How Does Common Core Affect Fourth-Grade Racial Achievement Gaps in Mathematics and Reading?

• In Event: Missing Data, Multicollinearity, and Variable Selection in Regression

Abstract

The racial achievement gap represents a persistent disparity between test scores of White students and their Black and Hispanic counterparts, despite no evidence of test bias. Schools are failing to close these gaps, despite major education reforms. This research investigates whether Common Core affected racial achievement gaps among fourth graders in mathematics and reading. An interrupted time series analysis models what achievement gaps would look like in the absence of Common Core.
All four racial achievement gaps (Black-White and Hispanic-White in mathematics and reading) were affected by the adoption of Common Core. However, it is difficult to disentangle the effect of Common Core compared with all the education interventions implemented by states through Race to the Top (RttT) funding.

Authors

• Charlotte Lyddon Notaras, The University of Oxford

• Elizabeth Nye, University of Oxford