English skills of Puerto Rican students: the effect of gender, SES and school socioeconomic composition

Abstract

This study evaluates the effects of gender, socioeconomic status (SES), and school of origin on students’ language performance. We used data from the test Measurement and Evaluation for Educational Transformation (META, for its acronym in Spanish). We analyzed the results of 21,425 eleventh-grade students from 194 public schools in Puerto Rico. The results suggest that there is a significant relationship between students’ gender and their English skills. Female students achieved higher levels of language performance than male students. There was also a significant relationship between SES and language performance. Students with a more advantaged socioeconomic status showed better language outcomes than students from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds. The socioeconomic composition of the school was found to play an important factor in the linguistic performance of students: a diverse socioeconomic composition is related to better school performance and the narrowing of language disparities. We propose that the composition of schools’ student bodies is a factor that educational linguistic policy makers in Puerto Rico should give more consideration to, as it could have a key role in ameliorating English language attainment and education in general in Puerto Rico’s public schools.