What effect does a student's peer group have on
academic achievement? Most academics recognize that a child's peers
can have an impact on achievement, but the extent of that effect
has been an open question. Further, few studies have focused on
quantifying the academic outcomes associated with the peer
effect.
Children are socialized by the people with
whom they associate; through daily interaction over the course of
many years, acceptable social customs are taught and fostered.
Other children as well as adults can have a great impact on a broad
range of issues in the child's life, including achievement in
school. Understanding the way social interactions affect academic
achievement is important for parents, educators, and policymakers.
In particular, academic achievement and the often corresponding
level of educational attainment tend to predict the
average earnings an individual may secure over a lifetime. For this reason,
isolating the peer effects on academic achievement can make a
significant contribution to the public debate over education
reform.
This
report will briefly discuss the findings of current academic
research on the effects of peers and social interaction on academic
achievement. It will then analyze some of the most recently
released national data and compare the results to the existing
academic literature.
In
analyzing the 1998 National Assessment of Educational Progress
(NAEP) data on reading, this report concludes that:
-
The peer effect is a particularly strong
influence in academic achievement, especially for fourth
graders.
-
The peer effect is independent of other
factors such as race, ethnicity, gender, income, and other
background variables.
- Family background factors such as
household environment and parental education also play an important
role in explaining achievement in both the fourth and eighth
grades.
BACKGROUND
Researchers have been discussing the link
between social interactions among peers in school and academic
outcomes for over 40 years. The extensive
literature notes that a child's peer group influences social and
academic development and that these influences begin at the very
start of formal education. Influences and
motivations for all kinds of children's behavior, including study
habits and personal academic development, come not only from their
peers, but also from their parents, teachers, and others with whom
they come into close contact. Because of the
sheer amount of time the typical child spends each day with his or
her friends, the peer influence on a child can be substantial.
Two
major issues in the literature on the peer effect merit special
mention here: changes in the effect of peers over time and cultural
patterns penalizing academic achievement.
First, some academics argue that peer
effects become more important as time passes, peaking somewhere
during adolescence. At the same time,
children must foster positive peer groups early in order to become
well-adjusted adolescents and adults. Having friends in
school allows the child to learn a host of skills: group
interaction, conflict resolution, and trust building, among
others. Without positive
peer group interactions, serious social problems may develop. Peer
rejection in early childhood and early adolescence, for example, is
a good predictor of social and academic problems later.
The
predictive power is generally indirect; consider, for example, the
case of positive peer relationships. Peer approval leads to a
pro-social behavior in many areas of a child's life, including
academics. This in turn will
tend to affect the self-esteem of the child, which has other social
consequences. The literature on
this issue is extensive, and a number of texts have been written on
the subject.
The
second issue is more troubling. Some literature suggests that there
is a cultural pattern within the African-American and Latino
communities whereby students disparage academic achievement because
it is perceived as "selling out" or "acting
white." In other words,
children in this culture are often ostracized for conforming to the
educational system. This issue is particularly troubling since it
may well explain the differences in academic and career achievement
between whites and minorities.
In
summary, the literature suggests that peer effects become strongest
by early adolescence. Further, the literature indicates that peers
significantly influence all facets of a child's life, including
academic achievement. The model specified below explores both of
these issues, in particular the effect of peers over time and the
denigration of academic achievement by peers.
DATA
CHARACTERISTICS
The
1998 NAEP database on reading was used to test the influences of
peer attitudes on academic achievement. The NAEP, first
administered in 1969, is an examination that measures academic
achievement in a variety of fields, such as reading, writing,
mathematics, science, geography, civics, and the arts. Currently,
the NAEP is administered to fourth, eighth, and 12th grade students
with the main subjects of math and reading alternating every two
years. In 1998, for example, reading was tested; in 1996 and 2000,
math was assessed.
The
NAEP is actually two tests: a nationally administered test and
state-administered tests. Over 40 states participate in the
separate state samples used to gauge achievement within those
individual jurisdictions. For purposes of this study, only the 1998
national data were used.
The
most significant benefit of using the NAEP data is the assortment
of background questions asked of the students taking the exam, as
well as of their main subject-area teacher and school
administrator. The responses gathered from the teachers and school
administrators are linked to the student information, yielding a
rich database of information. Questions are asked on a variety of
topics, including:
By
having these questions incorporated, researchers have been able to
glean a great deal of information relevant to explaining the
differences in NAEP scores.
