ERIC Number: EJ1172891
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018-Apr
Pages: 27
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0038-0407
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Do School Learning Opportunities Compound or Compensate for Background Inequalities? Evidence from the Case of Assignment to Effective Teachers
Hanselman, Paul
Sociology of Education, v91 n2 p132-158 Apr 2018
Are equal educational opportunities sufficient to narrow long-standing economic and racial inequalities in achievement? In this article, I test the hypothesis that poor and minority students benefit less from effective elementary school teachers than do their nonpoor and white peers, thus exacerbating inequalities. I use administrative data from public elementary schools in North Carolina to calculate value-added measures of teachers' success in promoting learning, and I assess benefits for different students. Results suggest that differential benefits of effective teachers uniquely exacerbate black-white inequalities but do not contribute to economic achievement gaps. Racial differences are small, on average, relative to the benefits for all groups; are not explained by differences in prior achievement; and are largest for low-achieving students. Teacher-related learning opportunities are crucial for all students, but these results point to a disconnect between typical school learning opportunities and low-achieving minority students.
Descriptors: Educational Opportunities, Equal Education, Low Income Students, Minority Group Students, Teacher Effectiveness, Elementary School Teachers, Public Schools, Value Added Models, Educational Benefits, Racial Differences, Achievement Gap, Low Achievement, African American Students, Hispanic American Students, White Students, Socioeconomic Background, Observation, Statistical Analysis
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Institute of Education Sciences (ED); Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) (NIH)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: North Carolina
IES Funded: Yes
Grant or Contract Numbers: R305C050055; R305B120013; P01HD065704
Author Affiliations: N/A