•Retained third graders consistently outperformed socially-promoted students.•Both OLS and propensity-score matching yielded positive effects for retention.•Alternative explanations for the positive ...impact of retention were not supported.
The academic performance of over 38,000 Texas students who failed the state’s 1994 reading test was examined through their sophomore year in high school. Propensity score matching resulted in strata with retained and promoted students of comparable observed characteristics. Reading scores were analyzed using a two-level hierarchical linear model. Same grade comparisons show that third graders failing the state-mandated reading test who repeated the grade consistently outperformed in later grades the socially promoted children who also failed the third grade test. Additional analyses indicate that alternative explanations for the findings such as omitted variables, regression to the mean, differential panel attrition and cohort effects are not supported. The results are consistent with findings from other recent studies which suggest that grade retention in third grade may help increase student achievement.
The Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) test was the major source of data for the Texas educational accountability system from 1994 through 2002. Contrary to critics who claim that TAAS data ...are invalid and unreliable measures of student performance, structural equation analyses of TAAS reading data based on the 1994 Texas third grade cohort followed through eighth grade indicate that TAAS reading data meet conventional standards of trait validity and reliability. Rather than assume reading performance follows a quasi-simplex models, i.e., test scores in one year largely account for test results in the following year, an alternative conceptualization views each of the annual TAAS reading tests as one indicator of a fairly stable trait of general reading ability. A second-order factor of reading achievement provides a more reasonable fit to the data than a quasi-simplex model. Both quasi-simplex and second-order factor models indicate TAAS reading scores were highly stable from one grade to the next. (Contains 6 tables and 2 figures.)
Texas TAAS Scores Revisited Lorence, Jon
Educational research quarterly,
06/2008, Letnik:
31, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Data based on all eligible Texas public school students reveals that scores from the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) reading and mathematics tests are more valid than Klein, Hamilton, ...McCaffrey, and Stecher (2000) implied. New analyses based on both individual student and school-level scores support the concurrent validity of the TAAS. TAAS scores are moderately to highly correlated with answers from the Stanford-9 reading and mathematics tests. In addition, analyses based on individual students and aggregated school scores support the nomological validity of TAAS scores. In contrast to the findings reported by Klein et al., economically disadvantaged students in the present study obtain lower reading and mathematics TAAS scores than students of higher socioeconomic status. Schools with a greater percentage of students qualifying for federal lunch assistance also evidence lower average performance on the TAAS. The present results indicate that the nonrandom sample of 20 schools available to Klein et al. (2000) led to findings unrepresentative of Texas students and schools. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
Students who failed the Texas mandatory third grade reading test were followed through their sophomore year in high school. Comparisons of reading scores between third grade students who repeated the ...grade and their socially promoted classmates revealed that the positive effect of retention persisted over time. Retention in third grade benefited low‐performing readers regardless of race. Supplemental analyses found that the results are not likely attributable to selection biases, differential attrition of students from the panel, changes in the special education status of students, and regression to the mean effects. Making students repeat a grade, when supplemented with additional educational assistance, can benefit academically challenged children.
Bridging the achievement gap Chubb, John E; Loveless, Tom
2002, 20040513, 2004, 2004-05-13, 20020101
eBook, Book
The achievement gap between white students and African American and Hispanic students has been debated by scholars and lamented by policymakers since it was first documented in 1966. The average ...black or Hispanic secondary school student currently achieves at about the same level as the average white student in the lowest quartile of white achievement. Black and Hispanic students are much less likely than white students to graduate from high school, acquire a college or advanced degree, or earn a middle-class living. They are also much more likely than whites to suffer social problems that often accompany low income. While educators have gained an understanding of the causes and effects of the education achievement gap, they have been less successful in finding ways to eliminate it-until now. This book provides, for the first time in one place, evidence that the achievement gap can be bridged. A variety of schools and school reforms are boosting the achievement of black and Hispanic students to levels nearing those of whites. Bridging the Achievement Gap brings together the findings of renowned education scholars who show how various states, school districts, and individual schools have lifted the achievement levels of poor and minority students. The most promising strategies include focusing on core academic skills, reducing class size, enrolling students in more challenging courses, administering annual achievement assessment tests, creating schools with a culture of competition and success, and offering vouchers in big-city school districts. While implementing new educational programs on a large scale is fraught with difficulties, these successful reform efforts offer what could be the start of widespread effective solutions for bridging the achievement gap.
Utilizing data from eight U.S. national General Social Surveys, this study demonstrates that women's psychological commitment to the labor force work role increased substantially over the past ...decade, even after controlling for changes in personal background traits and job characteristics. No substantial cohort effects are found, although increases in work commitment vary somewhat by age. Overall, the findings suggest the importance of period influences on women's increasing propensity toward labor force participation. Contrary to popular literature pronouncing the decline of the work ethic among men, the work commitment of male respondents of all ages remains largely unchanged. As a result, the subjective labor force commitment of men and women to employment has become comparable.
This study tests contradictory hypotheses regarding the implications of service sector growth in post-industrial societies on gender stratification. Panel analyses of 1970 and 1980 U.S. census data ...from the largest 124 MSAs reveal that increasing employment in service industries reduces the gender gap in median earnings net of changes in human capital and community variables. Findings also support the “deindustrialization thesis” in that service sector growth is economically detrimental to both sexes. However, men's earnings deteriorate at a faster rate than women's earnings resulting in greater similarity between male and female earnings. The results imply that men in metropolitan labor markets experiencing greater employment in service industries suffer lower earnings because of dwindling high-wage blue-collar jobs. A larger male service sector component also reduces occupational sex segregation, thus helping to equalize the earnings of men and women.
The sources of gender differences in subjective job involvement are investigated utilizing cross-sectional and panel data from the 1972–73 and 1977 Quality of Employment Surveys. Analyses do not ...support previous arguments that differences in gender socialization and family responsibilities are the sources of females' lower involvement with a job. Instead, characteristics of the job setting, in particular work autonomy, are more important determinants of job involvement as men and women generally react similarly to their work conditions. Women are found to be more involved with their jobs than men after controlling differences in work autonomy. The findings also indicate women became more involved with their jobs over the period of study whereas men's subjective involvement decreased.
