Neighborhood and School Influences on the Family Life and Mathematics Performance of Eighth-Grade Students. Report No. 54

摘要

In this report we explore ways by which neighborhoods and schools can influence the mathematics achievement of eighth grade students. We use data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS:88) and combine it with U.S. census data at the level of students residential zip codes. These data allow us to simultaneously analyze, for the first time, all aspects of students' lives--their families, neighborhoods, and schools. We propose and find evidence that disadvantages at the neighborhood and school level may place students at risk through a twofold process. First, neighborhood and school characteristics may influence students and their achievement in mathematics. Neighborhoods characterized by concentrated disadvantage and schools characterized by high levels of student poverty and student absenteeism are associated with lower levels of mathematics achievement, net of individual-level background controls. Second, neighborhoods may also affect students' mathematics achievement indirectly by influencing parents' ability to help children succeed in school. Net of individual-level background controls, neighborhood characteristics are associated with five out of our seven indicators of parental involvement, while neighborhood disadvantage mediates the impact of social class background for all parental involvement indicators. Neighborhood characteristics also mediate the impact of some parental involvement indicators on students' mathematics achievement. Parents may be able to overcome, to some degree, neighborhood disadvantages by frequently communicating with their children, closely monitoring their activities, and providing extra learning opportunities for them.