scholarly journals Diverging Disparities: Race, Parental Income, and Children’s Math Scores, 1960 to 2009

2021 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-142
Author(s):  
Jordan A. Conwell
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
White Students ◽  
Test Score ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Parental Income ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Math Scores ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Math Test ◽  
Math Test Scores

In recent decades, the black–white test score disparity has decreased, and the test score disparity between children of high- versus low-income parents has increased. This study focuses on a comparison that has, to date, fallen between the separate literatures on these diverging trends: black and white students whose parents have similarly low, middle, or high incomes (i.e., same income or race within income). To do so, I draw on three nationally representative data sets on 9th or 10th graders, covering 1960 to 2009, that contain information on students’ math test scores. I find that math test score disparities between black and white students with same-income parents are to black students’ disadvantage. Although these disparities have decreased since 1960, in 2009 they remained substantively large, statistically significant, and largest between children of the highest-income parents. Furthermore, family and school characteristics that scholars commonly use to explain test score disparities by race or income account for markedly decreasing shares of race-within-income disparities over time. The study integrates the literatures on test score disparities by race and income with attention to the historical and continued structural influence of race, net of parental income, on students’ educational experiences and test score outcomes.

scholarly journals Diverging Disparities: Race, Parental Income, and Children's Math Scores, 1960-2009

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan A. Conwell
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
White Students ◽  
Test Score ◽  
Parental Income ◽  
Tenth Graders ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Math Scores ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Math Test ◽  
Math Test Scores

In recent decades, the Black-White test score disparity has decreased, while the test score disparity between children of high- versus low-income parents has increased. This study focuses on a comparison that has, to date, fallen between the separate literatures on these diverging trends – Black and White students whose parents have similarly low, middle, or high incomes (i.e., same-income or race-within-income). To do so, I draw on three nationally representative datasets on ninth or tenth graders, covering the period from 1960 to 2009, all of which contain information on students’ math test scores. I find that math test score disparities between Black and White students with same-income parents are to Blacks’ disadvantage. Although these disparities have decreased since 1960, in 2009, they remain substantively large, statistically significant, and largest between children of the highest income parents. Further, family and school characteristics that scholars commonly use to explain test score disparities by race or by income have accounted for markedly decreasing shares of race-within-income disparities over time. The study integrates the literatures on test score disparities by race and by income with needed attention to race’s historical and continued structural influence, net of parental income, on students’ educational experiences and test score outcomes.

scholarly journals Underweight, overweight and obesity among South African adolescents: results of the 2002 National Youth Risk Behaviour Survey

2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
SP Reddy ◽  
K Resnicow ◽  
S James ◽  
N Kambaran ◽  
R Omardien ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
White Students ◽  
Economic Transition ◽  
White Male ◽  
Risk Behaviour ◽  
Overweight And Obesity ◽  
Black And White ◽  
South African School ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
And Control

AbstractObjectiveThe present paper reports the prevalence of underweight, overweight and obesity by gender, ethnicity and grade, among participants in a 2002 national survey among South African school-going youth that included height and weight measurements.DesignA stratified two-stage sample was used. Nationally representative rates of underweight, overweight and obesity were calculated using weighted survey data and compared using χ2 analysis.SettingIn all, 9224 grade 8 to grade 11 students, present at school in selected classes within selected South African government-funded schools in all nine provinces, participated in this study. Most of the students were between 13 and 19 years of age.ResultsHigher rates of underweight were observed for males than females as well as for black and ‘coloured’ than white students. Within each gender group, black and ‘coloured’ students had significantly higher rates of underweight than their white counterparts. Higher percentages of females than males were overweight and obese, overall and among black students. Furthermore, white male students had significantly higher rates of overweight than their black and ‘coloured’ counterparts. Among females, black and white students had significantly higher rates than ‘coloured’ students. Students in higher grades showed significantly lower rates of underweight and higher rates of overweight.DiscussionThese data confirm that South Africa, a developing nation in socio-economic transition, is experiencing both undernutrition and overnutrition. However, these problems are disproportionately distributed by gender, socio-economics and ethnicity. Continued surveillance of nutritional status may be one important component of a national strategy to prevent and control malnutrition.

scholarly journals A comparative analysis of children’s time use and educational achievement: Assessing evidence from China, Japan and the United States

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-285
Author(s):  
Ryosuke Nakamura ◽  
Jun Yamashita ◽  
Hideo Akabayashi ◽  
Teruyuki Tamura ◽  
Yang Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Parenting Styles ◽  
Time Use ◽  
Educational Achievement ◽  
Educational Inequality ◽  
The United States ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Math Test ◽  
Math Test Scores

