School Size, Student Achievement, and the "Power Rating" of Poverty: Substantive Finding or Statistical Artifact?

Creator

Theodore Coladarci

Files

Publisher

Arizona State University, University of South Florida

Publication Date

November 2006

Abstract

The proportion of variance in student achievement that is explained by student SES—“poverty’s power rating,” as some call it—tends to be lower among smaller schools than among larger schools. Smaller schools, many claim, are able to somehow disrupt the seemingly axiomatic association between SES and student achievement. Using eighth-grade data for 216 public schools in Maine, I explored the hypothesis that this in part is a statistical artifact of the greater volatility (lower reliability) of school-aggregated student achievement in smaller schools. ...

Keywords

Socioeconomic status, Rural education, Academic achievement

Extent

26

Geographic Location

Maine

Volume

14

Issue

28

Language

English; Spanish

Media Type

Journals (Periodicals)

Format

Digital Only

Note

Citation: Coladarci, T. (2006). School size, student achievement, and the “power rating” of poverty: Substantive finding or statistical artifact?. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 14(28). Retrieved [date] from http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v14n28/

Identifier

E11-00501

Creative Commons

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Coladarci, Theodore, "School Size, Student Achievement, and the "Power Rating" of Poverty: Substantive Finding or Statistical Artifact?" (2006). Education Policy Analysis Archives (EPAA). 215.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/usf_EPAA/215