Tyler: Projects
Documenting and Explaining Racial Differences in Noncognitive Skills
A well established literature has documented a troubling and persistent black-white “test score gap.” One reason for concern over the racial test-score gap is the existence of an equally well established literature linking the cognitive skills measured on these tests to later education and earnings.[1] Meanwhile, an emerging line of research has focused on the importance of individual behaviors, attitudes, and traits that are conceptually distinct from cognitive skills. Research on these so called “noncognitive skills” shows that factors such as motivation, organizational ability, leadership, and attitudes about self-efficacy are important predictors of educational attainment and earnings in their own right.
Taken together, these three literature strands cause one to ask whether there might be racial differences in noncognitive skills similar to what is found for test scores. This as yet unanswered question provides the rationale for this project and suggests these specific research questions:
- Is there a black-white noncognitive skills gap at high school entry?
- If so, what are the direction and magnitude of any differences and for what types of noncognitive skills do we observe racial differences?
- To what extent do factors such as family background and differences in the kinds of schools that black and white students attend help to explain any observed racial differences in noncognitive skills?
- Do observed racial noncognitive skill “gaps” close or widen during the high school years?
[1] For a summary of the literature and issues surrounding the “black-white test score gap” see Jencks and Phillips (1998). Fryer and Levitt (2002) provide an update on the topic for the early elementary years. Papers in the literature linking test scores to later earnings include Murnane et al. (2000, 1995), Tyler (2004) and Neal and Johnson (1996).