TY - JOUR
T1 - Estimating Cognitive gaps between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians
AU - Leigh, Andrew
AU - Gong, Xiaodong
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - Improving cognitive skills of young children has been suggested as a possible strategy for equalising opportunities across racial groups. Using data on four and five year olds in the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Children, we focus on two cognitive tests: the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, and the 'Who Am I?' test. We estimate the test score gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous children to be about 0.3-0.4 standard deviations, suggesting that the typical Indigenous five year old has a similar test score to the typical non-Indigenous four year old. Between one-third and two-thirds of the Indigenous/non-Indigenous test score gap appears to be due to socio-economic differences, such as income and parental education. We review the literature on test score differences in Australia, and observe that our estimated gaps are lower than most of those found in the literature. This implies that the test score gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous children may widen during school years, a finding that has implications for policies aimed at improving educational opportunities for Indigenous children.
AB - Improving cognitive skills of young children has been suggested as a possible strategy for equalising opportunities across racial groups. Using data on four and five year olds in the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Children, we focus on two cognitive tests: the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, and the 'Who Am I?' test. We estimate the test score gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous children to be about 0.3-0.4 standard deviations, suggesting that the typical Indigenous five year old has a similar test score to the typical non-Indigenous four year old. Between one-third and two-thirds of the Indigenous/non-Indigenous test score gap appears to be due to socio-economic differences, such as income and parental education. We review the literature on test score differences in Australia, and observe that our estimated gaps are lower than most of those found in the literature. This implies that the test score gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous children may widen during school years, a finding that has implications for policies aimed at improving educational opportunities for Indigenous children.
U2 - 10.1080/09645290802069418
DO - 10.1080/09645290802069418
M3 - Article
SN - 0964-5292
VL - 17
SP - 239
EP - 261
JO - Education Economics
JF - Education Economics
IS - 2
ER -