Closing the academic achievement gap: A system dynamics study

ABSTRACT

The academic achievement gap in the United States education system persists despite significant investments and efforts to correct it. Research reveals potential functions – priorities, readiness, expectation and motivation – performed by four stakeholders – students, teachers, schools and parents. A system dynamics simulation is proposed that captures the stakeholders and their functions to facilitate the exploration of potential interventions to close the achievement gap. We demonstrate the development of a working simulation when important information (known quantitative relationships, scales, and formulations) are not available. Two experiments are conducted to 1) identify which stakeholders have the greatest impact, and 2) explore the effect of combined interventions on closing the achievement gap. Simulation results suggest a ranking among individual stakeholder interventions where student interventions have the greatest effect followed by teachers, and then parents. Results further indicate that combining stakeholder interventions at moderate levels have the greatest impact on reducing the achievement gap.

KEYWORDS:

• Achievement gap
• modelling and simulation-system development framework
• system dynamics

Data Availability

Electronic copies of data and model files will be provided upon request. A free version of the Vensim Model Reader is also available to view and simulate the model. Submit data request to: John J. Johnson IV, PhD; [email protected]; 703.615.8207.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.