The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

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CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

Educational research often attempts to explain student achievement by estimating the effects of individual ability, home environment, and teacher and school quality (Burkam et al., 2004; Cooper et al., 1996; Entwisle & Alexander, 1992; Ferguson, 1998; Fryer & Levitt, 2002; Goldhaber & Brewer, 2000; Lee & Burkam, 2002; Nye et al., 2004; Reardon, 2003). Rather than isolate what factors account for learning, this report steps back to ask two basic and crucial questions.

First, how much are students learning per grade in reading and mathematics? Second, how do these rates of learning differ for students of different social backgrounds? We address these questions for students in elementary school and high school, taking advantage of two nationally representative, longitudinal datasets sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)—the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K) and the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS:88).

Lessons learned can set benchmarks for researchers interested in experimental and quasi-experimental designs, inform policymakers about the likely impacts of potential policy reforms, and help educators and the general public understand what students and schools can be expected to accomplish in an academic year. In sum, our results will serve as reference points for future research on achievement gains.

The report is organized into six chapters. This first chapter explains the importance of the study and outlines what results are presented. The second chapter presents baseline estimates for how much students learn per grade on average in both reading and math. The third chapter examines the relative learning rates for specific student subgroups (gender, race/ethnicity, language background, and economic status). The fourth chapter explores learning per grade and by subgroup using a different metric than the previous two chapters. The fifth chapter presents results from specialized analyses that re-examine differences in learning rates across time and across subgroups. The sixth and final chapter summarizes the findings and draws implications for research and policy. Appendices document the data and analytic methods used in the report.

Note: This report is available in its entirety in the Portable Document Format (PDF).

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

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