on average across oecd countries parents of socioeconomically advantaged students are highly educated a large majority has attained tertiary education and works in a skilled whitecollar occupation by contrast the parents of socioeconomically disadvantaged students have much lower educational attainment across oecd countries of parents of disadvantaged students attained some postsecondary nontertiary education as their highest level of formal schooling attained lower secondary education or less and only attained tertiary education few disadvantaged students have a parent working in a skilled occupation many parents of these students work in semiskilled whitecollar occupations and the majority work in elementary occupations or semiskilled bluecollar occupations table ll b