The Supreme Court's 2003 decision to uphold affirmative action in college admissions suggests that special treatment may be unnecessary in 25 years. But achieving equality without affirmative action will require overcoming a black-white test score gap that appears as early as preschool and is rooted in child-rearing practices.
References
1.
CraneJonathan, ed. Social Programs That Work.New York: Russell Sage Foundation Press, 1998. This anthology evaluates successful intervention programs for low-income children.
2.
FarkasGeorge. Human Capital or Cultural Capital? Ethnicity and Poverty Groups in an Urban School District.New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1996. In this book I explain how early skills and student behavior gaps lead to ethnic achievement gaps in urban school districts.
3.
FarkasGeorge. “Racial Disparities and Discrimination in Education: What Do We Know, How Do We Know It, and What Do We Need to Know?”Teachers College Record105, 6 (2003): 1157–1188. This article reviews the research literature on racial gaps in education.
4.
FergusonRonald. “A Diagnostic Analysis of Black-White GPA Disparities in Shaker Heights, Ohio.”Brookings Papers on Education Policy 2001.Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 2001. This paper investigates the black-white achievement gap in one affluent suburban school district.
5.
HartBettyRisleyTodd. Meaningful Differences in Everyday Experience of Young Children.Baltimore: Paul Brookes Publishing Co., 1995. This study includes detailed evidence on how social class determines parents' conversations with preschool children, leading to differences in the children's vocabulary.
6.
JencksChristopherPhillipsMeredith, eds. The Black-White Test Score Gap.Washington, D.C.: Brookings, 1998. One of the best collections of research papers on the nature, history, and causes of the test score gap; it includes Richard Nisbett's review of the evidence on racial differences in IQ scores.
7.
SnowCatherineSusan BurnsM.GriffinPeg, eds. Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children.Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1998. This book explains what research has taught us about effective reading instruction, particularly at young ages and for at-risk students.
