Black and White

1
Black and White

• Achievement Gap in Black and White Learning
• by
• Sarah Judge
• TE 891
• Professor Conley
• July 12, 2005

2
Table of Contents

• Posing Question
• Research
• How Do We Close the Gap?
• Implications for My Practice
• Conclusion
• References
• Problem

3
Problem

• From the beginning of my teaching career, I have
  noticed a disparity in achievement between
  African American and Caucasian students.
• As an upper elementary school teacher, I believe
  that this gap occurs before reaching my classroom.

4
Posing Question

• What causes the learning gap between African
  American and Caucasian students before they begin
  their academic career?
• Through my research, I was surprised to find that
  the learning gap between these two cultural
  groups occurred before children entered their
  first day of kindergarten.

5
Research

• Researchers at the National Center for
  Educational Statistics sampled 22,000 pupils
  enrolled in kindergarten for the 1998-1999 school
  year.
• Tested at the beginning of the year, racial
  disparities were believed to predate school
  exposure.

6
Findings from NCES Study

• Bottom 1/4 of Students Tested

7
Analysis of NCES Study

• The data from the NCES study shows the
  discrepancy between black and white learners, and
  includes the Hispanic population.
• One-third to one-half of black and Hispanic
  students entered kindergarten already testing at
  the bottom quarter of students in reading, math,
  and general knowledge.
• Only 1/6 of white students tested at this
• level.

8
NCES Study Indications

• This research indicates that something about the
  lives of children before they entered school
  shaped their intellectual development.
• Is this a result of culture?

9
Arguments for Cultural Reasons

• Authors Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom, writers
  of, No Excuses Closing the Racial Gap in
  Learning argue that cultural explanations must be
  viewed in understanding reasons for the racial
  gap in academic achievement.
• The Thernstroms refer to the
• Moynihan Report in their
• argument.

10
Moynihan Report

• Daniel Patrick Moynihan, assistant secretary of
  labor over thirty years ago, issued a report
  indicating that the role of family culture is an
  obstacle holding back African Americans. The
  report refers specifically to the proliferation
  of black, female-headed households.
• The report received much criticism, but the
  cultural issue is now receiving renewed attention.

11
Legacy of Moynihan Report

• Since the embers have died down from the uproar
  of the Moynihan Report researchers are
  returning to the cultural link to the black and
  white achievement gap.
• Sociologist, David Armor, made a major
  contribution in identifying cultural and
  environmental risk factors associated
• with differences in cognitive
• development.

12
Three Main Risk Factors

• Low birth-weight babies
• (less than 5 lbs.)
• Single parent households
• Childbirth by very young mothers
• (under the age of eighteen)

13
Risk Factor Implications

• Sociologist, David Armor, studied results from
  the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, from
  the years from 1986-1992.
• This study is considered the most comprehensive
  investigation of child development undertaken in
  the United States (Thernstrom, 132).
• Armor found from this data that low birth-weight
  babies tend to lag behind others in their
  intellectual development.
• The birth rate of such babies is twice as high
  among black mothers as white mothers.

14
Single Parenthood Implications

• Armor contends that the most important risk
  factor is children living with just one parent.
• Most social scientists agree that growing up in a
  single-parent, female-headed family is almost
  always associated with lower educational gains
  and more behavioral and psychological problems
  (Thernstrom, 132).

15
Two-Parent Household Data

• Only 37 of black children live with two parents.
• 77 of white children live with two parents.
• 65 of Hispanics live with both parents.
• 81 of Asian Americans live with both parents.

16
Young Mother Implications

• Armor also found that birth to a young mother
  (aged 18 years, or less) had a negative impact on
  the cognitive skills of children.
• Over 1/3 of black mothers bear their first child
  at or below the age of 18.
• This is twice the rate of white mothers and 50
  above the rate of Hispanic mothers.

17
Is Economics the Cause?

• Recent data is pointing toward parenting
  practices as a characteristic of the achievement
  gap between black and white students, instead of
  the focus on poverty.
• Authors Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom contend
  that some of the racial differences are related
  to economic circumstances, but argue that the
  higher poverty rate among blacks is not the whole
  story

18
Thernstorm Quote on Poverty

• Income levels do not explain the higher
  incidence of teenage pregnancy and the prevalence
  of black, female-headed households

19
Parenting Practices and Income

• According to Christopher Jencks and Meredith
  Phillips in their work,
• The Black-White Test Score Gap,
• Changes in parenting practices might do more to
  reduce the black-white test score gap than
  changes in parents educational attainment or
  incomeCognitive disparities between black and
  white preschool children are currently so large
  that it is hard to imagine how schools alone
  could eliminate themChanging the way parents
  deal with their children may be the single most
  important thing we can do to improve childrens
  cognitive skills.

20
More on Parenting Practices and Income

• Jencks and Phillips argue that black-white
  differences in parenting practices persist after
  controlling for measured socioeconomic status.
• David Armor, in his work, Maximizing
  Intelligence, concurs with Jencks and Phillips.
  He found that parents varied greatly in their
  levels of cognitive and emotional support given
  to their children.

