Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Foundation Website
  • Journal Home
  • Issues
    • Current Issue
    • All Issues
    • Future Issues
  • For Authors and Editors
    • Overview of RSF & How to Propose an Issue
    • RSF Style and Submission Guidelines
    • Article Submission Checklist
    • Permission Request
    • Terms of Contributor Agreement Form and Transfer of Copyright
    • RSF Contributor Agreement Form
    • Issue Editors' Agreement Form
  • About the Journal
    • Mission Statement
    • Editorial Board
    • Comments and Replies Policy
    • Journal Code of Ethics
    • Current Calls for Articles
    • Closed Calls for Articles
    • Abstracting and Indexing
    • Privacy Policy
    • Copyright and ISSN Information
    • Terms of Use
    • Contact Us
  • Publications
    • rsf

User menu

  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences
  • Publications
    • rsf
  • Log in
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences

Advanced Search

  • Foundation Website
  • Journal Home
  • Issues
    • Current Issue
    • All Issues
    • Future Issues
  • For Authors and Editors
    • Overview of RSF & How to Propose an Issue
    • RSF Style and Submission Guidelines
    • Article Submission Checklist
    • Permission Request
    • Terms of Contributor Agreement Form and Transfer of Copyright
    • RSF Contributor Agreement Form
    • Issue Editors' Agreement Form
  • About the Journal
    • Mission Statement
    • Editorial Board
    • Comments and Replies Policy
    • Journal Code of Ethics
    • Current Calls for Articles
    • Closed Calls for Articles
    • Abstracting and Indexing
    • Privacy Policy
    • Copyright and ISSN Information
    • Terms of Use
    • Contact Us
  • Follow rsf on Twitter
  • Visit rsf on Facebook
  • Follow rsf on Google Plus
Research Article
Open Access

Educational Opportunity in Early and Middle Childhood: Using Full Population Administrative Data to Study Variation by Place and Age

Sean F. Reardon
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences March 2019, 5 (2) 40-68; DOI: https://doi.org/10.7758/RSF.2019.5.2.03
Sean F. Reardon
aEndowed Professor of Poverty and Inequality in Education at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, Stanford University
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • References
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

