Inequality In Educational Outcomes Research Articles

Unravelling colonial education: from Dazzling White to Deliberately Decolonised and supporting the case for Indigenous universities

ABSTRACT Western universities continue to produce ethnic inequities in educational outcomes within settler colonial contexts. Juxtaposed are Indigenous and tribal universities, producing thousands of graduates despite a challenging environment. This conceptual paper critically examines teaching practices to encourage reflection and action from white and/or racialised teachers. Drawing on the lived experiences of Indigenous and non-Indigenous teachers from Aotearoa, Australia, and the United States, this paper articulates a double spiral of teaching practice drawing on anecdotal and research evidence. The spiral spins, forward and back, from Dazzling White to Off-White Aspirations, Culturally Safe, Intentionally Anti-Racist to Deliberately Decolonised. We use the holistic measurement of what one may feel, hear, and see in these classrooms to illustrate the dimensions. To address educational disparities in Western academia, we encourage non-Indigenous educators to develop their racial literacy. Furthermore, we support the recognition and investment in Indigenous universities where Indigenous peoples are more likely to thrive.

Education inequalities

Abstract Education is one of the most important predictors of people's life chances, shaping outcomes like work and pay, health, and wealth. Explaining inequalities in educational outcomes, as well as how wider outcomes vary by education levels, is therefore essential to understanding lifetime inequalities. In this article, we document the changing—and unchanging—nature of educational inequalities in England and their implications for other aspects of social inequalities. We review the evidence on the returns to different types and levels of qualifications; analyse the extent to which the current education system mitigates or perpetuates other dimensions of inequalities, including social background, gender, ethnicity, and geography; and investigate the drivers of educational inequalities during schooling and beyond. Finally, we draw the policy implications of our analysis and set out principles for building a more equal education system.

Implementasi Manajemen Pendidikan Karakter Dalam Perspektif Pendidikan Islam Di SMP PGRI 1 Kediri

Recently, the term character education has emerged. Character education has received a lot of attention from Indonesian society. This is because people feel social inequality in educational outcomes. This inequality can be seen from the behavior of current formal education graduates, for example corruption, free sex, drugs and brawls between students. One of the current problems is the low quality of education. This influences student development. This phenomenon is caused by a lack of instilling strong character education management in students. Therefore, character education is needed from the start, namely from childhood. The aim of this research is to describe the implementation of character education management from an Islamic perspective, and to determine the efforts made in implementing character education management from an Islamic perspective. This research is qualitative research, the method used by researchers to obtain data is by 1). Observation. 2). Interview. 3). And documentation. The results of the research show that in Character Education Suhari Ningsih, she always reflects on how to behave well and politely to students and teaches them to speak well.

Stratification and Inequality in the Secondary Education System in Romania

Education is a complex system with implications for educational policy and management. Education systems that are more comprehensive generate more equal outcomes, fostering access to opportunities for all children. On the other hand, systems with early selection and tracking are more stratified and register higher inequalities in educational outcomes. Educational inequalities imply unequal access to education and, subsequently, career opportunities. The present study employs classification techniques, such as decision trees, in order to highlight lines of stratification and inequality in the upper secondary education system in Romania, focusing on the selection of students in general or vocational programs. Our results show that the education of parents and area of residence are factors that influence the stratification of students in the Romanian secondary education system, and the selection process contributes to the reproduction of social inequalities. The conclusions of this study are consistent with the cultural capital theory in education. Policy and strategic management implications are discussed in light of our results.

No food for thought-How important is breakfast to the health, educational attainment and wellbeing of school-aged children and young people?

