In his State of the Union Address, President Bush asked Congress to reauthorize the No Child Left Behind Act, which was signed into law in January 2002. One of the main goals of NCLB is to close the achievement gap between black and white students by 2014. In his speech Mr. Bush claimed that “students are performing better in reading and math and minority students are closing the achievement gap,” and he called upon congress to “build on this success.” Test scores have indeed improved in some subject areas. But NCLB has certainly not been widely successful. It will take more than just school reform to close an achievement gap that has existed for decades and is rooted, not just in poorly funded schools, but in larger social issues as well.
According to the latest data available from the National Assessment of Education Progress the biggest improvement has been in fourth grade math scores. In 2005 blacks showed a 7-point gain over their average score from 2000, and the black-white gap decreased by five points in that same time period. Eighth grade math scores for blacks also rose during the same time period, and the gap decreased by six points. However, reading scores have remained stagnant. The black-white gap in fourth grade reading scores has shrunk by only one point since NCLB’s passage in 2002. Eighth grade reading scores show the worst results. Since 2002 scores for blacks actually fell, while white reading scores virtually flat-lined and the gap has widened by a point. The slight overall gain in math scores since 2002 may be due to changes in schooling implemented by NCLB. But the stagnant reading scores are reason to believe that NCLB, with all its good intentions, will not close the gap.
NCLB’s greatest failure is that it aims to close the black-white test score gap without addressing the causal factors of that gap.
In 1994, Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray’s controversial and inflammatory book, The Bell Curve, sparked a heated debate as scholars sought to debunk the book’s claim that the achievement gap is largely genetically heritable and differences in IQ amongst the races cannot be chalked up to environmental causes. The debate generated a body of research by sociologists, best documented in The Black-White Test Score Gap, an extensive volume published in 1998 and edited by Christopher Jencks and Meredith Phillips. The works published in this volume, as well as more recent studies, have found two major factors that cause and perpetuate the gap: socioeconomic status (SES) and environmental factors, which include home environment, family life and parenting practices. There is also the complicated issue of inequality, which is intricately wrapped up in all these factors.
NCLB does not confront the disparities of socioeconomic status. In and of itself NCLB cannot erase the effects of SES. While it attempts to hold schools that provide education for low SES children to the same standards as schools in wealthy neighborhoods, it cannot change the distinctive environmental differences and disadvantages experienced by children reared in low SES families and neighborhoods. Disparities in SES are tangible and obvious. With low SES comes the greater likelihood of unsafe neighborhoods, under-funded schools, lack of access to healthcare and fewer educational resources, to name just a few.
Mr. Bush listed among NCLB’s virtues that it gives parents of children who attend failing schools “the right to choose something better.” If Mr. Bush really wanted to give these parents a better choice he would have called for hikes in the minimum wage and a comprehensive health care coverage for those who need it most, both of which would significantly affect families of low SES.
The black-white test score gap is a problem that is not primarily conceived in our schools. It is conceived in our stratified social structure that perpetuates disparities in SES and leaves children to compete on a wildly unequal playing field for the education they deserve. NCLB, a policy that focuses accountability and reform solely on schools, is aimed at the wrong target and will not close the gap by 2014 in its current incarnation.
