Utilizing Multidimensional Measures of Race in Education Research

Abstract

Education scholarship on race using quantitative data analysis consists largely of studies on the black-white dichotomy, and more recently, on the experiences of student within conventional racial/ethnic categories (white, Hispanic/Latina/o, Asian, black). Despite substantial shifts in the racial and ethnic composition of American children, studies continue to overlook the diverse racialized experiences for students of Asian and Latina/o descent, the racialization of immigration status, and the educational experiences of Native American students. This study provides one possible strategy for developing multidimensional measures of race using large-scale datasets and demonstrates the utility of multidimensional measures for examining educational inequality, using teacher perceptions of student behavior as a case in point. With data from the first grade wave of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohort of 1998–1999, I examine differences in teacher ratings of Externalizing Problem Behaviors and Approaches to Learning across fourteen racialized subgroups at the intersections of race, ethnicity, and immigrant status. Results show substantial subgroup variation in teacher perceptions of problem and learning behaviors, while also highlighting key points of divergence and convergence within conventional racial/ethnic categories.

Latina/o or Mexicana/o? The Relationship between Socially Assigned Race and Experiences with Discrimination

“…While this approach has proven its value over time, some contend that people make a determination about an individual’s race before asking them how they self-identify (Saperstein 2006; Roth 2010; Stepanikova 2010; Cheng and Powell 2011; Veenstra 2011; Song and Aspinall 2012; N. Vargas 2015; Vargas et al 2015; Garcia et al 2015; Irizarry 2015). …”

Disciplining Play: Digital Youth Culture as Capital at School

“…Race-and class-inflected stereotypes are collectively shared by teachers at the school and can be traced to the school's history in the outlying region it serves (Carter 2012;Kruse and Louis 2009;Lewis 2003a;2003b;McDonough 1997). For example, this literature argues that teachers typically have low expectations of students at schools with predominately working class Latino youth because they, in part, assume that these children are destined for working class jobs (Anyon 1980;1981;Bobo 2001;Farkas et al 1990;Horvat and Antonio 1999;Irizarry 2015). Stereotypes about Latino children as coming from unstable homes and prone to delinquency inform low expectations for achievement during lessons (Rios 2011).…”

Diverging Disparities: Race, Parental Income, and Children's Math Scores, 1960-2009

“…This study brings needed attention to race and income's historical intersectionality to research on trends in and explanations for disparities in children's test scores. On this question, an intersectional perspective rejects a race-versus-income dichotomy in favor of analyses of how the two have been and continue to be mutually constitutive (Collins 2000;Crenshaw 1989;Golash-Boza 2016;McCall 2005; for example applications in the education literature, see Irizarry 2015aIrizarry , 2015bLópez et al 2018;Quadlin and Conwell 2020). As Clarke and McCall (2013: 350) write, intersectional theoretical arguments inhere the potential for "existing social facts previously viewed from a 'single-axis' lens…to be reinterpreted through a prism informed by multiple and at times conflicting social dynamics."…”