Can Middle School Transition Help to Explain Changes in Racial Achievement Gaps?

• In Event: 31.072 - Middle-Level Culture and Community

Abstract

Using a difference-in-difference-in-difference design, this paper investigates whether the transition from elementary school to middle school has differential effects on academic achievement for different populations. We test whether the transition to middle school may exacerbate racial achievement gaps or narrow them. Our research question is: “What is the effect of transition to a separate middle school after elementary school (as opposite to staying in the same school from kindergarten till grade 8) on:
- black-white achievement gap in mathematics
- black-white achievement gap in reading
- Hispanic-white achievement gap in mathematics
- Hispanic-white achievement gap in reading?”
We find evidence that the gaps grow significantly after a transition to a middle school.

Authors

• Gudrun Vanlaar, KU Leuven

• Sean F. Reardon, Stanford University

• Demetra Kalogrides, Stanford University

• Bieke De Fraine, K.U. Leuven