Evaluating Inequality Using a Six-Factor Index of Advantage

• In Event: AERA Graduate Student Research in Progress Roundtable Session Three
  In Roundtable Session: Educational Inequality: Intraracial and Intersectional Analyses of Academic Achievement Disparities (Table 5)

Abstract

Evaluating educational inequality as a variable-level phenomenon has provided important insight into historic and systemic disparities. Group-level analysis comes at a price, however, including the reinforcement of stereotypes and deficit narratives, a failure to explain within-group heterogeneity, the omission of some groups in favor of others, and insufficient predictive validity to inform policy or intervention. The quantitative examination of inequality through an intersectional lens also comes with challenges limiting its application outside of research. In this study, I attempt to bridge the gap between categorical conceptions of inequality and intersectional methods by using six variables from students' demographic profiles to construct individual-level measures of advantage. Preliminary findings included that using the single continuous variable of advantage explained up to 47.5% of the variance in student performance on standardized tests, had greater than 85% predictive accuracy, and controlling for advantage eliminated differences in the probability of proficiency between Black or Latinx students and Asian or White students on a standardized test.

Author

• David Stevens, University of California - Berkeley
  Presenting Author