How Have Racial and Gender Gaps Changed Through the Decades? An Empirical Examination of Disparities in High School Outcomes Using Contextual Frameworks

• In Event: Statistical Models of Teacher- and Student-Level Data

Abstract

Despite the growing returns to an education, racial-/ethnic- and gender-gaps in educational attainment have remained a problem. In this paper, we present the racial and gender gaps regarding high school completion in Chicago over the past two decades using student level Chicago Public Schools data from 1994 through 2013. We focus on the four possible outcomes that students may experience by the end of their fourth year of high school (i.e. graduating, dropping out, transferring out of the district, or staying in high school longer than four years). Furthermore, we investigate how the explanations for race/gender gaps in high school outcomes may change through time.

Authors

• Rene Crespin, Consortium on Chicago School Research At The University of Chicago

• Maria Luisa de la Torre, University of Chicago

• Elaine M. Allensworth, University of Chicago