The existence of a “socioeconomic achievement gap”—a disparity in academic achievement between students from highand low-socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds—is well-known in educational research. The SES achievement gap has been documented across a wide range of countries. What is unknown in most countries is whether the SES achievement gap might be changing over time. This study combines 30 international large-scale assessments over 51 years, representing 100 countries and about 5.8 million students. Results indicate that on average globally, SES achievement gaps have increased for all three available measures of family SES: parents’ education, parents’ occupation, and the number of books in the home. These trends are partially explained by expanding school access and declining fertility rates. ABSTRACT AUTHORS

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The Global Increase in the Socioeconomic Achievement Gap, 1964-2015. CEPA Working Paper No. 17-04.

This study analyses and describes inequalities in educational achievement scores by socioeconomic and migration background. Drawing on a quasi-panel methodology, international student assessment data (e.g., TIMSS, PIRLS, PISA) collected at different grades and ages (grades 4 and 8 and age 15) are pooled with adult survey and assessment data (e.g., PIAAC), allowing comprehensive assessment of inequalities in mathematics, science and literacy skills over time and at various stages of the educational career for various cohorts. We show that there are substantial differences between socioeconomic groups (indicated by parental education and the number of books at home) as well as between migrants (and their descendants) and non-migrants in Europe. The magnitude of the inequalities differs widely across countries, however. Socioeconomic inequalities are particularly large in Central-Eastern European countries, while differences between migrants and nonmigrants are particularly large in North-Western Continental European countries. While a substantial part of the differences by migration background is explained by taking socioeconomic background into account, the overall effects of migration background provided very similar country rankings as without controls for parental education and the number of books in the household. Moreover, in most societies where the migration gaps were to the disadvantage of children with a migration background, the gaps were still there when controlling for socioeconomic background. Socioeconomic inequalities seem to be stable over time, but may have slightly increased between 1995 and 2015. Inequalities by migration background fluctuate more, and were observed to increase again, especially in later stages of the school career, in recent years, after a steady decline since 2007. Inequalities by socioeconomic and migration background seem to evolve similarly over the life course: being already large at grade 4 (approximately age 10), remaining stable or even declining while children follow primary and secondary education, and increasing again around age 21 when children leave secondary and tertiary education. Inequalities by socioeconomic and migration background may tend to increase over the life course because children and young adults with a migration background and low socioeconomic background grow up, live and work in a cognitively less stimulating and beneficial environments. Primary and secondary schools, who offer more or less equal high quality environments, may reduce these trends and work as equalizers.

Inequalities in Educational Opportunities by Socioeconomic and Migration Background: A Comparative Assessment Across European Societies

This study explains mathematical difficulties of students who immigrated from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) vis-a-vis Israeli students, by identifying the existing bias factors in achievement tests. These factors are irrelevant to the mathematical knowledge being measured, and therefore threaten the test results. The bias factors were identified through a structured process that included analysis of mathematics achievement test results, as well as interviews with immigrant students and “culture experts.” The prominent bias factors among the immigrants were primarily specific test items unfamiliar to their way of thinking as well as insufficient attention to item instructions that appeared in a different typographic presentation. This paper discusses the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

Bias factors in mathematics achievement tests among Israeli students from the Former Soviet Union

Differential bundle functioning (DBF) analyses were conducted to determine whether seventh and eighth grade second language learners (SLLs) had lower probabilities of answering bundles of math word problems correctly that had heavy language demands, when compared to non-SLLs of equal math proficiency. Math word problems on each of four test forms (two at Grade 7 and two at Grade 8) were bundled together if they used the passive voice, conditional clause, relative clause, or a combination of any two. The results showed that the average total scores for SLLs was significantly lower than that for non-SLLs on each test form. However, only two bundles (passive voice and conditional clause at Grade 7 on Form 2) indicated statistically significant DBF against SLLs in favor of matched non-SLLs. An additional step was taken to determine whether the two bundles that showed statistically significant DBF against SLLs had biased the mean total scores for this group.The Walker, Zhang, Banks, and Cappaert (2012) procedu...

Assessing the Effect of Language Demand in Bundles of Math Word Problems

This paper analyzes numeracy and literacy skills of migrants, using PISA and PIAAC data from twelve OECD countries. Our results first show some convergence of the skills gap between the second generation immigrants and the natives over time. Second, the gap in literacy skills among the first-generation and natives and among first-generation and second-generation immigrants has increased over time. Third, demographics and family background contribute to the achievement gaps between different groups. Fourth, school input variables do contribute to skills gaps of young adults with different immigrant backgrounds. Fifth, an immigrant background does not appear to affect the chances of studying in a STEM field.

