Socioeconomic Achievement Gaps Research Articles

Advanced Placement Human Geography Exam Participation and Performance in Texas School Districts

Texas is the state with the largest number of students taking the Advanced Placement (AP) Human Geography exam. State policy allows schools to offer AP Human Geography in ninth grade as a substitute for the on-level World Geography Studies course. AP’s growth in Texas has been driven by state policy that financially incentivizes students, teachers, and schools to participate in the program. This article examines changes in the geographic distribution of AP Human Geography course offerings and exam results in school districts across the state. Using data provided by the Texas Education Agency (TEA), AP Human Geography exam participation rates and scores were mapped for the period from 2014 to 2019. The results show the number of districts with low rates of qualifying scores has increased in each participation category with fifty-seven additional low-qualifying districts in 2019 compared to 2014. Racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps exist in many schools, calling into question the inequitable impacts of the state’s AP incentives and the practice of using AP Human Geography as a warmup AP course. Texas school districts should improve the preparation of students for advanced course work. Researchers can further explore district-level AP participation and performance through case studies and other methods.

Socio-emotional Skills and the Socioeconomic Achievement Gap

Empirical evidence suggests children’s socio-emotional skills—an important determinant of school achievement—vary according to socioeconomic family background. This study assesses the degree to which differences in socio-emotional skills contribute to the achievement gap between socioeconomically advantaged and disadvantaged children. We used data on 74 countries from the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment, which contains an extensive set of psychological measures, including growth mindset, self-efficacy, and work mastery. We developed three conceptual scenarios to analyze the role of socio-emotional skills in learning inequality: simple accumulation, multiplicative accumulation, and compensatory accumulation. Our findings are in line with the simple accumulation scenario: Socioeconomically advantaged children have somewhat higher levels of socio-emotional skills than their disadvantaged peers, but the effect of these skills on academic performance is largely similar in both groups. Using a counterfactual decomposition method, we show that the measured socio-emotional skills explain no more than 8.8 percent of the socioeconomic achievement gap. Based on these findings, we argue that initiatives to promote social and emotional learning are unlikely to substantially reduce educational inequality.

Cultural variation in the SES-gender interaction in student achievement.

Is the socioeconomic gap in academic achievement larger among boys than girls? Several scholars have proposed such an interaction between socioeconomic status (SES) and gender. Prior empirical studies have yielded mixed evidence, but they have been conducted almost exclusively in Western countries. Here we propose the hypothesis that the SES-gender interaction is stronger in less gender-equal societies. We estimated the SES-gender interaction in 36 countries using data from two international large-scale assessments (PIRLS and TIMSS). The degree of gender equality was measured by the Global Gender Gap Index. Consistent with the hypothesis, the SES-gender interaction was stronger in societies with less gender equality. Our findings suggest that cultural factors determine how the socioeconomic achievement gap differs between boys and girls.

Acing the test: Educational effects of the SaberEs test preparation program in Colombia

Education in Colombia and Latin America is characterized by significant gaps in the quality of education as measured by standardized test scores. This paper assesses the impact of a Colombian program called SaberEs, which strengthens preparation for standardized cognitive tests such as the high school exit exam in Colombia (Saber 11) for low socioeconomic status students. The program provides competency-based training sessions to develop skills for analyzing and solving specific types of questions within school hours. Our difference-in-differences estimates show that SaberEs increased Saber 11 scores by 2.22 ranks (or 0.074 standard deviations), which implies that the socioeconomic achievement gap was reduced by 23% regarding the control schools. Also, students affected by the program experienced a significant increase in access to tertiary education and merit-based scholarships in Colombia.

Beliefs About Collective Responsibility for Educational Equity and Attitudes Toward Public Assistance to Students Experiencing Socioeconomic Disadvantage

Abstract Neoliberal educational reforms that emphasize market-based competition and individual responsibility have exacerbated socioeconomic segregation in the Australian school system, thereby putting underprivileged students at a greater disadvantage. This necessitates a renewed focus on educational equity. As the public’s policy preferences are important in policymaking, it is essential to understand the factors that contribute to the public’s attitudes toward equity-oriented educational policies. In this study, we investigated beliefs about collective responsibility as a contributing factor. An online survey of adults (N = 1,999) conducted in the most populous state in Australia revealed that people’s beliefs about collective responsibility for socioeconomic achievement gaps positively predicted their support for public assistance to students and schools in need. Furthermore, people’s appraisals of educational equity positively predicted their support for public assistance, partly due to its positive effects on those beliefs about collective responsibility. These results provide insight into ways to shape the public’s attitudes toward equity-oriented educational policies.

