School Composition and Resources: Exploring Latinxs' Learning Growth in Elementary Grades

• In Event: Residential, School, and Classroom Racial Stratification and Its Impacts on Educational Outcomes

Abstract

Recent literature has shown that Latinx kindergarteners became more racially/ethnically segregated between 1998 and 2010. We also know that Latinx students, those with native- and foreign-born parents, display higher growth rates in math learning in elementary grades when attending schools with higher shares of White or middle-class peers. In this study, we explore one mechanism that may explain the association between school composition (White/middle-class peers) and learning: Access better-resourced schools (facilities, teacher quality, and dual language-instruction). Using ECLS-K 2010-11 longitudinal data, we examine the school resources that Latinx students access and how these resources shape their math learning between kindergarten and fourth grade. We also examine whether the association between resources and learning varies as a function of parental nativity.

Authors

• Francisco Lagos, University of Maryland

• Yoonjeon Kim, University of California - Berkeley

• Jiehui Zhao, University of Maryland - College Park

• Shruti Bathia, University of California - Berkeley

• Claudia Lucia Galindo, University of Maryland - College Park

• Bruce Fuller, University of California - Berkeley

• Margaret Bridges, Policy Analysis for California Education