Are schools the great equalizer? Cognitive inequality during the summer months and the school year
Are schools the great equalizer? Cognitive inequality during the summer months and the school year
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DOI：
10.1177/000312240406900501
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发表时间：
2004-10-01
影响因子：
9.1
通讯作者：
Broh, BA
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Downey, DB;von Hippel, PT;Broh, BA
学校教育如何影响认知技能的不平等？再生产理论家认为，学校教育在再生产甚至加剧现有差距方面发挥着重要作用。但季节性比较研究表明，阅读和数学技能的差距主要在暑假期间扩大，这表明非学校因素（例如，家庭和邻里）是不平等的主要根源。利用1998- 1999年的幼儿纵向研究-幼儿园队列，本文改进了过去的季节性估计学校和非学校对认知技能的影响。与过去的研究一样，这项研究考虑了社会经济和种族/民族技能差距在学校上课时与不上课时的变化。然而，这项研究超越了过去的研究，研究了与社会经济地位和种族无关的学习方面的巨大不平等。这种“无法解释的”不平等占学习率总不平等的90%以上，而且在学校期间比在夏季小得多。因此，结果表明，学校是重要的均衡器：几乎所有的差距在夏季比在学校增长得更快。然而，黑/白色差距代表了一个明显的例外。
How does schooling affect inequality in cognitive skills? Reproductionist theorists have argued that schooling plays an important role in reproducing and even exacerbating existing disparities. But seasonal comparison research has shown that gaps in reading and math skills grow primarily during summer vacation, suggesting that non-school factors (e.g., family and neighborhood) are the main source of inequality. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort of 1998-99, this article improves upon past seasonal estimates of school and non-school effects on cognitive skill gains. Like past research, this study considers how socioeconomic and racial/ethnic gaps in skills change when school is in session versus when it is not. This study goes beyond past research, however, by examining the considerable inequality in learning that is not associated with socioeconomic status and race. This "unexplained" inequality is more than 90 percent of the total inequality in learning rates, and it is much smaller during school than during summer. The results suggest, therefore, that schools serve as important equalizers: nearly every gap grows faster during summer than during school. The black/white gap, however, represents a conspicuous exception.