Open AccessA Two Decade Examination of Historical Race/Ethnicity Disparities in Academic Achievement by Poverty Status
Author(s) -
Katherine Paschall,
Elizabeth T. Gershoff,
Megan Kuhfeld
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of youth and adolescence
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.883
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1573-6601
pISSN - 0047-2891
DOI - 10.1007/s10964-017-0800-7
Subject(s) - poverty , ethnic group , race (biology) , health psychology , psychology , white (mutation) , reading (process) , demography , public health , medicine , sociology , political science , gender studies , nursing , anthropology , law , biochemistry , chemistry , gene
Research on achievement gaps by race/ethnicity and poverty status typically focuses on each gap separately, and recent syntheses suggest the poverty gap is growing while racial/ethnic gaps are narrowing. In this study, we used time-varying effect modeling to examine the interaction of race/ethnicity and poverty gaps in math and reading achievement from 1986-2005 for poor and non-poor White, Black, and Hispanic students in three age groups (5-6, 9-10, and 13-14). We found that across this twenty-year period, the gaps between poor White students and their poor Black and Hispanic peers grew, while the gap between non-poor Whites and Hispanics narrowed. We conclude that understanding the nature of achievement gaps requires simultaneous examination of race/ethnicity and income.