Faith, Stable Homes Close Black-White Achievement Gap
Religious faith and the presence of both biological parents in the home enable ethnic minority youth to achieve the same level of academic success as that of white students, a new study found.
Analysis of the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS) led William Jeynes, professor of education at California State University, Long Beach, to find no disparity in academic performance between highly religious African American and Latino students from "intact" families and white students.
"The conviction held by some that the achievement gap is virtually immovable is inaccurate and misguided," said Jeynes in a released statement.
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The findings ostensibly refute assertions that were made in the controversial and best-selling book The Bell Curve, Jeynes notes. The 1994 book by Richard J. Hernstein and Charles Murray claimed that gaps in student achievement were the natural result of variation in students' genetic makeup and natural ability. Experts, however, contested that more subtle environmental factors were the cause of achievement gaps.
Jeynes' analysis of a study on a national sample of 20,706 12th-grade high school students indicated that highly religious African American and Latino students from intact families, when controlling for socioeconomic status, scored equally as well as white students on the social studies test and the Test Composite (combination of math and reading). The two groups of students also showed little difference on math and reading with 0.4 percent of blacks and Latinos scoring better than whites on math and 0.4 scoring worse on reading tests.
The only subject area that showed a somewhat significant negative disparity was the science test. African American and Latino students trailed white students by 2.4 percent. And when not controlling for socioeconomic status, the achievement gap for the science test was -3.6 percent.
He describes the "highly religious" as a person who not only was regularly involved in attending a house of worship and religious youth group, but also regarded oneself as highly religious. "Intact families" were defined as homes in which both biological parents were present in the home.
Jeynes argues religious faith and stable family units as two major factors associated with eliminating the achievement gap, a press release noted.
"The results indicate that faith and the presence of two biological parents are sources of strength for many children of color," he stated.
"Our nation should encourage these sources of personal strength rather than discourage them. Presently, our school leaders do little to encourage religious faith in youth of color and as President Clinton observed in a 1995 speech, our public schools often communicate to children that they are to leave their faith at the front door of the school entrance."
The analysis further showed that students in religious schools, on average, outperformed their counterparts in public schools.
Moreover, students of low socioeconomic status (SES) in religious schools scored between 5.4-7.8 percent higher on achievement tests than students with the same low SES in public schools. The achievement gap was higher than that of students from the highest SES quartile in the religious and public school comparison.
On another note, the achievement gap was higher between students of color who attend religious schools and those who attend public schools (6.0-8.3 percent) compared to the gap between white students who attend religious schools and those who attend public schools (4.2-6.0 percent).
School culture, strong parental participation, and the encouragement of religious faith, Jeynes noted, were likely what contributed to the achievement gap in religious schools. Also, religious schools have a higher level of racial harmony and are regarded as more racial friendly than public schools, according to the study.
Jeynes will present his findings publicly for the first time on Apr. 3 in Washington, D.C.
