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The report "Achievement Trap: How America is Failing 3.4 Million High-Achieving Students from Lower-Income Families" - is a first-of-its-kind look at a population below the median income level that starts school performing at high levels, but loses ground at virtually every level of schooling and suffers a steep plummet in college.

Even before they enter first grade, lower-income high achievers are off to a bad start - only 28 percent of students in the top quarter of their first grade class are from lower-income families, while 72 percent come from higher-income families.

From first to fifth grade nearly half of the lower-income students in the top 25 percent of their class in reading fell out of this rank.

More than nine out of ten high-achieving high school students attend college, regardless of income level-a great success at a time when only 80 percent of all twelfth graders enter postsecondary education.

Although high-achieving lower-income students are attending college at impressive rates, they are less likely to graduate from college than their higher-income peers (59 percent versus 77 percent).

Notwithstanding their talent, our schools are failing them every step of the way," said John Bridgeland, CEO of Civic Enterprises and a co-author of the report.

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