They Never Learn

In the mid Sixties a group headed by Professor James Coleman, then of Johns Hopkins University, administered standardized intelligence and achievement tests to approximately 605,000 elementary-and secondary-school children in schools spread throughout all fifty states and the District of Columbia. Coleman and his collaborators had expected to be able to explain the great differences in average test scores between white and minority-group students by differences in the quality of their schools, as measured by such factors as average class size, number of textbooks, library facilities, age of school buildings, and teachers’ education and background. He found, instead, that black schools did not spend significantly less than white schools and did not have larger classes, fewer or less adequate textbooks, less qualified teachers, etc., etc.

More importantly, the Coleman Report found no tendency for students from a given socio-economic background to perform significantly better in newer schools with high per-pupil expenditures than in older schools with low per-pupil expenditures.

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In the mid Sixties a group headed by Professor James Coleman, then of Johns Hopkins University, administered standardized intelligence and achievement tests to approximately 605,000 elementary-and secondary-school children in schools spread throughout all fifty states and the District of Columbia. Coleman and his collaborators had expected to be able to explain the great differences in average test scores between white and minority-group students by differences in the quality of their schools, as measured by such factors as average class size, number of textbooks, library facilities, age of school buildings, and teachers’ education and background. He found, instead, that black schools did not spend significantly less than white schools and did not have larger classes, fewer or less adequate textbooks, less qualified teachers, etc., etc.

More importantly, the Coleman Report found no tendency for students from a given socio-economic background to perform significantly better in newer schools with high per-pupil expenditures than in older schools with low per-pupil expenditures.