Coming From Behind: A Historical Perspective on Black Education and Attainment

In our current reliance on "hard data," achievement test scores are used incorrectly and without warrant as the ultimate mark of educational progress. While it is true that a gap continues to exist, educational history shows that, overall, both Black and White students have participated steadily in increasing numbers in the educational system, whether the measure is the number of students attending school, the increasing length of the school years, literacy rates, or in the actual level of educational attainment over a period of more than 100 years. The data examined in historical perspective show that the American education system, through thick and thin, has served its students well. Those data also show that change comes slowly, in increments of just a few percent a decade. Expectations of rapid change are totally unreasonable when viewed against the historical data. In addition, the historical data show that the Black population has made progress more rapidly over time than the White population. As a result of more rapid progress, although there is still a gap between White and Black, the gap has narrowed considerably. We suggest the gap reflects history and culture. The small increments per decade argue that cultures change slowly and persist over time. We will discuss the history of Black education to suggest some reasons for the gap. The history will help us assess today's achievement gap and help us to understand how far our public education system has brought us.