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Title: The Black-White Achievement Gap: When Progress Stopped

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2010

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Abstract: This report is about understanding the periods of progress and the periods of stagnation in changes in the achievement gap that have occurred over the past several decades. The authors try to understand what might have contributed to the progress as well as probe the reasons that may account for the progress halting, in the hope of finding some clues and possible directions for moving forward in narrowing the achievement gap. The authors focus on three periods of history, but not in chronological order. The first is the decades of the 1970s and 1980s, when NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) reported large reductions in the gaps in reading and mathematics scores. Second, the report focus on the period from about 1990 until 2008, when the gap wobbled around a generally straight trend line, although scores of 9- and 13-year-olds generally rose overall. And third, the report takes a more expansive view, beginning early in the 20th century, in an attempt to understand the impact of a variety of factors on changes in the gap. These factors include information on educational attainment, employment and earnings, child well-being, the family, neighborhoods and the effects of concentrated poverty and deprivation, lack of social capital, and intergenerational mobility. Appendices include: (1) Trends in NAEP White-Black Reading Gaps at Selected Percentiles; and (2) Trends in NAEP White-Black Mathematics Gaps at Selected Percentiles. (Contains 58 footnotes, 16 figures, and 1 table.)

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Authors: Barton, Paul E.; Coley, Richard J.

Publisher: Educational Testing Service

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Education, Race and Ethnicity

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