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School Quality and the Black-White Achievement Gap

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  • Eric A. Hanushek
  • Steven G. Rivkin

Abstract

Substantial uncertainty exists about the impact of school quality on the black-white achievement gap. Our results, based on both Texas Schools Project (TSP) administrative data and the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey (ECLS), differ noticeably from other recent analyses of the black-white achievement gap by providing strong evidence that schools have a substantial effect on the differential. The majority of the expansion of the achievement gap with age occurs between rather than within schools, and specific school and peer factors exert a significant effect on the growth in the achievement gap. Unequal distributions of inexperienced teachers and of racial concentrations in schools can explain all of the increased achievement gap between grades 3 and 8. Moreover, non-random sample attrition for school changers and much higher rates of special education classification and grade retention for blacks appears to lead to a significant understatement of the increase in the achievement gap with age within the ECLS and other data sets.

Suggested Citation

  • Eric A. Hanushek & Steven G. Rivkin, 2006. "School Quality and the Black-White Achievement Gap," NBER Working Papers 12651, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12651
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    1. Richard J. Murnane, 1981. "Teacher Mobility Revisited," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 16(1), pages 3-19.
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    Cited by:

    1. Jacob Vigdor & Jens Ludwig, 2007. "Segregation and the Black-White Test Score Gap," NBER Working Papers 12988, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Gigliotti, Philip & Sorensen, Lucy C., 2018. "Educational resources and student achievement: Evidence from the Save Harmless provision in New York State," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 167-182.
    3. Timothy N. Bond & Kevin Lang, 2013. "The Evolution of the Black-White Test Score Gap in Grades K–3: The Fragility of Results," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(5), pages 1468-1479, December.
    4. Andrew Leigh & Xiaodong Gong, 2009. "Estimating cognitive gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(2), pages 239-261.
    5. Dionissi Aliprantis & Daniel R. Carroll, 2018. "Neighborhood dynamics and the distribution of opportunity," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 9(1), pages 247-303, March.
    6. John P. Papay & Richard J. Murnane & John B. Willett, 2008. "The Consequences of High School Exit Examinations for Struggling Low-Income Urban Students: Evidence from Massachusetts," NBER Working Papers 14186, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Bethany Everett & David Rehkopf & Richard Rogers, 2013. "The Nonlinear Relationship Between Education and Mortality: An Examination of Cohort, Race/Ethnic, and Gender Differences," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 32(6), pages 893-917, December.
    8. Richard Murphy & Felix Weinhardt, 2020. "Top of the Class: The Importance of Ordinal Rank," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 87(6), pages 2777-2826.
    9. Peter Arcidiacono & Esteban Aucejo & Ken Spenner, 2012. "What happens after enrollment? An analysis of the time path of racial differences in GPA and major choice," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 1(1), pages 1-24, December.
    10. Eric A. Hanushek & Steven G. Rivkin, 2009. "Harming the best: How schools affect the black-white achievement gap," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(3), pages 366-393.
    11. McDonough, Ian K., 2015. "Dynamics of the black–white gap in academic achievement," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 17-33.
    12. Eric R. Nielsen, 2015. "Achievement Gap Estimates and Deviations from Cardinal Comparability," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2015-40, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    13. Schwartz, Gabriel L. & Chiang, Amy Y. & Wang, Guangyi & Kim, Min Hee & White, Justin S. & Hamad, Rita, 2023. "Testing mediating pathways between school segregation and health: Evidence on peer prejudice and health behaviors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 335(C).
    14. Das, Jishnu & Singh, Abhijeet & Yi Chang, Andres, 2022. "Test scores and educational opportunities: Panel evidence from five low- and middle-income countries," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    15. Carlos Gradín, 2013. "Conditional occupational segregation of minorities in the US," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 11(4), pages 473-493, December.
    16. Naureen Karachiwalla, 2019. "A Teacher Unlike Me: Social Distance, Learning, and Intergenerational Mobility in Developing Countries," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 67(2), pages 225-271.
    17. Simon Burgess & Deborah Wilson & Adam Briggs & Anete Piebalga, 2008. "Segregation and the Attainment of Minority Ethnic Pupils in England," The Centre for Market and Public Organisation 08/204, The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol, UK.
    18. Jennifer Montez & Robert Hummer & Mark Hayward, 2012. "Educational Attainment and Adult Mortality in the United States: A Systematic Analysis of Functional Form," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 49(1), pages 315-336, February.
    19. Kevin Sullivan & Andrew McConney & Laura B. Perry, 2018. "A Comparison of Rural Educational Disadvantage in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand Using OECD’s PISA," SAGE Open, , vol. 8(4), pages 21582440188, October.
    20. David M. Quinn & Andrew D. Ho, 2021. "Ordinal Approaches to Decomposing Between-Group Test Score Disparities," Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, , vol. 46(4), pages 466-500, August.
    21. Richard J. Murnane, 2008. "Educating Urban Children," NBER Working Papers 13791, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Lauren E. Futrell Dunaway & Alessandra N. Bazzano & Sarah A.O. Gray & Katherine P. Theall, 2021. "Health, Neighborhoods, and School Readiness from the Parent Perspective: A Qualitative Study of Contextual and Socio-Emotional Factors," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-14, September.
    23. Richard Murphy & Felix Weinhardt, 2013. "The Importance of Rank Position," CEP Discussion Papers dp1241, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    24. Debra Shepherd, 2015. "Learn to teach, teach to learn: A within-pupil across-subject approach to estimating the impact of teacher subject knowledge on South African grade 6 performance," Working Papers 01/2015, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    25. Eric R. Nielsen, 2015. "The Income-Achievement Gap and Adult Outcome Inequality," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2015-41, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H4 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods
    • H7 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations
    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J7 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination
    • I1 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health

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