The black-white "achievement gap" as a perennial challenge of urban science education: A sociocultural and historical overview with implications for research and practice

A perennial challenge for urban education in the United States is finding e ffective ways to address the academic achievement gap between African Ameri can and White students. There is widespread and justified concern about the persistence of this achievement gap. In fact, historical evidence suggests that this achievement gap has existed at various times for groups other th an African Americans. What conditions prevailed when this achievement gap e xisted for these other groups? Conversely, under what conditions did the ga p diminish and eventually disappear for these groups? This article explores how sociocultural factors involved in the manifestation and eventual disap pearance of the gap for these groups may shed some light on how to address the achievement gap for African American students in urban science classroo ms. Our conclusion is that the sociocultural position of groups is crucial to understanding and interpreting the scholastic performance of students fr om various backgrounds. We argue for a research framework and the explorati on of research questions incorporating insights from Ogbu's cultural, ecolo gical theory, as well as goal theory, and identity theory. We present these as theories that essentially focus on student responses to societal dispar ities. Our ultimate goal is to define the problem more clearly and contribu te to the development of research-based classroom practices that will be ef fective in reducing and eventually eliminating the achievement gap. We iden tify the many gaps in society and the schools that need to be addressed in order to find effective solutions to the problem of the achievement gap. Fi nally, we propose that by understanding the genesis of the gap and developi ng strategies to harness the students' responses to societal disparities, l earning can be maximized and the achievement gap can be significantly reduc ed, if not eliminated entirely, in urban science classrooms. (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.