Birth, Education and Economic Mobility

The mobility feature called "stickiness at the ends" has a lot to do with education.  Matt Bruenig has a chart that shows the impact of a college degree on where children from families at different income quintiles end up.  He points out that children born into the top quintile and don't get a college degree are two and half times as likely to end up at the top than those from the bottom quintile who do graduate.

Update (June 23):  Matthew O'Brien points out that high-achieving, low-income students don't attend selective universities at the rate that high-income students do.

Update (June 7, 2014):  Results of a 30 year study by Karl Alexander, Doris Entwisle, and Linda Olsen concludes that "where you start in life is where you end up".

Update (January 4, 2015):  Josh Zumbrun shows an amazing correlation between income and Scholastic Aptitude Test performance.

When the SAT is crucial to college, college is crucial to income, and income is crucial to SAT scores, a mutually reinforcing cycle develops.