Is There an Expectations Gap? Educational Federalism and the Demographic Distribution of Proficiency Cut Scores
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8223469 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Douglas S Reed (0000-0002-9176-1061, Georgetown University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2009 |
| Volume | 46 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 718-742 |
| Publication date | 2009-09-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Educational Research Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-8312 • E-ISSN: 1935-1011 |
| Publisher | American Educational Research Association (AERA) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.3102/0002831209340254 |
| OpenAlex | W2055144809 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 20 |
Recent analyses of state-level proficiency standards under No Child Left Behind indicate that states’ benchmarks for determining whether a child is proficient in reading and math are widely divergent. This article explores whether the capacity of states to employ different proficiency standards imposes different performance standards across demographic groups. Using a newly devised metric that allows for interstate comparison of state-level proficiency cut scores, along with aggregated district-level demographic data, this article provides a descriptive analysis of the distribution of proficiency standards across demographic groups to determine whether some groups systematically face higher or lower proficiency cut scores. The findings indicate that while an “expectations gap” does exist, it does not operate consistently across categories of race, ethnicity, and poverty status. The article concludes by reviewing the trade-offs required under three possible policy responses to these findings
Demographic economics · Descriptive statistics · Distribution (mathematics · Economic growth · Economics · Ethnic group · Federalism · Language proficiency · Literacy · Mathematics education · Metric (unit · Pedagogy · Political science · Poverty · Race (biology · Reading (process · Sociology · Statistics · Educational Assessment and Improvement · Higher Education Research Studies · Psychology · School Choice and Performance
American Dream and Public Schools
The Effect of School Resources on Student Achievement
Does External Accountability Affect Student Outcomes? A Cross-State Analysis
Accountability Texas-Style
State policy correlates of the achievement gap among racial and social groups
The Politics of Accountability
National Standards and Assessments
Accountability, Standards, and the Growing Achievement Gap
Multiple Facets of Inequity in Racial and Ethnic Achievement Gaps
Measuring Academic Proficiency Under the No Child Left Behind Act
The Impact of Accountability on Racial and Socioeconomic Equity
Race, Poverty, and the Student Curriculum
The Black-White Test Score Gap
| Citations per year | 0.21 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2012 - 2020 (9) |
| Highly cited | No |