21
Armors Findings

• Black families provided notably less emotional
  support to their children.
• Armor contends this is due to black mothers more
  often raising children entirely on their own.

22
Data of Parental Cognitive and Emotional Support

• Study was performed in homes from 1986-1994 on
  children between the ages of three and nine.
• Reported on a point system where the average was
  100 points.

23
Parenting and Resources

• According to the article, The Contribution of
  Parenting to Ethnic and Racial Gaps in School
  Readiness
• Materials in the home vary by ethnicity and
  racial group.
• Black and Hispanic families have fewer reading
  materials in their homes.
• Typically, they also have fewer
• educationally relevant materials of
• other types.

24
Americas Kindergarten Report

• In their 1998 study, the National Center for
  Education Statistics reported that children who
  live with only one parent rank well behind others
  in their ability to persist at a task, in their
  eagerness to learn, and their capacity to pay
  attention in school.
• They are more likely to argue
• with others, get into fights, and
• get angry easily.

25
Implication for Black Students

• In sum, many black students are substantially
  behind their white classmates when they start
  kindergarten.

26
Meaningful Quotation

• Its hard to talk about these problems in
  public. Black folks dont want white folks
  coming into their communities and saying, You
  ought to be more like us. But, the national data
  shows an achievement gap when kids enter
  kindergarten. So its not that they start school
  and equal and school mess them up.
• Ronald Ferguson, African American economist at
  Harvards Kennedy School of Government.

27
What Does the Research Say?

• According to the article, How Can Schools Narrow
  the Black-White Test Score Gap, it is clear that
  preschool programs produce significant increases
  in IQ and achievement tests that persist into the
  early grades

28
Narrowing the Black-White Gap, cont.

• However, research also finds that the gains made
  by black students disappear much faster than the
  gains for white students.
• Some researchers believe this might be because
  black students more often go on to poorer
  elementary schools.

29
How Do We Close the Gap?

• What interventions are necessary to close the
  learning gap between black and white students?
• Intervention must occur before children begin
  kindergarten.
• According to Sara Mead, author of the article,
  Common Ground on Preschool, to address these
  disparities, policymakers and educators must work
  to level the playing
• field before children begin school.

30
Sara Meads Findings

• Research shows that high-quality preschool
  focused on building childrens language and early
  learning skills can help make up for learning
  opportunities missed at home.
• However, less than half of these children attend
  preschool, despite programs like Head Start,
  created especially for them.

31
Focus on Early-Learning Environments

• Author, Derek Neal, Professor of Economics at the
  University of Chicago, says now is the time for
  policy makers and researchers to focus on the
  early-learning environments of children.
• Compared to 1980, black families have less time
  and fewer resources for their preschool children.

32
Further Evidence for Before-School Interventions

• Christopher Jencks and Meredith Phillips, in
  their article, Minding the Gap, find that the
  typical black four-year-olds vocabulary falls
  below the twentieth percentile of the national
  distribution.
• They state, if we want equal outcomes among
  twelfth graders, we will have to narrow the skill
  gap between black and
• white children before
• they enter school

33
More on Minding the Gap

• Jencks and Meredith believe there are two ways to
  close the gap
• Change black childrens preschool experiences.
• Change their home experiences.

34
Minding the Gap, cont

• Jencks and Phillips believe that parenting
  practices need to change at home to close the gap
  between black and white achievement.
• They believe that parenting practices have a
  greater impact on childrens
• cognitive development than
• preschool practices.

35
Suggestions

• Jencks and Phillips suggest
• Development of preschool outreach programs.
• Home visits by nurses.
• Television programs to educate all parents about
  the importance of early education in their
  childrens lives.

36
Design of the Preschool Program

• Steven Barnett, a professor of education at
  Rutgers University, suggests a cognitive oriented
  preschool program to improve black childrens
  achievement scores.

37
Head-Start

• Barnett stresses that because there is a high
  concentration of black children in Head Start
  centers, the programming should make cognitive
  development a high priority.
• Abigail and Stephen Thernstrom suggest that a
  reformed Head Start with a better-trained
  teaching staff that focuses on cognitive
  development in addition to social and emotional
  growth, could do more to close the gap
• (page 225).

38
Savage Inequalities

• Jonathan Kozol, in his book, Savage Inequalities,
  asks a principal in New York City about the
  importance of Head Start. Principal James Carter
  reports,
• Few of these kids get Head Start. Of 200
  kindergarten children, 50 maybe get some kind of
  preschool. Those who get it do appreciably
  better. I cant overestimate its impact.

39
Importance of Head Start to Later School
Performance

• When Kozol asked principal Ruthie Green-Brown of
  Camden High in Camden, New Jersey, about the
  impact of state standardized tests, she replies,
• If they had first given Head Start to our
  children and pre-kindergarten and classes of 15
  to 18 children in the elementary grades, and
  computers and attractive buildings and enough
  books and supplies and teacher salaries
  sufficient to compete with suburban schools, and
  then come in with their tests and demands, it
  might have been fair play.

40
Other Connections

• Valerie Lee and David Burkam, authors of the
  article, Inequality at the Starting Gate, found
  that a mothers speech in infant and toddler
  vocabulary development was linked to childrens
  overall vocabulary development.

