School Quality and the Black-White Achievement Gap

Eric HanushekSteven Rivkin

January 2006 (Revised June 2006)

Examine changes in the black/white Math achievement gap from K-8

Use Texas administrative data and ECLS Describe changes in gap and decompose

into within and between school components Investigate differences by initial position in

the achievement distribution and gender Do initially high achieving blacks suffer the

largest drop-off? Identify contributions of specific school and

peer factors to changes in achievement gap

Data

UTD Texas Schools Project (TSP) Administrative panel data set

Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey (ECLS) NCES survey

Possibility of variation in gap changes across distribution

Examine differences by initial achievement

Examine differences by gender Sources

Actual difference in evolution of knowledge differential

test instrument driven pattern

Decomposition into within and between school components

Coefficient on black dummy variable in school fixed effect achievement regression captures student weighted average within school difference

However, it does not capture within school contribution to overall gap because of uneven distribution of blacks and whites among schools

Implications of Uneven Distribution

The more uneven the distribution the smaller is the within school contribution given actual differences within schools

Schools contribute more to the within school component the more balanced the distribution and the higher the enrollment

Black/White Achievement Gap

EC LS TSP

K 1st 3rd 5th 3rd 5th 8th

Overall 7.9 12.3 18.0 19.4 0.59 0.65 0.70

b/w school

6.2 10.3 15.0 16.8 0.19 0.25 0.28

w/in school

1.8 2.0 3.1 2.6 0.39 0.40 0.42

Examine changes across initial achievement distribution

Comparisons of blacks and whites with same initial scores problematic because of measurement error induced regression to the mean Mean regression tends to raise

achievement gap for blacks and whites with same initial scores

Our Approach

Classify students according to 3rd grade reading score Assumes positive correlation between

true reading and math achievement and no correlation in test measurement error

Divide 3rd grade reading distribution into 20 intervals of equal length

In TSP, most students in top categories

Patterns of achievement gap changes by initial Achievement

ECLS Higher growth in early grades little systematic difference except for top

category Most between schools

Patterns of achievement gap changes by initial Achievement

TSP Higher growth in early grades without

strong pattern Between grades 5 and 8 gap increased

only in higher categories Between school gap declines in each of the

bottom 7 categories but did not decline in any of the remaining groups

Figure 1. 3rd to 5th Grade and 5th to 8th Grade Changes in the Math Achievement Gap by 3rd Grade Reading Category

-0.10

-0.05

0.00

0.05

0.10

0.15

0.20

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

3rd Grade Reading Category(lowest = 1, highest = 16)

Incr

ease

in b

-w g

ap (

s.d

.'s)

3rd to 5th gap change

5th to 8th gap change

Figure 2. Between School Changes in the Math Achievement Gap by 3rd Grade Reading Category

-0.10

-0.05

0.00

0.05

0.10

0.15

0.20

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

3rd Grade Reading Category

Incr

ease

in b

-w g

ap (

s.d

.'s)

3rd to 5th gap change

5th to 8th gap change

Gender Differences

Tables reveal little systematic pattern by gender in either the ECLS or TSP data

However, low test taking rates for blacks and to a lesser extent whites in ECLS raises concerns, and low test taking rates of black boys in TSP likely conceals academic difficulties

Black-White difference in test taking status distribution for boys

3 5 8

Has score -6.8% -9.7% -10.3%

No test/Special ed 5.9 8.9 6.8

Off grade sequence 0.4 0.8 2.1

Examine contribution of schools

Sizeable between school contribution consistent with important role for schools but not evidence of causal effect due to extensive sorting of families

We focus on 3 factors Teacher experience; student racial

composition; student turnover

Empirical approach Use full panel of TSP data for 4 cohorts Regress achievement in grade g on

Proportions of teachers with 0, 1, and 2 yrs experience;

Proportion of students new to the school; and Proportion of students who are black Controls Fixed effects Fully interact variables by race

Black/White Differences in Texas Elementary School Characteristics

% students black much higher for blacks 28 point mean difference in TSP

Large difference in ECLS

% teachers in 1st or 2nd year much higher for blacks 4 points in TSP; 2 points in ECLS

Student turnover much higher for blacks 4 points in both TSP anc ECLS

Contributions of Teacher and Peer Variables to gap in TSP (exponential depreciation of 0.3 per year)

Annual effect Cumulative effect

Proportion new 0.003 0.0085

Proportion black 0.012 0.0333

Proportion 0 yrs 0.002 0.005

Proportion 1 yr 0.001 0.0018

total 0.018 0.0486

Do peer and teacher variables explain different pattern by initial achievement?

Is there variation by initial achievement in Characteristic differences by race?

Little or none Characteristic effects?

Some evidence of this

Policy Implications are complicated

Desegregation limited by legal rulings and may alter relationship between achievement and racial composition

Student turnover difficult to control Teacher preferences regarding

working conditions must be considered in efforts to raise teacher quality