Berends, Mark, Lucas, Samuel R., & Peñalosa, Roberto
Researchers: Mark BerendsRoberto PeñalosaSamuel R. Lucas
University Affiliation: University of Notre Dame
Email: Berends.3@nd.edu
Research Question:
Identify the relative contributions of changing family and school characteristics to the narrowing of the gap in black-white test scores over decades.
Published: 1
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: Sociology of Education
Journal Entry: Vol. 81, No. 4, pp. 313-344
Year: 2008
Findings:
- Analyses reveal positive changes for Black students relative to White students between 1972 and 2004, such as improvement in socioeconomic family background characteristics. Yet, some school conditions (racial/ethnic and socioeconomic composition) did not improve for black students, and despite some beneficial changes, inequalities persist.
- Overall, compared to students of the 1970s, HS seniors in the early 1990s were living with parents who were better educated and had higher occupational status.
- There was an increase in the proportion of students attending school with a greater proportion of black and Latino students than white students.
- Apparently, the closing of the gap in the socioeconomic composition circumstances of Black and White individuals was not reflected in the socioeconomic composition of schools that Blacks and Whites attended.
- Found an increase in the proportion of students who reported placement in the academic track between 1972 and 2004.
- Overall, changes in school-level means corresponded to a 76 percent -82 percent increase in the Black-White gap, depending on whether 1972 or 2004 coefficients were used. With the 1972 coefficients, changes in the means for school variables were associated with a 82.95 percent increase in the Black-White gap, and with the 2004 coefficients, there was a 76.51 percent increase in the gap.
- The increases in Black students’ likelihood of being segregated in high-minority schools corresponded to a 62.50 percent increase in the B-W gap in math when scaled by the 1972 coefficients and to a 60.57 percent increase when scaled by the 2004 coefficients.
- Increases in the gap of the average school SES attended by Blacks and Whites were associated with a 5.93 percent to 13.25 percent increase in the Black-White gap in mathematics, depending on whether scaling relied on the 1972 or 2004, respectively.
- The improved socioeconomic conditions of Black students corresponded to the significant amount of convergence in B-W test scores. Changes in the family background measures corresponded to roughly a 40 percent decrease in the gap in B-W scores on mathematics tests between 1972 and 2004.
- Analyses revealed that increases in the minority composition of HS that Black students attended between 1972 and 2004 corresponded to a substantial increase in the gap in test scores.
- Increases in the number of Black students who reported academic track placement corresponded to a substantial decrease in the B-W gap in the mathematics test scores between 1972 and 2004.
- Despite the large gains in the family background measures considered here, black students continued to attend high-minority and low-SES schools.