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The Academic Achievement Gap in Grades 3 to 8

Author

Listed:
  • Charles T. Clotfelter
  • Helen F. Ladd
  • Jacob L. Vigdor
Abstract
Using data for North Carolina public school students in grades 3 to 8, we examine achievement gaps between white students and students from other racial and ethnic groups. We focus on successive cohorts of students who stay in the state's public schools for all six years, and study both differences in means and in quantiles. Our results on achievement gaps between black and white students are consistent with those from other longitudinal studies: the gaps are sizable, are robust to controls for measures of socioeconomic status, and show no monotonic trend between 3rd and 8th grade. In contrast, both Hispanic and Asian students tend to gain on whites as they progress through these grades. Looking beyond simple mean differences, we find that the racial gaps in math between low-performing students have tended to shrink as students progress through school, while racial gaps between high-performing students have widened for black and American Indian students.

Suggested Citation

  • Charles T. Clotfelter & Helen F. Ladd & Jacob L. Vigdor, 2006. "The Academic Achievement Gap in Grades 3 to 8," NBER Working Papers 12207, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12207
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alan B. Krueger & Jesse Rothstein & Sarah Turner, 2004. "Race, Income and College in 25 Years: The Continuing Legacy of Segregation and Discrimination," Working Papers 9, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Education Research Section..
    2. Alan B. Krueger & Jesse Rothstein & Sarah Turner, 2004. "Race, Income and College in 25 Years: The Continuing Legacy of Segregation and Discrimination," Working Papers 9, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Education Research Section..
    3. Deborah Wilson & Simon Burgess & Adam Briggs, 2011. "The dynamics of school attainment of England’s ethnic minorities," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 24(2), pages 681-700, April.
    4. Charles T. Clotfelter & Helen F. Ladd & Jacob L. Vigdor, 2006. "Teacher-Student Matching and the Assessment of Teacher Effectiveness," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 41(4).
    5. Roland G. Fryer & Steven D. Levitt, 2006. "The Black-White Test Score Gap Through Third Grade," American Law and Economics Review, American Law and Economics Association, vol. 8(2), pages 249-281.
    6. Roland G. Fryer & Steven D. Levitt, 2004. "Understanding the Black-White Test Score Gap in the First Two Years of School," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(2), pages 447-464, May.
    7. repec:pri:cepsud:108krueger is not listed on IDEAS
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination

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