Some additional plots of within school achievement gaps

In a prior post I compared the performance of various ethnic groups directly against each other within the same schools.  That method has the advantage of reducing the effect of racial/ethnic composition from influencing the apparent relationship between each groups performance within school environments.  However, there aren’t always enough of both groups to clear the minimum reporting requirements for student privacy and the school average is a better indicator of “school quality” in some peoples’ minds.  Below I simply took the reported average for all students on the x-axis so that I could compare multiple groups at once.

I do not believe that this is a particularly good way to view the data, since it’s confounded by racial/ethnic composition and sorting by education levels (despite the obvious correlation), but if you do happen to think that the average score is a particularly good measure of “school quality” this approach might be eye opening.

I also plotted this same data for poor and non-poor blacks and whites and (all race/ethnic) scores by parental education level below.  You’ll need to scroll down a ways to see it though.

English

English Grade 2

English Grade 4

English Grade 6

English Grade 8

English Grade 10

English Grade 11

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Maths

Math Grade 2

Math Grade 4

Math Grade 6

Math Grade 7

Math summative (grade 9-11)

Algebra I

Algebra II

Geometry

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Sciences

Science Grade 5

Science Grade 8

Science Grade 10

Physics

Earth Science

Biology

Chemistry

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History

U.S. History

World History

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Some black & white comparisons with SES measures

Math Grade 2

Math Grade 6

Math Grade 7

Math Summative

Algebra II

English Grade 2

English Grade 6

English Grade 9English Grade 11

U.S. History

PhysicsYou might notice that within similarly ranked schools poor whites generally perform at least as well as non-poor blacks (save mainly early elementary school subjects).

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Some comparisons by parental education levels (all races/ethnicities included)

English Grade 2

English Grade 4

English Grade 6
English Grade 8

English Grade 10 English Grade 11

U.S. History

Math Grade 2 Math Grade 4 Math Grade 6 Math grade 7 Math summative (grades 9-11)

Algebra I Algebra II PhysicsScience Grade 5
Science Grade 8 Science Grade 10

You might note that the better the average score the larger the apparent difference between education levels.  This “effect” is probably somewhat real, but it is likely confounded by race/ethnicity too, as in, the “educated” on the left side of the distribution are apt to be proportionately more black and latino than on the right side.  There are also meaningful differences in the academic rigor behind different levels of credentials (e.g., CalTech physics PhD  != 3rd tier U. education PhD) and people sort along these lines within and between school districts.