Journal Article

The Enduring Impact of Race: Understanding Disparities in Student Disciplinary Infractions and Achievement

Beck, Audrey N., Muschkin, Clara G.

2012

Overview

To what extent do persistent race gaps in educational outcomes stem from differences in the level of advantage that students bring to school or from differences in opportunities to succeed? In order to disentangle the component elements of race gaps in middle school achievement and disciplinary infractions, the authors use demographic methods that quantify the proportion of the race gap that is linked to the student, peer, and school composition of race groups. Using administrative school records from North Carolina, the authors find that (1) students’ family and demographic characteristics are the most important explanatory factors; (2) the distribution of students across schools with differing racial composition, school sizes, teacher qualifications, and poverty levels also contributes to explaining the gaps; but (3) a substantial portion of each race gap remains unexplained by these compositional differences.

• Publisher: University of California Press,SAGE Publications,SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subject: Academic Achievement / Academic achievement gaps / Adolescents / College freshmen / Demography / Education / Educational attainment / Educational research / Ethnic Groups / Family / Family school relationship / Graduate students / High schools / Junior High Schools / Learning outcomes / Middle schools / Minority group students / North Carolina / Outcomes of education / Poverty / Qualifications / Race / Race, Ethnicity and Educational Inequities / Racial Differences / Racial differentiation / Racial inequality / Reading achievement / School discipline / School records / Schools / Sociodemographic Factors / Student Teacher Relationship / Students / Teachers / Test scores / U.S.A