When it comes to schools and the education that is received by the children that attend those schools, there are a multitude of factors that are relevant to the success or non-success of those students. For instance, the quality of the school and the teachers of that school, are absolutely of import, for if the teachers and the curriculum are not up to standard, it is hard to produce students that are going to excel. So too, while there are many children that are self-motivated and diligent, having an environment that encourages and augments such motivations and diligence most definitely is of aid; as well as having a safety net in place for those students that lose their focus, to thereupon have available for them, one-on-one counseling that helps in keeping them on course and engaged. Additionally, parents that are truly involved in regards to their child's education, are going to as a matter of course, make sure to provide their children with all the educational materials that are necessary, such as extra help as in tutoring, as well as positive feedback, in order to help keep their children on task and focused on the greater goal; which is the creation of good learning habits now, in their formative years, that will do them well in getting into the appropriate higher educational institutions and thereby obtaining the necessary accouterments for a very good opportunity of employment success.
The bottom line is that quite obviously, not every job is a good and fulfilling job, and the key to having a better opportunity towards that good job, comes more easily from those that have demonstrated through their educational achievements that they have the right stuff. All those children that are backed up by parents that take an active concern in the progress of their education, as well as having teachers and a curriculum that challenge and make students think and therefore learn; in addition to those students that actually study and apply themselves diligently are going to have -- far more often than not, success in obtaining not only their educational goals, but also their career goals.
As for all those other students, that do not have the same sort of advantages or structure, it goes almost without saying, that the less that parents are positively involved with their children in regards to their education, and the less that teachers and curriculum are up-to-speed, and the less children do to apply themselves to thinking and to learning, the far bigger handicap that they will have, in accomplishing their educational goals, as well as fulfilling their potential in the greater scheme of things. It is an extremely hard challenge for any child with a great mind -- to live within a construct in which their family is dysfunctional as well as low income, along with living in a non-desirable part of town, while also going to a school that hardly bothers to educate any of the students, but serves more as a glorified place of babysitting, if even that.
From good schools you can expect good students, and from involved parents you can expect better achievements from their children; whereas all those children that have various economic, discriminatory, and dysfunctional disadvantages are basically reduced to the hope that within their domain, there is the sanctuary of a really good school, that challenges them and thereby gets the best out of them, for without that, in conjunction with their own good efforts and concentration, they will surely be left way, way behind.