What is schools’ role in the stratification system? One view is that schools are an important mechanism for perpetuating inequality because children from advantaged backgrounds (white and high socioeconomic) enjoy better school learning environments than their disadvantaged peers. But it is difficult to know this with confidence because children’s development is a product of both school and nonschool factors, making it a challenge to isolate school’s role. A novel approach for isolating school effects is to estimate the difference in learning when school is in versus out, what is called impact. Scholars employing this strategy have come to a remarkable conclusion—that schools serving disadvantaged children produce as much learning as those serving advantaged children. The empirical basis for this position is modest, however, and so we address several shortcomings of the previous research by analyzing a nationally representative sample of about 3,500 children in 270 schools from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten Cohort of 2011. With more comprehensive data and better scales, we also find no difference in impact on reading scores across schools serving poor or black children versus those serving nonpoor or white children. These patterns challenge the view that differences in school quality play an important role shaping achievement gaps and prompt us to reconsider theoretical positions regarding schools and inequality.

中文翻译：

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学校质量的分布：服务于白人和高SES儿童的学校学习最多吗？

学校在分层体系中的作用是什么？一种观点认为，学校是消除不平等现象的一种重要机制，因为背景优越的儿童（白人和社会经济地位较高的儿童）比处境不利的同龄人享有更好的学校学习环境。但是，很难自信地知道这一点，因为儿童的成长是学校因素和非学校因素共同作用的产物，这对孤立学校的作用提出了挑战。隔离学校影响的一种新颖方法是估算入学与出学之间学习的差异，即所谓的影响。采用这种策略的学者得出了一个非凡的结论：为弱势儿童服务的学校与为弱势儿童服务的学校一样多。但是，此职位的经验基础不大，因此，我们通过分析2011年《儿童早期纵向研究-幼儿园队列》中270所学校中约3500名儿童的全国代表性样本，来解决先前研究的一些不足。有了更全面的数据和更优的尺度，我们也没有发现影响力在为贫困或黑人儿童服务的学校与为非贫困或白人儿童服务的学校的阅读分数上。这些模式挑战着这样的观点，即学校质量的差异在形成成就差距方面起着重要作用，促使我们重新考虑关于学校和不平等的理论立场。有了更全面的数据和更好的量表，我们也发现，服务贫困或黑人孩子的学校与服务于非贫困或白人孩子的学校对阅读成绩的影响没有差异。这些模式挑战着这样的观点，即学校质量的差异在形成成就差距方面起着重要作用，促使我们重新考虑关于学校和不平等的理论立场。有了更全面的数据和更好的量表，我们也发现，服务贫困或黑人孩子的学校与服务于非贫困或白人孩子的学校对阅读成绩的影响没有差异。这些模式挑战着这样的观点，即学校质量的差异在形成成就差距方面起着重要作用，促使我们重新考虑关于学校和不平等的理论立场。