Schools, Markets, and Family in the History of African-American Education

Abstract

Arguments about the rise in relative education levels of African-Americans invoke (1) improvements in the quality of schools attended by blacks or (2) affirmative action regulations affecting schools and employers. Missing from these arguments is an explanation of the emergence of black education levels exceeding those of whites once the influence of family background factors has been controlled. School quality improvements, by themselves, could not have produced high observed black education levels net of family background factors. This study finds that black educational attainment net of family background influences became higher than that of whites in the 1950s--too early to be explained by affirmative action programs. This leaves the possibility that more subtle effects of government policy on labor markets and schools played a significant role in the rise of black education. Alternatively, it could be that a favorable orientation toward education in the African-American community has played a role in its members' educational advance.