Where Do You Come from, where Do You Go? Assessing Skills Gaps and Labour Market Outcomes of Young Adults with Different Immigration Backgrounds

While existing evidence strongly suggests that immigrant students underperform relative to their native counterparts on measures of mathematics, science, and reading, country-level analyses assessing the homogeneity of the immigrant achievement gap across different factors have not been systematically conducted. Beyond finding a statistically significant average achievement gap, existing findings show considerable variation. The goal of this quantitative synthesis was to analyze effect sizes which compared immigrants to natives on international mathematics, reading, and science examinations. We used data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). We investigated whether the achievement gap is larger in some content areas than others (among mathematics, science, and reading), across the different types of tests (PISA, TIMSS, PIRLS), across academic grades and age, and whether it has changed across time. Standardized mean differences between immigrant and native students were obtained using data from 2000 to 2009 for current Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Statistically significant weighted mean effect sizes favored native test takers in mathematics , reading , and science . Effects of moderators differed across content areas. Our analyses have the potential to contribute to the literature about how variation in the immigrant achievement gap relates to different national-level factors.

/pdf/a-quantitative-synthesis-of-the-immigrant-achievement-gap-rwxcf719w3.pdf

A quantitative synthesis of the immigrant achievement gap across OECD countries

PURPOSE
Journals have begun to expand the racial diversity of editors as a first step to countering institutional racism. Given the power editors hold as gatekeepers, a diverse team helps ensure that minoritized scholars have equal opportunity to contribute. In 2021, Teaching and Learning in Medicine (TLM) created an editorial internship for racially minoritized individuals. This study examines the first 6 months of this program to better understand its creation and initial successes.


METHOD
The authors employed critical collaborative autoethnography, a qualitative methodology, focusing on the underlying assumptions around power and hierarchy that are implicit in the design and implementation of the TLM internship. Participants included 13 TLM editorial board members (10 internship selection committee members, 3 mentors, 2 independent researchers), 3 external selection committee members, and 3 interns, with some holding multiple roles. Ten participants served as authors of this report. Data included archival emails, planning documents, and focus groups. The initial analysis explored what happened and how and was followed by a thematic analysis in which participants reflected on their responsibility for implementing an antiracist program.


RESULTS
While the program developed interns' editorial skills, which they greatly valued, and diversified the TLM editorial board, it did not achieve the goal of fostering antiracism. Mentors focused on conducting joint peer reviews with interns, assuming that racial experiences can and should be separate from the editorial process, thus working within, rather than trying to change, the existing racist system.


CONCLUSIONS
Given these findings, greater structural change is needed to disrupt the existing racist system. These experiences underscore the importance of recognizing the harmful impact a race-neutral lens can have on antiracist efforts. Moving forward, TLM will implement lessons learned ahead of offering the internship again with the goal of creating the transformative change intended with the creation of the program.

Editors as Gatekeepers: One Medical Education Journal's Efforts to Resist Racism in Scholarly Publishing.

Enacting a Counterspace to Advise TLM's Global Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Effort.

Abstract Background We examine the sensitivity of the Heyneman-Loxley Effect to the influence of an error-prone family background measure in 15 education systems from Southern and Eastern Africa. Our aim is to revisit a claim by Abby Riddell from the November 1989 issue of the Comparative Education Review concerning the reliability of family background measures and the estimation of the Heyneman-Loxley Effect. Three questions guide our study: does national income have an association with the reliability of a family background measure, is the association between a family background measure and student achievement sensitive to measurement error, and is the association between national income and the school effect sensitive to measurement error? Methods Our analysis relies on the SACMEQ III data archive and, most importantly, a known error-prone family background measure (i.e., socioeconomic status index) and its corresponding measurement error (i.e., conditional standard error of measurement). For each SACMEQ III education system, we calculate the reliability of the socioeconomic status index and examine its association with national income. We use a Bayesian multilevel regression model to estimate naive and correction parameters representing the association between the socioeconomic status index and student achievement. Finally, we explore the associations between national income and the naive and correction estimates for the school effect across SACMEQ III education systems. Results We observe three results. First, the association between national income and the reliability of the socioeconomic status index appears negative among SACMEQ III education systems (albeit questionable due to the small n-size and influential outliers). Second, the association between the socioeconomic status index and student achievement is sensitive to measurement error across content areas and SACMEQ III education systems. Third and finally, the association between national income and the school effect is insensitive to measurement error across content areas and SACMEQ III education systems. Conclusions Throughout our study, we discuss measurement error, its consequences, and why the correction of error-prone family background measures is important. We highlight the need for auxiliary information for measurement error correction (e.g., reliability ratio, conditional standard error of measurement). Lastly, in addition to encouraging the correction of error-prone family background measures when attempting to replicate the Heyneman-Loxley Effect, we invite further research on improving the reliability and comparability of family background measures. 

https://largescaleassessmentsineducation.springeropen.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s40536-022-00139-3

Student achievement, school quality, and an error-prone family background measure: exploring the sensitivity of the Heyneman-Loxley effect in Southern and Eastern Africa

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A quantitative synthesis of the immigrant achievement gap across OECD countries

Editors as Gatekeepers: One Medical Education Journal's Efforts to Resist Racism in Scholarly Publishing.

Enacting a Counterspace to Advise TLM's Global Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Effort.

Student achievement, school quality, and an error-prone family background measure: exploring the sensitivity of the Heyneman-Loxley effect in Southern and Eastern Africa