ERIC Number: ED517021
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2011-Mar
Pages: 0
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
The American Family in Black and White: A Post-Racial Strategy for Improving Skills to Promote Equality. NBER Working Paper No. 16841
Heckman, James J.
National Bureau of Economic Research
In contemporary America, racial gaps in achievement are primarily due to gaps in skills. Skill gaps emerge early before children enter school. Families are major producers of those skills. Inequality in performance in school is strongly linked to inequality in family environments. Schools do little to reduce or enlarge the gaps in skills that are present when children enter school. Parenting matters, and the true measure of child advantage and disadvantage is the quality of parenting received. A growing fraction of American children across all race and ethnic groups is being raised in dysfunctional families. Investment in the early lives of children in disadvantaged families will help close achievement gaps. America currently relies too much on schools and adolescent remediation strategies to solve problems that start in the preschool years. Prevention is likely to be more cost-effective than remediation. Voluntary, culturally sensitive support for parenting is a politically and economically palatable strategy that addresses problems common to all racial and ethnic groups.
Descriptors: Achievement Gap, Family Influence, Family Environment, Disadvantaged, Child Rearing, Prevention, Early Intervention
National Bureau of Economic Research. 1050 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-5398. Tel: 617-588-0343; Web site: http://www.nber.org
Publication Type: Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Early Childhood Education; Elementary Secondary Education; Preschool Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: National Bureau of Economic Research
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A