References

  1. ↵
    1. Abdulkadiroglu, Atila,
    2. Joshua Angrist,
    3. Susan Dynarski,
    4. Thomas J. Kane, and
    5. Parag Pathak
    . 2011. “Accountability and Flexibility in Public Schools: Evidence from Boston’s Charters and Pilots.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 126(2): 699–748.
    OpenUrlCrossRefWeb of Science
  2. ↵
    1. Alexander, Karl L.,
    2. Doris R. Entwisle, and
    3. Linda S. Olson
    . 2001. “Schools, Achievement, and Inequality: A Seasonal Perspective.” Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 23(2): 171–91.
    OpenUrlCrossRefWeb of Science
  3. ↵
    1. Alexander, Karl L.,
    2. Doris R. Entwisle, and
    3. Linda Steffel Olson
    . 2007. “Lasting Consequences of the Summer Learning Gap.” American Sociological Review 72 (April): 167–80.
    OpenUrlCrossRefWeb of Science
  4. ↵
    1. Bloom, Howard S.,
    2. Carolyn J. Hill,
    3. Alison Rebeck Black, and
    4. Mark W. Lipsey
    . 2008. “Performance Trajectories and Performance Gaps as Achievement Effect-Size Benchmarks for Educational Interventions.” Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness 1(4): 289–328.
    OpenUrl
  5. ↵
    1. Bloom, Howard S., and
    2. Rebecca Unterman
    . 2012. “Sustained Positive Effects on Graduation Rates Produced by New York City’s Small Public High Schools of Choice.” New York: MDRC.
  6. ↵
    1. Bond, Timothy N., and
    2. Kevin Lang
    . 2013. “The Black-White Education-Scaled Test-Score Gap in Grades K-7.” NBER working paper no. 19243. Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research.
  7. ↵
    1. Bowles, Samuel, and
    2. Herbert Gintis
    . 1976. Schooling in Capitalist America: Educational Reform and the Contradictions of Economic Life. New York: Basic Books.
  8. ↵
    1. Boyd, Donald,
    2. Hamilton Lankford,
    3. Susanna Loeb, and
    4. James Wyckoff
    . 2005. “Explaining the Short Careers of High-Achieving Teachers in Schools with Low-Performing Students.” American Economic Review 95(2):166–71.
    OpenUrlCrossRefWeb of Science
  9. ↵
    1. Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO
    . 2015. “National Charter School Study.” Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University.
  10. ↵
    1. Chetty, Raj,
    2. John N. Friedman,
    3. Emmanuel Saez,
    4. Nicholas Turner, and
    5. Danny Yagan
    . 2017. “Mobility Report Cards: The Role of Colleges in Intergenerational Mobility.” NBER working paper no. 23618. Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research.
  11. ↵
    1. Chetty, Raj,
    2. Nathaniel Hendren, and
    3. Lawrence F. Katz
    . 2016. “The Effects of Exposure to Better Neighborhoods on Children: New Evidence from the Moving to Opportunity Experiment.” American Economic Review 106(4): 855–902.
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMed
    1. Chetty, Raj,
    2. Nathaniel Hendren,
    3. Patrick Kline, and
    4. Emmanuel Saez
    . 2014. “Where Is the Land of Opportunity? The Geography of Intergenerational Mobility in the United States.” NBER working paper no. 19843. Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research.
  12. ↵
    1. Chingos, Matthew M., and
    2. Kristin Blagg
    . 2017. “Do Poor Kids Get Their Fair Share of School Funding?” Washington, D.C.: Urban Institute.
  13. ↵
    1. Coleman, James S.,
    2. Ernest Q. Campbell,
    3. Carol J. Hobson,
    4. James McPartland,
    5. Alexander M. Mood,
    6. Frederick D. Weinfeld, and
    7. Robert L. York
    . 1966. Equality of Educational Opportunity. Washington: U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of Education.
  14. ↵
    1. Dadey, Nathan, and
    2. Derek C. Briggs
    . 2012. “A Meta-Analysis of Growth Trends from Vertically Scaled Assessments.” Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation 17(14): 1–13.
    OpenUrl
  15. ↵
    1. Darling-Hammond, Linda
    . 1998. “Unequal Opportunity: Race and Education.” Brookings Review 16(2): 28–32.
    OpenUrl
  16. ↵
    1. Dobbie, Will, and
    2. Roland G. Fryer Jr.
    . 2011. “Are High-Quality Schools Enough to Increase Achievement Among the Poor? Evidence from the Harlem Children’s Zone.” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 3(3): 158–87.
    OpenUrlCrossRefWeb of Science
  17. ↵
    1. Downey, Douglas B., and
    2. Dennis J. Condron
    . 2016. “Fifty Years Since the Coleman Report: Rethinking the Relationship Between Schools and Inequality.” Sociology of Education 89(3): 207–20.
    OpenUrlCrossRef
  18. ↵
    1. Downey, Douglas B.,
    2. Paul T. von Hippel, and
    3. Beckett A. Broh
    . 2004. “Are Schools the Great Equalizer? School and Non-School Influences on Socioeconomic and Black/White Gaps in Reading Skills.” American Sociological Review 69(5): 613–35.
    OpenUrlCrossRefWeb of Science
  19. ↵
    1. Duncan, Greg J., and
    2. Jeanne Brooks-Gunn
    . 1997. Consequences of Growing Up Poor. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
  20. ↵
    1. Duncan, Greg J.,
    2. Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, and
    3. Pamela Kato Klebanov
    . 1994. “Economic Deprivation and Early Childhood Development.” Child Development 65(2): 296–318.
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMedWeb of Science
  21. ↵
    1. Duncan, Greg J., and
    2. Katharine A. Magnuson
