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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