Educational social justice requires us to eliminate the opportunity (achievement) gap between subgroups of students.  In other words, when we see a historically minoritized group of students on average not performing as well as white students, we are required to fix the disparity.  

Opportunity gaps exist among racial groups throughout the country.  A legacy of Jim Crow segregation in the South, redlining across the country that has caused de facto segregation, better funded schools in predominantly white areas, and educators who do not  believe that students of color can engage in learning at grade level all contribute to the opportunity gap.  While these are no doubt issues throughout the country, it is important to acknowledge that some states are doing far better than others in closing the opportunity gap.

An organization named WalletHub conducted a study to determine which states have more racial equality in education than others.  The study had limitations as it focused on comparing only white and African Americans, leaving out other racial groups that also suffer from similar opportunity gaps, namely Hispanics and Native Americans. Nevertheless the results are interesting and perhaps, surprising.

One of the greatest surprises for most people may be that overt, political leanings of a state do not seem to influence racial opportunity gaps.  For instance, many would assume that the Deep South, due to its history, would most likely have the greatest opportunity gaps.  However, Texas, which once had the largest Jim Crow system in the South (Houston) is among the top ten states for racial equality in education.  (Parts of Texas belong to the Deep South.)  Furthermore, among the top 25 states for racial equality are Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, all three of which are firmly rooted in the Deep South.  On the flip side, the most liberal part of the country, the Northeast, has states that are in the bottom ten for racial equality in education.  These states include Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts. That said, South Carolina, a Southern state, is in the bottom half of the states for racial equality, and Vermont, a traditionally liberal state is in the top ten. Hence, at least on the surface, whether a state is red or blue does not predetermine racial opportunity gaps in education.

As I compared racial equality in education to other metrics, integration stood out as a possible influence on racial opportunity gaps or lack thereof.  WalletHub did a study on racial integration and ranked states in accordance.  While not mapping 1:1, there were some interesting parallels that I noticed.  Five of the top ten states for racial equality in education were also among the top ten states for racial integration, namely Hawaii, Arizona, New Mexico, Kentucky, and Texas.  Delaware, which is in the top 10 for racial integration is 12th for educational equality across races, and Georgia which is also in the top 10 for racial integration is 15th for educational equality.  Hence, there are some clear parallels between racial integration and racial equality in schools.  This initial noticing makes sense considering that school districts with higher concentrations of white students receive $23 billion more funding.  Therefore, states which have more integrated schools will have less disparity in funding across districts.  Furthermore, living amongst people of different races may change educator mindset about what students from minority backgrounds can and cannot accomplish.  That said, however, Maryland, Washington, and Alaska, all ranking amongst the top 10 for racial integration, rank 35, 24, and 21 respectively for racial equality.

These are just some of my initial thoughts about the study on opportunity gaps.  Much statistical analysis of course is begging to be done, and there are clearly no easy answers, but as states work towards decreasing the opportunity gap (which many of the states with larger opportunity gaps are fervently working towards), it’s a good idea to think about some of the larger causes of these opportunity gaps and what we can do to close them.  And just because a state is doing better than others, does not mean that there is no further work to be done in that state. None of the states demonstrated that there was no opportunity gap between races.

Let me know what you think are the causes of racial inequality in our schools.