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The 2007 California Educational Opportunity Report:
The Racial Opportunity Gap

I. Introduction

In August 2007, California’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell called for greater public attention to the racial achievement gap in education. Highlighting evidence that white and Asian students in California consistently outperform their African American and Latino peers, O’Connell urged a state-wide focus on eliminating this gap. Some commentators responded to O’Connell’s statement by arguing that the persistent racial gap in achievement scores is a product of cultural differences that must be addressed if the gap is to be closed. This cultural argument suggests that the problem of low test scores resides within the African American and Latino communities; it fails to account for the fact that California students generally have lower test scores than students across the nation. Notably, white students in California also perform well below white students in almost all other states.

In response to O’Connell’s call, the 2007 Educational Opportunity Report examines California’s poor and unequal educational achievement in light of the conditions in California’s public schools. As the latest in a series of reports on educational opportunities in California, this report uses the most recent state data available to

• Document, for every high school, the relationships among California’s educational infrastructure, rates of high school completion, and enrollment in the state’s public four-year colleges and universities;

• Examine the educational infrastructure of the state's middle schools;

• Investigate the opportunities provided in schools serving different racial groups—schools that serve a majority of white and Asian students; schools that serve a majority of African American, Latino, and American Indian students; and schools that are intensely segregated and enroll over ninety percent of African American, Latino, and American Indian students;

• Analyze the math pipeline through middle school and high school and the flow of students through it—including how well students are being prepared to succeed in high-stakes accountability measures;

• Show the changes in graduation rates for the Class of 2006, overall and for different groups of high schools.

Five key findings emerge from these analyses:

• A national opportunity gap. California lags behind most other states in providing fundamental learning conditions as well as in student outcomes.

• A racial opportunity gap. Within California, African American and Latino students are far more likely to attend schools that lack fundamental learning conditions than their white and Asian peers.

• A restricted flow through the “mathematics pipeline.” The flow of students through California’s middle school and high school math curriculum is slowed by students’ lack of access to reasonably-sized classrooms, rigorous coursework, and well-trained teachers.

• Systemic problems. Inadequacy and inequality are found throughout California. The state's educational problems are most severe in schools serving the highest proportions of African American and Latino students.

• Worse outcomes for the Class of 2006. The consequences of poor learning conditions were greater for young people in the Class of 2006 in part because they were the first class to face the California High School Exit Exam’s “diploma penalty.” In 2006, California graduated a smaller proportion of its 9th grade cohort than the proportion of any cohort of 9th graders graduating since 1997.

In essence, we expose two significant opportunity gaps that mirror California students’ academic performance: the gap between learning opportunities in California and other states and the gap in learning opportunities between schools within the state. We conclude that understanding and eliminating California’s racial achievement gap will require simultaneous attention to these two substantial gaps in educational opportunity.

The remainder of the report is organized in six sections:

• Achievement, graduation, and college preparation
• California’s racially disparate schools
• Inadequate and unequal learning conditions and opportunities
• Unequal outcomes mirror unequal opportunities
• Restricted flow through California’s K-12 mathematics pipeline
• Conclusion

 

Download the report as a PDF (1.6 MB, 28 Pages)

 

 

 

 

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