The Academic Achievement Gap Between Blacks and Whites

ABSTRACT

This paper considers the academic achievement gap between African American and White students at the elementary and high school levels. It attempts to determine if race or lower socioeconomic status impact results of standardized test results at high performing and low performing schools. It presents research involving regression analysis of data for the state of Illinois. Results indicate race is not a negative factor at high performing or low performing schools for both elementary or high school years, given the samples. Also, low socioeconomic status is not a negative factor at high performing or low performing schools for both the elementary and high school years. High performing schools had low to moderate quantities of the identified variables, while low performing schools had high levels of the identified variables. Societal biases toward Blacks-rich or poor-are challenged in this paper.

Key Words:

• Student achievement
• race and ethnicity
• poverty and educational quality