The Emergence and Persistence of the Black-White Achievement Gap

The black-white achievement gap is an enduring social problem in the United States. I examined the emergence and persistence of the black-white achievement gap using opportunities to learn as a mechanism for creating racial inequality in learning outcomes placed within a cumulative disadvantage framework (how early disadvantage leads to continued disadvantage). I argue that black-white disparities in access to situations that foster learning create racial inequality in achievement. Unequal learning opportunities early in life will be compounded throughout a student's educational career leading to an accumulation of disadvantaged learning outcomes and persisting inequality. Using three nationally representative, longitudinal data sets, I examined the black-white achievement gap from early childhood through senior year of high school. I found that the black-white achievement gap emerges as early as nine months of age and, grows as students move through the K-12 system. The financial capital, human capital, and people within the household explain a large portion of the emergence of the black-white achievement gap. When children enter kindergarten, black students receive biased estimates of ability from teachers at the beginning of the year, but this is reduced as teachers have more time to observe student ability. However, extreme underestimates of student ability at the beginning of the school year negatively affects student learning throughout the year. Finally, I examined black-white differences in high school course taking. The ability level needed to enter advanced courses is lower as the school minority composition increases. However, black students benefit less from advanced math course taking and leave high school with a lower level of math skills despite advanced course taking compared to white students. Overall, I found evidence that suggests black children are at a cumulative disadvantage throughout their schooling career. The black-white achievement gap emerges early and persists due to multiple inequalities in learning opportunities and across multiple time points.