El lunes 13 de noviembre organizamos en la Fundación Ramón Areces, una conferencia sobre los cambios económicos, desigualdad de renta y pérdida de oportunidades para niños en familias de renta baja. Una conferencia expuesta por Richard Murnane, de la Universidad de Harvard.

1. How a Changing Economy and
Increased Family Income Inequality
Reduce Life Chances for Children
from Low-Income Families
Richard J. Murnane
Harvard University
November 2017

2. Context: Lessons from a large project

3. Evidence on Changes in the
American Economy
In what Respects are Trends in the Spanish Economy Similar?

4. EducationalAttainments Predict Earnings more strongly than in the past
David Autor, 2014

5. Source: David Deming, “The Growing Importance of Social Skills in the Labor Market,”
Q J Econ. 2017;132(4):1593-1640, Figure III.
Trends in Worker Tasks in the U.S. Economy, 1980–2012

6. Source: David Deming, “The Growing Importance of Social Skills in the Labor Market,”
Q J Econ. 2017;132(4):1593-1640, Figure IV.
Cumulative Changes in Employment Share by Occupation Task Intensity, 1980–2012

7. Source: David Deming, “The Growing Importance of Social Skills in the Labor Market,”
Q J Econ. 2017;132(4):1593-1640, Figure V.
Cumulative Changes in Real Hourly Wages by Occupation Task Intensity, 1980–2012

8. DevelopingAcademic and Social Skills in School
• Pedagogies (different types of work in small groups)
• Solving mathematics problems
• Peer review of student writing
• Developing and testing science hypotheses
• Researching and writing reviews of social policies
• Threats to effective use of pedagogies that develop
social skills
• Classroom management challenges
• Growing inequality in family incomes increases the
concentration of classroom management challenges

9. Trends in Family Income Inequality in the U.S.
Definition of Percentiles in Family income Distribution
• The 10th income percentile means that 10% of the nation’s
elementary-school-aged children live in families with lower
income.
• The 50th (or median) income percentile means that half of the
nation’s children live in families with lower income.
• The 90th income percentile means that 90% of the nation’s children
live in families with lower income.

10. Family Income Trends forAmerican Elementary-School-Aged-Children
95th
90th
50th
10th

11. Trend in Inequality of Educational
Outcomes between Youth growing up in
high- and low-income families
Is the trend in Spain similar?

12. Four-Year College graduation rates by age 25 for high- and low-income children
5%
9%
36%
54%
0
25
50
75
1975-78 1993-96
Percentcompletingcollege
Year turned 14
Top quartile children
Bottom quartile children
Bailey and Dynarski (2011). Reprinted with permission from Whither Opportunity? 2011 © Russell Sage Foundation.

13. EducationalAttainments Predict Earnings more strongly than in the past
David Autor, 2014

14. Mechanisms Through Which Income Inequality Results
in Inequality in Educational Outcomes
1. Family expenditures on child enrichment
2. Residential segregation by income
3. Public school segregation by income

15. Per Capita Enrichment Expenditures on Children ($2008) Top
versus Bottom Quartile of Households
Duncan and Murnane, 2011
3,536
5,650
6,975
8,872
835
1,264 1,173 1,315
$0
$2,500
$5,000
$7,500
$10,000
1972-3 1983-4 1994-5 2005-6
Top income quintile
Bottom income quintile

16. Source: Owens, Ann (American Sociological Review, 2016)
Average Economic Segregation between Neighborhoods by Household Composition in
The 100 Largest Metropolitan Areas, 1990-2010

17. -10000100020003000
ExperimentalVs.ControlITTonEarnings($)
20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
Age of Income Measurement
Importance of Neighborhood Quality to Children’s Life Chances
Above 13 at RA
Below 13 at RA
Source: Chetty, Katz, and
Hendren (AER, 2016 )

18. American Public Schools are Increasingly Segregated by Income
• Increased School Segregation by Income Contributed to
Widening Gaps in Educational Outcomes Through:
• Peer group effects (Carrell and Hoekstra, 2010, 2016)
• Student Mobility Effects (Raudenbush et al., 2011)
• Teaching Staff effects (Johnson, Kraft, and Papay, 2012; Clotfelter, Ladd, and Vigdor, 2011)

19. Peers with problems in low and high income elementary schools
38%
32%
24%
10%
17% 15%
0
25
50
Achievement
problems
Attention
problems
Behavior
problems
Percent
Low income schools High income schools
Duncan and Magnuson (2011), using data from the Kindergarten cohort of the
Early childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K)

20. American Public Schools are Increasingly Segregated by Income
• Increased School Segregation by Income Contributed to
Widening Gaps in Educational Outcomes Through:
• Peer group effects (Carrell and Hoekstra, 2010, 2016)
• Student Mobility Effects (Raudenbush et al., 2011)
• Teaching Staff effects (Johnson, Kraft, and Papay, 2012; Clotfelter, Ladd, and Vigdor, 2011)
How similar or different are the trends in Spanish education?

