Cumulative Advantages and the Emergence of Social and Ethnic Inequality: Matthew Effects in Reading and Mathematics Development Within Elementary Schools
Child Development, 05/24/2012
Baumert J et al. – Status–dependent processes of cumulative advantage, their interaction with path–dependent processes, and consequences for the degree of social and ethnic inequality are examined. Two complementary methods for analyzing multilevel data are used: growth curve and quasi–simplex models. No evidence for a Matthew effect was found in either domain. A compensation effect emerged for reading, to the benefit of ethnic minorities. A fan–spread effect was found for mathematics, partly attributable to status–dependent processes of cumulative advantage.
