Compositional Effects, Segregation, and Test Scores: Evidence From NAEP

• In Event: 46.085 - Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: 46.085-5 - Critical Issues in Testing Practices

Abstract

Multi-level modeling was used to quantify the degree to which compositional effects in U.S. schools predict students’ Grade 8 NAEP mathematics scores and gaps in scores by economic and ethnic status. Projection of the data suggests that if the nation's schools were completely desegregated economically (but not at all ethnically), the test-score gap between free lunch students and full price lunch students would decline by 25%. Ethnic compositional effects for black, Asian/Pacific Islander (API), and Hispanic students were reversed from their within-school effects, with positive effects for students in schools with larger proportions of black and Hispanic students and a strong negative effect for students in schools with larger proportions of Asian/Pacific Islander students.

Authors

• Tom E. Munk, Westat

• Marciea Monique McMillian, Morgan State University

• Nicole Lewis, University of Hawaii - Manoa