The Achievement Gap Fails to Close
Half century of testing shows persistent divide between haves and have-nots
By Eric A. Hanushek, Paul E. Peterson, Laura M. Talpey and Ludger Woessmann
SUMMER 2019 / VOL. 19, NO. 3
Education Next will host "Have We Closed Socioeconomic Achievement Gaps?," an event in Washington, D.C. on April 9, 2019.
Paul E. Peterson sat down with EdNext Editor-in-chief Marty West to discuss this article on the EdNext Podcast.
Income inequality has soared in the United States over the past half century. Has educational inequality increased alongside, in lockstep?
Of course, say public intellectuals from across the political spectrum. As Richard Rothstein of the liberal Economic Policy Institute puts it: “Incomes have become more unequally distributed in the United States in the last generation, and this inequality contributes to the academic achievement gap.†Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam, citing research by Stanford sociologist Sean Reardon, says, “Rich Americans and poor Americans are living, learning, and raising children in increasingly separate and unequal worlds.†Another well-known political scientist, Charles Murray, argues that “the United States is stuck with a large and growing lower class that is able to care for itself only sporadically and inconsistently. . . . The new upper class has continued to prosper as the dollar value of the talents they bring to the economy has continued to grow.â€
https://www.educationnext.org/achievement-gap-fails-close-half-century-testing-shows-persistent-divide/