THE EVOLUTION OF THE BLACK-WHITE TEST SCORE GAP IN GRADES K-3: THE FRAGILITY OF RESULTS

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bond, Timothy N.; Lang, Kevin
• 署名单位: Purdue University System; Purdue University; Boston University
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/REST_a_00370
• 发表日期: 2013-12
• 页码: 1468-1479
• 关键词: technology; TRENDS; scale; iq

摘要

Although both economists and psychometricians typically treat them as interval scales, test scores are reported using ordinal scales. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K) and the Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (CNLSY), we examine how order-preserving scale transformations affect the evolution of the black-white reading test score gap from kindergarten entry through third grade. Plausible transformations reverse the growth of the gap in the CNLSY and greatly reduce it in the ECLS-K during the early school years. All growth from entry through first grade and a nontrivial proportion from first to third grade probably reflects scaling decisions.