Moi wrote about the intersection of race and class in Michael Petrilli’s decision: An ed reformer confronts race and class when choosing a school for his kids. It is worth reviewing that post. http://drwilda.com/tag/class-segregation/
Moi wrote about the intersection of race and class in education in Race, class, and education in America:
Many educators have long recognized that the impact of social class affects both education achievement and life chances after completion of education. There are two impacts from diversity, one is to broaden the life experience of the privileged and to raise the expectations of the disadvantaged. Social class matters in not only other societies, but this one as well.
A few years back, the New York Times did a series about social class in America. That series is still relevant. Janny Scott and David Leonhardt’s overview, Shadowy Lines That Still Divide describes the challenges faced by schools trying to overcome the disparity in education. The complete series can be found at Social Class http://www.nytimes.com/pages/national/class/http://drwilda.com/2011/11/07/race-class-and-education-in-america/
U.S. News reported in the article, Study Finds Students Underperform in Schools With Large Black Populations:
As concerns mount over the resegregation of the nation’s public schools, a new federal study shows that black and white students at schools with a high density of black students perform worse than those at schools with a lower density of black students.
The report, released Thursday by the National Center for Education Statistics, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education, sheds new light on the achievement gap between white and black students and bolsters policymakers’ fears about the ramifications of increasingly segregated schools.
“I think that we all have some sort of anecdotal sense that racial isolation or the resegregation of schools going in that direction is not a good thing,” says acting NCES Commissioner Peggy Carr. “It’s not good for anyone. But being able to define it and put your finger on it … and be more diagnostic about the probable impact was really eye-opening for me.”
The report found that, on average, white students attended schools that were 9 percent black while black students attended schools that were 48 percent black.
Achievement was lower for both black and white students in schools where black students accounted for more than 40 percent of the student body, compared to schools where black students accounted for less than 20 percent of the student body.
Those findings weren’t entirely unexpected. But what did surprise Carr, she says, was that the achievement gap for black students was largely due to the performance of black male students, not black female students.
Further, Carr explains, black males actually did worse in schools with a high density of black students while white males did better, compared to schools with lower densities of black students.
“Even when we account for factors associated with higher achievement such as student socioeconomic status and other student, teacher, and school characteristics, we see that black male student achievement is lower in schools with higher percentages of black students,” Carr says.
The black-white achievement gap has been studied for years, but its relationship to school composition has generally not been explored.
The study was conducted using data from the results of the 2011 eighth-grade math test given as part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, an assessment that’s given to U.S. students in various subjects in grades four, eight and 12…..
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/09/24/study-finds-students-underperform-in-schools-with-large-black-populations
Citation:
School Composition and the Black-White Achievement Gap Description: School Composition and the Black-White Achievement Gap explores public schools’ demographic composition, in particular, the proportion of Black students enrolled in schools (also referred to “Black student density” in schools) and its relation to the Black-White achievement gap. This NCES study, the first of its kind, used the 2011 NAEP grade 8 mathematics assessment data. As reported earlier, Black students at the national level, on average, scored 30 points lower than their White peers in 2011.
Among the results highlighted in the report, the study indicates that the achievement gap between Black and White students remains whether schools fall in the highest density category (i.e., schools that composed of at least 60 percent Black students) or the lowest density category (i.e., schools that composed of less than or equal to 20 percent Black students). When accounting for factors such as student socioeconomic status and other student, teacher, and school characteristics, Black students, and Black male students in particular, scored lower in the highest- rather than the lowest density schools. Further, the portion of the Black-White achievement gap attributed to within-school differences (e.g., how schools internally distribute resources and treat students) is larger than the portion attributed to between-school differences (e.g., how schools vary in technology, updated textbooks, and qualified teachers). Online Availability:
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Cover Date: September 2015 Web Release: September 24, 2015 Publication #: NCES 2015018
Center/Program: NCES Authors: NCES Type of Product: Statistical Analysis Report Survey/Program Areas: National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
Keywords:
Achievement
Blacks, educational progress
Mathematics
Questions: For questions about the content of this Statistical Analysis Report, please contact:
Taslima Rahman.
