Can Family Socioeconomic Resources Account for Racial and Ethnic Test Score Gaps?
Greg J. Duncan and Katherine A. Magnuson,
The Future of Children, pp. 35-54
Spring 2005
According to this imaginative and timely analysis, family socio-economic status may explain as much as half a standard deviation in initial achievement gaps between black/Hispanic and white children at the time they enter school.
Yet, say the authors (a social policy professor at Northwestern and a social work faculty member at Wisconsin/Madison), the policy implications of this are “far from clear.” They note that “no policies address ‘socioeconomic status’ directly. They address only its components–income, parental schooling, family structure, and the like.
Moreover, wise policy decisions require an understanding of both causal mechanisms and cost-effective interventions that can produce desired changes.” Because these are few and far between, they conclude that, if the goal is to narrow achievement gaps among children entering school, “policies that directly target children’s aptitude or mental and physical health” are better bets.
Vist the Future of Children website to download the executive summary or the full report.