Income-Achievement Gaps in Canada

This paper presents new evidence on the relationship between family income and child education outcomes in Canada. We use administrative education data linked to tax records to determine the test score differentials between children from families in the top and bottom income deciles (P90-P10 gap). Across students in Grade 4 and 7, we find a P90-P10 gap of around 0.65 standard deviations from 2012 to 2015. This gap is markedly lower than documented gaps for other countries. However, there is important heterogeneity: among Indigenous children the P90-P10 gap is 0.8 standard deviations and among students with special needs it is 0.7 standard deviations. In contrast, for students who are not in either of those groups, the P90-P10 gap is only 0.4. While our findings suggest low inequities in education achievement by income overall, there are large gaps between high and low-income students for certain subpopulations that need further attention from policymakers.