For decades, education researchers have documented the disproportionately low academic performance of poor children and teenagers living in poverty compared to their wealthier counterparts. It turns out the link is more biological than sociological. Recent studies have pointed towards “working memory†as the key psychological factor linking poverty and education.
What is a working memory? It is a temporary storage system that permits us to hold information and facts in our head for short-term usage. This is imperative for reading, learning new languages and even problem solving. Numerous studies have demonstrated that children with sharp working memories tend to achieve the highest academically evidenced by both grades and tests. Children who grow up in poverty and live in it consistently have less developed working memories than their wealthier counterparts. Children coping with stress at home, have trouble remembering basic facts and even follow instructions. A study published in the Development Science journal showed that “Stress in early childhood negatively affects a child’s working memory in adulthood.†Therefore, the problem extends to adulthood where bad grades and poor testing scores can result in unemployment and a cycle of poverty.
Other studies have focused on the lack of parental involvement in students from poorer backgrounds. Children whose parents worked double shifts or were not educated themselves had a harder time spending time with their children reading to them, doing extracurricular activities and providing a stimulating learning environment  . Due to these factors, students become part of a poverty trap or vicious cycle in which they cannot rise due to lack of opportunities, scarce resources amongst other issues. Moreover, many students come into the classroom for the first time with undeveloped working memories due to the poverty cycle and teachers and other professionals must work to assist the student, to reduce the biological obstacle and increase their chances of academic success.