2006 - Migration Background, Minority-Group Membership and Academic Achievement: Research Evidence from Social, Educational, and Developmental Psychology

Attribution: Schofield, Janet Ward
Researchers: Janet Ward Schofield
University Affiliation: University of Pittsburgh
Email: schof@pitt.edu
Research Question:
Explores the impact on achievement of grouping students both within and between classrooms and schools based on their ability.
Published: 1
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: N/A
Journal Entry: AKI Research Review 5
Year: 2006
Findings:
  • Ability grouping with curricular differentiation comes in many forms and some forms may contribute to the achievement gap more than or differently than others.
  • There appears to be considerable evidence that tracking and other kinds of ability grouping with curricular differentiation, extending up to and including grouping at the school level, often contribute to the achievement gap between initially lower- and initially higher-achieving students.
  • Student course taking and tracking are the most powerful predictors of academic achievement, far stronger than the effects of either personal background or a wide range of student attitudes and behaviors.
  • Differences in the ways that teachers approach their work and the goals they have for classes with students of different initial achievement levels may also help account for the role that tracking plays in increasing the achievement gap.
Keywords: Ability GroupsAcademic AchievementCurriculumTrackingRegions: InternationalMethodologies: QualitativeResearch Designs: Literature ReviewAnalysis Methods: Content Analysis Sampling Frame:Previous Studies
Sampling Types: NonrandomAnalysis Units: DocumentData Types: Qualitative-Longitudinal
Data Description:
  • Previous Research by:
  • Data comes from phases I, II, and III of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (NICHD SEECYD).
  • Using a conditional random sampling method, 2,352 families were subsequently phoned and 1,364 of the families that were called then participated in a home visit one month later for the purposes of data collection.
  • As outcome measures uses the subscales of the Revised Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery (WJ_R), which is a comprehensive set of individually administered tests designed to measure a broad range of cognitive abilities and achievements. Measures of Mathematics and Vocabulary skills.
  • – DV: math (kindergarten, 54 months, first grade, third grade) & English ELA (kindergarten/54 months, first grade, third grade) scores.
  • – IV: race, ethnicity and gender indications, personal characteristics and family background variables (SES, children’s book, birth weight, teen mother at first birth, mother age 30+ at first birth, assistance, early maternal sensitivity), school quality variables (class size, master’s degree, first two years of teaching, student body composition (25% or more students are black, 25% or more students are Latino, percent students eligible for free lunch), instructional time (proportion of hours spent on math instruction)).Slavin, 1987
  • Oakes, Wells, Jones, & Datnow, 1997
  • Kulik, 1992
  • Lou et al., 1996
  • Gamoran, 1986
  • Slavin, 1990
  • Gamoran & Berends, 1987
  • Gamoran, Nystrand, Berends & LePore, 1995
  • Gamoran and Mare, 1989
  • Hallinan & Kubitschek, 1999
Theoretical Framework:
Relevance:
Archives: K-12 Integration, Desegregation, and Segregation Abstracts