Socioeconomic Segregation within Elementary School Classrooms and Teachers' Own Socioeconomic Background: Some Contrary Evidence.

Several Methodological problems characterize the large number of studies of the relationship between students' socioeconomic background and their group or "track" placement in schools. Thus the degree of SES segregation resulting from instructional grouping in schools is unclear. One purpose of this study was to construct an alternative index to measure segregation directly, and to compare the results obtained under it with those obtained using a measure based on proportions. A second purpose was to examine the extent to which segregation was increased as a consequence of teacher judgments entering into grouping decisions. Also, an hypothesis relating teachers' own SES backgrounds to SES segregation was examined. Data on reading grouping were collected in 38 fourth, fifth and sixth grade classrooms in four school districts in central New York State. 114 reading groups based on a total of 914 students were included in the study. In an interviewing situation, teachers were asked to recommend to the following year's teacher an appropriate reading group placement for each of their students. Student scores on the comprehension portion of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills were collected, and a modified version of "The Home Index" was administered to each student to obtain an SES score. (Author/JM)