– Gender and race/ethnicity are associated with science identity but not with discovery orientation.
– The positive association between discovery orientation and science identity is mediated by science interest, importance, and reflected appraisal.
– There are statistically significant differences in science interest between groups. Science interest is higher among white boys than for minority girls. Overall, science importance, perceived science ability, and science reflected appraisal means are also fairly high, particularly compared with science other-ID and science self-ID.
– Science importance is higher among white and minority boys than for white and minority girls. Perceived science ability is higher among white than minority students. White boys and girls have higher scores than minority boys and girls on the questions about parents and teachers, giving them positive messages about their science performance (reflected appraisal).
– White boys have significantly higher science other-ID than all other groups, while only white boys and minority girls differ significantly on science self-ID.
Current Selections
ClearDiscovery Orientation, Cognitive Schemas, and Disparities in Science Identity in Early Adolescence
Inequality in Reading and Math Skills Forms Mainly before Kindergarten: A Replication, and Partial Correction, of ‘‘Are Schools the Great Equalizer?’’
– When the authors use the new test scores, they find that variance is substantial at the start of kindergarten and does not grow but actually shrinks over the next two to three years. This finding, which was not evident in the original Great Equalizer
study, implicates the years before kindergarten as the primary source of inequality in elementary reading and math.
– Total score variance grows during most summers and shrinks during most school years, suggesting that schools reduce inequality overall.
– Changes in inequality are small after kindergarten and do not replicate consistently across grades, subjects, or cohorts. That said, socioeconomic gaps tend to shrink during the school year and grow during the summer, while the black-white gap tends to follow the opposite pattern.
– Socioeconomic gaps tend to shrink during the school year and grow during the summer, while the black-white gap tends to follow the opposite pattern.
– Inequality in basic reading and math skill originates mainly in early childhood, before kindergarten begins.
Socio-economic Status and Subject Choice at 14: Do They Interact to Affect University Access
– There are substantial socioeconomic differences in the subjects that young people study from age 14 to 16.
– Young people from advantaged households take more selective subjects, have higher odds of doing three or more facilitating subjects, higher odds of studying a full set of EBacc-eligible subjects (including English, Maths, History or Geography, two sciences and a modern or ancient language), but lower odds of taking Applied GCSEs (e.g. Applied Hospitality, Applied Health or Applied Manufacturing) than less advantaged young people.
– There were important differences by school characteristics, which may be a result of differential opportunities, subjects offered and within school policies.
– Even holding other factors constant, pupils in non-selective schools within selective local authorities study a less academically selective set of subjects.
– When considering university entry, and admission to high-status universities in particular, there are large raw differences associated with studying more academic combinations of subjects.
However, once differences in young people’s backgrounds and prior attainment associated with these differences in subjects studied are taken into account, these differences are, at most,
small.
– The results for studying the full set of EBacc subjects and for studying any applied subjects do show residual associations with university attendance.
– If young people from different socioeconomic backgrounds were studying a more similar curriculum between ages 14 and 16 it would be unlikely to make much of difference to the inequality in university entry highlighted by previous studies.
– Household income, home ownership and higher parental education increase the odds of taking three STEM subjects
– Socio-economic differentials in access to STEM are largely driven by prior attainment.
– Participation in STEM subjects does not vary by school characteristics, with the exception of the proportion of Free School Meals (FSM) in the school which is negatively associated with doing three or more STEM subjects.
Classroom-Based Inequalities and Achievement Gaps in the First Grade: The Role of Classroom Context and Access to Qualified and Effective Teachers
1) What are the magnitudes of URM (underrepresented minorities) achievement gaps in reading and math at the beginning of first grade, and to what degree do they change during first grade?
2) Do student inputs vary across classrooms and schools? What are the magnitudes of school based achievement gaps that develop in the first grade? Do URM have equitable access to classrooms with contextual characteristics conducive to learning? Highly qualified teachers and effective teachers?
3) And if not what degree does each contribute to the achievement gaps that accumulate during the first grade?
STEM Education
Review and discuss current research on STEM education in the United States, drawing on recent research in sociology and related fields.
Science Aspirations, Capital, and Family Habitus: How Families Shape Children's Engagement and Identification With Science
How and why is science a more ‘‘thinkable”
aspiration in some families and not others?
Race, Racial Concentration, and the Dynamics of Educational Inequality Across Urban and Suburban Schools
How does the process of educational performance and attainment differ across the 2 types of American schools (low and high minority schools)?
Twenty-First Century Social Science on School Racial Diversity and Educational Outcomes
If amicus briefs are to bring relevant social science evidence to the attention of the Court in educational rights litigation, which research studies should be summarized and interpreted in the briefs?
Choice, Equity, and the Schools-Within-Schools Reform
- To what extent did subunit themes emphasize students’ disparate occupational and educational futures over their common social and academic needs?
- What rationales did students offer for their subunit selections, and how did their choices reflect their interests, motivations, social backgrounds, and academic abilities?
Does Educational Tracking Affect Performance and Inequality? Differences-in-Differences Evidence Across Countries
Estimate the tracking effects in the differences in outcomes between primary and secondary school across tracked and non-tracked systems in the world.
Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality
An analysis of how tracking in the American school system and its relationship to issues of inequality and excellence affected the education of junior and senior high school students in twenty-five US schools.
When Busing Ends: Resegregation and Inequality in an Urban School District
Examination of race and class segregation within one urban school district prior to and then after integration plans were dismantled.
Measures of Multigroup Segregation
Derive and evaluate a set of six multigroup segregation indices.