A classic question in sociology is whether test-score gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged children originate inside or outside schools. One approach to this question is to ask: (1) How large are gaps when children enter school? (2) How much do gaps grow later on? (3) Do gaps grow faster during school or during summer? Confusingly, past research has given discrepant answers to these basic questions. We show that questions about gap growth are vulnerable to measurement artifacts. One artifact relates to scaling: gaps appear to grow faster if measurement scales spread with age. Another artifact relates to changes in test form: summer gap growth is hard to estimate if children take different tests in spring and fall. These artifacts may have exaggerated gap growth in some past studies. Net of artifacts, the most replicable finding is that gaps are already large when children enter school and display little net growth later on. It is hard to say unequivocally whether gaps grow faster during the school years or during summer vacations.

中文翻译：

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在学年之前，期间或之间，考试分数差距会增加吗？测量伪像以及尽管我们能知道的

社会学中的一个经典问题是，优势和劣势儿童之间的测验成绩差距是源于学校内部还是外部。解决这个问题的一种方法是问：（1）孩子入学时的差距有多大？（2）以后差距会扩大多少？（3）在学校或暑假期间，差距增长得更快吗？令人困惑的是，过去的研究对这些基本问题给出了不同的答案。我们表明，关于缺口增长的问题很容易受到测量假象的影响。一种人为因素与缩放有关：如果测量比例随着年龄而扩展，差距似乎会更快地增长。另一个人为因素与考试形式的变化有关：如果儿童在春季和秋季进行不同的考试，则很难估计夏季差距的增长。在过去的一些研究中，这些假象可能会夸大间隙的增长。净文物，最可复制的发现是，当孩子上学时的差距已经很大，而后来的净增长却很小。很难明确地说，在学年还是暑假期间，差距增长得更快。