| Sean Reardon
Pennsylvania State University
Understanding the growth of achievement inequality in the early years of schooling
Racial/ethnic and socioeconomic gaps in average achievement test scores remain a stubborn fact of U.S. society. Black and Hispanic children score, on average, well below white children on achievement tests; children from poor families, likewise, average far lower achievement levels than their middle-class counterparts. We know that these gaps emerge prior to kindergarten and persist throughout the elementary and secondary school years. We know less, however, about the causes of these gaps; nor do we know much about when and where these gaps emerge and grow over time, particularly in the earliest years of schooling. In particular, we know relatively little about how much these gaps can be attributed to differences in the schooling experiences of different groups; nor do we know what aspects of schooling might be changed to reduce these gaps most effectively. The proposed study intends to contribute to the research on understanding the relationship between school characteristics and race/ethnic and SES achievement gaps through a detailed analysis of kindergarten and first grade student achievement data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K).
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