High School Data Team Understanding Socioeconomic Status (SES) and Racial Gaps Co-Chairs: Scott Summers Ororo T'Challa-Wakandas Members: Rachel Grey James

High School Data TeamUnderstanding Socioeconomic Status (SES) and Racial Gaps

Co-Chairs:

Scott Summers

Ororo T'Challa-Wakandas

Members:

Rachel Grey

James Howlett

Katherine Pryde

Kurt Wagner

Consultant:

Sean Parker

This Demo Uses Fictional Data For Purposes of ExampleThe Ultimate Goal is to Answer Your Questions with Your Data

DataTeamConsulting.Com

• Are there socioeconomic and/or racial gaps in the percentage of general education (G.E.) classes taken?

• Are there SES and/or racial gaps in academic achievement?

• When we compare students who take the same percentage of G.E. classes, do the achievement gaps persist?

Three Questions About SES and Racial Gaps

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.


• Are there SES and/or racial gaps in the percentage of G.E. classes taken? – 397 students, our current juniors– We gathered data on the course level of

students’ freshman and sophomore courses. – For each student, we considered what

percentage of his/her leveled courses were G.E.

– We separated the data by SES and race.

The First of Three Questions About SES and Racial Gaps


Percentage of 9th/10th Leveled Classes that were G.E. Classes

397 Students

G.E. Category

How Many G.E. Classes do Students Take?


347 Students

50 Students

G.E. Category

Separated By SES


15 Students 274 Students

26 Students82 Students

G.E. CategoryG.E. Category

Separated By Race


• Are there SES and/or racial gaps in academic achievement?– 418 students, our current juniors– In order to measure academic achievement,

we created a composite.• Unweighted Grade Point Average (GPA)• English Language Arts MCAS (ELA MCAS)• Mathematics MCAS (Math MCAS)

– We used histograms to explore the data.– We separated the data by SES and race.

The Second of Three Questions About SES and Racial Gaps


How Do We Measure Academic Achievement? Building A Composite


Academic

Achievement

ELA

MCAS

Math

MCAS

Unweighted

GPA



Jackie Joyner-Kersee: American Heptathlete

"Achievement is difficult. It requires enormous effort. Those who can work through the struggle are the

ones who are going to be successful."



Jackie Joyner-Kersee: American Heptathlete

"Achievement is difficult. It requires enormous effort. Those who can work through the struggle are the

ones who are going to be successful."

800m Run

High Jump

Shot Put

Javelin Throw

100m Hurdles

200m Sprint

Long Jump

2 minutes 8.51 seconds 6 feet 4 inches 55 feet 3 inches 164 feet 5 inches 12.61 seconds 22.30 seconds 24 feet 7 inches 7291 heptathlon points



Academic

Achievement

800m Run

High Jump

Shot Put

Javelin Throw

100m Hurdles

200m Sprint

Long Jump



Academic

Achievement

Shot Put

Javelin Throw

100m Hurdles

200m Sprint

Long Jump

ELA

MCAS



Academic

Achievement

100m Hurdles

200m Sprint

Long Jump

ELA

MCAS

Math

MCAS



Academic

Achievement

ELA

MCAS

Math

MCAS

Unweighted

GPA



• Measurement Reliability

• Statistical Power

• We Teach To Students, Not To Tests

• Schoolwide Picture, Schoolwide Vision

Building A Composite: Why Combine Measures?


Num

ber

of

Stu

dent

s418 Students

Zero is the average (i.e., mean) for all 418 students.

Negative is below average. Positive is above average.

Academic Achievement Composite

Num

ber

of

Stu

dent

s

A Histogram of Academic Achievement


3.28 GPA (f) 248 Prof. ELA 268 Adv. Math

3.08 GPA (m) 260 Adv. ELA 264 Adv. Math


2.31 GPA (f) 242 Prof. ELA 228 NI Math

3.11 GPA (m) 250 Prof. ELA 268 Adv. Math

418 Students

0.98 Composite

-1.95 Composite

0.30 Composite

0.00 Composite

0.00 Composite

Num

ber

of

Stu

dent

s




418 Students

“50% Line” i.e., Median

Mean

Num

ber

of

Stu

dent

s




418 StudentsN

umb

er o

f S

tude

nts




Num

ber

of

Stu

dent

s364 Students

54 Students

Mean = -0.82

Mean = 0.12


Academic Achievement: Separated by SES


86 Students Mean 0.27

29 Students Mean -1.25

285 Students Mean 0.10

18 Students Mean -0.85

Examine the shapes of these histograms.


Academic Achievement: Separated By Race


• When we compare students who take the same percentage of G.E. classes, do the achievement gaps persist?– 395 students, our current juniors– We first saw that percentage of G.E. classes is

correlated with SES and race. – We just saw that academic achievement is correlated

with SES and race.– We will see that percentage of G.E. classes is

correlated with academic achievement (using histograms and a scatterplot).

– We will disentangle the correlations using a statistical model with statistical controls.

The Third of Three Questions About SES and Racial Gaps


295 Students Took No G.E. Courses Mean = 0.41

44 Students Took Some G.E. Courses Mean = -0.58

24 Students Took Half G.E. Courses Mean = -0.87

32 Students Took Mostly G.E. Courses Mean = -1.92

We can look at the same information without grouping students into four categories (None, Some, Half, Most). We will use a scatterplot to do so.


Some

No

Half

Mostly

G.E.

G.E.

G.E.

G.E.

Academic Achievement: Separated By Percentage of G.E.







0.0 Achievement 0% G.E.




-2.0 Achievement 57% G.E.







A Scatterplot of Academic Achievement vs. G.E. Percentage


White, Non-Free Lunch

White, Free Lunch

African American, Non-Free Lunch

African American, Free Lunch

*Estimated trend curves for students who receive neither SPED services nor LEP services.*


Trend Curves For Differing Subgroups


White, Non-Free Lunch

White, Free Lunch

African American, Non-Free Lunch

African American, Free Lunch

*Estimated trend curves for students who receive neither SPED services nor LEP services.*


Trend Curves For Differing Subgroups


• Are there socioeconomic and/or racial gaps in the percentage of general education (G.E.) classes taken?

• Are there SES and/or racial gaps in academic achievement?

• When we compare students who take the same percentage of G.E. classes, do the achievement gaps persist?

Three Questions About SES and Racial Gaps

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.


• Feedback from you

• Principal’s working group on achievement

• A renewed focus on achievement as part of our school improvement goals

Where do we go from here?


GLH testing tells us to keep RACE and FREELUNCHEVER. Zero-skew transformation helps to meet normality assumption. Robust standard errors address heteroskedasticity. No interactions were stat sig, but we want to keep an eye on them as our sample size (and statistical power) increases.

Notes: Not For The General Audience


Documents

High School Data Team Understanding Socioeconomic Status (SES) and Racial Gaps Co-Chairs: Scott Summers Ororo T'Challa-Wakandas Members: Rachel Grey James