School Policies and the Black-White Test Score Gap

This paper examines school-related policies and strategies that have been proposed or justified, at least in part, on the basis of their potential for reducing black-white test score gaps. These include strategies, one of which is greater integration, to reduce differences in the quality of teachers faced by black and white students; school and classroom policies designed to improve the achievement of low-performing students; and the strategies of school accountability and parental choice designed to change incentives throughout the education system. While none of these strategies is likely to be sufficiently powerful to offset the powerful non-school social forces that contribute to the racial achievement gap, the failure of education policy makers to be vigilant about the aspects of the problem over which they do have some control could well lead to even greater gaps in the future or to lost opportunities to reduce them.