1. NESET II and EENEE Conference Brussels, 22 November 2018
The causes of test score gaps between roma and majority children in europe Balázs Váradi
NESET II and EENEE Conference
Brussels, 22 November 2018

2. Caveats No original work Sketch Concentrating on:
quantitative methods (little sociology);
peer-reviewed papers (few policy reports)
Little in terms of direct policy implications

3. Starting point: black students in the U.S.
Hanushek (2001). Black-White Achievement Differences. AER 91(29).
Chiswick (1988). Differences in Education and Earnings across Racial and Ethnic Groups: Tastes, Discrimination, and Investments in Child Quality. QJE 103(3).
Fryer (2010). The Importance of Segregation, Discrimination, Peer Dynamics, and Identity in Explaining Trends in the Racial Achievement Gap. In: Handbook of Social Economics, Vol. 1B.

4. Stylized U.S. modelling and Findings
There is a large and statistically significant achievement gap from age two in test scores between black and white children in the US, even controlling for a host of background factors.
Ethnic and racial segregation (in education, housing and the labour market) - a continuum, measured by a number of imperfect indices - is one of the reasons. (1) Across-school, (2) within school segregation, and (3) school quality variance correlated with segregation - all play a part.
Statistical discrimination-based multiple-equilibrium informational models (Coate and Loury, 1993) can explain some of it too.
Peer dynamics, social network and identity effects (e.g. rejecting “acting white”) could also contribute.

5. Europe – different institutions and laws
A more heterogeneous institutional setup in education than in the U.S. Here we mostly concentrate on ISCED The presence of and segregation in “special/remedial schools”.
Size and situation Roma minorities vary (also other, somewhat similar groups). The greatest proportions in the EU: BG, RO, SK, HU, CZ. Only partially an issue of language. Cf. Brüggerman (2012), Roma Education in Comparative Perspective.
Legal limitations on segregation different and the EU-level ones (infringement procedures) are not fully enforced everywhere. (Greenberg, 2010; Farkas, 2014).

6. Europe – segregation
School segregation of the Roma: present in the key EU countries (BG, RO, HU, SK, CZ) increased since 1989 in HU and SK (no sufficient longitudinal data for other countries).
The EC and the ECHR try to curb the most blatant forms of segregation in education (infringement procedures against several countries)
Although residential segregation is an important factor of ethnic segregation in education, it is also persistent in settlements that maintain a broader educational market. Messing (2017), Differentiation in the Making: Consequences of School Segregation of Roma in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia. European Education, 49:1. Local policy decisions (in a 100 Hungarian towns) made things somewhat worse. Kertesi-Kézdi (2013), School segregation, school choice, and educational policies in 100 Hungarian towns. Roma Education Fund
Kertesi-Kézdi (2011), The Roma/Non-Roma Test Score Gap in Hungary. AER 103(3): The ethnic test score gap in Hungary is nearly entirely explained by social differences in income, wealth and parental education. Two major mediating mechanisms:
the home environment of Roma children is less favorable for their cognitive development;
Roma children face a lower quality educational environment.

7. Europe – Statistical discrimination, Peer dynamics etc.
A lot of indirect and interview-based evidence in differing aspirations, discrimination in school and peer-based mechanisms, but very little quantitative evidence.
Hajdu-Kertesi-Kézdi (2015), High-Achieving Minority Students Can Have More Friends and Fewer Adversaries / Evidence from Hungary BWP-2015/7. Mixed results: yes for GPA, no for test results.