The Obama effect? Inspiration and ACT scores

ABSTRACT

After Barack Obama’s 2008 election to the presidency of the United States, many predicted that the first Black president would inspire a generation of Black Americans, especially students. While stories of Obama inspiring individuals to overachieve are common, it remains to be seen if there was a systemic shift in Black student achievement after Obama’s election. Given the persistent racial score gap between Blacks and Whites on standardized tests, it is important to know if an inspirational figure could have a significant impact. Using ACT data from Chicago Public Schools, I find there is no evidence that Obama’s election had an impact on Black test scores. The racial ACT gap has been increasing since the beginning of the 21st century, and that trend continued after Obama was elected.

KEYWORDS:

• Race
• education
• test scores
• Obama

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• J15
• I20
• I23

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ For a contrasting view, see Schmidt and Nosek, 2010.

² At least 10 observations must be recorded in any category for the mean composite score to be included.

³ Most Midwestern schools favour the ACT, while East and West Coast schools favour the SAT.

⁴ This is an admittedly biased source.

⁵ The ITSA framework follows from Linden (2015; 2017).

⁶ Jackson finished with the third most delegates at the Democratic convention in 1984 behind Walter Mondale and Gary Hart. In 1988, he was a more legitimate challenger, and finished second in delegate count behind Michael Dukakis.

⁷ Obama announced his candidacy on 10 February 2007, too soon to have an impact on those taking the ACT in the spring of that year