Here is the executive summary:
School Composition and the Black-White Achievement Gap
September 24, 2015
Download the complete report in a PDF file for viewing and printing. (8.6 MB)
Executive Summary
The Black–White achievement gap has often been studied, but its relationship to school composition has generally not been explored. The demographic makeup of public schools is of particular interest, given recent concerns about the growing resegregation of schools (Frankenberg, Lee, and Orfield 2003; Orfield, Kucsera, and Siegel-Hawley 2012). This report explored eighth-grade achievement as it relates to the percentage of students in the school who were Black1. The category Black includes students who identified as “Black or African American.” or the density of Black students, to contribute to the understanding of the Black–White student achievement gap. The data used to explore these relationships came primarily from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2011 Mathematics Grade 8 Assessment but also from the Common Core of Data for 2010–11, which provided additional school characteristics.
On average, White students attended schools that were 9 percent Black while Black students attended schools that were 48 percent Black, indicating a large difference in average Black student density nationally. When the analysis examined variation in density by region and locale, the results showed that schools in the highest density category (60 percent to 100 percent Black students) were mostly located in the South and, to a lesser extent, the Midwest and tended to be in cities. The highest percentage of schools in the lowest density category were in rural areas.
Analysis of the relationship between the percentage of students in a school who were Black and achievement showed the following:
- Achievement for both Black and White students was lower in the highest Black student density schools than in the lowest density schools.
- However, the achievement gap was not different.
However, when accounting for factors such as student socioeconomic status (SES) and other student, teacher, and school characteristics, the analysis found:
- White student achievement in schools with the highest Black student density did not differ from White student achievement in schools with the lowest density.
- For Black students overall, and Black males in particular, achievement was still lower in the highest density schools than in the lowest density schools.
- The Black–White achievement gap was larger in the highest density schools than in the lowest density schools.
- Conducting analysis by gender, the Black–White achievement gap was larger in the highest density schools than in the lowest density schools for males but not for females.
In addition, the size of the achievement gaps within each category of Black student density was smaller when the analysis accounted for student SES and other student, teacher, and school characteristics (except in the highest density category), suggesting that these factors explained a considerable portion of the observed achievement gap2.
In a separate analysis, the report estimated the extent to which the Black–White achievement gap could be attributed to between- versus within-school differences in achievement. The value of this analysis is to inform policies that allocate resources between schools versus policies that allocate resources within schools. Results of this analysis showed that, nationally and in most of the states examined, the portion of the Black–White achievement gap attributed to within-school differences in achievement was larger than the portion attributed to between-school differences. There was, however, a portion of the gap that could not definitively be attributed to either within- or between-school differences alone. This portion was labeled “indeterminate.”
Download the complete report in a PDF file for viewing and printing. (8.6 MB)
NCES 2015-018 See the entry in the NCES database for contact and ordering information, and for links to similar topics.
Suggested Citation
1– The category Black includes students who identified as “Black or African American.”
2- In the highest density schools, the reduction in the achievement gap was not statistically significant ( p = .058)
National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
NAEP Studies – School Composition and the Black-White Achievement Gap
https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pubs/studies/2015018.aspx
The best way to eliminate poverty is job creation, job growth, and job retention. The Asian Development Bank has the best concise synopsis of the link between Education and Poverty http://www.adb.org/documents/assessing-development-impact-breaking-cycle-poverty-through-education For a good article about education and poverty which has a good bibliography, go to Poverty and Education, Overview http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2330/Poverty-Education.html There will not be a good quality of life for most citizens without a strong education system. One of the major contributors to poverty in third world nations is limited access to education opportunities. Without continued sustained investment in education, we are the next third world country.
Related:
Michael Petrilli’s decision: An ed reformer confronts race and class when choosing a school for his kids
http://drwilda.com/2012/11/11/micheal-pettrillis-decision-an-ed-reformer-confronts-race-and-class-when-choosing-a-school-for-his-kids/
The role economic class plays in college success
http://drwilda.com/2012/12/22/the-role-economic-class-plays-in-college-success/
The ‘school-to-prison pipeline
http://drwilda.com/2012/11/27/the-school-to-prison-pipeline/
Trying not to raise a bumper crop of morons: Hong Kong’s ‘tutor kings and queens’
http://drwilda.com/2012/11/26/trying-not-to-raise-a-bumper-crop-of-morons-hong-kongs-tutor-kings-and-queens/
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Tags: Achievement Gap, Class, National Center for Education Statistics National Center for Education Statistics, Race, Race and Class, School Composition and the Black-White Achievement Gap, Shadowy Lines That Still Divide, Students Underperform in Schools With Large Black Populations
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