The Achievement Gap: Myths and Reality

The repeated attempts to explain and solve the vexing problem of the achievement gap have clearly been inadequate, Mr. Singham points out. Perhaps we have been focusing on the wrong factors entirely, he suggests. THE GAP BETWEEN the achievement of black students and that of white students is one of the most infuriating problems afflicting education. After all, it is clear that there is nothing intrinsic about "blackness" or "whiteness" that can be the cause of the gap.1 There are no genetic or other immutable traits that could conceivably be the cause of the gap. Thus the problem is manifestly one that can and should be solved. In addition, this question has been studied extensively, and as a result we understand a lot more about the causes of the gap now than we did a generation ago. Why then has the problem not been solved? As I will explain below, part of the problem is that the topic is fraught with myths. The difficulty with myths is not that they are necessarily false, but rather that they are beliefs whose truth or reality is accepted uncritically. It is relatively easy to debunk outright falsehoods. Much harder to overcome are those beliefs that have some element of truth in them but that are promoted with a single-minded determination that can undermine attempts to systematically solve the problem. The persistence and prevalence of these myths can be seen if you attend any meeting or read any newspaper editorial that deals with the causes of the achievement gap between black students and white students. You will find a range of analyses (and a corresponding variety of suggested solutions): biased standardized tests, tests that do not match the learning styles of black students, less money spent on educating black students, socioeconomic differences, lack of motivation, negative peer pressure, lack of family support for education, teacher biases, and many other possibilities. All of these figure prominently in the menu of causes. What is wrong with all these diagnoses? In one sense, nothing. They all contain (or at least contained at some time in the past) some element of truth, and their adherents may be excused for espousing them. But none of them, by themselves, can come close to explaining the gap. Almost every hypothesis has some degree of validity; yet, when each one is carefully studied and solutions based on it are implemented, it fails to solve the problem. For example, the test score gap shrinks, but only by a little, when black children and white children attend the same schools. Also, the average black child and the average white child live in school districts that spend almost the same amount per pupil.2 Black/white income differences are found to have only a small effect on test scores.3 Traditional measures of socioeconomic status (consisting of income, wealth, and parental education) account for at most one-third of the gap.4 Some studies also suggest that the social costs and benefits of academic success are about the same for blacks as for whites, thus casting doubt on the "negative peer pressure" theory, which asserts that, for a variety of reasons, black student culture is averse to high academic achievement. Both black students and white students do little homework outside of school. Median blacks and median whites do between two and four hours of homework per week, and only 14% of whites and 10% of blacks do 10 or more hours per week. Racial differences are also found to be negligible for skipping school.5 Of course, such studies depend to some extent on self-reporting by students and are thus difficult to carry out with high accuracy. While the validity of these studies can be challenged on such grounds, it is clear that none of these popular notions are self-evidently true. With most complicated problems, the usual strategy is to try to rank- order the problems and deal with them one at a time. But the failure to close the achievement gap may be telling us that such a linear approach may not be the best strategy for this particular problem. …