The Black-White Test Score Gap

The Black-White Test Score Gap
Author: Christopher Jencks
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Total Pages: 546
Release: 2011-01-01
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780815746119

" The test score gap between blacks and whites—on vocabulary, reading, and math tests, as well as on tests that claim to measure scholastic aptitude and intelligence--is large enough to have far-reaching social and economic consequences. In their introduction to this book, Christopher Jencks and Meredith Phillips argue that eliminating the disparity would dramatically reduce economic and educational inequality between blacks and whites. Indeed, they think that closing the gap would do more to promote racial equality than any other strategy now under serious discussion. The book offers a comprehensive look at the factors that contribute to the test score gap and discusses options for substantially reducing it. Although significant attempts have been made over the past three decades to shrink the test score gap, including increased funding for predominantly black schools, desegregation of southern schools, and programs to alleviate poverty, the median black American still scores below 75 percent of American whites on most standardized tests. The book brings together recent evidence on some of the most controversial and puzzling aspects of the test score debate, including the role of test bias, heredity, and family background. It also looks at how and why the gap has changed over the past generation, reviews the educational, psychological, and cultural explanations for the gap, and analyzes its educational and economic consequences. The authors demonstrate that traditional explanations account for only a small part of the black-white test score gap. They argue that this is partly because traditional explanations have put too much emphasis on racial disparities in economic resources, both in homes and in schools, and on demographic factors like family structure. They say that successful theories will put more emphasis on psychological and cultural factors, such as the way black and white parents teach their children to deal with things they do not know or understand, and the way black and white children respond to the same classroom experiences. Finally, they call for large-scale experiments to determine the effects of schools' racial mix, class size, ability grouping, and other policies. In addition to the editors, the contributors include Claude Steele, Ronald Ferguson, William G. Bowen, Philip Cook, and William Julius Wilson. "

Educating African American Students

Educating African American Students
Author: Gloria Swindler Boutte
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2015-08-20
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1317485319

Focused on preparing educators to teach African American students, this straightforward and teacher-friendly text features a careful balance of published scholarship, a framework for culturally relevant and critical pedagogy, research-based case studies of model teachers, and tested culturally relevant practical strategies and actionable steps teachers can adopt. Its premise is that teachers who understand Black culture as an asset rather than a liability and utilize teaching techniques that have been shown to work can and do have specific positive impacts on the educational experiences of African American children.

Young, Gifted, and Black

Young, Gifted, and Black
Author: Theresa Perry
Publisher: Beacon Press
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2012-09-11
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0807095346

“An important and powerful book” that radically reframes the debates swirling around the academic achievement of African-American students (Boston Review) “The solutions offered by each essay are creative, inspirational, and good old common sense." —Los Angeles Times In 3 separate but allied essays, African-American scholars Theresa Perry, Claude Steele, and Asa Hilliard examine the alleged ‘achievement gap’ between Black and white students. Each author addresses how the unique social and cultural position Black students occupy—in a society which often devalues and stereotypes African-American identity—fundamentally shapes students’ experience of school and sets up unique obstacles. Young, Gifted and Black provides an understanding of how these forces work, opening the door to practical, powerful methods for promoting high achievement at all levels. In the first piece, Theresa Perry argues that the dilemmas African-American students face are rooted in the experience of race and ethnicity in America, making the task of achievement distinctive and difficult. Claude Steele follows up with stunningly clear empirical psychological evidence that when Black students believe they are being judged as members of a stereotyped group—rather than as individuals—they do worse on tests. Finally, Asa Hilliard argues against a variety of false theories and misguided views of African-American achievement, sharing examples of real schools, programs, and teachers around the country that allow African-American students to achieve at high levels. Now more than ever, Young, Gifted and Black is an eye-opening work that has the power to not only change how we talk and think about African-American student achievement but how we view the African-American experience as a whole.

