Closing the Achievement Gaps: What Doesn't Meet the Eye

What Doesn't Meet the Eye

Family Background Disparities

Are the disparities in Table 1 associated with racial and ethnic differences in the SES of students' families? How large are the SES differences? Table 2 shows that about half of all black students in the sample report that they live with one or neither parent, while only 15 percent of whites report the same. Other groups are between blacks and whites on this measure. The consistency across districts on this measure (and others) is remarkable, given that the districts are in nine different states. Separately for each of the 15 districts, the percentages of blacks living with one or neither parent are 46, 50, 54, 57, 52, 52, 46, 49, 59, 49, 48, 50, 51, 54, and 53. At the other extreme, the percentages for whites are 14, 14, 15, 15, 22, 14, 16, 11, 14, 12, 10, 12, 19, 18, and 16, respectively.

There also are differences in parental education levels, as shown by the tabulation of "mother's years of schooling" in Table 2.¹⁴ Half of Hispanic students report that their mothers have 12 or fewer years of schooling, while 77 percent of whites report that their mothers have either a four-year college degree (41 percent) or a graduate degree (36 percent). Black mothers have more years of schooling than Hispanics but less than Asians, while Asians have less than whites. Parental education levels for blacks and Hispanics in these districts are quite high, compared even to the national averages for whites. Still, there are gaps inside the districts because the education levels among white and Asian residents are so very high.

Table 2

Five Types of Socioeconomic Disparity Within and Among Racial and Ethnic Groups in the MSAN Ed-Excel Data

Percentages Within Racial Groups

Living Arrangements

	Black	White	Hispanic	Asian	Mixed Race
One parent or neither	53	15	35	19	37
One parent and stepparent	11	9	10	5	13
Two parents	36	77	55	76	50
Column Total	100	100	100	100	100

Mother's Years of Schooling

	Black	White	Hispanic	Asian	Mixed Race
12 or fewer	28	11	50	25	22
13 to 15	23	12	15	10	17
Four-year college graduate	27	41	16	33	33
Advanced degree	21	36	19	31	28
Column Total	100	100	100	100	100

Number of Siblings

	Black	White	Hispanic	Asian	Mixed Race
Two or fewer siblings	49	81	60	68	59
Three or more siblings	51	19	40	32	41
Column Total	100	100	100	100	100

Access to a Computer at Home

	Black	White	Hispanic	Asian	Mixed Race
No access to a computer at home	22	3	30	10	13
One computer at home	51	40	50	48	44
Two or more computers at home	27	57	20	42	43
Column Total	100	100	100	100	100

Books in the Student's Home

	Black	White	Hispanic	Asian	Mixed Race
10 or fewer books at home	10	2	20	8	6
Between 10-100 books at home	50	18	51	45	29
Over 100 books at home	40	79	29	47	65
Column Total	100	100	100	100	100

In addition, black and Hispanic students have more siblings. Half of blacks—but only 19 percent of whites, 32 percent of Asians, 40 percent of Hispanics, and 41 percent of mixed-race students—have three or more siblings. Assuming that most siblings live in the same household, more siblings means more sharing of scarce resources, such as the family computer(s) and parental attention. White households have the fewest children and the most computers, while Hispanic households have more children and the fewest computers. Similarly, white youth report more books in their homes than other groups. Hispanic students report the fewest books; black, Asian and mixed-race students also report substantially fewer books than whites.

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