The American Family in Black & White

A Post-Racial Strategy for Improving Skills to Promote Equality

Bibliographic Data

ID9684786
AuthorsJames J Heckman (0000-0002-0399-662X, American Bar Foundation, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume140
Issue2
Pages70-89
Publication date2011-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDaedalus (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0011-5266 • E-ISSN: 1548-6192
PublisherMIT Press - Journals (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1162/daed_a_00078
PMID22605880
PMCIDPMC3351134
OpenAlexW1585429782
LanguageEN
Citations received37
References cited39

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 skills, thus inequality in school performance is strongly linked to inequality in family environments. Schools do little to reduce or enlarge the skill gaps 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 from disadvantaged families will help close achievement gaps. America currently relies too heavily on schools and adolescent remediation strategies to solve problems that start in the preschool years. Policy should prevent rather than remediate. Voluntary, culturally sensitive support for parenting is a politically and economically palatable strategy that addresses problems common to all racial and ethnic groups

Developmental psychology · Disadvantage · Disadvantaged · Dysfunctional family · Economic growth · Economics · Ethnic group · Head start · Inequality · Political science · Poverty · Race (biology · Sociology · White (mutation · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development · Clinical Psychology · Early Childhood Education and Development · Gender Studies · Parental Involvement in Education · Psychology

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