The nation’s schools are failing not just low-achieving, poor students, but their high-achieving peers as well, according to a new report from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation and Civic Enterprises. Achievement Trap: How America is Failing 3.4 Million High-Achieving Students from Lower-Income Families calls for continuing the national goal of improving basic skills and ensuring minimal proficiency in reading and math among low-income students but says that there also must be a more concerted effort to promote high achievement within the same population.

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According to the report, about 3.4 million students in grades K–12 come from families with incomes below the national median but still manage to score in the top quartile academically. Of these students, more than one million qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. These high-achieving, lower-income students, who the report calls “young strivers,” come from families in poverty and from working-class families and are demographically and geographically very similar to the overall population of students.

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“The presence of these 3.4 million students provides hope to others caught in similar circumstances,” the report reads. “Even though they possess fewer resources and often suffer from low expectations in the classroom, many lower-income students still find ways to excel, giving us reason to believe that students can perform at very high levels despite economic disadvantages.”