Literature Review Blog #3

Lit Review Blog #3

'Are Socioeconomically Integrated Schools Equally Effective for Advantaged and Disadvantaged Students?'

Guillermo Montt

http://resolver.ebscohost.com/openurl?sid=EBSCO:eric&genre=article&issn=00104086&ISBN=&volume=60&issue=4&date=20161101&spage=808&pages=808-832&title=Comparative%20Education%20Review&atitle=Are%20Socioeconomically%20Integrated%20Schools%20Equally%20Effective%20for%20Advantaged%20and%20Disadvantaged%20Students%3F&aulast=Montt%2C%20Guillermo&id=DOI:

Citation: Montt, Guillermo. "Are Socioeconomically Integrated Schools Equally Effective for Advantaged and Disadvantaged Students?." Comparative Education Review, vol. 60, no. 4, 01 Nov.2016, pp. 808-832. EBSCOhost, login.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1118402&site=eds-live.

Author, Guillermo Montt, pictured above. Source: http://kellogg.nd.edu/students/grad/montt.shtml

This study discusses the differences in achievement levels between low-SES and high-SES students, and how integration of the two in academic settings can be beneficial. The benefits of having low-SES students attend schools in high-SES neighborhoods, rather than their own, include a decrease in the achievement gap between low and high. A potential con, however, is that integrating low-SES students into high-SES student school systems can bring down the overall level of achievement because it lowers the achievement of high-SES students. Montt found that integrating low-SES students into more advantaged school systems benefits those lower income students, but poses a disadvantage for the high-SES students already in attendance. 

Guillermo Mont was born in Santiago, Chile, where he later studied sociology and statistics at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. He is now following doctoral studies in sociology at Notre Dame. Montt is interested in the sociology of education and comparative education, more specifically studying educational inequality across school systems.

Key terms:

- SES: socioeconomic status; a sociological and economic combined total measure of a person's work experience, and of an individual's or family's economic and social position in relation to others, based on income, education, and occupation. 

- PISA: Program for International Student Assessment, a worldwide study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) of member and non-member nations of 15-year old school students' scholastic performance on mathematics, science, and reading. 

Quotes relating to topic: 

- "The results presented above show that, in general, attending a socioeconomically integrated school yields higher achievement for disadvantaged students but an equal achievement loss to advantaged students when compared to disadvantaged students attending disadvantaged schools and advantaged students attending advantaged schools." (828)

- "Results show that there is no organizational “silver bullet” that simultaneously enhances the gain to disadvantaged students while mitigating the loss to advantaged students" (829)

- "Most countries are located in the lower-right quadrant of figure 3, indicating that disadvantaged students gain from attending integrated schools but advantaged students suffer a loss by attending such schools. The results imply that countries do not generally have a win-win situation." (831)

 This source is valuable in helping me to refine my research topic, by helping me to explore possible solutions to the socioeconomic issues that students face. It also shows me that the solution to these problems are not always so clear cut, and are often times, difficult to ease without creating some other type of problem. Because one of the solutions presented in the study, integrating low-SES students into better school systems also posed issues. the question is to integrate or not to integrate? This is something I would like to explore in my paper, and perhaps offer some type of solution for.