Education Next – Thomas J. Kane
“In the half century since James Coleman and his colleagues first documented racial gaps in student achievement, education researchers have done little to help close those gaps. Often, it seems we are content to recapitulate Coleman’s findings. Every two years, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (a misnomer, as it turns out) reports the same disparities in achievement by race and ethnicity. We have debated endlessly and fruitlessly in our seminar rooms and academic journals about the effects of poverty, neighborhoods, and schools on these disparities. Meanwhile, the labor market metes out increasingly harsh punishments to each new cohort of students to emerge from our schools underprepared.”(more)