| Russell Rumberger
University of California, Santa Barbara
Does segregation matter: The impact of student composition on academic achievement
FINAL REPORT:
Racial and socioeconomic segregation is increasing in the United States and may be contributing to the achievement gap between white and minority students. This study examined the impact of segregation on achievement growth in high school. The study used data from the Base Year, First and Second Follow-up panels of The National Education Longitudinal Survey of 1988 to estimate models of achievement growth between grades 8 and 12 in mathematics, science, reading, and history for a sample of 14,000 students attending over 900 high schools. The results confirm that socioeconomic composition mattersÑstudents who attended high schools with students from high social class backgrounds learned more mathematics, science, and reading than students who attended high schools with students from low social class backgrounds. The study also found that effects of socioeconomic composition could be explained by three causal mechanismsÑresources, school processes (policies and practices), and peers. Yet the findings were inconclusive across the four subject areas, leaving policy prescriptions unclear.
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