Closing the Achievement Gap

National Review ^ | November 15, 2011 | REIHAN SALAM & TINO SANANDAJI

[reaganaut1]

During the recent struggle over collective-bargaining rights in Wisconsin, a number of left-of-center observers, including New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, pointed out that students in unionized Wisconsin do better on average than students in non-unionized Texas. The obvious conclusion, or so we were led to believe, is that teachers’ unions lead to better education.

There is, however, a problem with this argument. Drawing on data from the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress, the political commentator David Burge pointed out that white students in Texas outperform white students in Wisconsin, black students in Texas outperform black students in Wisconsin, and Hispanic students in Texas outperform Hispanic students in Wisconsin. This may look like a statistical paradox; Wisconsin does better on average, even though all groups do worse in Wisconsin. But there is an explanation: Wisconsin has a considerably larger share of white students than Texas, and white students tend to fare better than black and Hispanic students. This example highlights the increasing importance of demographics to the American education debate.

It is not difficult to understand the sources of the achievement gap. Particularly when confronted with the fact that more K–12 spending hasn’t generally meant better educational outcomes, even defenders of the teachers’ unions often highlight the role of poverty, family disruption, and historical disadvantage in limiting the ability of black and Hispanic students to thrive in school. As a general rule, native-born non-Hispanic whites have reaped the benefits of many generations of relative peace and prosperity. And this long experience of prosperity has contributed to the intergenerational transmission of wealth, tacit knowledge, and social networks that can give one a leg up. Social capital might also contribute to the stability of non-Hispanic white families, in which children are typically raised by both biological parents.

[reaganaut1]

The article never mentions racial differences in intelligence as an explanation of part of the achievement gap. NR is inconsistent on this topic. It has published Derbyshire, who has discussed these differences.

[MrB]

Even if I were to accept the premise of racial differences in intelligence,

a 5% difference in mean intelligence would not account for a 20% difference in achievement.

It’s cultural, mostly. If the “achievement gap” were roughly equal to the intelligence gap that was independently measured, I’d give that some merit.

[Redbob]

Good catch; good post.

[PapaBear3625]

a 5% difference in mean intelligence would not account for a 20% difference in achievement.

The graph below illustrates it:

A relatively small shift to the left on the bell curve, produces a relatively large increase of kids who would be on the wrong side of the "can make it in school" threshold.

[YouGoTexasGirl]

Just go to a grocery store in Texas...or Texico. Sometimes I don’t realize that I am in America as Spaaanish is spoken more than English. Some areas you need to know Spanish to order at McDonalds and Taco Bell!

Be honest, be generous, be just and live honorable among your fellow man. That has been forgotten to a point where it has turned America upside down. I don’t agree with Obamacare but somehow we need to get people to have health insurance or that is going to fail.

[MrB]

On the contrary, we need more people personally paying for the services they receive, not more “insurance”.

Insurance should be for catastrophic, unplanned occurrences, not for health care.