    . 2016. “Can Early Childhood Interventions Decrease Inequality of Economic Opportunity?” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 2(2): 123–41.
    OpenUrl
  22. ↵
    1. Entwisle, Doris R., and
    2. Karl L. Alexander
    . 1994. “Winter Setback: The Racial Composition of Schools and Learning to Read.” American Sociological Review 59(3): 446–60.
    OpenUrlCrossRefWeb of Science
  23. ↵
    1. Fahle, Erin M.,
    2. Benjamin R. Shear,
    3. Demetra Kalogrides,
    4. Sean F. Reardon,
    5. Richard DiSalvo, and
    6. Andrew D. Ho
    . 2018. “Stanford Education Data Archive: Technical Documentation, Version 2.1.” Center for Education Policy Analysis, Stanford University. Accessed October 10, 2018. https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:db586ns4974/SEDA_documentation_v21.pdf..
  24. ↵
    1. Hanselman, Paul, and
    2. Jeremy E. Fiel
    . 2017. “School Opportunity Hoarding? Racial Segregation and Access to High Growth Schools.” Social Forces 95(3): 1077–104.
    OpenUrl
  25. ↵
    1. Harding, David J
    . 2003. “Counterfactual Models of Neighborhood Effects: The Effect of Neighborhood Poverty on Dropping Out and Teenage Pregnancy.” American Journal of Sociology 109(3): 676–719.
    OpenUrlCrossRef
  26. ↵
    1. Heckman, James,
    2. Rodrigo Pinto, and
    3. Peter Savelyev
    . 2013. “Understanding the Mechanisms Through Which an Influential Early Childhood Program Boosted Adult Outcomes.” American Economic Review 103(6): 2052–86.
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMed
    1. Ho, Andrew D
    . 2008. “The Problem with “Proficiency”: Limitations of Statistics and Policy Under No Child Left Behind.” Educational Researcher 37(6): 351–60.
    OpenUrlCrossRefWeb of Science
    1. Ho, Andrew D
    . 2009. “A Nonparametric Framework for Comparing Trends and Gaps Across Tests.” Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics 34(2): 201–28.
    OpenUrlCrossRefWeb of Science
  27. ↵
    1. Jencks, Christopher
    . 1972. Inequality: A Reassessment of the Effect of Family and Schooling in America. New York: Basic Books.
  28. ↵
    1. Kozol, Jonathan
    . 1967. Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools. New York: Penguin.
  29. ↵
    1. Kozol, Jonathan
    . 1991. Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools. New York: Crown.
  30. ↵
    1. Lankford, Hamilton,
    2. Susanna Loeb, and
    3. James Wyckoff
    . 2002. “Teacher Sorting and the Plight of Urban Schools: A Descriptive Analysis.” Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 24(1): 37–62.
    OpenUrlCrossRefWeb of Science
  31. ↵
    1. Nisbett, Richard E
    . 1998. “Race, Genetics, and IQ.” In The Black-White Test Score Gap, edited by Christopher Jencks and Meredith Phillips. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.
  32. ↵
    1. Nisbett, Richard E
    . 2011. “The Achievement Gap: Past, Present & Future.” Daedalus 140(2): 90–100.
    OpenUrl
  33. ↵
    1. Nisbett, Richard E.,
    2. Joshua Aronson,
    3. Clancy Blair,
    4. William Dickens,
    5. James Flynn,
    6. Diane F. Halpern, and
    7. Eric Turkheimer
    . 2012. “Group Differences in IQ Are Best Understood as Environmental in Origin.” American Psychologist 67(6): 503–04.
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMedWeb of Science
  34. ↵
    1. Phillips, Deborah A., and
    2. Jack P. Shonkoff
    . 2000. From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press.
  35. ↵
    1. Raudenbush, Stephen W., and
    2. Robert D. Eschmann
    . 2015. “Does Schooling Increase or Reduce Social Inequality?” Annual Review of Sociology 41(1): 443–70.
    OpenUrlCrossRef
  36. ↵
    1. Reardon, Sean F
    . 2008. “Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Black-White Test Score Gap.” IREPP working paper. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University.
  37. ↵
    1. Reardon, Sean F
    . 2011. “The Widening Academic Achievement Gap Between the Rich and the Poor: New Evidence and Possible Explanations.” In Whither Opportunity? Rising Inequality, Schools, and Children’s Life Chances, edited by Greg J. Duncan and Richard J. Murnane. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
  38. ↵
    1. Reardon, Sean F.,
    2. Erin M. Fahle,
    3. Demetra Kalogrides,
    4. Anne Podolsky, and
    5. Rosalia Zarate
    . 2018. “Gender Achievement Gaps in US School Districts.” CEPA working paper no. 18-13. Stanford, Calif.: Center for Education Policy Analysis, Stanford University. Accessed October 10, 2018. https://cepa.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/wp18-13-v201806_0.pdf.
    1. Reardon, Sean F.,
    2. Andrew D. Ho,
    3. Benjamin R. Shear,
    4. Erin M. Fahle,
    5. Demetra Kalogrides, and
    6. Richard DiSalvo
    . 2017. “Stanford Education Data Archive, Version 2.1.” Accessed October 10, 2018. http://purl.stanford.edu/db586ns4974..
  39. ↵
    1. Reardon, Sean F.,
    2. Demetra Kalogrides, and
    3. Andrew D. Ho
    . 2016. “Linking U.S. School District Test Score Distributions to a Common Scale, 2009–2013.” CEPA working paper no. 16-09. Stanford, Calif.: Center for Education Policy Analysis, Stanford University. Accessed October 10, 2018. https://cepa.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/wp16-09-v201604.pdf.
  40. ↵
    1. Reardon, Sean F.,
    2. Joseph P. Robinson-Cimpian, and
