2012 - School Choice and Educational Inequality in South Korea

Attribution: Byun, Soo-yong, Kim, Kyung-Keun, & Park, Hyunjoon
Researchers: Hyunjoon ParkKyung-Keun KimSoo-yong Byun
University Affiliation: Pennsylvania State University, Korea University, University of Pennsylvania
Email: szb14@psu.edu, kimkk@korea.ac.kr, hypark@sas.upenn.edu
Research Question:
1) Does the High School Equalization Policy (HSEP) relate to the separation of low and high SES students between schools? 2) Does school's socioeconomic composition relate to student achievement?
Published: 1
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: Journal of School Choice
Journal Entry: Volume 6, Pp.158-183
Year: 2012
Findings:
  • Descriptive Statistics: There were significant gaps in school mean SES

    between HSEP and non-HSEP regions, more favoring the HSEP regions (.15) than the non-HSEP regions (-.24).

  • Between School Variances in SES: There are smaller between-school variances in SES in the regions of HSEPimplementation than in the regions of non-HSEP implementation.
  • Likelihood of Attending Higher SES Schools: Students from a disadvantaged background in the regions of HSEP implementation were less likely than their counterparts from a similar background in the regions of non-HSEP implementation to be separated into low SES schools.
  • The Relationship Between School SES and Student Achievement: Mean school SES was significantly related to school achievement in both regions of HSEP and non-HSEP implementation. One unit increase in mean school SES was associated with an increase of approximately 11 points and 16 points in the reading achievement grade in HSEP regions and non-HSEP regions, respectively. When all metropolitan and rural areas were excluded, mean school SES was insignificantly related to

    student achievement in the regions of HSEP implementation, whereas it

    remained significant for the regions of non-HSEP implementation.

  • Socioeconomic composition of a school students attended was importation to predict student achievement in the regions of non-HSEP implementation, but this was not the case in the HSEP regions.
Keywords: Academic AchievementChoiceReformResidential SegregationSchool QualitySES CompositionRegions: InternationalMethodologies: QuantitativeResearch Designs: Mathematical modelsAnalysis Methods: Descriptive StatisticsMultilevel ModelsMultinomial Logistic Regression Sampling Frame:11th grade students in South Korean public high schools
Sampling Types: RandomAnalysis Units: IndividualData Types: Quantitative-Cross Sectional
Data Description:
  • Data collected in 2006 by the Korean Educational Development Institute

    (KEDI). The overall survey samples 11th graders in the given academic

    year. The final sample used in the current study includes students who

    completed both a survey and achievement tests totaling 7,350 students

    representing 127 schools.

  • DV: Student achievement, measured in reading test scores ranging from

    0 to 100.

  • IV: HSEP implementation (whether or not the school is located in a HSEP

    region in 2006); school SES composition (composed of the average

    student SES of the school, where student SES was measured by parental

    education, family income, and home educational resources)

  • Controls: individual SES, family structure, number of siblings, parental

    educational expectations, gender, hours spent self-studying per week,

    hours spent using a computer per week, attending a cram school, selfreported prior achievement at grade 10; level-2 controls included:

    average teaching experience among teachers, school sector, school

    location.

Theoretical Framework:
Relevance:
Archives: K-12 Integration, Desegregation, and Segregation Abstracts