1999 - High School Racial Composition: Balancing Excellence and Equity

Attribution: Brown-Jeffy, Shelly
Researchers: Shelly Brown-Jeffy
University Affiliation: University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Email: shelly_brown@uncg.edu
Research Question:
Addresses the relationship between school racial composition and educational outcomes.
Published: 0
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: N/A
Journal Entry: Paper Presented at the ASA, Chicago, IL, Aug 1999
Year: 1999
Findings:
  • The results show that inequality exists between and within schools. Within schools, non-minority students perform better than minority students. Between schools, both minority and non-minority students have different levels of achievement—-school factors are influential.
  • There is a threshold effect where racial composition is associated with positive student academic achievement until schools have less than 10% minority. Schools that are 10-39% minority have the best equity and excellence (highest mean achievement scores and smallest race-based achievement gap).
  • 34-26% of variance in math achievement and 26-28% of variance in reading achievement is between schools. Attending a highly segregated school significantly increases the race based achievement gap in 10th grade math achievement. Being in a highly non-minority school significantly increases the gap in 10th grade reading achievement.
  • In the 12th grade, for reading and math, being in a school with less than 16% non-minority students significantly increases the race gap between minority and non-minority students.
Keywords: Academic AchievementAchievement GapLatinosMathOptimal Range for Diversity ThresholdRacial CompositionReadingRegions: NationalMethodologies: QuantitativeResearch Designs: Secondary Survey DataAnalysis Methods: Multilevel Models Sampling Frame:Eight graders in public and private schools
Sampling Types: RandomAnalysis Units: StudentData Types: Quantitative-Cross Sectional
Data Description:
  • Data are from the High School Effectiveness Study (HSES), follow-up of the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS) 1988 study, a nationally representative probability sample of 8th graders in all public and private schools in the U.S.
  • This study uses data from the student, teacher, and administrator questionnaires, as well as student standardized test scores and transcripts.
  • The final sample is 6,924 10th graders and 5,139 12th graders in 215 schools.
  • Two racial groups are analyzed (non-minority-Whites and Asians; and minority-Blacks and Hispanics).
  • ANOVA and HLM are used for analysis.
  • DV: Math and reading achievement scores from the 1990 (10th grade) and the 1992 (12th grade) test battery.
  • IV: Race, school racial composition (in 7 categories), student level controls (SES, GPA), and school structure (school location and school structure).
Theoretical Framework:
Relevance:
Archives: K-12 Integration, Desegregation, and Segregation Abstracts