    3. Ericka S. Weathers
    . 2015. “Patterns and Trends in Racial/Ethnic and Socioeconomic Academic Achievement Gaps.” In Handbook of Research in Education Finance and Policy, edited by Helen Ladd and Margaret Goertz. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.
  41. ↵
    1. Reardon, Sean F.,
    2. Benjamin R. Shear,
    3. Katherine E. Castellano, and
    4. Andrew D. Ho
    . 2017. “Using Heteroskedastic Ordered Probit Models to Recover Moments of Continuous Test Score Distributions from Coarsened Data.” Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics 42(1): 3–45.
    OpenUrl
  42. ↵
    1. Sampson, Robert J.,
    2. Patrick Sharkey, and
    3. Stephen W. Raudenbush
    . 2008. “Durable Effects of Concentrated Disadvantage on Verbal Ability Among African-American Children.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105(3): 845–52.
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
  43. ↵
    1. Shores, Kenneth, and
    2. Matthew Steinberg
    . 2017. “The Impact of the Great Recession on Student Achievement: Evidence from Population Data.” CEPA working paper no. 17-09. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis, Sanford University. Accessed October 10, 2018. https://cepa.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/wp17-09-v201708.pdf..
  44. ↵
    1. Sirin, Selcuk R
    . 2005. “Socioeconomic Status and Academic Achievement: A Meta-Analytic Review of Research.” Review of Educational Research 75(3): 417–53.
    OpenUrlCrossRefWeb of Science
  45. ↵
    1. Sorensen, Lucy C.,
    2. Ashley M. Fox,
    3. Heyjie Jung, and
    4. Erika G. Martin
    . 2018. “Lead Exposure and Academic Achievement: Evidence from Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Efforts.” Journal of Population Economics. Published online May 24, 2018. DOI: 10.1007/s00148-018-0707-y.
    OpenUrlCrossRef
  46. ↵
    1. Torats-Espinosa, Gerard
    . 2018. “Crime and Inequality in Academic Achievement across School Districts in the United States.” Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis, Sanford University. Accessed October 10, 2018. http://cepa.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/torrats-espinosa-seda-crime.pdf..
  47. ↵
    1. Tuttle, Christina Clark,
    2. Philip Gleason, and
    3. Melissa Clark
    . 2012. “Using Lotteries to Evaluate Schools of Choice: Evidence from a National Study of Charter Schools.” Economics of Education Review 31(2): 237–53.
    OpenUrlCrossRef
  48. ↵
    1. von Hippel, Paul T.,
    2. Joseph Workman, and
    3. Douglas B. Downey
    . 2017. “Are Schools (Still) a Great Equalizer? Replicating a Summer Learning Study Using Better Test Scores and a New Cohort of Children.” Social Science Research Network. Accessed October 10, 2018. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3036094..
  49. ↵
    1. Wodtke, Geoffrey T.,
    2. David J. Harding, and
    3. Felix Elwert
    . 2011. “Neighborhood Effects in Temporal Perspective: The Impact of Long-Term Exposure to Concentrated Disadvantage on High School Graduation.” American Sociological Review 76(5): 713–36.
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMedWeb of Science
  50. ↵
    1. Ziol-Guest, Kathleen M., and
    2. Kenneth T.H. Lee
    . 2016. “Parent Income–Based Gaps in Schooling.” AERA Open 2(2): 1–10.
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMed
PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences: 5 (2)
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences
Vol. 5, Issue 2
1 Mar 2019
  • Table of Contents
  • Table of Contents (PDF)
  • Cover (PDF)
  • Index by author
  • Front Matter (PDF)
Print
Download PDF
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Educational Opportunity in Early and Middle Childhood: Using Full Population Administrative Data to Study Variation by Place and Age
(Your Name) has sent you a message from RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
6 + 3 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.
Citation Tools
Educational Opportunity in Early and Middle Childhood: Using Full Population Administrative Data to Study Variation by Place and Age
Sean F. Reardon
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences Mar 2019, 5 (2) 40-68; DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2019.5.2.03

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Share
Educational Opportunity in Early and Middle Childhood: Using Full Population Administrative Data to Study Variation by Place and Age
Sean F. Reardon
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences Mar 2019, 5 (2) 40-68; DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2019.5.2.03
del.icio.us logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Abstract
    • BACKGROUND
    • DATA
    • ANALYTIC SAMPLE
    • DISCUSSION, PART ONE: THE POTENTIAL AND LIMITS OF ADMINISTRATIVE EDUCATION DATA
    • DISCUSSION, PART TWO: THE HETEROGENEITY OF OPPORTUNITY
    • APPENDIX: SCALE SENSITIVITY OF CORRELATIONS BETWEEN GROWTH AND STATUS
    • FOOTNOTES
    • References
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • References
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

Similar Articles

Keywords

  • educational opportunity
  • inequality of opportunity
  • school effects

© 2025 RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences

Powered by HighWire