Although both blacks and whites have made important gains in education over the past two decades, it is apparent that blacks continue to trail whites in many areas. These findings outline some of the educational differences between blacks and whites. Black children still start school with less preschool experience than white children. Gaps in the academic performance of blacks and whites appear as early as age 9 and persist through age 17. Despite substantial gains made recently by blacks, their scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test still lag behind those of whites. Black students are still more likely to drop out than whites, although the gap is closing. Black students are also more likely than their white peers to face a disorderly learning environment, even though black and white students have similar attitudes about the teaching quality in their schools. Both black and white high school graduates are following a more rigorous curriculum than a decade ago, but black high school graduates are still less likely to take advanced science and mathematics courses. The educational aspirations of black and white students are similar, but blacks are less likely to make an immediate transition to college and are less likely to have completed college by ages 25 to 29 years. Blacks have lower literacy levels than whites as adults. Eleven graphs and 8 tables illustrate these findings. (Contains 11 references.) (SLD)