Inequality in Reading and Math Skills Forms Mainly before Kindergarten: A Replication, and Partial Correction, of “Are Schools the Great Equalizer?”

Abstract

When do children become unequal in reading and math skills? Some research claims that inequality grows mainly before school begins. Some research claims that schools cause inequality to grow. And some research-including the 2004 study ''Are Schools the Great Equalizer?''-claims that inequality grows mainly during summer vacations. Unfortunately, the test scores used in the Great Equalizer study suffered from a measurement artifact that exaggerated estimates of inequality growth. In addition, the Great Equalizer study is dated and its participants are no longer school-aged. In this article, we replicate the Great Equalizer study using better test scores in both the original data and a newer cohort of children. When we use the new test scores, we find that variance is substantial at the start of kindergarten and does not grow but actually shrinks over the next two to three years. This finding, which was not evident in the original Great Equalizer study, implicates the years before kindergarten as the primary source of inequality in elementary reading and math. Total score variance grows during most summers and shrinks during most school years, suggesting that schools reduce inequality overall. Changes in inequality are small after kindergarten and do not replicate consistently across grades, subjects, or cohorts. That said, socioeconomic gaps tend to shrink during the school year and grow during the summer, while the black-white gap tends to follow the opposite pattern.

Does schooling decrease social inequality in early achievement?

“…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).…”

“…Studies employing the seasonal comparison design (hereafter: SCD) have dominated sociological research on schooling effects for the last 40 years (Alexander, Entwisle, & Olson, 2007;Downey et al, 2004;Entwisle & Alexander, 1992;Hayes & Grether, 1983). Only recently, proponents of the SCD themselves have criticized it for being prone to various statistical artifactssuch as scaling of tests and comparability of test formsthat might have led to an overestimation of schooling's equalizing role (von Hippel & Hamrock, 2019a;von Hippel, Workman, & Downey, 2018).…”

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

“…() found, many public school kindergarten teachers in 2010 (compared to 1998) believe that “academic instruction should begin prior to kindergarten entry.” Furthermore, these changes “were more pronounced among schools serving high percentages of low‐income and non‐White children, particularly with respect to teacher expectations and didactic instruction” (p. 14). Furthermore, recent evidence suggests that the income‐based achievement gap in reading does not get smaller across the elementary years (von Hippel, Workman, & Downey, ). Thus, we must consider how to “language‐ize” children's homes, day cares, and schools to meet this challenge, especially as low‐income children experience the brunt of these changes (Masek et al., in press).…”

Tackling Educational Inequalities with Social Psychology: Identities, Contexts, and Interventions

“…Education is a key predictor of life outcomes (Hout & DiPrete, 2006), including physical health (Schütte, Chastang, Parent Thirion, Vermeylen, & Niedhammer, 2013), mental health (von dem Knesebeck, Pattyn, & Bracke, 2011), subjective well-being (Blanchflower & Oswald, 2000), life expectancy (Meara, Richards, & Cutler, 2008), trust (Easterbrook, Kuppens, & Manstead, 2015), and income (Britton, Dearden, Erve, & Waltmann, 2020;Card, 1999). Those with higher qualifications are also more engaged in politics and are more likely to vote, giving them a louder political voice (Bynner & Ashford, 1994;Helliwell & Putnam, 2007;Persson, 2013;Stubager, 2008).…”