THE HERITAGE
MODEL
The
purpose of this study is to explain academic achievement by
analyzing six factors: the effect of peers, race and ethnicity,
parents' educational attainment, number of reading materials in the
home, free or reduced price lunch participation, and gender. Using
regression analysis, the effect of each factor can be isolated. The
Heritage model uses a jackknifed ordinary least squares model and looks
at the effects of these factors on the NAEP 1998 reading test's
nationwide sample of public school children.
Independent
Variables
- Peer Effect. The 1998 NAEP asked a
most interesting question to gauge the effect of peers on academic
achievement. The survey asked the child to strongly agree, agree,
disagree, or strongly disagree with the following statement: "My
friends make fun of people who try to do well in school."
This question is particularly useful in
measuring the effect of peers on academic achievement. First, it
focuses on the group of children with which the sampled child most
closely associates. Second, it does not ask whether the child's
friends make fun of him or her, which would be more likely to
elicit a defensive or otherwise inaccurate answer ("My friends do
not make fun of me").
It is important to note that this model
considers the peer effect variable simultaneously with the racial
demographics variable, isolating the effect of each on academic
achievement. Table 1 reports the proportion of children by
race/ethnicity who answer "agree" or "strongly agree" to the peer
effect statement. White fourth grade students are much less likely
to agree with the peer effect statement than non-white fourth grade
students; however, the disparity of responses between white and
non-white students narrows significantly for eighth graders.
-
Race and Ethnicity. Many studies and
reports have demonstrated that African-American and Latino students
tend to do worse on standardized tests than white students over
time (although the gap has generally narrowed over the past 25
years).
There are a number of potential explanations for this. Because
strong differences exist in academic achievement among the races,
the model includes race and ethnicity variables.
-
Parents' Education. Many researchers
have noted that the educational attainment of a child's parents is
a good predictor of the academic achievement of the child. Parents
who are, for instance, college educated could be better equipped to
help children with their homework and the understanding of concepts
than those with less than a high school education, other things
being equal. Because the education level of one parent is often
highly correlated with that of the other, only a single variable is
included in the model below.
-
Number of Reading Materials in the
Home. The existence of books, magazines, encyclopedias, and
newspapers is often a sign of a dedication to learning in the
household. Researchers have determined that these reading materials
are important aspects of the overall home environment. The model
thus includes a variable controlling for the number of the four
types of reading materials found at home.
-
Free/Reduced Price Lunch
Participation. Income is often a key predictor of academic
achievement because low-income families seldom have the resources
to purchase extra study materials or tutorial classes that may help
their children do better in school. The NAEP does not collect data
on household income but does collect data on participation in the
school's free and reduced price lunch program, which are the data
used here.
-
Gender. Research has suggested that on
an empirical level, girls perform better on reading and writing
subjects while boys perform better on the more analytical subjects
of math and science. Many authors have expounded
on this idea, yet the data on the
male-female achievement gap are often inconsistent. For example, in
1998 young men scored higher on both the verbal and quantitative
sections of the Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT) than young women.
Some writers have noted that this may be because of a fundamental
bias against females in our educational system. Another explanation,
however, is that the test results reflect a selection bias in which
more "at-risk" females opt to take the SAT relative to males. In order
to account for this issue, the analysis includes a variable for
gender.
- Omitted variables. Previous research
on peer effects included more family
background variables in the model specification. In the 1998 NAEP
database, however, the only information available on a child's
parents is educational attainment. The NAEP does not ask whether
the child lives with both parents (or parental figures), one
parent, or no parents (i.e., in a group home). Future
administrations of the NAEP test should include this type of
question since a great deal of research has found that having both
parents in the home can improve a child's academic achievement.
RESULTS OF THE
ANALYSIS
Analysis of the data shows that the peer
effect is a strong influence on academic achievement, particularly
at the fourth grade level. Family background characteristics have a
similarly important influence. Both the peer effect and family
background have effects that are independent from the effects of
gender and race and ethnicity.
Charts 1 and 2 show the percent change in
fourth and eighth grade reading scores attributable
to the factors in the model, compared with a base case. The base
case is defined as a child with the following characteristics:
-
Female;
-
Non-poor (i.e., not participating in the
free and reduced price lunch program);
-
Parents who did not attend college;
and
- Has two out of the four possible reading
materials in the home.