Various forms of empirical evidence suggest that parental socioeconomic status (SES) is strongly related to educational outcomes and many countries attempt to close achievement gaps among children. Parenting practice is one important mechanism through which educational inequality emerges across families with different SES. In this paper, we show that the class gap in children’s time use and academic achievements reflects parenting styles and parental practices stratified by parental SES by comparatively investigating the cases of China, Japan, and the USA, drawing on three sets of nationally representative longitudinal data. We find that for children aged 10–15 in China, parental SES has a strong impact on children's homework time and academic performance. Similar patterns are found in the results of 10–15-year-old children in Japan; however, homework time more weakly relates to the parents' education level. Moreover, restricting the samples to 14-year-old children and comparing the three countries, we find that the test score gap among parental SES is the largest in the USA; to fill the gap in math test scores between the first and fourth income quartiles, a sizable number of additional hours spent on homework are needed in the USA, compared to China and Japan.

Analysis of Math Test Score Gap Between White and Non-White Students in Brazilian Public Schools: SAEB 2015

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 138-158
Author(s):  
Kalinca Léia Becker ◽  
Mary Paula Arends-Kuenning
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
White Students ◽  
Evaluation System ◽  
Test Score ◽  
Basic Education ◽  
Structural Effect ◽  
Score Distribution ◽  
Grade Distribution ◽  
Upper Level ◽  
Math Test

This study aims to analyze and decompose the gap between White and non-White students’ test scores observed in the Brazilian National Evaluation System of Basic Education (SAEB)—2015. To do so, proficiency equations were estimated for each student race group (White, Brown, Black, and Indigenous) using the recentered influence function method, which generalizes the Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition to any point in the grade distribution. The proficiency of White students is higher than the other groups of students, and this difference increases throughout the distribution. Black students exhibit the lowest average test score, behind the Indigenous and then the Brown students. At the lower and middle levels of the math test score distribution, the racial gap is mainly due to the characteristics effect, which represents the part of the proficiency differential that is explained by the differences in observable characteristics of students. However, the gap at the upper level of grade distribution is mainly due the structural effect, which results from non-observable issues, such as discrimination and stereotype threats.

scholarly journals Short-term and long-term distributional consequences of prenatal malnutrition and stress: using Ramadan as a natural experiment

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. e001185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farhan Majid ◽  
Jere Behrman ◽  
Subha Mani
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
In Utero ◽  
Hours Worked ◽  
Significance Level ◽  
Math Scores ◽  
Distributional Consequences ◽  
Math Test ◽  
Math Test Scores ◽  
Prenatal Malnutrition

IntroductionFetal environments play significant roles in determining adult well-being, particularly as they relate to non-communicable diseases and skill formation. We studied gender-specific distributional consequences of fetal environment (in the form of in-utero exposure to Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting), in Indonesia, on birth weights, performance on Raven’s Colored Progressive Matrices (CPM), math scores, hours worked and earnings.MethodsWe used quantile regressions to conduct a quantitative comparison of distributional consequences, by gender, of full month exposures to Ramadan in-utero on outcomes of interest. Our data included Muslim children and adults measured during rounds 1 and 4 of the Indonesian Family Life Survey. Our main outcome measures were: birth weights—559 observations (females) and 624 (males); Raven’s CPM scores—1693 (females) and 1821 (males) for 8–15 year olds; math test scores—1696 (females) and 1825 (males) for 8–15 year olds; hours worked—3181 (females) and 4599 (males) for 18–65 year olds; earnings—2419 (females) and 4019 (males) for 18–65 year olds.ResultsFull month of exposure to Ramadan in-utero led to significant reductions at the 5% significance level that were concentrated in the bottom halves of the outcome distributions: among 8–15 years, lower scores on Raven’s CPM tests for females (mean: −9.2%, 10thQ: −19%, 25th Q: −19.4%) and males (mean: −5.6%, 10thQ: −12.5%); lower math scores for females (mean: −8.6%, 25thQ: −15.9%) and males (mean: −8.5%, 10thQ: −13.6%); among females 18–65 years, significant reduction in hours worked (mean: −7.5%, 10thQ: − 26.3%).ConclusionEvents during the fetal period have far-reaching consequences for females and males in the lowest (10th and 25th) quantiles of outcome distributions, affecting the ‘relatively poor’ the most. These results call for caution in interpreting studies on child development that rely on mean comparisons alone.

