African American children and white children from similar family backgrounds who entered kindergarten in 1998 began school with approximately the same test scores. This striking finding, drawn from the national Early Childhood Longitudinal Study and reported in the fall 2004 issue of Education Next, reveals a clear gain within the black community since the 1980s, when, according to earlier research, black preschoolers trailed white peers from comparable backgrounds. The earlier findings had sparked new debates over theories of innate racial differences. The latest results provide strong evidence to the contrary.
But by the end of first grade, say economists Roland G. Fryer (Harvard University) and Steven D. Levitt (University of Chicago), who analyzed these data, African American children have lost ground to comparable white children, thereby creating a racial gap that can no longer be explained by family background. Meanwhile, Hispanic children, who begin school with lower test scores relative to whites of similar family backgrounds, narrowed this gap within two years.
After reporting these provocative findings, Fryer and Levitt consider what goes wrong for African American students after schooling begins. The authors find no evidence that slippage occurs over the summertime, an oft-offered explanation for the test-score gap. Nor are differences in family background the likely cause. Instead, it appears that the cause is within the schoolhouse. Although the evidence remains inconclusive, the most likely explanation that black schools are less well managed, as indicated by signs of greater social discord in these schools.
Fryer is an assistant professor in economics at Harvard University; Levitt is a professor of economics at the University of Chicago.
"Falling Behind" can be read in its entirety in the fall issue of Education Next online at www.educationnext.org.
Education Next is a scholarly journal published by the Hoover Institution, committed to looking at hard facts about school reform. The editors of Education Next are Paul E. Peterson, Professor of Government, Harvard University and Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution; Chester E. Finn Jr., President, Fordham Foundation and Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution; Marci Kanstoroom, education consultant; Frederick M. Hess, Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute; and Martin West, Research Associate, Harvard University.
The Hoover Institution, founded at Stanford University in 1919 by Herbert Hoover, who went on to become the 31st president of the United States, is an interdisciplinary research center for advanced study on domestic public policy and international affairs, with an internationally renowned archive.
