Schools as Refractors: Inequality in Academic Skills while School is In Versus Out of Session

• In Event: 3429 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 28. Summer Setback Effects

Abstract

Does schooling exacerbate inequality in children’s academic skills? Studies comparing skill growth in summers versus school years provide a provocative way of addressing this question, but most seasonal studies have been limited in two important ways. First, the most persuasive seasonal studies have been restricted to the early grades of schooling, making it difficult to know whether the patterns from these studies extend into later grades. Second, they have focused primarily on achievement “gaps” between social groups (e.g., social class, race/ethnicity), which constitutes only a fraction of achievement inequality. In this study, we compare the growth of inequality in students’ academic skills during 10 school years to that occurring during the 10 preceding summers in recent national data on first through tenth graders from the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA). Findings reveal that the impact of schooling on achievement inequality varies by subject. Exposure to schooling appears to exacerbate inequality in math skills, reduce inequality in reading and language use skills somewhat, and reproduce inequalities in science skills. We consider the implications of our findings for theoretical perspectives on schools and inequality.

Authors

• Dennis J. Condron, Oakland University

• Douglas B. Downey, Ohio State University

• Megan Kuhfeld, NWEA

• Yeow Meng Thum, NWEA

• Jim Soland, NWEA