The Relationship Between Diversity and School-Level Academic Achievement

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The Relationship Between Diversity and School-Level Academic Achievement University of Louisville ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository Electronic Theses and Dissertations 8-2017 Diversity for diversity's sake? The relationship between diversity and school-level academic achievement. Richard Aaron Wisman University of Louisville Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd Part of the Educational Leadership Commons Recommended Citation Wisman, Richard Aaron, "Diversity for diversity's sake? The relationship between diversity and school-level academic achievement." (2017). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 2786. https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/2786 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has retained all other copyrights. For more information, please contact [email protected]. DIVERSITY FOR DIVERSITY’S SAKE? THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DIVERSITY AND SCHOOL-LEVEL ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT By Richard Aaron Wisman B.S., University of Louisville, 2009 M.A.T., University of the Cumberlands, 2012 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the College of Education and Human Development of the University of Louisville In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education in Education Leadership and Organizational Development Department of Education Leadership, Evaluation, and Organizational Development University of Louisville Louisville, KY August 2017 Copyright 2017 by Richard Aaron Wisman All rights reserved DIVERSITY FOR DIVERSITY’S SAKE? THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DIVERSITY AND SCHOOL-LEVEL ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT By Richard Aaron Wisman B.S., University of Louisville, 2009 M.A.T., University of the Cumberlands, 2012 A Dissertation Approved on June 19, 2017 by the following Dissertation Committee: _______________________________________________ Dissertation Director W. Kyle Ingle ______________________________________________ Marco A. Muñoz ______________________________________________ Blake Haselton ______________________________________________ Deborah Powers ii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my wife, children, and mother Damian Lea Wisman Ella Monroe Wisman Samuel Aiden Wisman and Selena Broyles Wisman, from whom I have learned much about persistence. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Above all else, I would like to acknowledge the love of my wife and children, who continuously supported and encouraged me throughout this doctoral journey. None of this would have been possible without their love and support. Secondly, I must declare the importance of the intensive supports provided by my mentors, Dr. Kyle Ingle and Dr. Marco Muñoz. It would not be possible to over emphasize the importance of their wisdom, support, encouragement, and the clarity, richness, and timeliness of their critical feedback on this dissertation and many other works for which they have served as close mentors. It is to Drs. Ingle and Muñoz that I owe my sense of self-efficacy as an emerging educational researcher. Next, I wish to acknowledge Dr. Deborah Powers for her critical friendship and encouragement; I owe my sense of self-efficacy as an educational leader, largely, to her. Finally, on the support of Dr. Blake Haselton, I am greatly indebted for his insight and expertise in the historical and political context of the present study. iv ABSTRACT DIVERSITY FOR DIVERSITY’S SAKE? THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DIVERSITY AND SCHOOL-LEVEL ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT Richard Aaron Wisman June 19, 2017 There is contention among researchers about how to best operationalize socioeconomic status (SES). This study seeks to provide an explicit definition of one metric of socioeconomic status, the diversity index (DI) of Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) and investigates its efficacy at predicting the aggregate academic achievement of students within a school, relative to other common metrics of SES which are analogous to components of the DI. Another purpose of this study is to investigate possible peer effects of socioeconomic diversity on low SES students. This study utilizes a correlational – multiple regression approach to explore relationships among study variables and to test two competing theories on the relationship between socioeconomic diversity and academic achievement of low SES students. As American educational aims are arguably shifting and its courts seem to be losing interest in mandating desegregation in schools, implications of resegregation must be considered. If not, then arguments for structuring within-school diversity might be misconstrued as doing so for the sake of diversity itself. Implications for practice and future research are discussed. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iv ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ v LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... ix CHAPTER I ........................................................................................................................ 1 Rationale for the Study .................................................................................................... 3 Theoretical Dispositions .................................................................................................. 6 Statement of the Purpose and Research Questions ......................................................... 7 Study Hypotheses ............................................................................................................ 8 Research Design and Data Sources ............................................................................... 10 Assumptions and Limitations of the Study ................................................................... 11 Definitions of Key Terms .............................................................................................. 12 Organization of the Study ............................................................................................. 14 CHAPTER II ..................................................................................................................... 16 Challenges in Urban Education Environments ............................................................. 19 A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Diversity ............................................... 20 Conceptualizing Socioeconomic Status ........................................................................ 25 Conceptualizing Academic Achievement ..................................................................... 30 On the Relationship between SES and Achievement.................................................... 34 The Theoretical Framework of Lam (2014) .............................................................. 34 Cosmopolitan Environments. .................................................................................... 35 Peer Effects on Academic Achievement ....................................................................... 37 A Summary of Literature Review Findings .................................................................. 43 CHAPTER III ................................................................................................................... 46 The Context of the Study .............................................................................................. 47 vi Restatement of the Research Questions ........................................................................ 50 Research Design and Statistical Procedures.................................................................. 51 Study Hypotheses .......................................................................................................... 54 Independent Variables ................................................................................................... 57 Covariates ...................................................................................................................... 63 Dependent Variables ..................................................................................................... 65 Study Limitations and Delimitations............................................................................. 66 CHAPTER IV ................................................................................................................... 69 Descriptive Analysis ..................................................................................................... 69 Correlational Analysis ................................................................................................... 74 The Relationship between Diversity and School-Level Academic Achievement ........ 80 Research Question 1. ................................................................................................. 80 Research Question 2. ................................................................................................. 85 Low SES Students’ Achievement Growth across Diversity Contexts ........................ 104 Research Question
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