School Quality and the Black-White Achievement Gap

Eric Hanushek and Steven Rivkin

No 12651, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Substantial uncertainty exists about the impact of school quality on the black-white achievement gap. Our results, based on both Texas Schools Project (TSP) administrative data and the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey (ECLS), differ noticeably from other recent analyses of the black-white achievement gap by providing strong evidence that schools have a substantial effect on the differential. The majority of the expansion of the achievement gap with age occurs between rather than within schools, and specific school and peer factors exert a significant effect on the growth in the achievement gap. Unequal distributions of inexperienced teachers and of racial concentrations in schools can explain all of the increased achievement gap between grades 3 and 8. Moreover, non-random sample attrition for school changers and much higher rates of special education classification and grade retention for blacks appears to lead to a significant understatement of the increase in the achievement gap with age within the ECLS and other data sets.

JEL-codes: H4 H7 I1 I2 J15 J7 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-hrm, nep-lab, nep-ltv, nep-pbe and nep-ure
Note: CH ED LS PE EH
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