The Foundation of Racial Disparities in the Standardized Testing Era

Abstract

We present a historical outline of racial inequality in Virginia’s kindergarten through 12th grade educational system focusing on de jure school desegregation and subsequent massive resistance following Virginia’s role in Brown v. Board of Education. Currently, standardized tests are used to evaluate students’ educational progress and knowledge, evaluate teacher and administrative effectiveness, and measure states’ educational efforts. In this article, we use school district-level data to examine racial disparities between black and white students in Virginia in 2010. We find widespread disparities in standardized test score passing rates with the exception of black students’ performance in history and social science before high school. Black students are consistently less likely than white students to earn passing scores in all subject areas at each grade level. We use state-level education data such as school district size, teacher–student ratio, and school funding to contextualize the standardized test data. We find that the locale of schools and their close links to white financial advantage and black student segregation can impact school resources and influence black students’ performance on standardized tests. We argue that the historic denial of equal educational opportunities to black Virginians is related to current educational inequality. We discuss our analyses in relation to policy implications for black student academic achievement.