A Conversation with Rod Paige

A Conversation with

ROD PAIGE

Former U. S. Secretary of Education and Author of

THE BLACK-WHITE ACHIEVEMENT GAP

Your new book, THE
BLACK-WHITE ACHIEVEMENT GAP,
calls attention to a national crisis in our classrooms. Why do you
view this problem, to quote your subtitle, as “the greatest civil
rights issue of our time”?

Rod Paige: “In today’s America, one would be hard pressed to identify a
single area, in medicine, literature, music, the arts, business, or
sports, in which African Americans have not ascended to the very top
in their chosen fields. The swearing in of Barack Obama as the
forty-fourth President of the United States of America is highly
visible evidence that racism and discrimination no longer represent a
ceiling to African American success. Educational underachievement is
a much more powerful obstacle. There is a street saying that makes
the point: Racism and discrimination can slow you down, but lack of education can knock
you out.
Enough said! To be sure, the black-white achievement gap is not the
only obstacle standing in the way of racial equality and social
justice. It is, however, the major barrier impeding progress for
African Americans and primary civil rights issue of our time.”

What exactly do you mean by “achievement gap”?

Rod
Paige: “The achievement gap refers specifically to the difference between the
performance of white students and black students on academic
assessments such as SAT and ACT scores, and graduation rates.
Admittedly, there is a need to improve academic performance of all
American students. But African American students’ underperformance,
on average, is so pronounced that special attention to this problem
is warranted. On average, African American students in every grade
score well below their white peers on just about every scholastic
measure in use today. The brutal truth is there in black and white,
so to speak. And the truth hurts.”

Aside
from the obvious economic disadvantages, what are ramifications of
this gap for African Americans?

Rod
Paige: “Of
all the various negative consequences of the black-white achievement
gap, the support it yields for supporters of the ‘blacks
are less well endowed intellectually than whites’
argument is by far the most offensive and destructive. The idea that
blacks are intellectually inferior genetically is not confined to a
few way-out psychologists, anthropological nerds, far-right
academics, and white supremacists. Deep in the minds of many
whites—and perhaps many blacks—resides a good deal of receptivity
to this abhorrent notion. Most Americans living today have scant, if
any, memory of even the pre-1954 educational struggles of African
Americans. For the most part, their point of view regarding the
educational potential of African Americans is based on what they have
personally seen or experienced. And what they have seen or
experienced is that almost without exception, African Americans lag
behind every other racial/ethnic group on every academic assessment
imaginable. The black-white achievement gap continues to reinforce
the stereotype and stigma of racial inferiority. This burden weighs
more heavily on today’s young African American students than all
the yesteryears of slavery, creating a vicious circle. The
expectation that the gap exists because of inferiority reinforces low
expectation, which leads to low achievement, and expands the gap.
Further, the negative ramifications of the gap constantly build as it
becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, extending its deleterious effects
far into the future and eroding the educational potential of young
African Americans of tomorrow.”

How
do you explain the existence of the black-white achievement gap?

Rod
Paige: “Socioeconomic
disparities, a sociopathological culture, and black identity are
commonly cited by experts, and all these arguments have validity. But
the whole issue boils down to whether or not one believes all
children can learn. Based on years of personal witness to the work of
committed teachers in ‘break the mold schools,’ I believe the
answer is absolutely yes, and this is why I am a firm and unabashed
proponent of the educational deprivation theory. The primary cause of
the black-white achievement gap is that low-achieving students have
been deprived of the educational essentials which support learning to
high levels. I believe that all children can learn at high levels
when they are taught at high levels. Being taught at high levels
means educational support from factors outside of the school. It
involves the support and commitment from the entire education
triad—home, school, and community. Children on the negative side of
the gap suffer from educational deprivation. The gap persists because
it has been allowed to. It persists because it is a problem that
nobody owns.”

Why
do you urge the African American leadership community, rather than
educators, to take ownership of the achievement-gap problem?

Rod
Paige:
“Closing the achievement gap in a single school is one thing. But
closing the achievement gap nationally is quite another. It simply
cannot be done without the concerted, sustained effort of local,
state, and national leadership working together toward common goals.
Leaders must engage in a way that inspires communities to become
involved in resolving the problem. Rather than continue the age-old
controversy about the causes of the achievement gap, rather than
continue to look outward and blame racism and discrimination, African
American leaders must look inward and move forward. My goal for The
Black-White Achievement Gap is
to compel African American leaders to work together, and with
educators to create a high level of school quality across America,
and with service-oriented and faith-based organizations,
corporations, policy makers, and parents to implement gap-closing
intervention strategies in the beyond-the school factors. Authentic
leaders have been at the forefront of all the great social, economic,
educational, legal, and political movements that have been
responsible for African American progress to date. As they did in
past generations, remarkable civil rights leaders will rise to the
occasion when they identify primary barriers to achieving racial
equality and social justice in this country.”

*
* *

Adapted
from THE
BLACK-WHITE ACHIEVEMENT GAP: Why Closing It Is the Greatest Civil
Rights Issue of Our Time by
Rod Paige, PED, and Elaine Witty, Ed.D. (AMACOM; February 16, 2010).

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more information contact The B&B Media Group

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Jennings ajennings@tbbmedia.com
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800.927.1517