There have been reports from teachers of pupils in the United Kingdom arriving at school hungry. Poor nutritional intake during childhood can increase the risk of developing both short- and long-term health problems. Breakfast consumption has been associated with several outcomes including better diet quality and healthier weight status. Nevertheless, skipping breakfast is a frequent behaviour in young people, particularly adolescents, and those from lower socio-economic groups, who are less likely to meet dietary recommendations and nutritional targets. The aim of this narrative review is to explore the contribution of breakfast consumption at home or at school and the impact of breakfast skipping on nutrient intakes in school-aged children (aged 4-18 years), and their effect on weight and cardiometabolic health. We will also summarise evidence for a link with cognitive function and educational attainment. A broadly positive effect of breakfast intake on diet quality, weight status and school-related outcomes was found in the literature, although inconsistencies in findings and methodological limitations within the evidence base are notable. Further research is warranted to better understand impact of breakfast intake and school breakfast provision on longer-term learning, educational attainment and health outcomes. This also needs to consider the cost benefit, type of breakfast and any unintended consequences such as encouraging multiple breakfasts. Breakfast consumption could improve the nutritional intakes of the most vulnerable young people and may help to address inequalities in educational outcomes at least in the short term.

Correction for Hecht et al., A values-aligned intervention fosters growth mindset-supportive teaching and reduces inequality in educational outcomes.

Correction for Hecht et al., A values-aligned intervention fosters growth mindset-supportive teaching and reduces inequality in educational outcomes.

A values-aligned intervention fosters growth mindset–supportive teaching and reduces inequality in educational outcomes

Group-based educational disparities are smaller in classrooms where teachers express a belief that students can improve their abilities. However, a scalable method for motivating teachers to adopt such growth mindset-supportive teaching practices has remained elusive. In part, this is because teachers often already face overwhelming demands on their time and attention and have reason to be skeptical of the professional development advice they receive from researchers and other experts. We designed an intervention that overcame these obstacles and successfully motivated high-school teachers to adopt specific practices that support students' growth mindsets. The intervention used the values-alignment approach. This approach motivates behavioral change by framing a desired behavior as aligned with a core value-one that is an important criterion for status and admiration in the relevant social reference group. First, using qualitative interviews and a nationally representative survey of teachers, we identified a relevant core value: inspiring students' enthusiastic engagement with learning. Next, we designed a ~45-min, self-administered, online intervention that persuaded teachers to view growth mindset-supportive practices as a way to foster such student engagement and thus live up to that value. We randomly assigned 155 teachers (5,393 students) to receive the intervention and 164 teachers (6,167 students) to receive a control module. The growth mindset-supportive teaching intervention successfully promoted teachers' adoption of the suggested practices, overcoming major barriers to changing teachers' classroom practices that other scalable approaches have failed to surmount. The intervention also substantially improved student achievement in socioeconomically disadvantaged classes, reducing inequality in educational outcomes.

Educational consequences of a sibling's disability: Evidence from type 1 diabetes

While there is a growing literature on family health spillovers, questions remain about how sibling disability status impacts educational outcomes. As disability is not randomly assigned this is an empirical challenge. In this paper we use Danish administrative data and variation in the onset of type 1 diabetes to compare education outcomes of focal children with a disabled sibling to outcomes of focal children without a disabled sibling (matched on date of birth of the focal child, sibling spacing and family size). We find that having a disabled sibling significantly decreases 9th grade exit exam GPAs, while having no impact on on-time completion of 9th grade. However, educational trajectories are impacted, as we find significant decreases in high school enrollment and significant increases in vocational school enrollment by age 18. Our results indicate that sibling disability status can generate economically meaningful inequality in educational outcomes.

The Impacts of COVID-induced School Closures on Inequality in Education Outcomes

I use online math participation and student math progress data from online learning platform Zearn to study the impacts of COVID-induced school closures on inequality in education outcomes using an event study approach. There were sharp declines in online math participation and progress following school closures but both outcomes were back to the pre-COVID levels in 2021 May. The pandemic widened socioeconomic inequalities in education outcomes transitorily, where most of the post-COVID socioeconomic gaps had vanished by 2021 May. Areas with lower income, more students in rural schools, worse computer and Internet access, and less higher education completion (measured by the percent of adults having a B.A.) saw more learning losses but only in the remaining 2020 spring semester.

Delineating Differences in How US High Schools are Racialized.

