A theoretical framework of the relation between familial socioeconomic status and academic achievement of the students

A two-stage socio-psychological analytical framework will be adopted to illuminate the relation between familial socioeconomic status and academic achievement of the students. The framework puts the emphasis to incorporate micro familial factors into macro factor of the tracking system. Initially, children of the poor families always lack major prerequisite of diminution of cognitive stimulating resources. Hence, they are very likely to be assigned to low caliber class. The diminution of cognitive stimulating resources originates from stress coping strategy of the parents, parental expectation and parenting. As students advance to upper grade, a triad nexus of expectation among parents, students and teachers help perpetuate the vicious cycle among students of poor families. Students with low socioeconomic status bore entire brunt of the tracking system in a way that they get poor academic result and a high school dropout rate.
This theoretical framework represents the very first step of the research, to be followed in the next stage by in-depth interviews with the different stakeholders, including students, parents, teachers, educational academics and government officials of Hong Kong. The research will then be concluded by analyzing how the theoretical framework applies in Hong Kong.