The increasing impact of socioeconomics and race on standardized academic test scores across elementary, middle, and high school.

Abstract

For students and schools, the current policy is to measure success via standardized testing. Yet the immutable factors of socioeconomic status (SES) and race have, consistently, been implicated in fostering an achievement gap. The current study explores, at the school-level, the impact of these factors on test scores. Percentage of students proficient for Language and Math was analyzed from 452 schools across the state of New Jersey. By high school, 52% of the variance in Language and 59% in Math test scores can be accounted for by SES and racial factors. At this level, a 1% increase in school minority population corresponds to a 0.19 decrease in percent Language proficient and 0.33 decrease for Math. These results have significant implications as they suggest that school-level interventions to improve academic achievement scores will be stymied by socioeconomic and racial factors and efforts to improve the achievement gap via testing have largely measured it.

Student and school SES, gender, strategy use, and achievement

“…Although school SES was a more robust predictor of achievement, the other variables were also important. Consistent with prior literature (White et al., ), family SES remained a strong predictor of achievement across all three academic domains, but the two Metacognitive Strategies and Control Strategies were also strong predictors of achievement. These findings are generally consistent with the literature suggesting that metacognitive strategies and deeper learning strategies tend to be stronger predictors of achievement; however, the findings regarding Elaboration, which is a deep learning strategy were not consistent this this notion (Meece et al., ).…”

“…Family SES is recognized as one of the most robust and consistent predictors of academic achievement (White et al., ). Although the relation between SES and achievement sometimes varies depending on factors, such as race, gender, whether both parents are alive (Eshetu, ), or whether students accept achievement goals (Berger & Archer, ); most research supports a strong and consistent relationship between SES and achievement across countries and cultures (Banerjee, ; Gabriel, Muasya, Mwangi, Mukhungulu, & Ewoi, ).…”

“…For example, a meta‐analysis examining 101,157 students from 6,871 schools found medium to strong relations between SES and achievement (Sirin, ), and White et al. () found that SES and race explained 59 and 52% of variation in mathematics and language proficiency, respectively.…”

School Green Space and Its Impact on Academic Performance: A Systematic Literature Review

“…More specifically, students who demonstrate better performance at school or in college are more likely to earn higher salaries [3,4], engage more as active citizens and vote more in political elections [5,6,7,8], report higher life satisfaction and happiness [9], and participate in less illicit behavior than those with lower scores. Yet, in the United States and other developed countries, schools serving predominantly urban, low-income populations are struggling [10]. Sixth graders (generally aged 11 to 12) in the richest school districts are four grade levels ahead of children in the poorest districts; there are large gaps between non-Hispanic White children and their Black and Hispanic classmates; and the gaps are largest in places with large economic disparities [11].…”

Rendimiento académico y factores sociofamiliares de riesgo

“…Por el contrario, los estudiantes de familias con altos ingresos económicos tienen cinco veces más probabilidades de lograr las competencias que les darán mejores oportunidades para su desarrollo personal y laboral en el futuro, además de que el rendimiento académico alto está muy concentrado en las familias de alto NSE. En países como Estados Unidos, también se han confirmado diferencias significativas en el rendimiento académico de los estudiantes de familias con bajo NSE en comparación con estudiantes procedentes de familias con alto NSE (Benner et al, 2016), en tanto que estas últimas ofrecen una serie de soportes y recursos que proporcionan un beneficio para el desarrollo académico de los alumnos a lo largo de su vida (White et al, 2016). Esta tendencia también se ha confirmado en investigaciones realizadas en países del continente africano.…”