1997 - The American School Dilemma: Race and Scholastic Performance

Attribution: Bankston III, Carl, & Caldas, Stephen J.
Researchers: Carl Bankston IIIStephen J. Caldas
University Affiliation: Tulane University, Manhattanville College
Email: cbankst@tulane.edu
Research Question:
How race and the racial composition of schools are related to academic achievement.
Published: 1
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: The Sociological Quarterly
Journal Entry: Vol. 38, No. 3, pp. 423-429
Year: 1997
Findings:
  • Students show weaker achievements in schools with greater proportions of minority students and the African American students are primarily the ones who show this weaker achievement.
  • Race remains the strongest predictor of school performance.
  • The negative association of minority race with test scores is greatest in predominantly Black schools.
  • Evidence suggest that Black students in White schools do better than Black students in racially mixed or in predominantly Black schools.
  • Ogbu view fit: African American Students have developed social relations that help them adapt to the psychological stress of a racially unequal society, rather than to achieve upward mobility. Oppositional Identiy.
  • Residential social isolation, rather than social isolation in schools, may account for the comparatively weak performance of students in minority concentration schools.
Keywords: Academic AchievementAchievement GapEnglishEqualityMathOutcomesRacial CompositionSESRegions: SouthMethodologies: QuantitativeResearch Designs: Secondary Survey DataAnalysis Methods: Regression Sampling Frame:Public High School 10th students in Louisiana
Sampling Types: PopulationAnalysis Units: StudentData Types: Quantitative-Cross Sectional
Data Description:
  • Public High Schools students 10th graders tested in 1990. Results of Graduate Exit Examination (GEE).
  • Uses Louisiana’s Graduation Exit Examination.
  • Math, English language art, and written composition components are taken when students are tenth graders.
  • Demographic information only collected for 10th graders.
  • DV: Test scores (academic achievement, principal component analysis of three components)
  • IV: Race, sex, single-headed family, structure, low income, parental occupation, parental education, time spent watching tv, time spent on homework, time spent reading, included also an interaction term between race and racial composition of the school, etc.
  • Students in Louisiana are almost always assigned to public schools based on residence so both the socioeconomic and racial composition of schools are reflection of the socioeconomic and racial composition of scrounging residential areas.
Theoretical Framework:
Relevance:
Archives: K-12 Integration, Desegregation, and Segregation Abstracts