Highly educated parents are more likely than their less-educated counterparts to read to their children. Estimates suggest that, by age 3, children whose parents receive public assistance hear less than one third of the words encountered by their higher-income peers. As a result, the children of highly educated parents are capable of more complex speech and have more extensive vocabularies before they even start school. You can learn more about how family background influences student achievement by reading the full article in our Spring 2016 issue or by listening to author Anna J. Egalite discuss her findings on the EdNext podcast.

—Education Next