Big Data Seminar: Inequality mechanisms reduce overall learning: Family inequality, school inequalit

10:30-11:30,11 Jan 2017

Taipo Campus: D1-LP-08

Professor Ming Ming Chiu

Micro-economic mechanisms can explain how family and school inequalities are related to students’ mathematics achievement. Multilevel analyses of 2009 PISA data from 475,760 fifteen-year-olds in 65 countries showed that students had lower mathematics achievement in countries with greater family inequality (GDP Gini) or school inequalities (of educational materials, teacher quality, or rich vs. poor schoolmates). Robustness testing of student subsamples (high vs. low SES; high vs. low achievement) showed similar results; notably the richest students also had lower mathematics achievement in countries with greater family or school inequalities. The results suggest that these inequalities might operate through different mechanisms: a) family inequality via fewer educational resources and via inefficient resource allocation, (b) school inequality of teacher quality via fewer educational resources, and (c) the school inequality of educational material results via inefficient resource allocation.