TY - JOUR
T1 - Analysis of Math Test Score Gap Between White and Non-White Students in Brazilian Public Schools
T2 - SAEB 2015
AU - Becker, Kalinca Léia
AU - Arends-Kuenning, Mary Paula
N1 - Funding Information:
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6896-9411 Becker Kalinca Léia 1 Arends-Kuenning Mary Paula 2 1 Federal University of Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil 2 University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, USA Kalinca Léia Becker, Department of Economics and International Relations, Federal University of Santa Maria, Av. Roraima No. 1000, Building 74 C/CCSH, Santa Maria/RS, CEP: 97105-900, Brazil. Email: kalincabecker@hotmail.com 10 2019 0034644619879381 © The Author(s) 2019 2019 National Economic Association. All rights reserved This study aims to analyze and decompose the gap between White and non-White students’ test scores observed in the Brazilian National Evaluation System of Basic Education (SAEB)—2015. To do so, proficiency equations were estimated for each student race group (White, Brown, Black, and Indigenous) using the recentered influence function method, which generalizes the Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition to any point in the grade distribution. The proficiency of White students is higher than the other groups of students, and this difference increases throughout the distribution. Black students exhibit the lowest average test score, behind the Indigenous and then the Brown students. At the lower and middle levels of the math test score distribution, the racial gap is mainly due to the characteristics effect, which represents the part of the proficiency differential that is explained by the differences in observable characteristics of students. However, the gap at the upper level of grade distribution is mainly due the structural effect, which results from non-observable issues, such as discrimination and stereotype threats. school proficiency discrimination decomposition Fulbright Fulbright Junior Faculty Member Award. edited-state corrected-proof Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Funding The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Research funded by the Fulbright Junior Faculty Member Award. ORCID iD Kalinca Léia Becker https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6896-9411 Supplemental Material Supplemental material for this article is available online.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2019.
PY - 2020/6/1
Y1 - 2020/6/1
N2 - This study aims to analyze and decompose the gap between White and non-White students’ test scores observed in the Brazilian National Evaluation System of Basic Education (SAEB)—2015. To do so, proficiency equations were estimated for each student race group (White, Brown, Black, and Indigenous) using the recentered influence function method, which generalizes the Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition to any point in the grade distribution. The proficiency of White students is higher than the other groups of students, and this difference increases throughout the distribution. Black students exhibit the lowest average test score, behind the Indigenous and then the Brown students. At the lower and middle levels of the math test score distribution, the racial gap is mainly due to the characteristics effect, which represents the part of the proficiency differential that is explained by the differences in observable characteristics of students. However, the gap at the upper level of grade distribution is mainly due the structural effect, which results from non-observable issues, such as discrimination and stereotype threats.
AB - This study aims to analyze and decompose the gap between White and non-White students’ test scores observed in the Brazilian National Evaluation System of Basic Education (SAEB)—2015. To do so, proficiency equations were estimated for each student race group (White, Brown, Black, and Indigenous) using the recentered influence function method, which generalizes the Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition to any point in the grade distribution. The proficiency of White students is higher than the other groups of students, and this difference increases throughout the distribution. Black students exhibit the lowest average test score, behind the Indigenous and then the Brown students. At the lower and middle levels of the math test score distribution, the racial gap is mainly due to the characteristics effect, which represents the part of the proficiency differential that is explained by the differences in observable characteristics of students. However, the gap at the upper level of grade distribution is mainly due the structural effect, which results from non-observable issues, such as discrimination and stereotype threats.
KW - decomposition
KW - discrimination
KW - school proficiency
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U2 - 10.1177/0034644619879381
DO - 10.1177/0034644619879381
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85074365572
SN - 0034-6446
VL - 47
SP - 138
EP - 158
JO - Review of Black Political Economy
JF - Review of Black Political Economy
IS - 2
ER -