Outliers: The Story of Success

by Malcolm Gladwell

Next, let’s see what happens if we look just at how reading scores change during summer vacation. Class After 1st After 2nd After 3rd After 4th Total Low –3.67 –1.70 2.74 2.89 0.26 Middle –3.11 4.18 3.68 2.34 7.09 High 15.38 9.22 14.51 13.38 52.49 Do you see the difference? Look at the first column, which measures what happens over the summer after first grade. The wealthiest kids come back in September and their reading scores have jumped more than 15 points. The poorest kids come back from the holidays and their reading scores have dropped almost 4 points. Poor kids may out-learn rich kids during the school year. But during the summer, they fall far behind. Now take a look at the last column, which totals up all the summer gains from first grade to fifth grade. The reading scores of the poor kids go up by .26 points. When it comes to reading skills, poor kids learn nothing when school is not in session. The reading scores of the rich kids, by contrast, go up by a whopping 52.49 points. Virtually all of the advantage that wealthy students have over poor students is the result of differences in the way privileged kids learn while they are not in school.