Black-White Achievement Gap: Role of Race, School Urbanity, and Parental Education

Abstract

Background: Recent research on Marginalization-related Diminished Returns (MDRs) has documented weaker boosting effects of parental educational attainment on educational outcomes of Black than White students. Such MDRs of parental education seem to contribute to the Black-White achievement gap. Given that Blacks are more likely than Whites to attend urban schools, there is a need to study if these MDRs can be replicated at both urban and suburban schools. Aim: To test the contribution of diminished returns of parental educational attainment on the Black-White achievement gap in urban and suburban American high schools. Methods: A cross-sectional study that used baseline Education Longitudinal Study (ELS-2002) data, a nationally representative study of 10th grade adolescents in the United States. This study analyzed 8315 youths who were either non-Hispanic White (n = 6539, 78.6%) or non-Hispanic Black (n = 1776, 21.4%) who were attending either suburban (n = 5188, 62.4%) or urban (n = 3127, 37.6%) schools. The outcome was standard math and reading grades. The independent variable was parental educational attainment. Gender, parental marital status, and school characteristics (% free lunch and relationship quality with the teacher) were the confounders. Race/ethnicity was the effect of modifier. School urbanity was the strata. Linear regression was used for data analysis. Results: In urban and suburban schools, higher parental educational attainment was associated with higher math and reading test scores. In urban and suburban schools, Black students had considerably lower reading and math scores than White students. At urban but not suburban schools, significant interactions were found between race (Non-Hispanic Black) and parental education attainment (years of schooling) on reading and math scores, suggested that the protective effect of parental education on students' reading and math scores (ie school achievement) is smaller for Non-Hispanic Black relative to Non-Hispanic White youth only in urban but not sub-urban schools. Conclusion: Diminished returns of parental education (MDRs) contribute to the racial achievement gap in urban but not suburban American high schools. This result is important given Black students are more likely to attend urban schools than White students. As MDRs are not universal and depend on context, future research should study contextual characteristics of urban schools that contribute to MDRs.

Parental Education and Children’s Sleep Problems: Minorities’ Diminished Returns

“…12 This is evident because similar MDRs are shown for all marginalized groups across marginalizing identities. 12,13 MDRs are not specific to non-Latino Blacks 16 but also Hispanics, 14,21,53,54 Asian Americans, 22 Native Americans, 23 or even marginalized non-Latino Whites. 24 They are also not specific to a particular SES resource, behavioral outcome, or age group.…”

“…While low SES and poor outcomes are one type of disadvantage in Black communities, MDRs reflect the second type of disadvantage. 12,13 These two sources of disadvantages are qualitatively different. While the former reflects unequal outcomes and opportunities, the latter reflects the low response to the presence of individuallevel resources such as parental education and SES.…”

“…9,10 As a result, the traditional assumption has been that to reduce or remove racial/ethnic inequalities in health, we need to remove the existing SES gap across racial and ethnic groups. 11 However, racial inequalities in health have remained despite enormous efforts to close the SES gap across racial and ethnic groups 12,13 .…”

“…12,13 SES effects vary by race/ethnicity, with racial and ethnic minorities being at a relative disadvantage compared to non-Latino Whites at leveraging their SES resources and converting them into health and health behaviors. 12,13 For example, the magnitude of the SES effects tends to be weaker for Black and Latino families 14 than non-Latino White families. Thus high SES Black and Latino families remain at risk for poor health.…”

The Relationship between Age, Parity, Early Detection, K1-K4 Visits, Integrated ANC, Three Times Obgyn’s Ultrasound Examination, and Maternal Mortality

“…Age is one of the factors that need to be considered to maintain the stability of the mother's pregnancy process (Nove et al, 2014). In addition, the age at birth is an important factor for the welfare of mothers and children after the birth process (Assari et al, 2019).…”