The Activity Gap
 

A recent national student study featured in a publication out of Brown University called Voices in Urban Education,  has found an activity gap existing between classes students. The objective of the study was to examine trends in extracurricular participation among kids in the U.S. from the 1970s until today through long-term data and conversations with 120 young adults across the country.

It was found that income-based differences in extracurricular participation are on the rise, and these differences greatly affect later outcomes. This disparity can magnify the already-growing income achievement gap that has kept poor children behind in school and later in life. While upper- and middle-class students have become more active in school clubs and sports teams over the past four decades, their working-class peers "have become increasingly disengaged and disconnected," particularly since their participation rates started plummeting in the 1990s. 
 

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