A new study out by the National Center for Education Statistics uses data from the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress to examine the black-white achievement gap. Authors use the eighth-grade math assessment and evaluate how the size of the gap corresponds to a school’s percentage of black students (what they term “density”).
They find that on average, white students attended schools that were 9 percent black, and black students attended schools that were 48 percent black. The highest-density schools were mostly in cities and Southern states; low-density schools were mostly in rural areas. Seventy-seven percent of public schools qualify as “lowest-density” (0–20 percent black students), while 10 percent are designated “highest-density” (60–100 percent black).
After controlling for various school, teacher, and student characteristics, the authors found that only white and black male achievement was affected by black student density; black male outcomes were worse in the highest-density schools than the lowest. Interestingly, the average achievement for white males in moderate density schools (40–60 percent black) was higher than the average achievement of their peers in lowest-density schools. In the end, the black-white achievement gap for males is greatest in the highest-density schools; for females (regardless of race), the gap is unaffected by density
It should be noted that while researchers in a study of this kind can control for things like family income and teacher credentials, they cannot wipe out of the effects of self-selection bias. The black students in more segregated schools are almost surely different than those in integrated schools, even after various controls are applied. As with charter school parents, black parents who enroll their kids in integrated schools may be different in subtle ways that are not easily captured in a measured variable. Moreover, these are descriptive and correlational analyses, not causal, so the findings on achievement above are not etched in stone.
But the fact remains that we have worried in the past (and continue to worry today) about schools segregated by race. This particular research adds to that extensive literature. It does not, however, address solutions—which are difficult to devise for this especially complicated issue.
SOURCE: "School Composition and the Black-White Achievement Gap," U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (September 2015).
