Ethnic Inequality in Israeli Schools and Sports: An Expectation-States Approach

Social inequality in educational achievement and psychosocial adjustment throughout childhood: magnitude and mechanisms

Randomized controlled trial evidence shows that interventions before age 5 can improve skills necessary for educational success; the effect of these interventions on socioeconomic inequalities is unknown. Using trial effect estimates, and marginal structural models with data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (n = 11,764, imputed), simulated effects of plausible interventions to improve school entry academic skills on socioeconomic inequality in educational achievement at age 16 were examined. Progressive universal interventions (i.e., more intense intervention for those with greater need) to improve school entry academic skills could raise population levels of educational achievement by 5% and reduce absolute socioeconomic inequality in poor educational achievement by 15%.

There are large social class inequalities in educational achievement in the UK. This paper quantifies the contribution of one mechanism to the production of these inequalities: social class differences in school ‘effectiveness’, where ‘effectiveness’ refers to a school’s impact on pupils’ educational achievement (relative to other schools). It builds on the small number of existing studies, whilst overcoming a number of their limitations. It estimates the effectiveness of the (state) schools attended between ages 7/8 and 10/11 by a cohort of children born in the 1990s in Avon, a former county of England, and then compares the effectiveness of the schools attended by children from different social classes. It finds that ‘higher’ social class children attend more effective schools, on average, and that these social class differences in average school effectiveness between ages 7/8 and 10/11 account for 7% of social class differences in average educational achievement age 10/11. This is not a causal analysis, however.

Knowing the extent to which parental background affects the educational performance of students is highly relevant for both policy makers and researchers. High levels of educational inequality in a country can be a sign of insufficient support structures and negative learning environments for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, and the relationship between social origin and educational attainment has received significant attention in the Nordic countries. In both Denmark and Norway, recent school reforms have been introduced with the goal of increasing educational performance and at the same time reducing inequality in educational achievement (Olsen, Hopfenbeck, and Lillejord 2013; Rasmussen, Holm, and Rasch-Christensen 2015). Nevertheless, the Nordic welfare states’ efforts to “equalize education” by reducing disadvantages for less privileged students have a far longer tradition (Erikson and Jonsson 1996).

In considering the relation between population change and educational reform, investment in extra-school education can be a focal problem. In the 1990s, Japanese educational reform, and in particular cutbacks in the school curriculum, increased the need for investment in extra-school education, imposing a considerable burden on households. Also in this period, the advancement rate to higher education increased but the recession after the “bubble economy” may have led to an increased economic gap in educational achievement. Some researchers have pointed out that in spite of the declining birthrate in post-war Japan, the number of siblings was still a restrictive condition of educational achievement after controlling for social origin.In this paper, we first examined the relationship between the number of siblings and educational investment and achievement, using 2005 SSM (Social Stratification and Mobility) survey data. We found that for nearly all cohorts, both male and female, the number of siblings tended to be associated with a decrease in the experience rate of extra-school education. The number of siblings had a negative effect on investment in extra-school education. In spite of the popularization of investment into extra-school education and the declining birthrate, it seems that this negative effect of number of siblings on educational investment had endured in post-war Japan.We also found that educational investment had a stronger effect on educational achievement for the youngest cohort (born 1971-1985) than for previous cohorts. For the youngest male cohort, in particular, experience of extra-school education had a strong effect on academic achievement in junior high school, which in turn affected educational achievement. In this respect, it seems that investment to extra-school education has recently come to strengthen the “amplifying effect of meritocracy.”We then investigated the determinants of parents’ intention to make educational investment, and investment per month to their children. We found that parents’ experience of extra-school education had a major influence on their intention to make educational investments into their children after controlling for their educational levels and family income. However, educational investment per month was not determined by parents’ experience of extra-school education, but by family income and intention. We thus found that parents’ experience of extra-school education had an indirect influence on investment into extra-school education for their children through intention to provide educational investment.It has been pointed out that especially in metropolitan areas, academic achievements of children are affected by the level of monthly educational investment, which based on parent’s educational expectation and family income. This may mean that under the marketization of education, it may be that meritocracy is being substituted by “parentocracy,” i. e., a mechanisms under which parental wealth and educational expectations determine the educational achievement of children. It has also been pointed out that Japanese public expenditures on education are low by international standards and that this has imposed a heavy burden on households and accelerated the decline of the birthrate. In order to reduce both inequality in educational achievement and declining birthrate, increasing public expenditures on education may be a critical task.

