Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Henry, Daphne A.
• Betancur Cortés, Laura
• Votruba-Drzal, Elizabeth
• Kendeou, Panayiota
• Graham, Steve

Titel

Black-White Achievement Gaps Differ by Family Socioeconomic Status From Early Childhood Through Early Adolescence

Ist Teil von

• Journal of educational psychology, 2020-11, Vol.112 (8), p.1471-1489

Ort / Verlag

Washington: American Psychological Association

Erscheinungsjahr

2020

Quelle

ERIC

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Theory and limited research indicate that race and socioeconomic status (SES) interact dynamically to shape children's developmental contexts and academic achievement, but little scholarship examines how race and SES intersect to shape Black-White achievement gaps across development. We used data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (N ≈ 9,100)-which tracks a nationally representative cohort of children in the United States-to investigate how race and family SES (i.e., parental education and household income) intersect to shape trajectories of academic skills development from kindergarten entry through the spring of eighth grade. Results reveal that household income and parental education were differentially related to academic development, with Black-White gaps narrowing (and Black children's skills growing slightly faster) at higher income gradients but widening (and Black children's skills developing more slowly) at higher levels of educational attainment. Despite performance advantages at kindergarten entry, large baseline disparities meant that higher-income Black students underperformed their White peers by middle school, whereas Black students with better-educated parents consistently trailed their White counterparts. Taken together, these findings suggest that failure to examine how race and SES intersect to shape achievement gaps may obscure complex patterns of educational inequality. Educational Impact and Implications Statement This study examines how the Black-White achievement gap among U.S. students develops from kindergarten through middle school. Results indicate that the academic returns to family socioeconomic status (SES) differ for Black and White children. Specifically, gaps narrow at higher income levels but grow at higher levels of parental education. This research indicates that socioeconomic advantage may not bestow the same benefits on Black children that it does on White children whereas socioeconomic adversity may not confer equivalent disadvantages on White children as it does on Black children. These findings suggest that the structural and social privileges and constraints related to SES differ for Black and White children and highlight why we must consider how race and SES intersect to shape children's learning experiences.