  Underprivileged students, especially in primary school, have shown to have
less access to educational materials often resulting in general dissatisfaction
in the school system and lower academic performance (Saatcioglu and Rury, 2012,
p.23). The relationship between family socioeconomic status and student
interest in academic endeavors, level of classroom engagement, and
participation in extracurricular programs were analyzed. Socioeconomic status
was categorized as below poverty level, at or above poverty level, 100 to 199
percent of poverty, and 200 percent of poverty or higher (United States Census
Bureau). Student interest, engagement, and persistence were measured as a
scalar quantity of three variables: never, sometimes, and often. The
participation of students in extracurricular activities was also compared based
on the same categories of socioeconomic status. After running the multivariate
analysis of variance, it was found that there was a statistically significant
variance of student academic prosperity and poverty level.
