– 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.
Current Selections
ClearInequality in Reading and Math Skills Forms Mainly before Kindergarten: A Replication, and Partial Correction, of ‘‘Are Schools the Great Equalizer?’’
Student–Teacher Ethno-Racial Matching and Reading Ability Group Placement in Early Grades
– Overall, 68% of students in the kindergarten sample and 69% of first grade students were assigned to teachers who share their ethno-racial identity.
– Overall, 38% of kindergarten and 71% in first-grade classes use ability grouping for reading.
– 27% of African American kindergartners were placed in low ability groups compared with 25% of Latino/a kindergartners and 18% of White kindergarten students.
– Around 44% of African American and 46% of Latino/a first graders were placed in low ability groups compared with 37% of White first graders.
– Having a same-race teacher has no direct and independent effect on student placement in higher ability groups in the kindergarten.
– By first grade, placement with same-race teachers has a strong positive and significant effect on Latino/a students’ ability group placement and a marginally positive effect on African American students’ ability group placement.
– Once previous ability group placement is controlled for, placement with same-race teachers continue to be a positive and significant predictor of Latino/a students’ ability group placement in the first grade.
– Teachers’ perceptions about students’ learning abilities are influenced to a certain extent by student–teacher ethno-racial congruence resulting in significant postive effects on higher group placements in kindergarten and first grade.
– Both African American and Latino/a students are significantly less likely to be placed in higher reading ability groups compared with White students.
– Male kindergartners are significantly less likely to be placed in higher ability groups.
– The higher the percentage of African American students in class, the more likely students will be placed in higher ability groups.
– Students from higher SES are more likely to be placed in higher ability groups. However, as the average classroom SES increases, students are significantly less likely to be placed in higher ability groups.
Student and School SES, Gender, Strategy Use, and Achievement
– Schools, as opposed to families, may be the primary vehicle for developing effective strategy use practices for students and thus,
targeted interventions may be particularly useful for male students
attending low SES schools.
– One learning strategy (i.e., control strategies) was found to relate significantly and positively to achievement.
– These strategies were used more by females and students attending higher SES schools.
– Males and students attending lower SES schools tended to use a greater number of learning strategies that did not relate to achievement, including memorization and elaboration.
– Strategies that did not relate to achievement were used more
frequently by students from higher SES families.
Academic Performance of African American High School Students Related to Socioeconomic Status and School Size
– There was a negative correlation between school level SES and reading at -.50, -.44 for mathematics, and -.35 for science performance.
– There was a positive correlation between school size and reading at .10, .01 for mathematics, and .07 for science performance.
– School level SES and school size had significant impact on school
performance in reading.
– School level SES had significant impact on school performance in mathematics.
– School level SES and school size had significant impact on school performance in science.
Racial Segregation and the Black/White Achievement Gap, 1992 to 2009
H1:As black/white school dissimilarity increase, the black/white achievement gap increases H2:As exposure of black students to white students increases, the black/white achievement gap decreases H3: As exposure of black students to other minority students increases, the black/white achievement gap increases or remains stable H4: As black students become increasingly isolated by themselves, the black/white achievement gap increases.
Comparing Composition Effects in Two Education Systems: The Case of the Belgian Communities
What factors explain the achievement gap between Belgiums two major linguistic communities : French and Dutch ?
Academic Achievement Trajectories of Adolescents from Mexican and East Asian Immigrant Families in the United States
What are the growth patterns of academic achievement of adolescent students from immigrant families?
The Effect of High School Segregation on Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills in the United States
1) What is the extent of racial, socioeconomic, and linguistic segregation among U.S. high schools? 2) To what degree are student’s cognitive and non-cognitive skills due to school effects and to individual differences among students? 3) What are the relative magnitudes of the effects of socioeconomic, racial, and linguistic segregation on cognitive and non-cognitive skills compared with the effects of student socioeconomic status, ethnic background, and English language status? 4) To what degree does each of three school mechanisms (school inputs, peer influences, and school practices) mediate the effects of school segregation?