Medical Apartheid

Medical Apartheid
Author: Harriet A. Washington
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 530
Release: 2008-01-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 076791547X

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • The first full history of Black America’s shocking mistreatment as unwilling and unwitting experimental subjects at the hands of the medical establishment. No one concerned with issues of public health and racial justice can afford not to read this masterful book. "[Washington] has unearthed a shocking amount of information and shaped it into a riveting, carefully documented book." —New York Times From the era of slavery to the present day, starting with the earliest encounters between Black Americans and Western medical researchers and the racist pseudoscience that resulted, Medical Apartheid details the ways both slaves and freedmen were used in hospitals for experiments conducted without their knowledge—a tradition that continues today within some black populations. It reveals how Blacks have historically been prey to grave-robbing as well as unauthorized autopsies and dissections. Moving into the twentieth century, it shows how the pseudoscience of eugenics and social Darwinism was used to justify experimental exploitation and shoddy medical treatment of Blacks. Shocking new details about the government’s notorious Tuskegee experiment are revealed, as are similar, less-well-known medical atrocities conducted by the government, the armed forces, prisons, and private institutions. The product of years of prodigious research into medical journals and experimental reports long undisturbed, Medical Apartheid reveals the hidden underbelly of scientific research and makes possible, for the first time, an understanding of the roots of the African American health deficit. At last, it provides the fullest possible context for comprehending the behavioral fallout that has caused Black Americans to view researchers—and indeed the whole medical establishment—with such deep distrust.

A Study of American Intelligence

A Study of American Intelligence
Author: Carl Campbell Brigham
Publisher: Princeton : Princeton University Press ; London : Oxford University Press, c1922, t.p. 1923.
Total Pages: 250
Release: 1922
Genre: Educational tests and measurements
ISBN:

The Chosen

The Chosen
Author: Jerome Karabel
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 748
Release: 2005
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780618574582

Drawing on decades of research, Karabel shines a light on the ever-changing definition of "merit" in college admissions, showing how it shaped--and was shaped by--the country at large.

Black American Students in An Affluent Suburb

Black American Students in An Affluent Suburb
Author: John U. Ogbu
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2003-02-26
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1135625530

John Ogbu has studied minority education from a comparative perspective for over 30 years. The study reported in this book--jointly sponsored by the community and the school district in Shaker Heights, Ohio--focuses on the academic performance of Black American students. Not only do these students perform less well than White students at every social class level, but also less well than immigrant minority students, including Black immigrant students. Furthermore, both middle-class Black students in suburban school districts, as well as poor Black students in inner-city schools are not doing well. Ogbu's analysis draws on data from observations, formal and informal interviews, and statistical and other data. He offers strong empirical evidence to support the cross-class existence of the problem. The book is organized in four parts: *Part I provides a description of the twin problems the study addresses--the gap between Black and White students in school performance and the low academic engagement of Black students; a review of conventional explanations; an alternative perspective; and the framework for the study. *Part II is an analysis of societal and school factors contributing to the problem, including race relations, Pygmalion or internalized White beliefs and expectations, levelling or tracking, the roles of teachers, counselors, and discipline. *Community factors--the focus of this study--are discussed in Part III. These include the educational impact of opportunity structure, collective identity, cultural and language or dialect frame of reference in schooling, peer pressures, and the role of the family. This research focus does not mean exonerating the system and blaming minorities, nor does it mean neglecting school and society factors. Rather, Ogbu argues, the role of community forces should be incorporated into the discussion of the academic achievement gap by researchers, theoreticians, policymakers, educators, and minorities themselves who genuinely want to improve the academic achievement of African American children and other minorities. *In Part IV, Ogbu presents a summary of the study's findings on community forces and offers recommendations--some of which are for the school system and some for the Black community. Black American Students in an Affluent Suburb: A Study of Academic Disengagement is an important book for a wide range of researchers, professionals, and students, particularly in the areas of Black education, minority education, comparative and international education, sociology of education, educational anthropology, educational policy, teacher education, and applied anthropology.