Schools' overt or explicit practices are a dominant lens through which education researchers and policymakers attempt to understand how schools are racially inequitable. Yet, Lewis and Diamond argue that contemporary racial inequalities are largely sustained through implicit factors, like institutional practices and structural inequalities. Ray's framework on racialized organizations similarly outlines how our racialized sociopolitical structure becomes embedded in organizations, legitimating and perpetuating the racialized hierarchy. We apply illustrative cluster analysis techniques to rich data on schools, teachers, and students from the nationally representative High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 to find that structural inequities (e.g., student body, sector, average achievement) appear to be most salient in delineating the racialization of US high schools, whereas the characteristics of schools and teachers that are typically emphasized for closing racial inequities in educational outcomes (e.g., teacher qualifications, courses offered, stratification practices) are not salient differentiators across schools.

Reducing educational disparities between Australian adolescents in regional and metropolitan communities: The compensatory effects of extracurricular activities.

Australian adolescents living in regional communities are significantly more likely to perform worse at school, relative to those in metropolitan communities. These disparities are partially due to the development of lower educational expectations among regional adolescents. In the current study, we tested whether the differences in educational expectations across communities were reduced when adolescents engage in extracurricular activities, and any subsequent downstream effects on academic outcomes. The current study used a subsample of 1,477 adolescents recruited as part of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children who have graduated from high school. Using a random-intercept cross-lagged panel model, we found that residing in a regional community at the start of secondary education predicted worse academic performance when graduating 6 years later. This association was partially mediated by lower educational expectations and school functioning, measured biennially. However, the significant difference between adolescents in metropolitan and regional communities dissipated when participants engaged in three or more types of extracurricular activities. These results highlight that increasing access and support to participate in extracurricular activities in regional communities may contribute to reducing inequities in educational outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

A slippery slope: early learning and equity in rural India

ABSTRACT There is near consensus that early childhood education and care (ECEC) is essential to children’s early development. A common corollary is that early learning will be pivotal to helping redress inequities in educational outcomes. We examine whether this is true among rural communities in the Indian states of Assam, Rajasthan, and Telangana. Specifically, we assess whether learning gains for the most disadvantaged are retained in comparison to more advantaged children who had lower initial learning levels. We find that lower-achieving, more advantaged children (as measured by mother’s education) soon overtake higher-achieving but less advantaged children. In contrast, higher-achieving girls remain ahead of lower-achieving boys in Assam and Telangana, although they are caught up in Rajasthan. Given the differing patterns across the states, we explore the extent to which these may be shaped by their respective social and policy contexts.

Replicating and Extending Effects of “Achievement Gap” Discourse

Scholars argue that the “racial achievement gap” frame perpetuates deficit mindsets. Previously, we found that teachers gave lower priority to racial equity when disparities were framed as “achievement gaps” (AGs) versus “inequality in educational outcomes.” In this brief, we analyze data from two survey experiments using a teacher sample and an Amazon MTurk sample. We find that (a) the effect of AG language on equity prioritization is moderated by implicit bias, with larger negative effects among teachers holding stronger anti-Black/pro-White stereotypes; (b) the negative effect of AG language replicates with non-teachers; and (c) AG language causes respondents to express more negative racial stereotypes.

Are They Still Aiming High? The Development of Educational Aspirations of Lower Secondary School Students With Immigrant Backgrounds in Germany

Although research indicates that students with immigrant backgrounds often have higher educational aspirations than students without immigrant backgrounds at the same performance level, little is known about the longitudinal development of this difference in aspirations. This article analyzes how idealistic and realistic educational aspirations from Grade 5 until Grade 9 in Germany develop for students from various migrant groups, compared with those without immigrant backgrounds at the same school track and at the same level of school performance. Drawing on different theoretical assumptions, we examine to what extent students (increasingly) adapt their aspirations to their school performance toward the end of compulsory schooling. Our empirical analysis uses data from the first five waves (Grades 5–9; 2010/11–2014/15) of the National Educational Panel Study in Germany ( N = 5,542). Random-effects model results show a positive association between students’ school performance and their idealistic and realistic aspirations, and this association tends to increase over time. However, there is no uniform pattern in students’ aspiration trajectories. Some migrant groups (Poland, Southern Europe, former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) have similar aspiration trajectories as students without immigrant backgrounds at the same performance level, while other groups (Turkey, Northern and Western Europe, and others) maintain higher idealistic aspirations. Controlling for school performance, only students of Turkish origin also maintain higher realistic aspirations until Grade 9. These findings allow us to better understand the conditions behind the educational disadvantages of some migrant groups and offer insights into how best to further mitigate inequalities in educational outcomes.

