Fewer than one in 12 children in care leave school with one or more Highers, compared to three-fifths of all students in Scotland.
In 2014-15, 60.2% of all school leavers had passed at least one qualification at SCQF level 6 - a Higher grade A, B or C, official figures revealed.
But in the most deprived parts of Scotland, the proportion of pupils who achieved this was 41.2%, while just 8% of children in care leaving school achieved the same level of success.
In the most affluent communities, four-fifths (80.3%) of school leavers had at least one Higher, the figures from Scotland's Chief Statistician show.
Overall 92% of all those who left school in 2014-15 were in a "positive destination" - for example having a job, a place at college or university, or were training on an apprenticeship - by March 2016.
Education Secretary John Swinney accepted the figures show "there is much more to do to raise attainment and ensure all our young people have the very best chance to build the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to succeed - regardless of their background."
Mr Swinney said he and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon "have made clear that our firm priority is to substantially close the attainment gap between young people from our most and least deprived areas within the next five years".
An action plan, to be published next week, will "set out how we will build on today's figures to ensure Scottish education is the best it can be, and delivers the best possible opportunities for our young people", the Deputy First Minister said.
He also stressed that the figures overall "show a record percentage of school leavers have gone on to positive destinations and more than six in 10 achieved a qualification at Higher level or above".
Mr Swinney said: "This reflects the hard work, commitment and dedication of all these young people and the teachers who have supported them through school."
The number of school leavers passing at least one Higher is up from the previous year, when it was 58.1%
But the figures also show a small rise in the number of leavers with no qualifications at foundation level Standard Grade or above, going from 1.7% in 2013-14 to 2.1% in 2014-15.
Three-fifths of all school leavers went on to university or college, the figures show, with 36.8% in higher education and 23.4% in further education.
While more than a quarter (27.8%) went on to work after school, 7.3% of leavers were unemployed - with 5.7% of school leavers jobless and seeking work and a further 1.6% unemployed and not looking for work.
While more than nine out of 10 youngsters who left school in 2014-15 were in a "positive destination" nine months later, for children who had been in care the proportion was much lower at 69%.
"The attainment of looked-after school leavers continues to be worse than for pupils overall," a report detailing outcomes for children in this category said.
Of those school leavers in 2014-15 who had been in care, 4% went to university - down from 5% in 2013-14 - while 26% went to college, compared to 36% the previous year.
In 2009-10, just 40% of school leavers who had been in care went on to "positive destinations", with this rising to 72% in 2013-14, before dropping slightly after that.
Liberal Democrat education spokesman Tavish Scott hit out at the Scottish Government, and said: "Just 8% of looked-after children leave school having gained a Higher exam qualification. That is not good enough. We have a duty of care to these young people that is not being met.
"Closing the attainment gap means investing in education from the earliest stages of life. But the SNP's education cuts on local authorities are not helping young people trapped by circumstances outside their control. The Scottish Government have to accept the need for a new, positive approach to investing in the future of young people most in need."
The Tories highlighted the fall in the percentage of leavers going to college, with education spokeswoman Liz Smith saying: "The facts are clear - the SNP slashed the number of college places, and the result is fewer pupils having that option before them.
"We should be encouraging diverse destinations for young people, because a vocational course at college can be just as valuable as a university degree.
"Instead, because the Scottish Government wants to fund its vanity project of free university tuition, school-leavers right across Scotland are paying the price."
Labour education spokesman Iain Gray said: "Beneath the spin the SNP Government put on these figures is the attainment gap laid bare, and this is before millions of pounds of cuts to this year's education budgets up and down the country take effect.
"It simply isn't fair that the opportunities open to our young people are more likely to be determined by how much their parents earn rather than their ambition, work ethic and potential.
"We must close the attainment gap between rich and poor in this country and that means stopping the cuts. Faced with the choice between using the powers of the Scottish Parliament to invest in our young people or carrying on the cuts, the SNP must use the powers. Otherwise their promises to prioritise education are nothing but warm words."
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "We know that physical education can have a positive impact on a pupil's health, attainment and life chances.
"It encourages the development of both movement and thinking skills together and in doing so contributes to, and reinforces, learning across the curriculum.
"We are delighted that 98% of primary and secondary schools across Scotland are providing at least two hours or two periods of PE, which demonstrates remarkable progress since 2004/05 when 10% of schools were meeting this target.
"We are making good progress with only 18 out of 361 secondary schools not able to meet the target due to a range of issues, from timetable pressures in S4 to new school builds, and we will continue to work with local authorities, Education Scotland and sportscotland to ensure that our young people have access to sport and physical education while at school."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article