& Washington, 2002).
Most American public school systems have been engaged in reform and restructuring efforts designed to ameliorate this situation and to generally improve learning and other outcomes that are exhibited by at-risk students and even entire communities (Jencks, Smith, Acland, Bane, Cohen, Gintis, Heynes, & Michelson, 1972). Nevertheless, these reform efforts have not fully succeeded in creating the kind of level academic playing field that is so desperately needed to improve schooling and enhance individual and group achievement (Fordham & Ojbu, 1986; Ferguson, 2000).
Any number of reasons have been advanced to explain the achievement deficits associated with minority students. Jeannie Oakes (2005) takes the position that while many at-risk children, including children from minority groups, may be less oriented toward educational success due to familial or community variables, it is also important to recognize that schools themselves are partially responsible for this problem because they tend to focus much of their efforts and many of their resources on students believed to be "brighter" and more likely to succeed.
Others, including Jay MacLeod (1995), believe that the primary cause of this problem is poverty which is more likely to impact upon members of minority groups than white Americans. Additionally, this researcher believes that students living in poor urban communities are inadequately acculturated to learning and education and less likely than students in more affluent communities to value education or recognize its association with success in later life. Poor children, said MacLeod (1995), may also be led by teachers to have limited aspirations and therefore currently lower levels of attainment.
Given this general background, it is the purpose of this study to examine the research on the causes and effects of the achievement differential or divide that educators in the United States hav...