A longitudinal study of a state-wide reading assessment: the importance of early achievement and socio-demographic factors
Eliminating inequity in public education is a central goal of the No Child left Behind (NCLB) act. Controlling for 3rd-grade performance, the impact of English language learner (ELL) status, socioeconomic status (SES), and special education (SPED) status on a cohort’s reading
performance was investigated from elementary to high school through a multilevel framework. Results in Hawaii show that the negative impact of low SES and SPED status persists up to high school, while the disadvantage of ELL status is restricted within the elementary grades. Moreover, individual
characteristics, not school characteristics, have a dominant impact on future reading performance. Among individual characteristics, early performance is a crucial factor for future academic achievement. The findings show that educational policies that use incentives and sanctions such as
NCLB to close achievement gaps may not be successful.
Keywords: early achievement; longitudinal; multilevel; reading; socio-demographic factors
Document Type: Research Article
Affiliations: Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL), Honolulu,HI, USA
Publication date: 01 January 2013
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