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Test Score Gaps in New York State Schools: What Do Fourth and Eighth Grade Results Show?

Test Score Gaps in New York State Schools: What Do Fourth and Eighth Grade Results Show?. Leanna Stiefel and Amy Ellen Schwartz Faculty, Wagner Graduate School and Colin Chellman Research Associate, Institute for Education and Social Policy New York University

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Test Score Gaps in New York State Schools: What Do Fourth and Eighth Grade Results Show?

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  1. Test Score Gaps in New York State Schools: What Do Fourth and Eighth Grade Results Show? Leanna Stiefel and Amy Ellen Schwartz Faculty, Wagner Graduate School and Colin Chellman Research Associate, Institute for Education and Social Policy New York University Education Finance Research Consortium September 26, 2003

  2. Introduction • Test scores differ by: • race • gender • income • Many hypotheses about why: • academic preparation • bias in test questions • testing environment • teacher expectations • Research constrained by data

  3. Introduction, cont’d. • “No Child Left Behind” • New data reporting requirements • NYS ahead of most, releasing ’00-’01 data • We use NYS 4th and 8th grade ELA and Math • We analyze school level gaps in performance between groups

  4. Outline • Statewide Test Score Gaps • The Race Gap • Racial Makeup of State Schools • Gaps and School Characteristics by Racial Makeup • Gaps in Schools That Are Integrated • Relationships between Gaps and School/District Characteristics • The Income Gap • The Gender Gap

  5. The Necessary, the Required and the Boring:Data and Number of Schools • New York State Education Department (SED) for academic year 2000-01 by School: • School Report Card data (SRC) data • Institutional Master File (IMF) data • State of Learning/Chapter 655 and Fiscal Profile data

  6. The Necessary, the Required and the Boring:Data and Number of Schools, cont’d. • Number of Schools in Analyses • 2262 “Elementary Schools” – schools with 4th grades • 1074 “Middle Schools” – schools with 8th grades • 207 schools are in both groups • i.e., they have both 4th and 8th grades • Schools must • have more than 5 students tested • cannot have > 40% IEP

  7. Higher % fourth graders pass • White students outperform nonwhite students • Advantaged students outperform disadvantaged • Females outperform males in English; Math, mixed results

  8. Whites and Asians outperform Hispanics, blacks and American Indians.

  9. School Gaps by Race/Ethnicity • New York State has segregated schools • Predominantly white schools: more than 5 white students and 5 or fewer non-white students • Mixed: more than 5 white and 5 non-white students • Predominantly non-white schools: 5 or fewer white students and more than 5 non-white students • Statewide test score gaps reflect differences in scores across segregated schools and differences within integrated ones

  10. Racial Mix of New York State Schools • Elementary Schools: • 34% are predominantly white (26% of students) • 25% are predominantly non-white (23% of students) • Middle Schools: • 34% are white (19% of students) • 17% are nonwhite (14% of students)

  11. Elementary School Pass Rates and Gaps by Racial Mix of Schools • Difference in non-white pass rates between segregated and mixed schools • White performance similar in segregated and mixed schools • Non-white performance is lower in segregated schools

  12. Elementary School Pass Rates and Gaps by Racial Mix of Schools, cont’d. • Thus: • Larger disparity exists between segregated schools than within mixed schools • Segregation poses some challenges for reducing statewide gaps

  13. District Characteristics by Racial Mix of Elementary Schools • Non-white schools in NYC • White schools in rural and upstate suburbs • Mixed schools in Big 4, upstate small cities, anddownstate suburbs

  14. District Characteristics by Racial Mix of Elementary Schools, cont’d. • White schools are in districts with 95% students white • Nonwhite schools in districts with 16% students white

  15. District Characteristics by Racial Mix of Elementary Schools, cont’d. • Biggest differences between segregated white schools and segregated non-white schools • Segregated white schools mostly “advantaged” districts, except lowest per pupil income and lowest per pupil spending

  16. School Characteristics by Racial Mix of Elementary Schools • Predominantly non-white schools are: • Largest • Highest percentages of students in poverty • Highest percentages of English Language Learners

  17. Are Any Schools “Beating the Odds”? • Yes • Let’s look at the racially mixed schools • 1034 Elementary Schools • 527 Middle Schools • Look at both ELA and math exam results • “Small:” Differences in white/non-white pass rates + or – 5 percentage points (inclusive) from zero.

  18. Schools That “Beat the Odds” • Around 18% of elementary and 14% of middle schools are “beating the odds” with non-traditional or small gaps

  19. Location of Schools by Gap Category • Elementary schools that beat the odds are disproportionately in New York City and downstate suburbs (over 85% of the 77 small gap schools) • Middle schools (not shown) that beat the odds are disproportionately in New York City, downstate suburbs and rural areas (over 90% of the 32 small gap middle schools)

  20. Elementary School Characteristics by Gap Category • Non-traditional gap schools: • are disproportionately poor; • educate a larger share of children in special education; • educate a larger share of children in ELL programs; and, • Are disproportionately non-white, with high shares of Asians and Hispanics. • Traditional gap schools are disproportionately poor and non-white (particularly black students).

