The Impact of Socioeconomic Factors on Achievement Gaps on Reading Literacy Between Hebrew- Speaking and Arabic-Speaking Students in Israel Ruth Zuzovsky

The study intends to make it possible to decide between two alternative explanations for the low attainment of Arabic-speaking students in reading literacy compared with Hebrew-speaking students who participated in the PIRLS (2006), i.e., one that associates the variability in reading literacy scores the with the variability in socioeconomic measures, and another that considers the diglossia typical of Arabic (two linguistic codes: standard written Arabic and the spoken form) as the critical variable responsible for the low attainment in reading literacy among Arabic-speaking students. Analyses of covariance were used to explore achievement gaps between the two groups while statistically controlling for the effect of socioeconomic factors. Repeating the analysis carried out on reading scores, on mathematics and science scores, considered to be less affected by diglossia, the achievement gap in favor of Hebrew-speaking students disappeared and even reversed. The findings of the study supported the explanation that Arabic diglossia is the main cause of the low results of Arabic-speaking students and recommends educational interventions aimed to directly treat the problem of diglossia rather than focus only on improving socioeconomic conditions in schools.

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