Relational social capital and educational equity among middle-school students: a person-centered analysis

Students’ relationships with their teachers are a form of social capital (i.e., relational social capital; RSC). Latent transition analysis (LTA) was used to investigate longitudinal patterns of RSC in a sample of 786 grades 6 (35%), 7 (35%), and 8 (30%) students (48% female, 37% Hispanic, 22% white, 68% low income), and their links to academic motivation and GPA. Three classes of students were identified: Those with greater likelihood of reporting all RSC indicators (16%), those with greater likelihood only of being academically challenged (21%), and those with lower likelihood of reporting RSC (63%). Low-income students had lower odds of being in the high challenge class and greater odds of worsening relationships with teachers. Low RSC students had lower academic motivation and GPA. Results show the connections between RSC inequities and inequities in educational outcomes. To advance educational equity, intentional efforts are needed to build strong student-teacher relationships.

Socioeconomic status and school absenteeism: A systematic review and narrative synthesis

AbstractSchool absenteeism is detrimental to life course outcomes and is known to be socioeconomically stratified. However, the link between socioeconomic status (SES) and school absence is complex given the multidimensional nature of both family SES (e.g., income, education, occupational status) and absenteeism (e.g., truancy, sickness, suspension). Despite the vast literature on socioeconomic inequalities in school attendance, no systematic review on SES and school absenteeism exists. This study systematically reviewed and provides a narrative synthesis of journal articles (n = 55) published between 1998 to 2019 on the association between SES dimensions and forms of absenteeism. The majority of studies from high‐income contexts found an association between SES and absenteeism in the expected direction, albeit on average with small effect sizes. Studies largely confirmed these findings among populations at risk of school absence and those from low‐ and middle‐income countries. There was greater evidence for an association between absenteeism and SES measured at the family than the school level. Studies using SES measures of financial resources (e.g., free or reduced‐price lunch) provided more evidence for this association than studies measuring sociocultural resources (e.g., parental education). We found limited evidence that socioeconomic gaps in absenteeism vary by the reasons for absence. Research on the mediating pathways between SES and absenteeism is sparse. A key implication is that attempts to address inequalities in educational outcomes must include tackling SES gaps in school attendance. Context and implicationsRationale for this studyOur narrative review synthesised the literature on socioeconomic status (SES) and school absenteeism.Why the new findings matterInequalities in school absenteeism may partly account for socioeconomic disparities in children’s academic achievement. We found that lower SES is associated with higher levels of absenteeism in most of the studies we reviewed, including among disadvantaged groups.Implications for policy‐makers and practitionersGiven robust evidence that school absences are detrimental to children’s academic achievement, policy‐makers and practitioners need to place an explicit focus on addressing socioeconomic disparities in school attendance in order to close SES achievement gaps. This will be particularly important in tackling the consequences of Covid‐19 related school closures around the world. An intersectional approach that addresses multiple disadvantages should be adopted to tackle inequalities in school attendance. Researchers should address several gaps, such as directly comparing SES effects across different reasons for absenteeism and examining the mechanisms by which SES leads to absenteeism.