41
Mothers Speech

• A mothers speech, in frequency, elaboration, and
  interchanges with the child, is strongly related
  to later school performance.

42
Vocabulary

• High SES (socio-economic status) children have
  larger vocabularies than do children from middle
  and low SES families.
• By their 3rd birthday, low SES children possessed
  ½ the size vocabulary of a high SES child and 2/3
  of a middle SES child.
• The majority of black families were low SES.

43
SES and Vocabulary

• By their 3rd birthday, low SES children possessed
  ½ the size vocabulary of a high SES child and 2/3
  of a middle SES child.
• The majority of black families were found to be
  low SES from the journal, Closing Racial and
  Ethnic Gaps.

44
Parenting Interventions

• Parenting Interventions fall into four
  categories
• 1) home-based (home visiting)
• 2) center-based (early childhood with a
  parenting component)
• 3) family literacy programs
• 4) programs targeting child
• behavior through changing parental
• behavior.

45
Other Interventions

• Programs like Reading Recovery and Success for
  All have been shown to improve elementary
  instruction for large numbers of black children.
• These programs can help close the gap that Head
  Start loses when black children move on through
  the elementary grades.

46
Implications for My Practice

• It is apparent from this research that
  intervention with African American families is
  necessary before their children are school-aged.
• More importantly, I would like to be able to
  reach these families before they have children.

47
My Plan of Action

• The district I teach in has four elementary
  schools, one middle school, and one high school.
  The drop-out rate at our district high school is
  increasing.
• Although prevention of drop-out is ideal, it is
  imperative to meet the needs of teenagers who,
  according to statistics, will have young
  families.
• .

48
Action Plan cont

• Instrumental would be reaching the students at
  the high school through a family/child care
  class.
• This class would stress the importance of
  parenting practices, responsibilities, and the
  importance of preschool for children.

49
Action Plan at the Elementary Level

• I would like begin discussions with
  administration about the importance of a district
  preschool.
• Additionally, to coincide with the benefits of
  the preschool, a pre-kindergarten, or Young
  Fives program could be initiated.
• With the preschool and pre-kindergarten
  preparation, perhaps the black children and white
  children could enter kindergarten on the same
  playing field.

50
What Happens After Kindergarten?

• To maintain the equity between the African
  American and white students after kindergarten,
  programs like Reading Recovery and
• Success for All must be utilized.
• Teachers must make conscious effort to maintain
  teaching standards for all students, not lowering
  them for those that are struggling.
• Community efforts must be made to families in the
  district to stress the importance of early
  intervention in their childrens education.

51
How Do We Achieve Community Involvement?

• Development of high school family planning/child
  care class.
• Present findings to parents in the area of
  children who receive preschool intervention and
  those that do not receive its benefits.

52
Liaison Position

• Create a district liaison position to families in
  the community. This person would be responsible
  for insuring families receive invitations to
  preschool and pre-kindergarten enrollment.
• This person would follow-through with families to
  make sure their child enrolled as well as to
  communicate any problems or concerns of the
  community programs.

53
Conclusions

• Through my research regarding the gap in
  achievement between black and white children
  before entering school, I have found that issues
  of parenting are at the root of the problem.
• In order to be pre-emptive in solving the problem
  of the achievement gap, parenting interventions
  need to occur.
• It is my goal to organize a parenting
  intervention program in my school district with
  the data I have collected on this subject.

54
Final Thoughts

• The first generation of black children who enter
  kindergarten with the same basic knowledge and
  arithmetic skills as white children may well be
  the first generation of black adults to enter the
  labor market on equal footing with their white
  peers.
• Derek Neal, Professor of Economics,
• University of Chicago

55
References

• Armor, David. Maximizing Intelligence.
  Transaction Publishers.
• 2003.
• Burkam, David and Lee, Valerie. Inequality at
  the starting gate social and background
  differences in achievement as children begin
  school. Economic Policy Institute. September
  2002.
•  Denton, Kristin and West, Jerry. Americas
  kindergartners findings from the early
  childhood longitudinal study of kindergarten
  class of 1998-1999. National Parent Information
  Network. Adoption.com.
•  Jencks, Christopher and Phillips, Meredith. The
  Black-White Test Score Gap. Washington D.C.
  Brookings Institute Press. 1998.
•  

56
References cont

• Jencks, Christopher and Phillips, Meridith.
  Minding the Gap.
• http//pbs.org/closingtheachievementgap/debate_m
  inding.html
• Kozol, Jonathan. Savage Inequalities. Crown
  Publishers.
• New York. 1991.
•  Mead, Sara. Common Ground on Preschool. Front
  Center.
• January 18, 2005. http//www.ppionline.org/ndol
  
•   Thernstrom, Abigail and Stephan. No Excuses
  Closing the Racial Gap in Learning. New York
  Simon and Schuster. 2003.
• www.furtureofchildren.org. The Contribution of
  Parenting to
• Ethnic and Racial Gaps in School Readiness.
  Closing Racial
• and Ethnic Gaps.