ABSTRACT
If you live near a major U.S. metropolitan area and read the newspaper regularly, it is easy to associate the urban poor with Black and Hispanic Americans whose numbers are concentrated in the inner cities. This is misleading. About 40% of Black households in the United States are in the middle income range and 25% of Black households have higher incomes than average White households (Hodgkinson, 1995). In terms of poverty, in raw numbers, the largest segment of the population that is poor is White. A reasonable question to ask in a discussion of equity and science education is, therefore, which is more important in determining chances for success in K-12 science-socioeconomic status (SES) or ethnicity? Research on large samples of students and U.S.
