David T. Burkam

Dropping Out of High School: The Role of School Organization and Structure

In this study, we explore how high schools, through their structures and organization, may influence students’ decisions to stay in school or drop out. Traditional explanations for dropout behavior have focused on students’ social background and academic behaviors. What high schools might do to push out or hold students has received less empirical scrutiny. Using a sample of 3,840 students in 190 urban and suburban high schools from the High School Effectiveness Supplement of the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988, we apply multilevel methods to explore schools’ influence on dropping out, taking into account students’ academic and social background. Our findings center on schools’ curriculum, size, and social relations. In schools that offer mainly academic courses and few nonacademic courses, students are less likely to drop out. Similarly, students in schools enrolling fewer than 1,500 students more often stay in school. Most important, students are less likely to drop out of high schools where relationships between teachers and students are positive. The impact of positive relations, however, is contingent on the organizational and structural characteristics of high schools.

Social-Class Differences in Summer Learning Between Kindergarten and First Grade: Model Specification and Estimation

Sociologists suggest that children from socially advantaged families continue to learn during the summer, whereas children from disadvantaged families learn either little or lose ground. This disparity in summer learning is hypothesized to result from differential participation in educationally beneficial summer activities. In this article, we test this theory with current and nationally representative data, the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten Cohort. We examine how childrens socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with their learning of literacy, mathematics, and general knowledge over the summer between kindergarten and the first grade. We also explore whether social-background differences in learning are explained by differential participation rates in summer activities. Our analytic models adjust for discrepancies between the timing of assessments and the timing of schools closing for the summer and opening in the fall. Much of the observed gain results from time in school. Nonetheless, social stratification characterizes summer learning between kindergarten and the first grade, with higher-SES children learning more. However, these social-background differences are only modestly explained by the activities in which children participate during the summer months.

Gender and Science Learning Early in High School: Subject Matter and Laboratory Experiences

This study used a large and nationally representative, longitudinal database, NELS:88, to identify important factors related to gender differences in 10th-grade science performance. It built on an earlier study focusing on 8th-grade science performance, wherein gender differences were found to be related to (a) subject matter (life versus physical science), (b) student ability level, and (c) frequency of hands-on lab opportunities. The moderate unadjusted advantage for 8th-grade boys on the physical science test widened by the 10th grade. The gender differences were smaller on the life science test and favored males among students of average and above-average ability and females among the less able students. Hands-on lab activities—relatively infrequent in high school science classes—continued to be related to all students’ performance, but especially to girls’. These findings suggest the importance of the active involvement of students in the science classroom as a means to promote gender equity. Implications for the underrepresentation of women in physical science careers are discussed.

Explaining Girls’ Advantage in Kindergarten Literacy Learning: Do Classroom Behaviors Make a Difference?

This study investigated gender differences in kindergarteners’ literacy skills, specifically, whether differences in children’s classroom behaviors explained females’ early learning advantage. Data included information on 16,883 kindergartners (8,701 boys and 8,182 girls) from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohort of 1998–1999 (ECLS‐K). The ECLS‐K directly assessed children’s cognitive skills and collected extensive data on children’s sociodemographic and behavioral backgrounds through structured telephone interviews with parents and written surveys with children’s teachers. Findings suggested that not only did girls enter kindergarten with somewhat stronger literacy skills but they also learned slightly more than boys over the kindergarten year. Taking into account teachers’ reports of girls’ more positive learning approaches (e.g., attentiveness, task persistence) explained almost two‐thirds of the female advantage in literacy learning. Accounting for boys’ more prevalent external behavior problems, thought by many to explain girls’ advantage in literacy development, did little to diminish the gender gap.

Full-Day versus Half-Day Kindergarten: In Which Program Do Children Learn More?

Do children learn more in full‐day kindergartens than half‐day programs? If full‐day kindergarten increases learning, are kindergartners in some schools particularly advantaged by their full‐day experience? We address these questions with a nationally representative sample of over 8,000 kindergartners and 500 U.S. public schools that participated in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten Cohort. More than half of kindergartners experience full‐day programs, which are most commonly available to less‐advantaged children. Using multilevel (HLM) methods, we show that children who attend schools that offer full‐day programs learn more in literacy and mathematics than their half‐day counterparts. We also explore differential effectiveness in some school settings.

The differential effects of repeating kindergarten

We use the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study to investigate national patterns addressing (a) who repeats kindergarten, and (b) the subsequent cognitive effects of this event. Using OLS regression techniques, we investigate 1st-time kindergartners who are promoted, 1st-time kindergartners who are retained, and children who are already repeating kindergarten. Boys, children from low socioeconomic backgrounds, and children who enter kindergarten younger than typical age standards are consistently at risk for repeating kindergarten, but racial/ethnic patterns differ across the 2 cohorts of kindergarten repeaters. Evidence suggests that repeating kindergarten rarely leads to cognitive benefits in literacy or mathematics performance. On average, kindergarten repeaters continue to perform below their peers in terms of literacy skills both at the end of kindergarten and at the end of first grade (effect size [ES] = −0.20 and −0.24, respectively). In mathematics, the performance differentials are smaller but remain statistically significant. Evidence suggests that these differences vary somewhat by childrens background and the school setting. Most children appear to receive little or no cognitive benefit from repeating kindergarten, suggesting the need for a careful reconsideration of current retention practices.

Effects of Monotone and Nonmonotone Attrition on Parameter Estimates in Regression Models With Educational Data Demographic Effects on Achievement, Aspirations, and Attitudes

Using the High School and Beyond longitudinal study, we investigate the participation patterns across four waves of data. Because nonrespondents from one wave are recontacted at subsequent waves, both monotone and nonmonotone attrition patterns arise. We discuss correlates of these two types of attrition in an attempt to describe individuals who may be at-risk of attrition. Gender and incomplete participation in the base-year (respondents who exhibit item nonresponse on key variables) are important predictors of later attrition. Estimated effects of monotone and nonmonotone attrition on parameter estimates in regression models suggest that certain demographic effects will be biased due to sample attrition. The evidence for bias is neither pervasive nor consistent, but suggests a systematic inflation of the Black-White achievement disparity.

School Grade Span and Kindergarten Learning

Using a nationally representative sample of over 12,000 children and nearly 750 schools from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—kindergarten cohort and hierarchical linear modeling, we investigated the association between literacy and mathematics learning and grade configuration. Preprimary schools—those spanning only preschool through kindergarten—comprise over 12% of U.S. schools that offer kindergarten. These schools tend to be nonpublic, have smaller kindergarten enrollments, and attract more affluent and more academically prepared children than public primary and elementary schools. Despite the initial social and academic advantages of children attending preprimary schools, results indicated that kindergartners in these schools learned significantly less in mathematics and reading over the school year than kindergarten children in differently configured schools, even when children’s social and academic backgrounds were taken into account, as well as the structural, social, and academic composition of their schools. Referencing research on grade span and school transitions, we suggest that the influence of grade configuration on student achievement may be mediated by circumscribed opportunities for kindergartners to interact with older children and for kindergarten teachers to align their instruction and curriculum with first‐grade teachers’ expectations.