Examining Contextual Factors Related to the Hispanic White Achievement Gaps

• In Event: A Closer Look at the Hispanic–White Achievement Gaps Using NAEP Data

Abstract

The recent report on the achievement gaps between White and Hispanic students in mathematics and reading for public school grades 4 and 8 students, as measured by NAEP, shows that the gaps have been persisted since the first administration of the assessments (Hemphill & Vanneman 2011). This pattern is also observed in grade 12 for both reading .
Issues relating to the Hispanic-White achievement gap have been addressed by a number of recent studies (ibid). Three major contextual factors identified as relevant to the gaps by these studies are social economic status (KewalRamani, Fox, and Aud 2010), English Language Leaner (ELL) status (Hemphill & Vanneman 2011), and educational resources in the home (Barton and Coley 2009). While these factors are important in understanding Hispanic-White achievement gaps, they have limited policy relevance (except for ELLs) because there is little that educational policy can do to make a difference on those factors.
Previous educational policy analysis and research have identified more policy relevant factors associated with student achievement. For example, the importance of teacher subject knowledge on student achievement has been documented (Hill et al. 2005), along with the importance of the opportunity to learn (Darling-Hammond 2000; Callahan 2005) There has been, however, little research on the relationship of these more educational policy relevant factors to the Hispanic-White achievement gaps.
The purpose of this paper is to explore if the three major contextual factors identified to be related to the Hispanic White achievement gaps are related to Hispanic White achievement gaps measured by National Assessments of Educational Progress (NAEP), using NAEP grades 4, 8 and 12 reading and mathematics assessment data . NAEP collects variables which can be analyzed as the indicators of these factors, such as eligibility of National School Lunch Program and parent education, English language learner status, number of books at home, etc. In addition to these variables, this paper also examines if several educational policy relevant variables are related to the achievement gaps. NAEP collects educational policy relevant variables such as teacher certification status, teachers’ professional development experiences, course-taking, subject topics covered, instructional approaches, and school resources such as computer availability. These variables were examined in terms of percentage difference between Hispanic and White students and also the relationship between these variables and the achievement gaps.
The paper presents the results of the analysis as summary tables. An example is attached as an Appendix. The paper itself summarizes the results of the analysis and discusses the educational policy implications. The results of this paper will inform educational policy makers and researchers by identifying policy relevant variables which could contribute to narrowing Hispanic White achievement gaps.


Footnotes

1. In the case of the grade 12 mathematics, trend was broken in 2005, allowing comparison of gap change between 2005 and 2009 only.
2. Currently, analysis has been done up to 2009 from the first assessment on the same trend line. 2011 data for grades 4 and 8 will be added to the final paper once the data are publically available.

Authors

• Young Yee Kim, American Institutes for Research

• Tiffany Decker, American Institutes for Research

• Fei Liu, American Institutes for Research