Collaboration and socio-economic inequality: Estimating the effects of intra-school and inter-school inequality on collaborative problem-solving skills

Economic inequality and student outcomes: What we know and where to go from here.

“…Overly broad level of geographic aggregation. Second, nearly all cross-sectional studies in the literature measure economic inequality at broad levels of geographic aggregation, such as U.S. states or nations (for exceptions using local inequality estimates, see Sum & Bădescu, 2023;Workman, 2022). While individuals can make fairly accurate guesses about the level of economic inequality in their immediate surroundings (e.g., their county, their ZIP Summary • Cross-national research usually shows a negative link between inequality and achievement • But these findings are not always consistent, which may be due to competition fueling both aversive and appetitive competitive motivations, with opposing effects on achievement • In contexts of economic inequality, the achievement gap widens between students from wealthier and poorer families • But in contexts of economic equality, the achievement gap widens between students from more versus less educated families showing that one form of inequality of opportunity is replaced with another SOMMET, CLAES, AND ELLIOT 8 code, their cities; see Johnston & Newman, 2016), we know that they struggle to accurately perceive the magnitude of inequality at larger scales (Gimpelson & Treisman, 2018;Willis et al, 2022), which creates observational error and noise in the data.…”

“…To address these challenges, future research would do well to use repeated cross-sectional designs (e.g., by combining multiple PISA data sets; Högberg et al, 2021) 4 or longitudinal designs (e.g., by using the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002; Bozick et al, 2007). Specifically, temporal data enables researchers to: (a) increase the higher-level sample size, as it involves several clusters per year rather than just one; (b) use local rather than global clusters (e.g., intraschool inequality; Sum & Bădescu, 2023), as national panel data sets can for instance be merged with school district inequality estimates; and (c) better approach causality, as repeated measurements allow the examination of the psychological effects of changes in inequality over time among students within a specific location, thereby avoiding comparisons between vastly different places.…”

“…In the same vein, Contreras et al (2015) found that fourth-grade and eighth-grade students from countries with higher or rising income inequality were more likely to encounter violent behaviors, such as theft or injury. Finally, Sum and Bădescu (2023) used 2015 PISA data to show that lower secondary school students in schools with greater income inequality exhibited worse collaborative problem solving, a skill requiring open and effective social connection and communication (e.g., group decision making and teamwork). In sum, the literature suggests that economic inequality is associated with cheating, bullying, aggressive behavior, and less effective social behavior in the school environment.…”

“…Overly broad level of geographic aggregation. Second, nearly all cross-sectional studies in the literature measure economic inequality at broad levels of geographic aggregation, such as U.S. states or nations (for exceptions using local inequality estimates, see Sum & Bădescu, 2023; Workman, 2022). While individuals can make fairly accurate guesses about the level of economic inequality in their immediate surroundings (e.g., their county, their ZIP code, their cities; see Johnston & Newman, 2016), we know that they struggle to accurately perceive the magnitude of inequality at larger scales (Gimpelson & Treisman, 2018; Willis et al, 2022), which creates observational error and noise in the data.Limited ability to draw causal inference.…”