Engaging diverse learners: lessons learned from a dialogic, technology-enabled social studies curriculum

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present insights from the implementation of a dialogic social studies curriculum and its potential to support diverse learners. Policymakers and educators must attend to the learning needs of diverse/minoritized (Note: In this paper, the authors use minoritized and diverse interchangeably) students who have been marginalized in public education. A critical goal is to close racial, ethnic and socioeconomic achievement gaps by increasing, for example, students’ engagement with curriculum and instruction. In this paper, the authors bridge research on dialogic instruction and culturally relevant and responsive education with the goal of informing curricular design and instructional practice.Design/methodology/approachThis conceptual paper discusses the utility of dialogic instruction in improving learning outcomes for minoritized student populations. While some researchers have examined the positive effects of dialogic instruction on underperforming students (e.g. Murphy et al., 2009; Pillinger and Vardy, 2022), few scholars have examined dialogic instruction through a culturally relevant and responsive lens. The authors argue that the application of this critical lens may improve learning outcomes for diverse learners who have been marginalized in public education systems.FindingsThe authors present illustrative vignettes and insights from a pilot study of a novel social studies curriculum. This curriculum applies a social justice lens by guiding students in the exploration of complex social issues that affect them. Given the diversity of their collaborating teachers’ classrooms (55% are racially minoritized students), the authors applied principles of culturally relevant and responsive education (e.g. Ford, 2010; Gay, 2000; Ladson-Billings, 1995) when designing and piloting the curriculum. Prior personal and professional experiences by the first author point to the potential of dialogic instruction to meaningfully support minoritized students’ learning.Originality/valueThis paper builds on two bodies of literature – dialogic instruction and culturally relevant and responsive education – to identify how an innovative social studies curriculum may improve learning for diverse student populations. It calls for the advancement of a research agenda that applies a culturally relevant and responsive lens to inform instructional practice. The authors begin this discussion with two vignettes.

Does socioeconomic sorting of teacher qualifications exacerbate mathematics achievement inequity? Panel data estimates from 20 years of TIMSS

Recent and older studies have reported either a persistence or a widening of the socioeconomic achievement gap—the difference in performance between students in top and bottom socioeconomic groups. Using a panel data technique with country fixed effects for 32 education systems and six waves of data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, we examine whether the sorting of teachers by specialization level in mathematics education and novice status across students of different socioeconomic backgrounds exacerbates mathematics achievement inequity despite the presence of a time-varying control for socioeconomic school segregation. We find modest evidence that sorting by mathematics education is associated with achievement inequity, but no evidence supporting the importance of sorting based on teacher experience. Socioeconomic school segregation, on the other hand, clearly and persistently exacerbates achievement inequity. The results have policy implications regarding the effective distribution of educational resources. Availability of data and materialsThe data are freely available via the TIMSS data repository.

Does subsidized public health insurance for parents improve children's human capital and close achievement gaps?

Between 2009 and 2018, many states dramatically changed income eligibility limits for parental Medicaid. We examine whether increasing parental Medicaid eligibility had spillover benefits on children's development. We study the effects of state-level changes in parental income limits for Medicaid on 3rd through 8th grade mathematics and English-language arts (ELA) achievement using county-level administrative test score data. We find that a 50-percentage point increase in parental Medicaid income limits, roughly equal to the average state increase in eligibility over this period, is associated with a 1.5% reduction in the socioeconomic achievement gap for math and a 3% reduction in the white-black math achievement gap. Math test scores improved significantly following parental Medicaid eligibility expansions among black students residing in poorer counties, with little estimated change in test scores for black students in higher income counties. We find no effect in ELA achievement gaps or white-Hispanic test score gaps. Our findings suggest that means-tested policies that improve parental and family wellbeing have important spillover benefits to children's educational achievement and can help reduce inequities in children's human capital development.

Validating school-based measures of educational disadvantage in Ireland

Reducing the socio-economic achievement gap is a key goal of education policy internationally. Since 2017, the stated intention in Ireland is to use the Pobal HP Deprivation Index to identify schools serving high proportions of disadvantaged students. In spite of this, little published research has compared the performance of the HP index to richer survey measures from large-scale educational assessments or examined its association with educational achievement at primary or second level. This paper aims to assess the validity and fitness for purpose of the HP index for use in identifying schools serving high concentrations of socio-economically disadvantaged students. Analyses draw on Ireland’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 dataset matched with administrative data. Findings show a strong correlation between school-average HP and other socio-economic measures examined. However, about one-in-five schools are identified as potential ‘false positives’ or ‘false negatives’ when school-average HP is used for identification purposes. Also, school-average HP explains less variance in reading achievement than other variables considered. Conclusions recognize the benefits of the HP index but emphasize the need for ongoing examination of the most appropriate methods of identification.

