Using the third wave from the Korean Education Longitudinal Study (KELS:2005) data, this study
examined the effects of school contextual factors, such as the percentage of high achieving students
and of extremely poor families, on academic achievement. Based on previous findings that the
relationship between an individual’s family background and achievement differs according to the type
of school attended, this study explored the interaction effect between the two school contextual
factors and a student’s socioeconomic background. Results showed that students with low SES gained
lower test scores, especially in English and math, than their counterparts in an “elite” school (i.e., a
school with a high proportion of talented students), suggesting that the competitive atmosphere and
normative environment of a school do not reduce the achievement gap among socioeconomic classes.
For the low SES students, the negative school context effect of the school may be related to the
relative deprivation they experience.