scholarly journals Plastic and Immobile

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Rauscher
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Intergenerational Mobility ◽  
Internal Validity ◽  
Differential Susceptibility ◽  
Parental Income ◽  
Parental Characteristics ◽  
Susceptibility Model ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
The Relationship

Contrary to traditional biological arguments, the differential susceptibility model suggests genotype may moderate rather than mediate parent-child economic similarity. Using family fixed effects models of Add Health sibling data, I investigate the relationship between an index of sensitive genotypes and intergenerational mobility. Full, same sex sibling comparisons hold constant parental characteristics and address the non-random distribution of genotype that reduces internal validity in nationally representative samples. Across multiple measures of young adult financial standing, those with more copies of sensitive genotypes achieve lower economic outcomes than their sibling if they are from a low income context but fare better from a high income context. This genetic sensitivity to parental income entails lower intergenerational mobility. Results support the differential susceptibility model and contradict simplistic genetic explanations for intergenerational inequality, suggesting sensitive genotypes are not inherently positive or negative but rather increase dependence on parental income and reduce mobility.

The Black-White Gap in Noncognitive Skills among Elementary School Children

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-132
Author(s):  
Todd Elder ◽  
Yuqing Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Black Students ◽  
White Students ◽  
Elementary School Children ◽  
Noncognitive Skills ◽  
White Children ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Skill Gaps ◽  
Teacher Reports ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Reference Bias

Using two nationally representative datasets, we find large differences between Black and White children in teacher-reported measures of noncognitive skills. We show that teacher reports understate true Black-White skill gaps because of reference bias: teachers appear to rate children relative to others in the same school, and Black students have lower-skilled classmates on average than do White students. We pursue three approaches to addressing these reference biases. Each approach nearly doubles the estimated Black-White gaps in noncognitive skills, to roughly 0.9 standard deviations in third grade. (JEL I21, I26, J13, J15, J24)

scholarly journals Child Care Subsidy Use and Children’s Outcomes in Middle School

AERA Open ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 233285841988454
Author(s):  
Wladimir Zanoni ◽  
Anna D. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Child Care ◽  
School Outcomes ◽  
Child Care Subsidy ◽  
Math Scores ◽  
Home Based ◽  
Reading And Math ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Math Test ◽  
Math Test Scores

This article examines associations between child care subsidy use in early childhood and children’s middle school outcomes. Using a unique database linking administrative records of child care subsidy receipt with parental earnings, social assistance data, and students’ public school outcomes, we generate quasi-experimental estimates of subsidy effects on children’s reading and math test scores and school absences in third through eighth grades. Findings suggest that subsidies are associated with reduced absenteeism in seventh and eighth grades and with increased reading and math scores in third grade, but only for the subset of children whose subsidies were used to attend licensed center- or home-based care. Results provide initial evidence for longer term impacts of the child care subsidy program on children’s school performance.

Gender Test Score Gaps Under Equal Behavioral Engagement

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (6) ◽  
pp. 459-464
Author(s):  
Jaymes Pyne
Keyword(s):  
Elementary School ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Test Score ◽  
Reading Test ◽  
Fifth Grade ◽  
Behavioral Engagement ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Math Test ◽  
Test Score Gaps ◽  
Better Than

Girls tend to do better than boys academically, in part because they are more engaged in school. What if they weren’t? Using nationally representative data, I examine how equal starting points and trajectories of behavioral engagement in elementary school could change gender test score gaps. I find that equal engagement patterns could entirely reverse girls’ average leads over boys in fifth-grade reading test score achievement and could more than triple the average math test score gender gap currently favoring boys. These findings call into question narratives about favoritism towards girls in schools, instead highlighting educational advantages boys may enjoy despite being typically far less engaged in school than girls.

Can Class-Based Substitute for Race-Based Student Assignment Plans? Evidence From Wake County, North Carolina

2015 ◽  
Vol 53 (7) ◽  
pp. 843-874 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Monique McMillian ◽  
Sarah Fuller ◽  
Zoelene Hill ◽  
Kate Duch ◽  
William A. Darity
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Racial Segregation ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Math Scores ◽  
Reading And Math ◽  
White Test ◽  
Math Test ◽  
Wake County ◽  
Math Test Scores ◽  
School Assignment

This study uses a North Carolina administrative data set to analyze racial segregation and student achievement in Wake County during race-based and income-based school assignment plans. We find a modest increase in the level of racial segregation in Wake schools during the income-based plan, but compared with other large districts in the state, Wake County remained relatively desegregated. We also find a small increase in reading and math test scores and a narrowing of the Black-White test score gap. Our analysis indicates that the improvement in math scores may be partially due to school composition changes attributable to the income-based assignment plan.

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