ERIC Number: ED508946
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2007-Jan-8
Pages: 55
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
School Quality and the Black-White Achievement Gap
Hanushek, Eric A.; Rivkin, Steven G.
Education Working Paper Archive
Substantial uncertainty exists about the impact of school quality on the black-white achievement gap. Our results, based on both Texas Schools Project (TSP) administrative data and the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey (ECLS), differ noticeably from other recent analyses of the black-white achievement gap by providing strong evidence that schools have a substantial effect on the differential. The majority of the expansion of the achievement gap with age occurs between rather than within schools, and specific school and peer factors exert a significant effect on the growth in the achievement gap. Unequal distributions of inexperienced teachers and of racial concentrations in schools can explain all of the increased achievement gap between grades 3 and 8. Moreover, non-random sample attrition for school changers and much higher rates of special education classification and grade retention for blacks appears to lead to a significant understatement of the increase in the achievement gap with age within the ECLS and other data sets. (Contains 20 tables, 2 figures and 42 footnotes.) An appendix is included which develops the decomposition presented in equation (1). [Support for this work has been provided by the Packard Humanities Institute.]
Descriptors: Grade Repetition, Academic Achievement, Racial Differences, African American Students, White Students, Achievement Gap, Age Differences, Teaching Experience, Student Attrition, Special Education, Special Needs Students, Disproportionate Representation, Educational Quality, Elementary School Students, Middle School Students, Gender Differences, Peer Influence, Educational Environment, Educational Attainment, Employment Level, Scores, Mathematics Achievement, Reading Achievement
Education Working Paper Archive. Department of Education Reform, University of Arkansas, 201 Graduate Education Building, Fayetteville, AR 72701. Tel: 479-575-3172; Fax: 479-575-3196; e-mail: edreform@uark.edu; Web site: http://www.uark.edu/ua/der/EWPA
Publication Type: Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Elementary Education; Elementary Secondary Education; Grade 1; Grade 2; Grade 3; Grade 4; Grade 5; Grade 6; Grade 7; Grade 8; Kindergarten; Middle Schools
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive
Identifiers - Location: Texas
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A