Racial Inequality in Education
Race, Ethnicity and Education
The U.S. education landscape has long been a source of unequal treatment, access and outcomes based on a student’s race or ethnicity.
Black students, for example, are twice as likely as their white peers to be in inadequately funded school districts and 3.5 times more likely to be in “chronically underfunded” districts, according to a 2024 report released by the Albert Shanker Institute. The discrepancies in funding between Hispanic and white students are moderately smaller but still large.
Some examples of education inequality throughout history include:
- Between 1740 and 1867: Anti-literacy laws prohibited enslaved, and sometimes free, Black Americans from learning to read or write.
- 1954: The U.S. Supreme Court famously declared that “separate is not equal” in a ruling that aimed to end the practice of race-segregated public schools. Although this case, known as Brown v. Board of Education, ended legal segregation in public schools, it did not end racial inequality in education.
- 1964: The U.S. Supreme Court passed Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which ruled that schools receiving federal funding could not discriminate students according to their race.
Though 70 years have passed since the U.S. Supreme Court prohibited segregation, many of America’s public schools are still racially and ethnically isolated. For instance: Among public schools nationwide, 60% of Hispanic students, 59% of Black students and 54% of Pacific Islander students attended schools where over 75% of their classmates shared their race or ethnicity.
At the same time, white students were most likely to attend schools where less than 25% of their classmates were students of color, according to federal data presented by the U.S. Secretary of Education.
The U.S. education system continues to navigate race-related issues and changes. Some of the most recent examples of this include:
- Since January 2021: Legislators in 44 states have introduced bills banning the teaching of race in public school classrooms and 18 states have adopted such legislation.
- In June 2023: The U.S. Supreme Court dismantled race-conscious college admission policies.
How Does Race Affect Education Opportunities?
Not all public-school systems and districts are equal, and these differences often fuel different outcomes, opportunities and access to resources. This uneven landscape continues to fuel racial disparities that negatively impact students of color. Some recent statistics related to this reality include:
- Students of color fall short of reading and math proficiency benchmarks at greater rates than their white peers, according to 2022 data reported by the KIDS COUNT® Data Center.
- Among fourth graders nationwide, 84% of Black students, 82% of American Indian students and 80% of Hispanic students did not read at a fourth-grade proficiency level. A smaller share of their Asian/Pacific Islander (45%) and white (59%) classmates scored below
- Among eighth graders nationwide: 91% of Black students, 89% of American Indian students and 86% of Hispanic students tested below proficient in math. A smaller share of Asian /Pacific Islander (44%) and white (66%) classmates scored below proficient in math.
- Black students are more likely to be disciplined in school when compared to their public-school peers of other racial or ethnic groups, notes the U.S. Government Accountability Office. This reality is reflected in the latest data reported by the KIDS COUNT Data Center, which covers the 2017–2018 school year:
- Among all public-school students expelled from school, Black students were the race most likely to be expelled (49 in every 10,000 students) and Asian students were the least likely (4 in every 10,000 students).
- Among public school students issued out-of-school suspensions, Black students were most likely to be suspended (12%) followed by American Indian students (7%). Asian students (1%) as well as white and Hispanic students (both 4%) were far less likely to suffer this same punishment.
Suspension can double the risk of someone dropping out of school, which — in turn — triples the risk of justice involvement. Outcomes are worse in schools with a police presence, which causes the frequency of arrests for disorderly conduct to jump fivefold.
Graduating high school is, in many instances, a baseline requirement for seeking employment, advanced training or a postsecondary education. In the 2021–2022 school year, the U.S. average adjusted cohort graduation rate for public high school students was 87%, per the National Center for Education Statistics. Within this group, Asian/Pacific Islander (94%) and White (90%) students were most likely to graduate high school whereas Hispanic (83%), Black (81%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (74%) students graduated at rates below the national average.
Factors in Racial Education Gaps
Socioeconomic status is a multi-dimensional construct typically measured by family income, parents’ occupations and educational levels.
A potential explanation for racial achievement gaps is that they are largely due to socioeconomic disparities between white, black, and Hispanic families. As Stanford University’s Center for Education Policy Analysis notes: “Black and Hispanic children’s parents typically have lower incomes and lower levels of educational attainment than white children’s parents. Because higher-income and more-educated families typically can provide more educational opportunities for their children, family socioeconomic resources are strongly related to educational outcomes.”
Children from low-socioeconomic status households and communities develop academic skills more slowly than children from higher socioeconomic status groups, as reported by the American Psychological Association. The school systems in low-socioeconomic status communities are often under-resourced, which negatively impacts the academic progress and outcomes of the students they serve. For example:
- Children from low-socioeconomic status families enter high school with average literacy skills five years behind those of high-income students.
- Individuals within the top family income quartile are 8 times more likely to obtain a bachelor’s degree by age 24 as compared to individuals from the lowest family income quartile.
The Center for Education Policy Analysis notes that racial achievement gaps are strongly correlated with — but not solely due to — differences in racial socioeconomic status.
COVID-19’s Effects on Racial Disparities in Education
The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact on the delivery of education to students of all ages. At the start of the pandemic — from April to May 2020 — access to remote learning tools, such as a computer and internet services, were critical. And yet, just 74% of Black households had the necessary virtual learning tools “usually or always available” for children in their household. This rate was substantial higher for both Asian households (89%) and white households (86%), according to the KIDS COUNT Data Center.
Even with the right tools at home, the nation’s abrupt shift to remote learning proved challenging. It hindered student and teacher engagement, dramatically decreased instructional time and hindered student understanding. These factors fueled significant learning loss for students nationwide. They also exacerbated existing racial inequities and worsened existing achievement gaps.
Between 2019 and 2022, Black and Hispanic students in 20 states across the country experienced a sharper decline in test scores compared to their white peers, according to an Education Recovery Scorecard produced by researchers at Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth. While students have since regained some of these losses, the researchers point out that “the White-Black gap was still slightly larger in 2023 than it was in 2019, particularly in math.”
How We Can Combat Racial Inequality in Education
Education leaders and systems must continue to prioritize the work of eradicating racial inequality and racial discrimination in American schools.
Among the evidence-based strategies to consider: Same-race elementary school teachers have been shown to boost academic achievement among their students. In one study, Black students were randomly assigned to at least one Black teacher in their first four years of primary school. This arrangement increased the students’ likelihood of graduating high school by 9 percentage points and increased their likelihood of enrolling in college by 6 percentage points.
The Center for American Progress also identifies strategies for realizing a more equitable K‑12 academic landscape. It recommends advocating for:
- equitable funding via increasing federal funding for education and promoting fairer and more transparent funding policies at the state and local levels;
- equipping schools with more counselors, nurses, and social workers rather than increasing surveillance and policing; and
- updating school boundaries and selection criteria to promote racial equity.