Policy Implications of Limiting Immigrant Concentration in Danish Public Schools
Would reallocating immigrant students improve total student achievement and/or benefit the educational outcome of immigrant students?
Teacher Effects on Minority and Disadvantaged Students' Grade Four Achievement
Examines the differential effects of teachers on female, minority, and low-socioeconomic status (SES) students’ achievement in Grade 4.
Gender Differences in the Effect of Peer SES: Evidence from a Second Quasi-Experimental Case Study
Extends previous research regarding gender differences in the effect of peer SES on reading and math scores among 4th grade Chicago Public School students
Family and Contextual Socioeconomic Effects Across Seasons: When Do they Matter for the Achievement Growth of Young Children?
School & neighborhood contexts influence on differences in children’s achievement growth during the kindergarten and first-grade years across seasons.
Family, Neighborhood, and School Settings Across Seasons: When Do Socioeconomic Context and Racial Composition Matter for the Reading Achievement Growth of Young Children?
Assess the degree to which social context and race/ethnic composition- in neighborhoods and schools- affect the reading achievement growth of young children.
An Organizational Perspective on the Origins of Instructional Segregation: School Composition and Use of Within-Class Ability Grouping in American Kindergartens
Investigate the degree to which racial and ethnic composition of schools is associated with use of ability grouping practices as early as kindergarten.
Student and School Predictors of High-Stakes Assessment in Science
This study examined both student and school predictors of science achievement as measured by a high-stakes state test.
Perceived School and Neighborhood Safety, Neighborhood Violence and Academic Achievement in Urban School Children
This study utilizes data obtained from the NIfETy Method, child self-report data related to students’ sense of safety, and standardized test scores to better understand the relationship betweenperceived community and school safety, neighborhood violence and school performance in 3rd-5th graders in a mid-Atlantic urban school system.
Does the SES of the School Matter? An Examination of Socioeconomic Status and Student Achievement Using PISA 2003
The relationship between school SES and student outcomes.
Housing Policy is School Policy: Economically Integrative Housing Promotes Academic Success in Montgomery Count, Maryland
Examination of elementary school math and reading performances of public housing students from very-low-poverty to moderate-poverty level neighborhoods to determine effects of economic integration on performance.
Long-Term Correlates of High School Racial Composition: Perpetuation Theory Re-Examined
Examine long-term influences of high school racial composition on students’ later racial isolation in the workplace in 1994 & 2000.
ADHD-Related School Compositional Effects: An Exploration
Examines variation in ADHD compositional effects as a function of key school factors on reading achievement, mathematics achievement, and teacher-reported levels of externalizing behavior.
Can Interdistrict Choice Boost Student Achievement? The Case of Connecticut's Interdistrict Magnet School Program
Presents evidence that interdistrict magnet schools have provided students from Connecticut’s central cities access to less racially and economically isolated educational environments; estimates impact of attending magnet school on achievement.
Before or After the Bell? School Context and Neighborhood Effects on Student Achievement
Explores the relative effects of school and neighborhood characteristics on student achievement.
Differences in Scholastic Achievement of Public, Private Government-Dependent, and Private Independent Schools: A Cross-National Analysis
Explain the gross differences in scholastic achievement of Public, Private Government-Dependent, and Private Independent Schools.
Inequality and Black-White Achievement Trends in the NAEP
Examining how recent changes in economic inequality and related social dimensions of inequality relate to trends in Black-White test score gaps. Links between inequality and black-white achievement trends for nine-years-olds are analyzed.
Trends in the Black-White Achievement Gap: Clarifying the Meaning of Within-and Between-School Achievement Gaps
Decompose black-white achievement gap trends between 1971 and 2004 into trends in within-and between-school differences.
Culture and Stalled Progress in Narrowing the Black-White Test Score Gap
Investigates whether changes in school-related behaviors, or changes in home environments, may have contributed to black students’ stalled progress.