IMPROVING SCHOOLS FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDENTS

IMPROVING SCHOOLS FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDENTS
Author: Sheryl J. Denbo
Publisher: Charles C Thomas Publisher
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2002-01-01
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0398083657

Improving Schools for African American Students is designed to provide educational leaders with a better understanding of how to recognize the diversity of strengths that Black students bring with them to school and how to use these strengths to improve achievement. The articles contained in this book discuss generic education issues such as policy reform, the importance of high quality teaching, and the improvement of schools from the perspective of the academic achievement of African American students. Part I explores institutional racism in the context of America's public schools and provides suggestions for educational leaders to eliminate harmful policies and practices within educational institutions and settings. Part II discusses the kinds of institutional and instructional changes that are needed to support successful schooling of African American children and youth. Part III focuses on the challenges presented to African American students by the current high stakes testing environment that surrounds standards, assessment, and accountability. A review of the literature on schools that have succeeded in improving achievement for African American students at the elementary, middle, and high school levels with districts moving towards narrowing the achievement gap is included. This text examines a wide variety of policies, programs, practices, and research that will provide valuable insight. The emphasis throughout the book is on the ability of educators to successfully restructure their schools, offer high quality teaching and learning standards for African American students and to make the kinds of changes that will result in high achievement for all students.

Intelligence Testing and Minority Students

Intelligence Testing and Minority Students
Author: Richard R. Valencia
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Total Pages: 417
Release: 2000-09-19
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 145225088X

"At last - a book that is comprehensive, balanced and sensitive in its approach to the intellectual assessment of minority children. This book will quickly become a standard text in courses on assessment and diversity." --Jonathan Sandoval, University of California, Davis "Congratulations to Richard Valencia and Lisa Suzuki for producing a long overdue, comprehensive and balanced treatment of cognitive assessment for minority children. This volume should prove to be a great value for practitioners and researchers alike." --Terry Gutkin, University of Nebraska-Lincoln "I believe that Intelligence Testing and Minority Students is absolutely outstanding. Valencia and Suzuki demonstrate unusually rich research-based, theoretical, practical, and clinical foundations for treating the important and thorough set of topics covered by the book. Their underlying compassion is also evident throughout the book. I recommend this book to everyone in the field of assessment; it is "must" reading for anyone who tests minority students." --Alan S. Kaufman, Yale University School of Medicine "This book should be required reading for those who work in this field either in a research or clinical capacity, but is especially important for those who have reservations about the use of standardized tests for intellectual assessment. It is a highly valuable reference." --Robert Rueda, University of Southern California "This is a very rich resource on the history of "intelligence" testing and it′s application to diverse ethnic groups. Theoretical and applied topics are well integrated in the discussions. Most important is the inclusion of the record of white supremacy ideology, the issues of cultural salience in measurement, and the issues of usage. I know of no other reference on this topic that is as comprehensive as is this one." --Asa G. Hilliard III, Georgia State University What roles do socioeconomic status, home intellectual environment, test bias, and heredity play in explaining measured intellectual performance between and within racial/ethnic groups? Intelligence Testing and Minority Students provides a fresh opportunity to reexamine the construct of intelligence, as well as its strengths and weaknesses. Viewed as a psychometric tour de force, this work provides a concrete argument for prioritizing the nation′s testing needs as well as the multicultural perspectives of intelligence. Psychometricians and practitioners alike will find this book to be a useful reference in understanding assessment tests and their relationship with minority students. With the rising necessity for better and more comprehensive testing, it has become of the utmost of importance to respond fairly and validly to the diversity of this nation′s citizens. The authors have acknowledged this need by including a thorough discussion of cognitive testing issues as well as an exploration of future movements. From the historical views of testing to the future direction of nondiscriminatory assessment, no professional should be without this must-have reference. About the Authors: Richard R. Valencia, Ph.D. is Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology, College of Education, at The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Valencia′s research and scholarly interests include the intellectual and academic development of racial/ethnic minority students′ historical, social, and psychological status. Lisa A. Suzuki, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Psychology, School of Education, at New York University. Dr. Suzuki previously worked as a school counselor and psychological examiner for the Department of Education in the state of Hawaii. Over the years, she has administered over 300 intelligence tests to diverse populations. Her observations sparked an interest in pursuing a greater understanding of the cognitive abilities and intelligence of diverse racial/ethnic populations.