Exploring Educational Equity: A Machine Learning Approach to Unravel Achievement Disparities in Georgia
This addresses educational equity for students in Georgia, but it is incremental as it applies existing machine learning methods to analyze new pandemic-era data.
The study tackled educational disparities in Georgia's K-12 system during the COVID-19 pandemic, finding a significant decline in English and Math proficiency, with greater impacts on economically disadvantaged and Black students, and identified socio-economic status as the most crucial factor.
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly exacerbated existing educational disparities in Georgia's K-12 system, particularly in terms of racial and ethnic achievement gaps. Utilizing machine learning methods, the study conducts a comprehensive analysis of student achievement rates across different demographics, regions, and subjects. The findings highlight a significant decline in proficiency in English and Math during the pandemic, with a noticeable contraction in score distribution and a greater impact on economically disadvantaged and Black students. Socio-economic status, as represented by the Directly Certified Percentage -- the percentage of students eligible for free lunch, emerges as the most crucial factor, with additional insights drawn from faculty resources such as teacher salaries and expenditure on instruction. The study also identifies disparities in achievement rates between urban and rural settings, as well as variations across counties, underscoring the influence of geographical and socio-economic factors. The data suggests that targeted interventions and resource allocation, particularly in schools with higher percentages of economically disadvantaged students, are essential for mitigating educational disparities.