standardized test scores in seven subjects and sociodemographic variables for ninth-graders in two Mexican states. The analysis is performed with two basic sets of variables: identity or circumstances, which cannot change easily such as language spoken at home, and behavior variables like working outside the household. Additionally, we control the speci…c school attended, and participation in a CCT (Oportunidades). Results show, that some identity variables present high positive correlations with the test scores, especially maternal education. The latter suggests a disadvantage for poorer students which cannot be easily surpassed with e¤ort/behavior. While the majority of the schools do not show signi…cant correlations with the scores, there were some “star”and “failure” schools in the sample. Trying to get the less favored students in the …rst group may be a sensible policy. Finally, once other variables are taken into consideration, participation in the CCT has a low correlation with the scores.