The Evolution of the Black-White Test Score Gap in Grades K–3: The Fragility of Results

Timothy Bond and Kevin Lang

The Review of Economics and Statistics, 2013, vol. 95, issue 5, 1468-1479

Abstract: Although both economists and psychometricians typically treat them as interval scales, test scores are reported using ordinal scales. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K) and the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (CNLSY), we examine how order-preserving scale transformations affect the evolution of the black-white reading test score gap from kindergarten entry through third grade. Plausible transformations reverse the growth of the gap in the CNLSY and greatly reduce it in the ECLS-K during the early school years. All growth from entry through first grade and a nontrivial proportion from first to third grade probably reflects scaling decisions. © 2013 The President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Keywords: test scores; test score gaps; Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth; Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I24 J15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (81)

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