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Prof eyes hip-hop's link to blacks' achievement gap
by Ed Hayward
Monday, June 26, 2000
Trying to figure out what stalled the narrowing of the achievement gap between black and white students a decade ago, a Harvard University researcher is examining the explosion of gangster rap and hip-hop music as a potential culprit.
Choosing his words carefully, Ronald Ferguson, a John F. Kennedy School of Government professor, said he suspects the powerful new music that black teens embraced in the late 1980s radically altered their after-school habits.
``There was tremendous progress in the 1980s in reading and math scores for black youth,'' Ferguson said. ``Sometime between 1988 and 1990, the progress stops. It's not clear why, but I see a shift in time-use patterns among black youth to this new music produced by hip-hop culture.''
Kids may have started spending more time listening to rap music and less time reading, Ferguson said.
It's possible the education reform efforts launched since 1983 - when the report ``A Nation At Risk'' sounded alarm bells for American schools - may have just run out of steam by 1990, Ferguson said.
But just as black and Hispanic students began to draw near the performance level of white students on national tests, their scores begin to drop.
In reading, the gap between scores for 17-year-old black and white students on the National Assessment of Educational Progress test was cut from 52.7 percent in 1971 to 20.3 percent in 1988. By 1992, the gap had climbed back to 36.8 percent.
In math, the gap between black and white 17-year-olds on the NAEP was cut from 40 percent in 1973 to 21 percent in 1990. By 1992, the gap had reached 26.1 percent.
Ferguson was struck by test scores dropping in coincidence with hip-hop's rise in popularity and other factors.
In 1988, 40 percent of the black students surveyed said they read daily for pleasure. By 1992, that number plummeted to 14 percent. At the same time, surveys found increases in truancy among black and Hispanic youths.
Most recently, the achievement gap emerged in the 1999 results of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exam, where black and Hispanic students failed math, English and science tests at two to three times the rate of their white counterparts.
Ferguson has been surveying students at Shaker Heights High School outside of Cleveland, an academically acclaimed school where most black and white families are middle-class. Among other things, Ferguson found that black kids watch twice as much TV as white kids - three hours a day as opposed to 1 1/2 hours a day.
National studies have also found differences. One asked students to name the lowest grade they could take home without their parents becoming angry. Blacks consistently named lower grades than Asian, white or Hispanic students.
Echoing the lament of principals in both urban and suburban schools, Ferguson said it's time for reform efforts to add after-school time.
``Communities need to find ways to enhance the value of how out-of-school time is used,'' said Ferguson, who said schools need to aggressively promote and encourage leisure reading.
Ferguson's theory, which he has circulated among a few colleagues, comes as experts weigh causes.
Allan Alson, of the Minority Student Achievement Network, lists many factors that contribute to the achievement gap. Among them: poverty, neighborhood influences, parental support, racism, early childhood literacy, school structure and support, instructional practices, teacher expectations, student engagement and responsibility, peer pressure and community support.
``I find it hard to put a finger on a single causal activity,'' said Alson, a former teacher and principal in Massachusetts who now heads Evanston (Ill.) Township High School. ``In my experience as a person living it day-by-day in schools, it's hard to step out and see the trends taking place.''
Erik Parker, music editor for hip-hop-focused The Source magazine, said black teens had embraced hip-hop in the early 1980s, well before it was accepted by mainstream America.
``Hip-hop was well melted into culture of black and Latino youth in America well into the '80s,'' said Parker. ``The difference is in the '90s, it exploded into the national and international scene, where white youth begin to embrace it.''
by Ed Hayward
Monday, June 26, 2000
Trying to figure out what stalled the narrowing of the achievement gap between black and white students a decade ago, a Harvard University researcher is examining the explosion of gangster rap and hip-hop music as a potential culprit.
Choosing his words carefully, Ronald Ferguson, a John F. Kennedy School of Government professor, said he suspects the powerful new music that black teens embraced in the late 1980s radically altered their after-school habits.
``There was tremendous progress in the 1980s in reading and math scores for black youth,'' Ferguson said. ``Sometime between 1988 and 1990, the progress stops. It's not clear why, but I see a shift in time-use patterns among black youth to this new music produced by hip-hop culture.''
Kids may have started spending more time listening to rap music and less time reading, Ferguson said.
It's possible the education reform efforts launched since 1983 - when the report ``A Nation At Risk'' sounded alarm bells for American schools - may have just run out of steam by 1990, Ferguson said.
But just as black and Hispanic students began to draw near the performance level of white students on national tests, their scores begin to drop.
In reading, the gap between scores for 17-year-old black and white students on the National Assessment of Educational Progress test was cut from 52.7 percent in 1971 to 20.3 percent in 1988. By 1992, the gap had climbed back to 36.8 percent.
In math, the gap between black and white 17-year-olds on the NAEP was cut from 40 percent in 1973 to 21 percent in 1990. By 1992, the gap had reached 26.1 percent.
Ferguson was struck by test scores dropping in coincidence with hip-hop's rise in popularity and other factors.
In 1988, 40 percent of the black students surveyed said they read daily for pleasure. By 1992, that number plummeted to 14 percent. At the same time, surveys found increases in truancy among black and Hispanic youths.
Most recently, the achievement gap emerged in the 1999 results of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exam, where black and Hispanic students failed math, English and science tests at two to three times the rate of their white counterparts.
Ferguson has been surveying students at Shaker Heights High School outside of Cleveland, an academically acclaimed school where most black and white families are middle-class. Among other things, Ferguson found that black kids watch twice as much TV as white kids - three hours a day as opposed to 1 1/2 hours a day.
National studies have also found differences. One asked students to name the lowest grade they could take home without their parents becoming angry. Blacks consistently named lower grades than Asian, white or Hispanic students.
Echoing the lament of principals in both urban and suburban schools, Ferguson said it's time for reform efforts to add after-school time.
``Communities need to find ways to enhance the value of how out-of-school time is used,'' said Ferguson, who said schools need to aggressively promote and encourage leisure reading.
Ferguson's theory, which he has circulated among a few colleagues, comes as experts weigh causes.
Allan Alson, of the Minority Student Achievement Network, lists many factors that contribute to the achievement gap. Among them: poverty, neighborhood influences, parental support, racism, early childhood literacy, school structure and support, instructional practices, teacher expectations, student engagement and responsibility, peer pressure and community support.
``I find it hard to put a finger on a single causal activity,'' said Alson, a former teacher and principal in Massachusetts who now heads Evanston (Ill.) Township High School. ``In my experience as a person living it day-by-day in schools, it's hard to step out and see the trends taking place.''
Erik Parker, music editor for hip-hop-focused The Source magazine, said black teens had embraced hip-hop in the early 1980s, well before it was accepted by mainstream America.
``Hip-hop was well melted into culture of black and Latino youth in America well into the '80s,'' said Parker. ``The difference is in the '90s, it exploded into the national and international scene, where white youth begin to embrace it.''