The Efficiency-Equity Trade-off in a Federal System: Local Financing of Schools and Student Achievement

AbstractFederalism theorists debate the desirability of funding local services from local revenues or inter-governmental grants. Tiebout expects efficiency gains from local funding, but Oates says it perpetuates inequalities. Research using data from national probability samples has yet to show whether efficiency-equity trade-offs are associated with funding sources. We describe the trade-off in education by estimating the effect of revenue share from local sources on math and reading achievement. Data come from national probability samples of student performances on tests administered between 1990 and 2017. Relationships are estimated with OLS descriptive models, event study models of school finance reforms, and geographic discontinuity models that exploit differences in state funding policies. For every ten-percentage point increase in local revenue share, mean achievement rises by 0.05 standard deviations (sd) and socio-economic achievement gaps widen by 0.03sd. Voice and exit channels moderate the size of the efficiency-equity trade-off. Implications for inter-governmental grant policy are discussed.

Is inequitable teacher sorting on the rise? Cross-national evidence from 20 years of TIMSS

Unequal access to qualified teachers for children of different socioeconomic status—also known as inequitable teacher sorting—has been increasingly put forth as one potential factor contributing to the socioeconomic achievement gap. Despite this, few studies have investigated cross-national differences in teacher sorting, and none have examined it within-countries over time. International large-scale assessments in education are uniquely positioned to answer such questions due to their longitudinal nature at the system level. This study uses six waves of data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) from 1999 to 2019 for 32 education systems. We compare differences in grade 8 mathematics teacher qualifications for each country at each time point, across top and bottom groups on the student socioeconomic spectrum. Results show that on the whole many countries display negligible gaps in access to teacher quality, with some key exceptions. With respect to inequity in novice teacher sorting, the problem is most prevalent in low- and middle- income education systems (i.e. in Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia and Indonesia). Inequity in sorting based on mathematics education is less common, with no clear pattern in regards to level of economic development (i.e. in Chile, Australia, New Zealand, and Chinese Taipei). Socio-economic inequality in teacher sorting has also remained broadly stable over time. Based on experience and mathematics education, less than a handful of systems show systematic upward trends in teacher sorting inequity (i.e. in Chile, Morocco, Singapore, and New Zealand). Given the increasing focus on inequity in access to teacher competence, these results have economic and policy implications for tackling the socioeconomic achievement gap.

Can Financial Incentives Help Disadvantaged Schools to Attract and Retain High‐Performing Teachers? Evidence from Chile

AbstractExtensive sorting of high‐performing teachers into the most advantaged schools contributes to the wide socioeconomic achievement gaps in many countries. The Chilean Pedagogical Excellence Assignment (AEP) pays bonuses to high‐performing teachers that are larger if they work at a disadvantaged school. Using a sharp regression discontinuity based on the program's eligibility rules, we estimate how the award affects where high‐performing teachers choose to work. The bonus, equivalent to 16 percent of an average annual salary, increased retention of high‐performing teachers in disadvantaged schools by 17 to 21 percentage points. In contrast, those teachers in more advantaged schools seem to use the award as a quality signal to stay or move to relatively high‐achieving schools. While the program accomplished its goal of retaining high‐performing teachers already working at disadvantaged schools, it did not achieve the objective of attracting better teachers from more advantaged schools.

Socioeconomic achievement gaps and the role of school leadership: Addressing within- and between-school inequality in student achievement

There has been an increasing push for school leadership to address inequity in educational outcomes. Yet, most of the relevant studies concerned with direct or mediated effects of leadership. We attempt to address the knowledge gap concerning the moderating effects of school leadership on within- and between-school inequality in student achievement. We use longitudinal data from a survey among 2151 Danish public school teachers coupled with administrative records of student achievement for 5729 students. Using multilevel linear regressions with 8th grade achievement in mathematics and reading as dependent variables, we find a statistically significant negative interaction between teacher-leader dialogue and school SES for mathematics achievement. Our results suggest that teacher-leader dialogue about student outcomes may reduce between-school inequality in achievement.