Reframing the policy discourse: A comparative analysis of teacher preparation for rural and remote education in Australia, South Africa and Mexico

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has highlighted a ‘vicious cycle of decline’ in rural, regional and remote (RRR) regions, with significant inequalities in educational outcomes between rural and urban areas. However, interventions have not resulted in transformative or lasting improvements to education in rural contexts. This paper presents a cross-comparative country analysis of current global policy on RRR education. We used a policy analysis framework to interrogate national policy texts concerning teacher education for RRR contexts in three countries - Australia, South Africa and Mexico. A rigorous selection process of the literature yielded 17 key policy texts, which were examined for the influences, practices, language and outcomes relating to teacher education preparation for RRR locales. Findings highlighted a legacy of historical influences and a metrocentric bias in policy texts, with limited examples of assets-based education. We argue that these factors may be perpetuating the significant and persistent disadvantage in RRR education. We recommend an alternative policy discourse that recognises the productivities and potentialities of an assets-based approach within the local context, where school leaders and teachers are positioned as central change agents in RRR education.

Spatial variations of school-level determinants of reading achievement in Italy

The study of the territorial difference in educational achievement is a widely debated topic, in particular in Italy for the presence of the well-known strong regional disparities. National and international large scale assessments confirmed that the main characteristic of the Italian school system is the geographical cleavage between North and South. Policymakers have pressing needs to find solutions to reduce geographical disparities. In this study, we investigate the spatial disparities of academic achievement from a new perspective, assuming that the relationship between academic achievement and predictors varies across Italy. Our aim is to examine the extent of the spatial disparities in the relationship between academic achievement and some school-level factors related to inequalities in educational outcomes, moving beyond the regional administrative confines, in order to identify new spatial patterns. We exploited the reading standardized tests administered by INVALSI in 2018–2019 focusing on the 8th-grade students. Crucial to our contribution is the use of the geographically weighted regression and the k-mean clustering, which allows studying the spatial variability of the impact of the school-level factors on academic achievement and to gather schools in new spatial clusters. The findings of this paper demonstrate the necessity to design a more specific education policy and support the identification of the main critical factors for different geographical areas.

School Mental Health Providers’ Perspectives on the Impact of COVID-19 on Racial Inequities and School Disengagement

School disengagement is a critical factor that will likely exacerbate long-standing racial inequities in educational outcomes during the aftermath of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Due to their training and contact with at-risk students, school social workers and other school-based mental health professionals (SMHP) are in an ideal position to understand the impact of COVID-19 and virtual learning on K–12 students. To that end, this study reports on findings from a survey of SMHP about the differential impact that the COVID-19 outbreak is having on students and their families. The findings suggest that COVID-19 has had a tremendous impact on families overall, especially among populations who were experiencing hardships before the current outbreak. In addition, several barriers were noted for student learning, with many students—particularly students of color—completely disengaging from school during spring 2020. However, SMHP reported several important insights on how to support students and their families—some requiring immediate action on the part of school districts and others requiring greater community-level investment into the economic, social, emotional, and overall health of families. Findings are discussed in light of addressing disengagement and educational inequities for students of color.

Selective Auditory Attention Associated With Language Skills but Not With Executive Functions in Swedish Preschoolers.

Associations between language and executive functions (EFs) are well-established but previous work has often focused more on EFs than on language. To further clarify the language–EF relationship, we assessed several aspects of language and EFs in 431 Swedish children aged 4–6, including selective auditory attention which was measured in an event-related potential paradigm. We also investigated potential associations to age, socioeconomic status (SES), bi-/multilingualism, sex and aspects of preschool attendance and quality. Language and EFs correlated weakly to moderately, indicating that relying on measures of vocabulary alone may overestimate the strength of the language–EF relationship. Contrary to predictions, we found no correlations between selective attention and EFs. There were however correlations between morphosyntactic accuracy and selective auditory attention which is in line with previous work and suggests a specific link between morphosyntax and the ability to suppress irrelevant stimuli. In Sweden, socioeconomic differences are rather small and preschool is universally available, but nevertheless, aspects of parental SES predicted children’s performance on all measures. Bi-/multilingual children performed lower on language also when controlling for SES, highlighting the need for interventions to reduce inequalities in educational outcomes already in preschool. A female advantage was found for both language and EFs, whereas preschool attendance and quality were not significantly related to outcome measures. Future work should include longitudinal studies of language and EF development, include children from diverse SES backgrounds and contribute toward a theoretical framework that further clarifies the language–EF relationship.