The Role of Research in Countering Racial Inequality in

EducationPedro A. Noguera, Ph.D.

Harvard University

Agenda

• The achievement gap

• Standards and Accountability

• What’s wrong with educational research

• The new educational research

I. What we know about the achievement gap

• Gaps in achievement are a manifestation of broader patterns of racial inequality (Jencks and Phillips 1998; Noguera and Akom 2000)

– It mirrors other disparities and forms of inequality(health, income,employment)

– Tends to follow consistent patterns with respect to the race and class of students

• Privilege is inherited: Kids start school with varying levels of preparation (Snow 1997)

– A child’s background (SES, education of parents) is strongly correlated with their performance in school (Coleman 1966; Jencks 1972)

How schools affect the achievement gap

• Schools often exacerbate pre-existing inequality through inequitable practice

– Poor students are assigned to inferior schools (Orfield 1996)

– Triage approach to education (Noguera 1995)

– Tracked into less challenging course with less qualified teachers (Oakes 1986)

• Patterns that have been in place for a long time are often accepted as normal - the normalization of failure is the central obstacle to increasing student achievement

Racial Inequality is Different from other Forms of Social Inequality

• Racial inequality in education is related to historical patterns of racial discrimination (R. Anderson 1990)

– Inequities in school funding, unequal treatment (Meier, et.al 1989)

– Beliefs in the genetic basis of intelligence (Hernstein and Murray 1994)

– Beliefs that culture (student backgrounds) are more powerful an influence than schools on achievement (McWhorter 1998)

• Racial disparities in achievement are exacerbated by racial segregation and concentrated poverty (Orfield and Eaton 1996)

– Poor minority kids generally attend the worse schools

Exceptions to Patterns

• Black middle class– Tend to perform lower than expected given SES and educational

background of parents (Ogbu 1995)

– Significant factors • Teacher expectations (R. Ferguson 2002) and school sorting practices

(Achievement Council 1998)

• Family influences (M. Portilla 1998)

• School culture - peer influences (L. Steinberg 1996, P. Noguera 2001)

• Linking of racial identity and academic performance (P. Noguera 2003, Phelan, et.al. 1998)

Exceptions Continued

• Immigrant students– Over represented among failing and successful

students (Suarez-Oroszco 2002)– Voluntary vs. non-voluntary (Ogbu 1988)– Primary vs. secondary differences (Portes and

Rumbaut 1996)– Influence of class and cultural capital (S. Lee

1998)

II. Are standards and accountability helping to improve schools?

• Yes:

– Social promotion is over, students will no longer graduate from high school lacking basic skills

– Greater public attention is focused on education. In some places more resources have been directed to struggling schools

– Many schools are now more focused on raising student achievement

• complacency about academic achievement has been substantially reduced

Standards are not helping

• Schools and districts serving the poorest children have the highest failure rates and little is being done to address their systemic problems (R. Elmore 2002)

– Nothing has been done to help schools improve

• Only the most vulnerable parties - kids - are being held accountable. So far there is no accountability for adults

• The drop-out rate appears to be increasing in states where “high stakes have been implemented

• Nothing has been done to insure that opportunity to learn standards are met: – qualified teachers – access to appropriate preparation courses – addressing the non-academic needs of students

Flawed Assumptions in Accountability Plans

• Pressure (humiliation) will force schools to improve

• Threat of withholding a diploma or grade retention will force students to improve

• State takeovers of failing schools will lead to improvement

• Academic achievement of poor students can be improved without addressing their other needs (i.e. language, counseling, health, etc.)

III. What’s Wrong with Educational Research?

• Too much of it tells us what we know already– Examples: Research on class size, school lunch, and

failure of school reform• It tells us what’s wrong but not what to do to bring about

change– Examples: critiques of tracking,drop-out studies,

research on the organization of high schools• Tells us what works but not how to replicate “bringing

good practice to scale”– Examples: small schools, language immersion programs

What Else is Wrong with Educational research

• Educational researchers are too content communicating with each other– Who’s reading our journals?

• Too much research is disconnected from policy and practice

• Research is not sufficiently focused on the pressing problems confronting the field of education

IV. The New Educational Research

• Must meet standards for “good research” (National Academy 2002), and more...– Must be deeply engaged with field

• More like research in public health

– Must challenge assumptions related to schooling and learning• Research on disciplinary practices

– Must provide detached assessment of policy• Chicago Research Consortium

– Must have clear links to policy and practice• Harvard Civil Rights Project

New Educational Research

• Must be intelligible to policy makers and practitioners– Pathways research on high schools

• Must be rigorous and open to scrutiny– MDRC research on school-based interventions

• Research process may be part of the transformation effort– Diversity Project

• Must be guided by theory– Theories of society

– Theories of the middle range

– Theories of change

Good Research Alone is not Good Enough

• Need to find ways to engage policy makers– How do we get taken seriously?

• Need to inform the broader public – Who is our audience?

• Need to recognize the ways in which politics and vested interests may limit possibilities for change