An Examination of Public School Testing
and the Black-White Score Gap

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The Students

In 1994, Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray alleged in their book, The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life, that differences in "cognitive ability between racial groups as measured by standardized tests are due in part to genetics." The controversial conclusions Herrnstein and Murray came to were ultimately rejected by most researchers in the field. Jencks and Phillips (The Black-White Test Score Gap) were firm in their assertion that "despite endless speculation, no one has found genetic evidence indicating that Blacks have less innate intellectual ability than Whites."

African-American children are over represented in the lower income brackets, and are more likely to be from single-parent homes. Poverty is obviously a huge barrier to learning, but economics alone do not explain the gap between Black and White test scores. According to the SAT, in 1997 Black high school seniors from families with annual incomes between $70,000 and $80,000 scored an average of 472 on the verbal component of the SAT, compared to an average of 487 for whites from families whose income was less than $10,000 per year. These, and similar statistics force us to conclude that beyond income, something else is lowering the academic performance of Black students.

There is anecdotal evidence compiled by researchers, notably Richard Rothstein in "The Myth of Public School Failure," (The American Prospect, 1993) that suggests peer pressure may be extremely harsh for Black students and has a pronounced negative effect their academic development. It is true that many Black students who excel in school are teased and said to be "acting white" but so are conscientious students of every race, creed and color.

Claude M. Steele has called attention to a subtler social phenomenon called "stereotype threat" which he defines in a 1999 Atlantic Monthly article as, "the threat of being viewed through the lens of a negative stereotype, or the fear of doing something that would inadvertently confirm that stereotype."

Steele has done several experiments with Black and White students related to standardized tests and has found that African-American students don't do as well when they are told that the test being taken is an indicator of ability. Steele contends that the better Black students feel this threat more severely noting "the effects of stereotype threat are strongest for students who are high-achievers and care very much about doing well." Apparently, these students feel that if they don't test well, they will be confirming the negative stereotype. This pressure amounts to a kind of social self-fulfilling prophecy.

There are a myriad of other social ills to explain Black student's low-test scores. But if we start with the proposition that all children are created equal, and that all children have the capacity to learn the basics, we are forced to examine inadequate teaching as a possible reason for the racial disparity in test scores.

The Teachers

The shortage of skillful teachers in urban districts has had an adverse affect on Black students, and it is a logical conclusion that test scores would be similarly affected. There can be no doubt that the phenomenon of "white flight" from the inner city has damaged our public schools, pulling experienced teachers away from the students who need them most. Students certainly learn more when skillful teachers guide them. Less certain is the charge that inept teachers are routinely hired and retained for life.

Despite the grumbling from critics about bad teachers who get tenured and then remain lodged in the system, most parents, when specifically asked, approve of their children's teachers. Polls are notoriously unreliable, but a 1999 Harris poll found that a majority of people, almost 70 percent "considered their communities' teachers to be well or even highly qualified." By and large American educators are very good. Using the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey, the Educational Testing Service found that the "verbal scores of teachers are higher than those of managers but similar to those of lawyers, engineers, accountants, and social workers." In quantitative skills, professional teachers rate as highly as professionals in most other fields.

Teachers are not as supervised as other professionals, and there is room for improvement in the mentoring process of new educators. School Principals are the only real controllers of teacher quality in the classroom, and other than a few observations of new teachers, there do not seem to be many actual mechanisms in place to insure that educators are performing competently. Further it is not clear that Principals are on the whole, capable of judging teacher quality.

The student/teacher relationship is an extremely personal one. Racists, bigots and individuals who harbor prejudices against minorities do unfortunately lead many of our public school classrooms. In the absence of hard data, one can only imagine the damage done to young people of color by racially intolerant educators. There is also the subtler issue of low expectations breeding low-test scores. Students, like most people, often do what is expected of them and little more. Black students who are not expected to test well generally won't. The debilitating cycle of dim prospects and poor grades that George W. Bush calls the "soft bigotry of low expectations," surely contributes to the Black-White score gap.

One possible determination of teacher quality is student improvement on tests, but testing and scoring tests is a complex process. Before we judge a teacher based on student test scores, we would have to be sure that the tests were actually measuring student progress.

The Tests

Maybe the tests have failed the students. Some have argued that Basic Skills tests don't accurately measure student abilities, and that the tests themselves are unfair. The Maple River Education Coalition, a Minnesota group known for trying to scrap the state's graduation standards, questions the validity of these tests. David Thompson, MREC's executive director insists, "The content of these tests is questionable at best." A popular argument against the tests is that they are culturally biased, and that they reveal more about the tester than those being tested. There may be some validity in these charges, but since the overwhelming majority of students exceed the standards, this facile argument falls short of any reasonable explanation.

Any number of complaints about these tests has been lodged, chief among them that standardized scoring could have a "demotivating" effect, and that testing rooms and conditions are not consistent from school to school, making comparisons impossible. But the fact is this: the tests are designed to ensure that minimum standards not average standards, have been met.

Minnesota's educational testing is similar to the tests administered in nearly every other state in the country. The assessments were developed by hundreds of educators with input from citizens, experts in higher education and business, and information from national standards. These tests may well have flaws, but hardly anyone can argue that the questions are too difficult. The material covered is extremely basic. The following example question from the Minnesota Basic Skills test demonstrates the level of understanding of math expected from a 3rd grader.


Kablia has $12.00. Her mother asked her to buy 3 peach pies. What else does she need to know to find out if she has enough money?

A. the weight of one pie

B. the price of one pie

C. when the store opens each morning

D. how many peach pies were sold today



This is not "rocket science". Excepting for the student with learning or other disabilities, every seven year old, regardless of race, color or creed, should be able to quickly locate the most appropriate answer. If a 3rd grader cannot answer this or similarly angled questions, it is reasonable to assume that this child will have difficulty with future schooling.

Eighth grade students in Minnesota take the math and reading portion of the Minnesota's Basic Skills Test. The difficulty level is equivalent to reading a newspaper and doing pre-algebraic math, which is a reasonable standard.

All of the above

The question raised by the Black-White score gap has no single answer. The matrix of educational factors involved in standardized testing each play a role. The students, the teachers and the tests themselves all have an affect on the scores, and it is impossible to determine which factors are in play at any given time. If we begin with the assumption that every child will, at minimum, need a basic education to survive in an increasingly complex world, and the conviction that every child deserves a chance to succeed, then we are left with a clear mission: Teach every child how to learn.

This is a momentous task and some measure of progress will be necessary. The second law of thermodynamics tells us that the closer we examine something the more we disturb it. Testing is by its very nature a flawed process that inevitably reveals more about the tester than the tested. Never the less, proof of success or failure in the goal of a basic education for all, will require testing of both the students and the schools. If the tests are culturally skewed or bias against African- Americans, then lets continue to refine the questions, but we should not throw out the baby with the bathwater. Let us find new ways of testing and assessing student progress.