School racial composition and academic performance of african american students in an urban school district

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in the academic performance of economically disadvantaged African-American students attending schools with distinct racial composition in selected inner-city Texas high schools based on the information available in the Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) database. The degree to which certain schools’ racial compositions may impact the achievement of economically disadvantaged African-American students was explored. The study was conducted in order examine the academic performance of economically disadvantaged African-American student groups in three large, comprehensive high schools with distinct ratios of school racial compositions. The analyses of student performance data in these three educational settings over three years offers insight into whether school racial composition affects the academic achievement of economically disadvantaged African-American students. A quantitative, two factor factorial (with repeat on the last factor) design was used to answer the questions posed. A mixed-model analysis of variance (ANOVA) was employed to analyze school and student level differences between the percentage of minority students in a school and the academic outcomes. Specifically, the reading and mathematics TAKS scores of economically disadvantaged African-American students from three high schools with distinct ratios of school racial composition were compared and analyzed. The final sample included 428 African-American students. The first school had a racial composition of 80/20, with African-Americans being the minority. The second school had a balanced racial composition (defined as “30/30/30”), and the third school’s racial composition was 30/70, with African-Americans being the majority. The most important finding in this study is that the differences in the reading and math performance of economically disadvantage African-American high school students attending schools with different racial composition are statistically significant. The researcher observed an increase in the average academic performance of African- American students as the concentration of minority students in the schools was reduced. Although the effect of school racial composition was minimal, the findings indicate that (even after controlling the effects of schools and students’ demographic factors by holding these variables constant) reading and math TAKS scores were consistently higher in the 80/20 school than in the 30/30/30 school, followed by the 30/70 school.