  21. Fourth Grade Racial/Ethnic ELA Pass Rates by Racial Mix of School • Pass rate in predominantly non-white schools is lower than in mixed schools • In mixed schools, gaps are: • largest for black students; • large for Hispanic and American Indian students; and, • nonexistent for Asian students.

  22. When a school is “beating the odds”, do all race groups do better, or just one or two? • In general, schools with white/nonwhite gaps that are non-traditional or small are unlikely to be associated with a subgroup rate that is traditional.

  23. Hispanic example: ( 14 + 69)* 100 = 8.5% (1034 – 55) • Comparable numbers for the other subgroups: • blacks 10.1%, Asians 3.8%, and American Indians 12.7%.

  24. Is the size of the gap related to any school or district characteristics? • To start to analyze this question, we use linear relationships between gap size and characteristics.  • The following graphs do not prove or disprove causation – but they are informative.

  25. How are ELA and Math Gaps Related? Pearson r 0.59

  26. How is ELA Gap Related to Overall Pass Rates? Pearson r -0.17

  27. How is ELA Gap Related to the White Pass Rate? Pearson r 0.21

  28. How is ELA Gap Related to the Non-white Pass Rate? Pearson r -0.59

  29. How is ELA Gap Related to the Black Pass Rate? Pearson r -0.38

  30. How is ELA Gap Related to the Hispanic Pass Rate? Pearson r -0.37

  31. How is ELA Gap Related to the Asian Pass Rate? Pearson r -0.28

  32. How is ELA Gap Related to School Size (Enrollment)? Pearson r -0.06

  33. How is ELA Gap Related to School Poverty? Pearson r 0.05

  34. How is ELA Gap Related to Limited English Proficiency? Pearson r -0.04

  35. How is ELA Gap Related to District’s Expenditure Per Pupil? Pearson r -0.02

  36. Conclusions on Race/Ethnicity Gaps • School segregation presents challenges for undoing statewide gaps – some schools can’t report subgroup scores due to segregation • There is a sizable number of schools that have small or non-traditional gaps (from 14 to 18%)

  37. Conclusions on Race/Ethnicity Gaps, cont’d. • Schools with small or non-traditional gaps are not equally distributed across the state • 85% of small gap elementary schools are in New York City and downstate suburbs • 90% of small gap middle schools are in New York City, downstate suburbs and rural areas • The only real “simple” relationship between the size of the gap and school or district characteristics is that: • Higher pass rates by minorities are associated with lower gaps

  38. The Income Gap • The advantaged perform better than the disadvantaged in both ELA and Math, and across grades.

  39. The Income Gap, cont’d. • New York State schools show some income segregation, but it is not as profound as racial segregation. • Predominantly Advantaged: more than 5 advantaged students and 5 or fewer disadvantaged students. • Mixed: more than 5 advantaged and 5 disadvantaged students. • Predominantly Disadvantaged: 5 or fewer advantaged students and more than 5 disadvantaged students.

  40. Income Mix of New York State Schools • Elementary Schools: • 16% are predominantly advantaged (13% of students) • 12% are predominantly disadvantaged (11% of students) • Middle Schools: • 13% are advantaged (10% of students) • 8% are disadvantaged (4% of students)

  41. Elementary School Pass Rates and Gaps by Income Mix of Schools • Pass rates differ between income segregated and mixed schools • Segregated schools have higher pass rates for advantaged students and lower for disadvantaged students.

  42. Elementary School Pass Rates and Gaps by Income Mix of Schools, cont’d. • Thus, as with race: • Larger disparity exists between income segregated schools than within mixed schools

  43. District Characteristics by Income Mix of Elementary Schools • Disadvantaged schools in NYC and Big 4 • Advantaged schools in suburbs

  44. District Characteristics by Income Mix of Elementary Schools, cont’d. • Advantaged schools in districts average 88% students white • Disadvantaged schools in districts average 20% students white

  45. District Characteristics by Income Mix of Elementary Schools, cont’d. • Biggest differences between income segregated schools: • Predominantly advantaged schools have highest district per pupil spending • Predominantly disadvantaged schools do not have lowest per pupil spending.

  46. School Characteristics by Income Mix of Elementary Schools • Predominantly disadvantaged schools are, on average: • Largest • Highest percentages of special education and English Language Learners • Highest percentages of students in poverty

  47. Are Any Schools “Beating the Odds”? • Yes • Let’s look at the mixed schools by income • 1629 Elementary Schools • 846 Middle Schools • Look separately at ELA and math exam results • “Small:” Differences in advantaged/ disadvantaged pass rates + or – 5 percentage points (inclusive) from zero.

  48. Schools That “Beat the Odds” • 4th grade: • Substantial fraction have small or non-traditional gaps: • 20% for ELA and 29% for Math. Lower % for 8th grade. • Majority, between 70% and 80% of schools, have traditional gaps

  49. Location of Schools by Income Gap Category, ELA • Schools that “beat the odds:” disproportionately in New York City and downstate small cities. • Schools with traditional gaps: disproportionately in rural areas and upstate small cities.

  50. Elementary School Characteristics by Income Gap Category, ELA • Traditional gap schools: • are smaller; • have lower poverty rates; and, • have lower ELL rates. • These schools generally • educate a less challenged group of students • do very well by their advantaged students • do least well by their disadvantaged students

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