Tim Abram is the Associate Policy Director of Educational Opportunity for ExcelinEd.
Imagine sending your child to a school that is chronically failing and not equipped with resources like textbooks or even an adequate number of teachers. Imagine being told your only option is to move to a school located in a neighborhood that you cannot afford. For North Carolina mom Charlonda Brown, this was reality. Unfortunately, this story and experience is far too common for Black families across the country.
“Stay in the neighborhood that you could afford to be in, which is predominately Black, and go to the school that you are assigned to, which is also predominantly Black, or go into debt and find a private school for him to go to.”
Charlonda Brown
Each year, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) produces the Condition of Education, a congressionally mandated report which serves as a snapshot of the status of education in the United States. The 2020 annual report, like many before it, shows that Black students trail their White, Asian and Hispanic peers on most academic indicators – they have for over 25 years. It’s imperative to shine a light on this persistent and widening achievement gap, but we have to do more than that. Now is the time to leverage the spotlight on educational inequity and act.
To act appropriately, we have to understand how achievement is codified or measured. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known as the Nation’s Report Card, is the only assessment that measures and compares what U.S. students know and can do in various subjects across the nation. A representative sample of students across the country take the NAEP assessment every two years. The results are reported for groups of students with similar characteristics (e.g., gender, race and ethnicity, socio-economic status, school location) and measures states’ student performance by scale scores and proficiency. The data show little progress in narrowing the achievement gap between Black and White students despite federal mandates and other national and state-led initiatives. In 1992, White students’ 4th grade reading NAEP average scale score was 224; Black students’ average scale score was 192, a gap of 32 points. In 2019, White students’ average scale score in 4th grade reading on the NAEP was 230, while Black students’ scale score was 204, a gap of 26 points. Thus, over the course of nearly 30 years, the 4th grade reading NAEP score gap between Black and White students narrowed by only six scale score points.
The implications of the disparate academic outcomes between Black and White students extend far beyond the classroom. For example, a recent study found a nearly $15,000 difference in annual income between adults who achieve proficiency in literacy compared to those who do not. Likewise, the composition of our nation’s prisons and even future health outcomes can be traced to the achievement gap in America’s schools. The consequences of not providing Black students with an enriching, equitable classroom experience manifest themselves in courtrooms and poor health outcomes. It doesn’t have to be that way. It shouldn’t be that way.
In this blog series, we will explore the state of Black education in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee – states in which the percentage of Black students in K-12 education is nearly 25% or higher. Why is the percentage of Black students in K-12 education important? The underperformance of Black students has a greater impact on a state’s overall educational performance compared to states with fewer Black K-12 students. This underperformance may also trigger a domino effect in other areas of life that lead to incarceration and health disparities. We have three goals:
1) Shed light on achievement and opportunity gaps;
2) Highlight pockets of success and approaches that have been taken (i.e., policies, partnerships, practices) to address educational inequities so that other states can learn from them; and
3) Explore the economic impact of Black students who do not have access to a quality education.
Together these goals will equip policymakers, parents and other stakeholders with a clear understanding of the state of Black education, while informing them of tools and practices available to narrow and ultimately close the difference in academic performance between Black and White students.