Background and objectiveEducational achievement, particularly among youth, may mitigate risk of exposure to violence and negative related health outcomes such as crime and gang activity. Few studies to date have examined relationships between education and youth homicide. The authors hypothesized association between educational achievement in grades 3 and 8 and youth homicide mortality.MethodsNeighborhood-based, city-wide analysis was conducted of cross-sectional data regarding N = 55 neighborhoods in Baltimore, MD, extracted from Baltimore 2017 Neighborhood Health Profiles.ResultsHigher educational achievement (operationalized by reading proficiency) in third, but not eighth, grade was associated with reduced neighborhood youth homicide mortality rates in hierarchical linear regression, controlling for demographic and socioeconomic factors (ß = − 0.5082, p = 0.03), such that each 1.97% increase in proportion of students reading at an acceptable level was associated with one fewer neighborhood youth homicide per 100,000. Neighborhoods within the highest tertile of youth homicide mortality differed from those in the lowest tertile with fewer males (45% vs. 48%, p = 0.002), greater unemployment (17% vs. 8%, p < 0.001), familial poverty (35% vs. 16%, p < 0.001), and residents identifying as black or African-American (88% vs. 25%, p < 0.001). Causal mediation analysis demonstrated mediation effects of familial poverty and eighth grade educational achievement through third grade educational achievement (ACME = 0.151, p = 0.04; ACME = − 0.300, p = 0.03, respectively) with no significant direct effects.ConclusionsHigher educational achievement (operationalized by reading proficiency) predicts reduced homicide mortality among Baltimore youth and appears to mediate effects of familial poverty on homicide mortality as well. This converges with literature highlighting the importance of education as a determinant of social capital and violence. Future policy-based interventions should target inequalities in educational achievement to mitigate homicide risk among youth in communities facing disparities in violent crime.

Educational trajectories after childhood cancer: When illness experience matters

There is growing evidence that shows that social context is becoming less significant in influencing educational achievements and expectations. Additionally, evidence indicates that expectations are high across the board and becoming of declining significance to educational achievement. In light of this, we reexamine and offer an alternative to the renowned linear models connecting background variables to scholarly achievement via pupils' educational expectation. Analysis of GCSE scores, using three consecutive waves of the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England, reveals that the verity of this classical claim is dependent on occupational class, ethnic origin, and school socio-economic status level. These results thus confirm an unrecognized effect of family and school background variables on achievement—not only to engender expectations but also to moderate their influence. This recognition expands and deepens understanding of inequality in educational achievement and social mobility by treating expectations as a resource and analytically distinguishing between the ability of a social group or a certain school to attain or create high expectations and their ability to capitalize on it and translate these into achievements. We find that in many cases, expectations still possess strong potential to transform into achievement, while in others they are high across the board and rather inconsequential.

This study investigates inequality of opportunity in educational achievements in Turkey over time. For this purpose we use test scores of PISA in mathematics, science and reading achievement of 15-year-olds over the period 2003-2012. Since the different waves of the samples cover only a fraction of the cohorts of 15-year olds we take into account the inequality of opportunity in access to the PISA test as well as the inequality of opportunity of the academic achievement in the PISA test. This procedure enables proper over time comparisons. We estimate the effect of circumstances children are born into on their academic achievement as evidenced in their PISA test scores. The main findings are as follows. First, confirming the previous studies we find that inequality of opportunity is a large part of the inequality of educational achievement in Turkey. Second, the inequality of opportunity in educational achievement shows a slightly decreasing trend over time in Turkey. Third, the inequality of opportunity figures based on the mathematics, science and reading achievements exhibited the similar trend over time. Forth, the family background variables are the most important determinants of the inequality in educational achievement which is a consistent pattern over time. However, there is also evidence of slight weakening of these factors over time. Policies are necessary to improve equality of opportunity in education in Turkey.

This study investigates inequality of opportunity in educational achievements in Turkey over time. For this purpose we use test scores of PISA in mathematics, science and reading achievement of 15-year-olds over the period 2003-2012. Since the different waves of the samples cover only a fraction of the cohorts of 15-year olds we take into account the inequality of opportunity in access to the PISA test as well as the inequality of opportunity of the academic achievement in the PISA test. This procedure enables proper over time comparisons. We estimate the effect of circumstances children are born into on their academic achievement as evidenced in their PISA test scores. The main findings are as follows. First, confirming the previous studies we find that inequality of opportunity is a large part of the inequality of educational achievement in Turkey. Second, the inequality of opportunity in educational achievement shows a slightly decreasing trend over time in Turkey. Third, the inequality of opportunity figures based on the mathematics, science and reading achievements exhibited the similar trend over time. Forth, the family background variables are the most important determinants of the inequality in educational achievement which is a consistent pattern over time. However, there is also evidence of slight weakening of these factors over time. Policies are necessary to improve equality of opportunity in education in Turkey.

