Understanding the Black-White Test Score Gap in the First Two Years of School Export

@article{fryerlevitt04, abstract = {In previous research, a substantial gap in test scores between white and black students persists, even after controlling for a wide range of observable characteristics. Using a newly available data set (the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study), we demonstrate that in stark contrast to earlier studies, the black-white test score gap among incoming kindergartners disappears when we control for a small number of covariates. Real gains by black children in recent cohorts appear to play an important role in explaining the differences between our findings and earlier research. The availability of better covariates also contributes. Over the first two years of school, however, blacks lose substantial ground relative to other races. There is suggestive evidence that differences in school quality may be an important part of the explanation. None of the other hypotheses we test to explain why blacks are losing ground receive any empirical backing.}, author = {Fryer, Roland G. and Levitt, Steven D.}, citeulike-article-id = {1146892}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://ejournals.ebsco.com/Article.asp?ContributionID=8947571}, day = {01}, journal = {Review of Economics and Statistics}, keywords = {4915, education, freakonomics, race}, month = {May}, number = {2}, pages = {447+}, posted-at = {2007-03-08 11:09:03}, priority = {2}, title = {Understanding the Black-White Test Score Gap in the First Two Years of School}, url = {http://ejournals.ebsco.com/Article.asp?ContributionID=8947571}, volume = {86}, year = {2004} }

TY - JOUR ID - fryerlevitt04 L3 - citeulike-article-id:1146892 N2 - In previous research, a substantial gap in test scores between white and black students persists, even after controlling for a wide range of observable characteristics. Using a newly available data set (the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study), we demonstrate that in stark contrast to earlier studies, the black-white test score gap among incoming kindergartners disappears when we control for a small number of covariates. Real gains by black children in recent cohorts appear to play an important role in explaining the differences between our findings and earlier research. The availability of better covariates also contributes. Over the first two years of school, however, blacks lose substantial ground relative to other races. There is suggestive evidence that differences in school quality may be an important part of the explanation. None of the other hypotheses we test to explain why blacks are losing ground receive any empirical backing. IS - 2 JF - Review of Economics and Statistics TI - Understanding the Black-White Test Score Gap in the First Two Years of School VL - 86 SP - 447 KW - 4915 KW - education KW - freakonomics KW - race AU - Fryer, Roland AU - Levitt, Steven PY - 2004/05/01/ UR - http://ejournals.ebsco.com/Article.asp?ContributionID=8947571 ER -