Americans are more concerned about—and more supportive of—proposals to close wealth-based achievement gaps among students than they are about Black-White or Hispanic-White gaps.
These are among the findings in a new report that explores the U.S. public’s beliefs about test score gaps and its support—and sometimes shortage thereof—for gap-closing initiatives.
Specifically, 64 percent of adults say it’s “essential” and a “high priority” to close the poor-wealthy achievement gap. But only 36 percent and 31 percent say the same about the Black-White and Hispanic-White gaps, respectively.
The findings appear in Educational Researcher, a peer-reviewed journal published by the American Educational Research Association. Titled “The Politics of Achievement Gaps,” the report is based on data from a survey administered to 1,000 members of YouGov’s online respondent panel. YouGov specializes in academic survey research and online political polling.
When asked about possible underlying causes for test score gaps, 44 percent of respondents said that none of the gaps between Blacks and Whites and Hispanics and Whites resulted from discrimination and injustice. Meanwhile, only 10 percent attribute “a great deal” of the race-based gaps to those causes.
“We were surprised that so many Americans believe race- and ethnicity-based gaps are minimally, or in no way, a result of the nation’s legacy of racial discrimination and injustice,” the study’s authors say.
Adds Dr. Jon Valant, one of the co-authors: “It’s hard not to feel a little sad about that. We expected some of those responses but were surprised there were so many. It’s an unfortunate finding.”
