the problem in school performance was the composition of the minority family. Specifically, Moynihan decried the lack of stability of those families, their dominance by women, and the frequent lack of a strong male father figure. His theory was thought to have both racist and sexist elements to it and was not widely accepted in academic circles, although appealing to segments of the political spectrum which sought to standardize the American family within a nuclear father/mother/child model.
On the other hand, several theorists viewed differences in educational performance as mainly the result of social structural conditions. In other words, the social structure was designed to ensure that some groups remained dominant, while other groups remained in a lower position. Bowles and Gintis (1976) supported this position, noting, among other things, that the types of neighborhoods that students lived in tended to establish the types of school that they attended. In other words, if a student lived in a poor neighborhood with few resources, that student tended to attend a school that was of poor quality with few resources. In comparison to other schools and regions, these students performed more poorly on standardized tests continuing the ongoing pattern of under-achievement. If they continued their education, it was at inferior institutions, which continued the cycle. They were not able to rise as easily as their European-American, or white peers, who tended to have access to better resources and better schools, tending them toward upward mobility. This upward mobility placed their children in better neighborhoods and better schools, continuing the cycle. The disparity was, consequently, maintained.
One major theory regarding differences in school performance is termed the oppositional culture explanation (Ogbu, 1978, 1991). In essence, the theory hypothesizes that historically oppressed groups, such as African-Americans, f...