21. Take-Away Lessons
• Changes in the U.S. economy have increased the importance of
social and academic skills
• Increasing Income Inequality has resulted in growing inequality
in life chances between children growing up in low- and high-
income families.
• Mechanisms:
• Growing inequality in family spending on children
• Growing residential segregation by income
• Growing school segregation by income
• Trends jeopardize intergenerational upward mobility (the
glue that holds the U.S. pluralistic democracy together)

22. Can Schools Serving High Concentrations of Children
Living in Poverty Make a Difference?
• The problem so many urban secondary schools face:
• 1/4 to 1/3 of children not reading well enough to make sense
of textbooks
• Problem cannot be left to the English teachers
• If students do not dramatically increase literacy skills
in grade 9, they will not graduate from secondary
school.

23. Urban High Schools that Improve Life Chances for Low-
Income Youth
• Setting: New York City
• Innovation: Small schools of choice that have
particular themes
• Evaluation: Comparing outcomes for lottery winners
and losers

24. The UrbanAssembly School for Law and Justice
• What do you find interesting about teachers’ and
students work?
• Relevance to Spanish secondary schools?
Link to the video goes here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv_7Cybyz-4

25. Take-Away Lessons
• Changes in the U.S. economy have increased the importance of
social and academic skills
• Increasing Income Inequality has resulted in growing inequality
in life chances between children growing up in low- and high-
income families.
• Mechanisms:
• Growing inequality in family spending on children
• Growing residential segregation by income
• Growing school segregation by income
• Trends jeopardize intergenerational upward mobility (the
glue that holds the U.S. pluralistic democracy together)

26. Thank you for your interest.
Email address: Richard_Murnane@Harvard.edu

27. Slides that Follow Provide Additional
Information

28. Achievement gaps in Comparative Perspective
• A recent book from Russell Sage
Foundation by Bruce Bradbury,
Miles Corak, Liz Washbrook, and
Jane Waldfogel examines how
children from low-income families
fare in four English-speaking
countries:
• - United States
• - United Kingdom
• - Canada
• - Australia
•

29. Figure 4.1 Inequality in language/reading skills at age 4/5
is greater in the US than in other comparable countries
0.46 0.44
0.25 0.29
0.54
0.35
0.22
0.32
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
1.4
US UK AU CA
Std
dev
differenc
e
High-medium
gap
Medium-low
gap
Gaps by parental
education:

30. Figure 3.7 Highly educated parents are much more likely
to read to their children every day. However, Canadian
parents with low education read to their children as often
as highly educated parents from the other three countries.
58%
43%
33%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
High Medium Low
Parentreadstochildevery
day
Parental education
United
United
Kingdom
Canada
Austral
ia

31. Children’s family income, relative to 1970
0.50
0.75
1.00
1.25
1.50
1.75
Incomerelativeto1970
Top 5%
Top 20%
Bottom 20%
1970=
1.0
Note: Data are for the family incomes of all children age 5-17. They based on data from
the U.S. Bureau of the Census. Shaded areas indicate recession years.

33. I. Importance of Educational Opportunity
Goals for American Education
• Provide all children with the skills needed to thrive in a changing
economy
• Promote intergenerational upward mobility through hard work
• Impart common values critical to the effective functioning of a
pluralistic democracy, including cooperation, mutual respect, and
an appreciation of differing points of view.
• .

34. Project History
• Six-year project co-directed by Greg Duncan and Richard
Murnane examining how increased family income inequality in
the U.S. affects the quality of education provided to children from
low-income families.
• First product:
2011 edited volume (537 pages)
On-line appendix provides details
of methodologies used in analyses.

35. Second Product of Project
• Aimed at broad audience
(144 pages)
• Second half of book describes
interventions that have
improved schooling outcomes
for low-income children and
adolescents in the U.S.
• Three six-minute videos of
effective interventions
available at:
Restoringopportunity.com

36. Diverse Student Bodies
Diverse student bodies are critical to accomplishing
goals of American education
• It is exceedingly difficult to build and sustain high-quality
education in schools serving only students from low-income
families.
• Economically segregated schools limit students’ interactions
with peers from different backgrounds. It is hard to learn to
appreciate diverse perspectives without such interactions.