2010 - The Effect of Peer Socioeconomic Status on Student Achievement: A Meta-Analysis

Attribution: Van Ewijk, Reyn, & Sleegers, Peter
Researchers: Peter SleegersReyn Van Ewijk
University Affiliation: University of Amsterdam
Email: R.vanewijk@uva.nl
Research Question:
Examine the nature and size of the effect of peer SES on student achievement.
Published: 1
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation: Educational Research Review
Journal Entry: Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 134-150
Year: 2010
Findings:
  • An increase of the average socioeconomic status of a student’s peer group with one student-level standard deviation leads to an increase of her test score with 0.32 SD.
  • The effect for a “ideal’ study, is 0.315.
  • Large differences in effect estimates reported in different studies can to a considerable extent be explained by differences between those studies in their operationalization of peer SES and in their estimation strategies.
  • Results show that measures that only used information on parental education lead to much smaller effect sizes (-0.16). In contrast, composite measures and measures solely consisting of parental occupation are associated with about the same effect size.
  • Three main characteristics of samples used did not seem to be related to the differences between studies in their reported effect sizes. Peer SES has about an equally sized effect on students’ language, math and science test scores. Peer effects did also not differ between children of different ages. And, in countries that differ in their extent of social inequality, the peer effect does not vary.
  • Not including a prior attainment covariate leads to considerably higher effect estimates.
  • Found that studies from the field of Social Sciences, ceteris paribus, found smaller effects than studies from the field of Economics.
  • SES of a student’s classmates has a substantial effect on her test scores and that obtaining unbiased estimates of this effect, taking into account the pitfalls is worth pursuing.
Keywords: Academic AchievementLanguageMathPeer EffectsScienceSESRegions: InternationalMethodologies: QuantitativeResearch Designs: Meta-AnalysisAnalysis Methods: Multilevel Models Sampling Frame:Studies about effect of SES on achievement
Sampling Types: NonrandomAnalysis Units: DocumentData Types: Quantitative-Longitudinal
Data Description:
  • Inclusion Criteria:
    • (1) Has to report estimates of the effect of an increase in mean SES of the peer group,
    • (2) the DV has to be individual students’ test scores,
    • (3) the DV has to be individual students’ educational achievement as measured by scores on tests of math, language, science or general academic achievement,
    • (4) estimation model has to include as a covariate the individual level variable corresponding to the average SES-variable,
    • (5) students sample have to be in primary or secondary school (6-18 years old),
    • (6) study has to be published or presented no earlier than Jan 1986 and no later than Jan 2006,
    • (7) study has to be written in English,
    • (8) study has to use level/present test scores as the DV in its model.
  • Final database included 188 estimates form 30 studies.
  • Used a fixed-effects meta regression analysis.
Theoretical Framework:
Relevance:
Archives: K-12 Integration, Desegregation, and Segregation Abstracts