Do Test Score Gaps Grow Before, During, or between the School Years? Measurement Artifacts and What We Can Know in Spite of Them

Hippel, Paul T. von; Hamrock, Caitlin

doi:10.2139/ssrn.2745527

Cited by 36 publications

(87 citation statements)

References 6 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This article challenges older findings from seasonal comparisons studies that found equalizing effects of schooling in the US and other European countries and accord with more recent accounts that questioned those earlier findings based on methodological shortcomings (von Hippel & Hamrock, 2019b;von Hippel et al, 2018).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Does schooling decrease social inequality in early achievement?

Passaretta¹,

Škopek²

2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Does schooling affect social inequality in educational achievement? Earlier studies based on seasonal comparisons suggested schooling to equalize social gaps in achievement, but recent replication studies gave rise to skepticism about the validity of older findings. We propose an alternative causal design that identifies schooling exposure effects by exploiting (conditionally) random variation in test dates and birth dates for children participating in assessment studies. We test effects of school exposure in first grade for a series of learning domains (vocabulary, grammar, math, and science) by drawing on recent data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). Findings clearly indicate that schooling increases learning in all domains and particularly in math and science. However, we did not find any evidence that schooling effects differed by children’s socio-economic background. We conclude that, while all children benefitted by first-grade exposure, first-grade schooling had no consequences for social inequality in learning. We discuss the relevance of our approach and results in the context of the massive school lockdowns due to the COVID-19 crisis and to further knowledge on the roleof schooling in the process of social stratification.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Does schooling decrease social inequality in early achievement?

Passaretta¹,

Škopek²

2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Language is the basis for reading and school success. Currently in the United States, there is a large and significant income achievement gap in reading skills when children enter kindergarten (Reardon, ; Von Hippel & Hamrock, ). Indeed, income disparities found in vocabulary skills in kindergarten are the main reason for the income achievement gap in later academic skills (Durham et al., ).…”

Section: Language Is Key To Children's School Achievementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language Matters: Denying the Existence of the 30‐Million‐Word Gap Has Serious Consequences

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sperry, Sperry, and Miller (2018) aim to debunk what is called the 30-million-word gap by claiming that children from lower income households hear more speech than Hart and Risley () reported. We address why the 30-million-word gap should not be abandoned, and the importance of retaining focus on the vital ingredient to language learning-quality speech directed to children rather than overheard speech, the focus of Sperry et al.'s argument. Three issues are addressed: Whether there is a language gap; the characteristics of speech that promote language development; and the importance of language in school achievement. There are serious risks to claims that low-income children, on average, hear sufficient, high-quality language relative to peers from higher income homes.

show abstract

“…The SES‐based achievement gap in language and literacy skills in the United States grows the most during early childhood and is large at the start of kindergarten . Most parent‐focused interventions to improve the development of children's language and literacy have targeted middle‐SES families or families with children who have language delays, but a growing number of promising parenting interventions that focus on the word gap aim to prevent it from emerging (e.g., Providence Talks , Thirty Million Words ).…”

Section: Implications For Intervention and Suggestions For Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding Socioeconomic Differences in Parents’ Speech to Children

Rowe

2017

Child Dev Perspectives

167

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this article, I address our understanding of the word gap, or why parents’ talk to children differs by socioeconomic status. The differences in quantity and quality of parents’ input across early childhood predict children's language development and their readiness for school. As a result, a growing number of interventions target parent–child interactions to enhance children's early experiences and promote learning. Understanding the factors that shape parents’ communication with their children is essential and has implications for empirical research as well as interventions to reduce early disparities in children's language development.

show abstract

Do Test Score Gaps Grow Before, During, or between the School Years? Measurement Artifacts and What We Can Know in Spite of Them

Cited by 36 publications

References 6 publications

Does schooling decrease social inequality in early achievement?

Does schooling decrease social inequality in early achievement?

Language Matters: Denying the Existence of the 30‐Million‐Word Gap Has Serious Consequences

Understanding Socioeconomic Differences in Parents’ Speech to Children

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About