Table 2.

Contributions of Racial Differences in School Composition (H1) and Child Behaviors at Age 5 (H2) and in the “Effects” of the Same Behaviors at School Entry in Similar Schools (H3) to the Black/White Gap in Suspension or Expulsion by Age 9 (Two-Way Decomposition Model; Reference: Blacks)^a

Factors	Predictor	Means		Difference in Means	OLS Regression Coefficients				Contrib. of Differences in Levels of Exposure	Contrib. of Differences in ‘Effects’ / Slopes
		(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	Sig	(5)	Sig	(6)b	(7)c
		${\overline{\text{x}}}_{\text{W}}$	${\overline{\text{x}}}_{\text{B}}$	$\left({\overline{\text{x}}}_{\text{W}}-{\overline{\text{x}}}_{\text{B}}\right)$	βW		βB		$\left({\overline{\text{x}}}_{\text{W}}-{\overline{\text{x}}}_{\text{B}}\right){\beta }_{\text{B}}$	$\left({\beta }_{\text{W}}-{\beta }_{\text{B}}\right){\overline{\text{x}}}_B$
School Factors (H1)	Proportion Black or Hispanic Students at Start of Elementary School	0.317	0.801	−0.484	0.127	**	0.023		0.011	−0.033
	Proportion Free-or-Reduced-Price Lunch (FRPL) Students at Start of Elementary School	0.386	0.696	−0.310	−0.036		0.101		0.031	0.053
Behavior Factors (H2-H3)	Average of Teacher- and Parent-Reported Externalizing Problems Score, Age 5	10.091	11.200	−1.108	0.007	***	0.017	***	0.018	0.095
Controls	Family Income-to-Poverty Ratio, Age 5	3.162	1.456	1.707	−0.006	**	−0.011		0.019	−0.017
	Mother Has Some College or College Degree, Age 1	0.556	0.305	0.251	−0.029		−0.039		0.010	−0.005
	Father Absent from Household at Any Wave, Age 5	0.476	0.832	−0.356	0.009		0.032		0.011	0.011
	Father has Ever Been in Jail or Prison, Age 5	0.354	0.550	−0.196	0.027		0.021		0.004	−0.002
	Child’s PPVT Cognitive Score, Age 5	103.101	91.260	11.841	0.001	*	0.002	**	−0.024	0.080
	Child’s Sex (Male=1), Age 1	0.526	0.519	0.007	0.053	**	0.168	***	−0.001	0.060
	Child’s Age (in Months), Age 9	111.731	112.274	−0.543	0.000		−0.001		−0.001	−0.143
	Mother’s Age, Age 1	26.931	24.287	2.644	−0.002		−0.001		0.002	0.025
	Constant	1.000	1.000	0.000	−0.143		−0.140		0.000	0.003
	Observations (N)	700	1696		700		1696
Overall Contribution of to the Racial Gap of Differences in Levels vs Slopes in Percentage-Point Units (/100):									0.081	0.127
Proportion of the Overall Race Gap Driven by Differences in Levels vs. Effects/Slopes:									0.389	0.611

^***p<0.001,

^**p<0.01,

^*p<0.05,

⁺p<0.10 (two-tailed t-tests for a statistically significant difference from 0).

Controls and the constant are included in the decomposition but not shown (see Appendix for complete decomposition table).

^aThis model uses Black children’s coefficients as the reference when calculating each variable’s contribution to the gap in schooling due to racial differences in mean levels and Black children’s means as the reference when calculating each variable’s contribution due to racial differences in coefficients (i.e., “effects”).

^bValues in Column (6) are multiplied by −1 (to achieve positive values for gap-widening contributions and vice versa for gap-narrowing contributions).

^cValues in Column (7) are multiplied by −1 (to achieve positive values for gap-widening contributions and negative values for gap-narrowing contributions).

Source: Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study, Waves 1–5. Sample is restricted to the 2,396 Black and White boys and girls who remained in the study from birth (wave 1) through age 9 (wave 5). Multiple imputation of 20 datasets is used to handle item-missingness on all but the dependent variable (suspension/expulsion).