Does Schooling Increase or Reduce Social Inequality?

Abstract

Does experience in school increase or reduce social inequality in skills? Sociologists have long debated this question. Drawing from the counterfactual account of causality, we propose that the impact of going to school on a given skill depends on the quality of the instructional regime a child will experience at school compared with the quality of the instructional regime the child would receive if not at school. Children vary in their benefit from new instruction, and current skill increases this benefit. We hypothesize that the expansion of free, universal schooling promotes social equality in part by equalizing access to school, but also because disadvantaged children benefit more from access. However, we predict that this equalizing effect will be more pronounced for younger children than for older children. To test these hypotheses, we review empirical evidence regarding the impact of (a) increasing access to universal kindergarten and preschool, (b) interrupting schooling with the summer recess, (c) extending the school day, and (d ) extending years of compulsory schooling. We consider implications for the potential of school reform to reduce educational inequality. 443 Annu. Rev. Sociol. 2015.41:443-470. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org Access provided by Cambridge University on 08/18/15. For personal use only.

Delayed Effects of a Low-Cost and Large-Scale Summer Reading Intervention on Elementary School Children's Reading Comprehension

“…More broadly, our results are consistent with Raudenbush and Eschmann's (2015) hypothesis that low-SES children are likely to benefit more from efforts to improve educational and literacy learning opportunities outside school compared to their more affluent peers. The hypothesis was motivated, in part, by research on the counterfactual experiences of elementary school-aged children.…”

Public Pre-K and Test Taking for the NYC Gifted-and-Talented Programs

“…That is, not only do we find that students who attend a public pre-K program, either part-or full-time, have a significantly higher chance of taking the gifted-and-talented admissions test in pre-K, regardless of their demographic backgrounds, but we also find that attendance in public pre-K plays an important role in helping to reduce the disparities in test taking for gifted-andtalented admission that are evident between many subpopulations. As an alternative to universal screening, our study suggests that attendance in public pre-K, whether part-time or full-time, is effective in increasing the equality of access to the type of challenging educational opportunities referred to by Raudenbush and Eschmann (2015) and may be effective in increasing the representation of underrepresented minorities in the NYC DOE gifted-and-talented programs.In addition to this important finding, we find that younger children and boys are less likely to take the test at pre-K, suggesting that some disparities in test taking may be attributed to parental beliefs regarding how ready their children are to take the test during the pre-K year. Also, we find that a student's raceethnicity; free-lunch, immigrant, special education, and ELL status; and resident neighborhood are factors that relate to test taking, challenging the notion that these programs are accessible to all subpopulations of students in an equitable manner.…”

“…Others similarly report that investing in preschool is a good avenue toward reducing achievement gaps especially when child care quality is high (Duncan, 2003;Duncan & Magnuson, 2013). Although more recently, others have found a negative impact of public pre-K on cognitive outcomes (Lipsey, Farran, & Hofer, 2015), Raudenbush and Eschmann (2015) conclude in their recent thorough review of studies on schooling, achievement, and inequality that "there is thus good reason to speculate that concerted attempts to supply disadvantaged students with carefully designed instruction, experienced, knowledgeable teachers, and effective school organizations would amplify the capacity of schools to play an equalizing role in society" (p. 466). Because gifted-and-talented classrooms provide challenging educational opportunities and academic programs within the public school sector, they may be viewed as representing such concerted attempts to foster academic equity among students with exceptional ability.…”

Sibling Health, Schooling and Longer-Term Developmental Outcomes

“…Early childhood education programs have the potential to close student achievement gaps between disadvantaged children and their relatively advantaged peers (Heckman 2006;Raudenbush & Eschmann 2015). For many programs, researchers find that certain groups of disadvantaged children derive greater benefits than other groups, especially in the longer term (Garces, Thomas & Currie 2002;Conti, Heckman & Pinto 2015).…”

“…Importantly, children who delay their school entry may linger in environments whose quality is positively correlated with their parent's time and money resources. Entering school earlier, by contrast, may work to equalise the opportunities to learn and interact because it asymmetrically increases a relatively disadvantaged child's exposure to educational stimulation (Raudenbush & Eschmann 2015).…”