In this study we examine the extent to which preschool education can reduce social background differentials in learning outcomes across countries; our focus is on whether the benefits of preschool attendance for children depend on other family inputs such as parents’ education and their pedagogical involvement during early childhood. We use the 2011 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, which provides a standardized measure of reading literacy among students in 4th grade. Our sample contains data on 119,008 individuals from 28 developed countries. The presented evidence confirms that preschool is visibly beneficial in most cases, but also that benefits are lower for children who have more involved or more educated parents. Rather than complements to, parental involvement and parental education seem to be substitutes for preschool attendance in children’s skill production function. As such, preschool education reduces social inequalities in educational achievement. Yet, its equalizing potential could have been overstated in previous debates.

Does schooling affect socioeconomic inequality in educational achievement? Earlier studies based on seasonal comparisons suggest schooling can equalize social gaps in learning. Yet recent replication studies have given rise to skepticism about the validity of older findings. We shed new light on the debate by estimating the causal effect of 1st-grade schooling on achievement inequality by socioeconomic family background in Germany. We elaborate a differential exposure approach that estimates the effect of exposure to 1st-grade schooling by exploiting (conditionally) random variation in test dates and birth dates for children who entered school on the same calendar day. We use recent data from the German NEPS to test school-exposure effects for a series of learning domains. Findings clearly indicate that 1st-grade schooling increases children’s learning in all domains. However, we do not find any evidence that these schooling effects differ by children’s socioeconomic background. We conclude that, although all children gain from schooling, schooling has no consequences for social inequality in learning. We discuss the relevance of our findings for sociological knowledge on the role of schooling in the process of stratification and highlight how our approach complements seasonal comparison studies.

Perhaps the most prevailing inequalities in educational achievement in England are those associated with socio-economic status (SES), ethnicity and gender. However, little research has sought to compare the relative size of these gaps or to explore interactions between these factors. This paper analyses the educational achievement at age 11, 14 and 16 of over 15,000 students from the nationally representative longitudinal study of young people in England. At age 16, the achievement gap associated with social class was twice as large as the biggest ethnic gap and six times as large as the gender gap. However, the results indicate that ethnicity, gender and SES do not combine in a simple additive fashion; rather, there are substantial interactions particularly between ethnicity and SES and between ethnicity and gender. At age 16 among low SES students, all ethnic minority groups achieve significantly better than White British students (except Black Caribbean boys who do not differ from White British boys), but at high SES only Indian students outperform White British students. A similar pattern of results was apparent in terms of progress age 11–16, with White British low SES students and Black Caribbean boys (particularly the more able) making the least progress. Parents’ educational aspirations for their child and students’ own educational aspirations, academic self-concept, frequency of completing homework, truancy and exclusion could account for the minority ethnic advantage at low SES, but conditioning on such factors simultaneously indicates substantial ethnic underachievement at average and high SES. Accounts of educational achievement framed exclusively in terms of social class, ethnicity or gender are insufficient, and the results challenge educational researchers to develop more nuanced accounts of educational success or failure.

This paper assesses inequality of opportunity in educational achievement using the Human Opportunity Index methodology on data from the Programme for International Student Assessment. The findings suggest that there are large inequalities in learning outcomes as measured by demonstrated proficiency in Programme for International Student Assessment test scores in math, reading, and science. Differences in wealth, parental education, and area of residence explain a bulk of this inequality in most of the countries in the sample. Consistent with what has been documented previously in the literature, the paper also finds a strong and stable correlation between inequality of opportunity and public spending on school education. An exploration of the changes in inequality of opportunity between the 2009 and 2012 rounds of the Programme for International Student Assessment, using parametric and nonparametric techniques, suggests that there has been little progress.

Socioeconomic inequalities in educational achievement are pervasive across societies. To inform a European Commission-funded project on educational inequalities in children, adolescents, and young adults, we used a scoping review methodology to synthesise the methods, topics, and coverage of reviews of empirical studies published in the past five years (2019–2024). Our systematic search of the Web of Science database identified 498 unique records, which were screened for eligibility. Of these records, 57 progressed to full-text screening, with 29 included in the metareview. We extracted data on the reviews’ methodologies, overarching conceptual perspectives, conceptualisations of socioeconomic inequalities and educational achievement, and educational stages covered. Our analysis found gaps, including a lack of qualitative reviews, a lack of focus on primary education and on tertiary education outside of university (e.g., further education college), scarce coverage of the impact of broader contextual indicators of socioeconomic inequality (e.g., school and neighbourhood contexts) on educational outcomes, and a narrow focus on academic achievement. To conclude our metareview, we synthesise and expand the review topics into an interdisciplinary conceptual diagram that illustrates the breadth and depth of research needed in this field.