Estimating the Influence of School Racial and Socioeconomic Composition on Student Learning: Methodological Challenges and Alternative Solutions
How school racial and SES composition influence young children’s academic development above and beyond the characteristics of students themselves?
The Continuing Relationship Between Racial and Socioeconomic Composition and Achievement in North Carolina Schools
Effects of school characteristics on NC students’ reading and math achievement from 4th through 8th grade.
The Effect of Black Peers on Black Test Scores
Estimate the effect of peer characteristics on student achievement using state testing data from NC and SC and national data from ECLS.
School Composition and Hispanic Achievement
Examine the effect of Hispanic concentration on Hispanic educational outcomes.
The Ecology of Early Reading Development for Children in Poverty
Investigated reading development from kindergarten to third grade for economically disadvantaged children from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort.
School Composition Effects in Denmark: Quantile Regression Evidence from PISA 2000
Estimate the effect of the socioeconomic mix of the schools on students’ test scores.
African-American Students' College Transition Trajectory: An Examination of the Effect of High School Composition and Expectations on Degree Attainment
What is the relationship between highschool composition and students’ degree expectations and their effect on degree attainment for African-Americans?
School Choice, Racial Segregation, and Test-Score Gaps: Evidence from North Carolina's Charter School Program
Examine the effects of charter schools in NC on racial segregation and black-white test score gaps.
The Race Gap in High School Reading Achievement: Why School Racial Composition Still Matters
How is school racial composition related to reading achievement?
Classroom Peer Effects and Student Achievement
Compare the strength of peer effects across different groupings of peers, and compare effects of fixed vs. time-varying peer characteristics.
Sinking Swann: Public School Choice and the Resegregation of Charlotte's Public Schools
Evaluates two public school assignment policies (open enrollment & mandatory choice, not using race or ethnicity in assignment) using data from CMS.
Trends of School Effects on Student Achievement: Evidence from NLS:72, HSB:82, and NELS:92
This study examines the impact of schools on student achievement (mathematics, reading, and science) over time using national probability samples of high school seniors. Our objective is to determine whether schools ‘‘make a difference.’’
Full-Day Versus Half-Day Kindergarten: In Which Program Do Children Learn More?
- Do young children who attend public schools that offer full-day kindergarten programs learn more over the school year, in terms of achievement in the domains of literacy and mathematics, than their counterparts who attend schools with half-day programs?
- Are the learning benefits associated with enrollment in public schools offering full-day or half-day kindergarten different for schools of varying academic composition or in schools with different social compositions?
How Middle School Segregation Contributes to the Race Gap in Academic Achievement
Studies the effects of school racial composition on the academic outcomes of middle school students
Connecting Pieces of the Puzzle: Gender Differences in Black Middle School Students' Achievement
Explores the sources of variation in Black adolescent students’ academic achievement during Middle School.
School Segregation and Black Achievement: New Evidence from the 2003 NAEP
Studies the relationship between racial composition and achievement using the 2003 and 2005 NAEP data.
Effects of School Segregation and School Resources in a Changing Policy Context
Impact of school composition and school resources on student achievement growth.
Taking Race Out of the Equation: School Reassignment and the Structure of Peer Effects
1.Learn about the structure of peer effects work. 2. Whether desegregation on the basis of family income has different effects than racial segregation
"We Value Diversity, but…" Academic Achievement of White, Middle Class Elementary Students in Segregated and Integrated Schools
Does academic achievement of elementary school children from white, middle class backgrounds differ depending on the racial makeup of their school?
Student Segregation and Achievement Tracking in Year-Round Schools
Studied multitrack year-round education (MT-YRE) schools (system that differentiates school attendance groups) in California.
Does Segregation Still Matter? The Impact of Student Composition on Academic Achievement in High School
Whether racial and socioeconomic segregation is still contributing to the achievement differences among students.