Role of Federal Resources in Closing the Achievement Gaps of Minority and Disadvantaged Students

摘要

In their landmark volume, Jencks and Phillips (1998) suggested that reducing the gap in scores between black and white students would do more to move America toward racial equality than any other alternative. They argue that eliminating the gap might eventually solve many of the others issues that separate the races: the need for affirmative action policies in colleges and jobs, the gap in wages, and perhaps even segregated communities. When recommending policies that could help achieve gap reduction, they suggest that the strongest empirical evidence exists for class size reductions and raising the quality of teachers by obtaining teachers with higher test scores as two 'expensive' options. They also believe that policies prior to kindergarten such as pre-kindergarten and Head Start programs that are oriented toward teaching cognitive skills are necessary. They also emphasize the difficulty of finding politically viable solutions. Decisive political support for programs that only benefit blacks is unlikely, and so benefits for some whites seems necessary to build a viable political coalition. Jencks and Phillips (1998) also were pessimistic that expanding federal programs could play a significant role in solving the problem because of the distrust of federal initiatives in education. In this paper we will suggest that a federal resource role is critical to addressing the problem, and that specific programs that are appropriately targeted could be effective and efficient. While significant political issues of federal involvement are still present, the recent election and the federal surplus has probably made a broader federal role in education more likely- although still difficult.