A
female child who is not poor (meaning the child is not
participating in the free and reduced price lunch program), whose
parents did not attend college, and who has two out of the four
possible reading materials in the home would score 227.6 points on
the NAEP (out of a maximum of 500) if she is in the fourth grade,
or 260.5 points if she is in the eighth grade. If she were poor,
black, Hispanic, or male, her score would drop on average, while if
her home had more than two reading materials, or if her parents had
taken any college-level courses, her score would increase.
Peer
Effects
Perhaps the most interesting result is
that the peer variable has as large an effect as the racial
demographics variables for fourth graders. The typical fourth
grader would see her score drop some 19 points, or just under 8.5
percent, if her peers made fun of academic achievers. This result
is independent of the effect of the other factors in the model,
including race, income, parental education, home reading materials,
and gender. For the typical eighth grader, NAEP scores drop by only
about 2.7 percent, making the variable relatively weaker in
explaining differences in reading achievement.
This
relative drop in the peer effect variable from the fourth to the
eighth grade (from 8.5 percent to 2.7 percent) is surprising in
light of other education research. For example, one researcher
argues that peer pressure influences tend to peak between the
eighth and ninth grades. This analysis leads to the
expectation that the achievement gap should widen, not collapse, as
a result of the peer effect between the fourth and eighth
grades.
There are two possible explanations for
the diminishing peer effects. First, older students may mask their
academic achievement from their friends. That is, peers do not
necessarily know exactly what grades their friends achieve or how
much time they spend on homework in any given week. Thus,
individual students may be able to give their peers a false
impression of their academic performance, especially as they reach
adolescence. Although peer pressure could generally increase,
students may be able to avoid academic pressure more easily.
Second, adolescent peer pressure may focus
on extracurricular behavior rather than on classroom behavior. In
other words, as children test their independence, they may focus
negative peer pressure on antisocial behavior outside of school
rather than on academic achievement. For example, social
experimentation with cigarettes, alcohol, and other illicit
substances generally begins in junior high. The attention paid to
this kind of peer pressure may supersede pressure regarding grades
in class. Thus, the results seen in this model may actually be
consistent with other studies of peer pressure.
Other
Results
Another interesting result is the effect
of the parents' education on the child's achievement. The eighth
graders' rise in reading test scores is much more pronounced than
the fourth graders' increase. This is consistent with most
researchers' expectations. As children progress to higher grades,
concepts within the subject become more involved. After mastering
basic concepts (such as rudimentary literacy, word forms,
subject/verb conjugations), children begin to tackle higher-level
thinking skills (logic, describing themes from stories, and so
forth). Therefore, parents with college experience may be better
equipped to help their children with their homework and school
achievement as their children progress in school.
In
addition, both fourth and eighth grade girls score slightly higher
than boys on the reading exam, which bolsters recent evidence that
girls have a number of advantages in school over boys. Girls on
average "get better grades, are more engaged academically, and are
now the majority sex in higher education." Despite the popular idea
that schools shortchange girls, the results here do not support
this notion.
Finally, it is important to note that
throughout the academic literature on education, poor and minority
students continue to have persistent challenges in academic
achievement. This report's conclusions are consistent with this
finding.
Conclusion
This
analysis demonstrates the significant effect of peer attitudes
toward academic achievement on America's public school students'
reading achievement. Using the 1998 National Assessment of
Educational Progress database, the study found that the peer effect
is one of the largest determinants of academic achievement in
reading for the fourth grade.
The
significance of the peer effect, however, wanes in importance by
the eighth grade. This result seems inconsistent with other
literature that suggests the peer effect should be at or near its
apex by the eighth grade. By the eighth grade, however, pressure on
social behaviors may be more important than pressure on academic
achievement.
Kirk A. Johnson,
Ph.D., is a Policy Analyst in the Center for Data Analysis
at The Heritage Foundation.
APPENDIX A: RESULTS OF THE STATISTICAL
MODELS
The
results of the fourth and eighth grade models are found in Table 2.
As the results show, the model variables are statistically
significant, with the exception of the
"race = other non-white" variable in the eighth grade model. One of the
most important factors, then, is the peer effect or "make fun of"
variable in the fourth grade model. For fourth graders, the peer
effect variable has one of the largest effects on academic outcomes
of the variables tested.
/static/reportimages/DAA2A5479F5AC787BFDB06C03B174B56.pdf.
See also U.S. Bureau of the Census, "More Education Means Higher
Career Earnings,"
Statistical Brief 94-17, August 1994, at
/static/reportimages/8FAE3B2A3CC1B7DA96762F13C224FA89.pdf.