SCHOOLS, MARKETS, AND FAMILY IN THE HISTORY OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN EDUCATION

Arguments about the rise in relative education levels of African-Ameri cans invoke (1) improvements in the quality of schools attended by bla cks or (2) affirmative action regulations affecting schools and employ ers. Missing from these arguments is an explanation of the emergence o f black education levels exceeding those of whites once the influence of family background factors has been controlled. School quality impro vements, by themselves, could not have produced high observed black ed ucation levels net of family background factors. This study finds that black educational attainment net of family background influences beca me higher than that of of whites in the 1950s-too early to be explaine d by affirmative action programs. This leaves the possibility that mor e subtle effects of government policy on labor markets and schools pla yed a significant role in the rise of black education. Alternatively, it could be that a favorable orientation toward education in the Afric an-American community has played a role in its members' educational ad vance.