Race and the Black-White Achievement Gap Myth: Attaining Equity for the African American Learner in American Public Schools

Race and the Black-White Achievement Gap Myth, published in 2017, attempts to dispel the surreptitious myth that disparate achievement levels between Black and White students is due primarily to intrinsic intellectual and cultural failings of Black children and their parents. A compelling case is made for the ways in which systemic racism victimizes Black children through ubiquitous residential segregation, Apartheid Schooling, second generation school segregation, and the multitude of ways many educators manifest their deficit views of Black students and biased values. Drawing upon research and forty years of education experience, the author proposes a unique set of common sense solutions to narrowing the gap and improving academic performance in general; strategies he has used to close the gap between Black and White students in two New Jersey schools.