Genetic and Socioeconomic Achievement Gaps in Elementary School

Genetic and Socioeconomic Achievement Gaps in Elementary School

Do school resources reduce socioeconomic achievement gap? Evidence from PISA 2015

Despite the attention to the impact of school resources on student achievement, little is known about how the school effect differs by students’ socioeconomic backgrounds. Using PISA 2015, we find that privileged students receive much more academic benefits from high quality teachers than their disadvantaged peers do. Additionally, the level of economic development across countries explains the heterogenous effect of school resources. Our results suggest that the socioeconomic achievement gap could be worsened as a function of the difference in school resources across schools, particularly in non-OECD countries. We call for further studies on the heterogeneous effect of school resources with the viewpoint of educational equity.

Compensating the socioeconomic achievement gap with computer‐assisted instruction

AbstractBackgroundAs educational digital technologies are increasingly being used in schools, past research left unanswered the question of these technologies' impact on the socioeconomic achievement gap even when equal access is guaranteed.ObjectivesThe objectives of the present study are to examine whether and how the socioeconomic achievement gap can be reduced through the use of computer‐assisted instruction (CAI).MethodsWe addressed this issue experimentally by comparing CAI to conventional teacher‐led classroom instruction with more than 800 middle and high school students from disadvantaged and highly privileged socioeconomic backgrounds in a range of topics.Results and ConclusionsBoth disadvantaged and highly privileged students taught with CAI outperformed those taught with conventional instruction, thus maintaining the socioeconomic achievement gap constant. However, we also found that disadvantaged students receiving CAI performed as well as highly privileged students receiving conventional teacher‐led instruction.TakeawaysThe positive effects associated with CAI may therefore help compensate the difficulties of students with a disadvantaged background, a still neglected possibility.

Equality of opportunity and human capital accumulation: Motivational effect of a nationwide scholarship in Colombia

We study the ex ante motivational effect of a nationwide merit and need-based scholarship in Colombia, which granted full scholarships to low-income students at high-quality universities. Specifically, we analyze how the opportunity to receive the scholarship, influenced the performance of low-income students in the national high-school exit and 9th grade exams, and their university enrollment rates. Following a differences-in-discontinuity design, we find that the opportunity to receive the scholarship significantly increased test scores at the national high school exit exam at the top of the distribution. At the 90th percentile of the distribution, eligibility for the scholarship reduced the socioeconomic achievement gap by 16 percent. We also document an increase in the post-secondary enrollment of low-income students at the top of their score distribution, even for the non-recipients of the scholarship. Finally, we estimate a positive effect on the test scores of younger 9th grade students, affecting a broader range of the distribution. Our results highlight how opportunities for social mobility encourage human capital accumulation by low-income students, thus contributing to breaking the persistence of poverty and inequality.

Pandemic School Closures May Increase Inequality in Test Scores.

Schools have been closed across the country and will remain closed until September in most provinces. The decision to reopen should take into account current inequalities in cognitive skills across the country and the impact of school interruptions on knowledge accumulation. In this article, we use information from a companion article to estimate the socioeconomic achievement gaps of 15-year-olds across Canada and assess the impact of the pandemic on inequalities in education. Using estimates from the literature on the impact of school closures, we find that the socioeconomic skills gap measured using Programme for International Student Assessment data could increase by more than 30 percent.

Do Education System Characteristics Moderate the Socioeconomic, Gender and Immigrant Gaps in Math and Science Achievement?

Using data from the 2011 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study for 45 countries, we examined the size of socioeconomic, gender, and immigrant status related gaps, and their relationships with education system characteristics, such as differentiation, standardization, and proportion of governmental spending on education. We find that higher socioeconomic status is positively and significantly associated with higher math and science achievement; immigrant students lag behind their native peers in both math and science, with first generation students faring worse than second generation; and girls show lower math performance than boys. A higher degree of differentiation makes socioeconomic gaps larger in both math and science achievement, whereas higher governmental spending reduces socioeconomic achievement gaps.

Socioeconomic Inequality in Decoding Instructions and Demonstrating Knowledge

Cultural capital may contribute to socioeconomic achievement gaps by shaping how students engage with authority in schools. However, social class shapes academic skills and know-how in other ways. Through classroom observations and interviews with first graders, their parents, and teachers, I find that higher-SES students decode teachers’ inexplicit academic instructions and demonstrate academic knowledge more ably, confidently, and frequently than lower-SES students. Lower-SES students demonstrate procedural knowledge (i.e. knowledge of classroom rules) as much as academic knowledge to gain attention and praise from teachers. These patterns are primarily connected to higher-SES parents teaching their children the academic problem solving script teachers expect and reward, whereas lower-SES parents emphasizing rule following as the path to academic achievement. Teachers also give less explicit instruction for academic tasks compared to classroom procedure. Results from this study highlight additional forms of cultural capital and additional ways that social class reproduces these inequalities.