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Exploring the Effects of School Context on Educational Outcomes: How Do Segregation and Sector Affect Educational Inequality in Elementary School?

Brooks, Ryan C.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1388419127

Abstract Details

2014, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Sociology.
For decades, sociologists of education have tried to determine the extent to which schools either promote social mobility or reinforce the stratification system. Wide-ranging research suggests that schools do both. Socioeconomically disadvantaged students and racial minorities have inferior educational outcomes in terms of test scores and graduation rates. It is possible that schools offer learning environments that produce unequal outcomes, but seasonal comparison research demonstrates that schools may actually serve to equalize educational opportunities, especially when compared to the resources and learning opportunities children have access to outside of school. This dissertation explores specific school contexts that could either promote or obstruct equal educational outcomes of students from disadvantaged social positions. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Kindergarten Class 1998-1999 (ECLSK), I explore how different educational contexts, in particular the racial composition of schools and school sector (Catholic versus public), affect math and reading learning rates in kindergarten, first grade, and the intervening summer. I use seasonal comparison analysis, multilevel modeling, and propensity score matching to estimate the effect of these school contexts and to overcome many of the methodological limitations of prior research. This dissertation shows that the context of schooling plays a meaningful role in academic inequalities, but not necessarily in the ways that prior research would predict. Students in minority-segregated schools gain math skills at the same rate as students in schools with few racial minorities, but in the first grade, students in minority-segregated schools gain reading skills significantly slower than those students in schools with few racial minorities. However, when we take into account summer learning, black students experience the largest disadvantage compared to whites in schools with few racial minorities, but blacks experience no disadvantages compared to whites in minority-segregated or racially integrated schools. Regardless of school racial composition, black students tend to gain skills more slowly than whites during the school year but not during the summer. Latino student learning is largely unaffected by school racial composition. When examining school sector, this research shows that students in Catholic schools experience a significantly smaller increase in their math learning rate than they would have experienced in public schools. Black students experience smaller increases in their learning rates in Catholic schools compared to public schools, and blacks also experience larger black-white gaps in Catholic schools than in public schools. Latino students, on the other hand, are better off in Catholic schools as they gain reading skills at a faster rate in Catholic schools than in public schools. Also, students from the bottom of the socioeconomic distribution experience significantly larger learning rate benefits from schooling than their high socioeconomic peers in public schools, but this is not true in Catholic schools. Overall, these results indicate that Catholic schools are neither more effective than public schools, nor are they more likely to reduce educational inequalities.
Douglas B. Downey, PhD (Advisor)
Claudia Buchmann, PhD (Committee Member)
Rachel E. Dwyer, PhD (Committee Member)
185 p.
Educational Sociology; Sociology
education; inequality; stratification; seasonal comparison; Catholic school; school sector; racial segregation; cognitive skills

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Brooks, R. C. (2014). Exploring the Effects of School Context on Educational Outcomes: How Do Segregation and Sector Affect Educational Inequality in Elementary School? [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1388419127

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Brooks, Ryan. Exploring the Effects of School Context on Educational Outcomes: How Do Segregation and Sector Affect Educational Inequality in Elementary School? 2014. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1388419127.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Brooks, Ryan. "Exploring the Effects of School Context on Educational Outcomes: How Do Segregation and Sector Affect Educational Inequality in Elementary School?" Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1388419127

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1388419127
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.