Journal of Negro Education

Explaining the Educational Attainment of Young Black Adults: Critical Familial and Extra-
Familial Influences
Author(s): Karen R. Wilson and Walter R. Allen
Source: The Journal of Negro Education, Vol. 56, No. 1, The Black Child's Home
Environment and Student Achievement (Winter, 1987), pp. 64-76
Published by: Journal of Negro Education
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 Explaining the Educational
Attainment of Young Black
Adults: Critical Familial and
Extra-Familial Influences*

Karen R. Wilson, University of Pennsylvania, and Walter R.

Allen, University of Michigan**

INTRODUCTION

Always at the center of the Black community's quest for educational

advancement has been the Black family. Nurturing and guiding the
young, instilling a respect and yearning for education, Black fami-
lies have performed this function with admirable effectiveness,
achieving the goal of educating their young to advance in the face
of seemingly insurmountable barriers. Yet, the role of Black families
in directing the educational achievement of their children has not
been adequately studied and understood.1 At various points, Black
families have been unfairly denigrated and accused of actually
retarding the educational development of Black youngsters.2 In
order to clarify the relationship between Black family practices and
educational achievement, this study investigates background, social
psychological, and institutional factors believed to have critical

*The authors thank Dr. James S. Jackson (University of Michigan), director of the Nat
Survey of Black Americans, and Dr. Philip J. Bowman (University of Illinois), project director of the
National Survey of Young Black Adults, for access to the rich datasets on which this paper is based.
**Address inquiries to the senior author: Dr. Karen R. Wilson, Ford Foundation Postdoctoral
Fellow, Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104. Dr. Walter R.
Allen is associate professor of sociology, Center for Afroamerican-African Studies, University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor.
'Reginald Clark, Family Life and School Achievement: Why Poor Black Children Succeed or Fail (C
cago: University of Chicago Press, 1983); and Sara Lawrence Lightfoot, Worlds Apart: Relationships
Between Families and Schools (New York: Academic Press, 1978).
2For example, David A. Schultz, Coming Up Black: Patterns of Ghetto Socialization (Englewood
Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1969); and Daniel P. Moynihan, The Negro Family: The Case for National
Action (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Planning and Research, 1965).

Journal of Negro Lducation, Vol. 56, No. 1 (1987)

64 Copyright I1987, Howard University

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influence on the educational attainment of young Black men and
women.
As a field, sociology has devoted considerable attention to sys-
tematic study of the educational attainment process. In the late
1960s, Blau and Duncan's approach proved persuasive in its sophis-
ticated methodology and thus became the dominant paradigm3 for
such studies. The practice of making cross-racial comparisons, and
of referring to a person's social origin, in order to explain status
attainment patterns was continued in research using the Wisconsin
model. Essentially, this model represented an elaboration of the
Blau and Duncan model where social psychological variables (e.g.,
parental and peer influence, counselor encouragement) were added
to the earlier model's social origin variables (e.g., father's education
and occupation, son's first job) in order to increase explanatory
power. The research of Sewell, Haller and Portes; Featherman; and
Sewell, Hauser and Featherman provide examples of this perspec-
tive.4
The reliance of the traditional status attainment model on indi-
vidual level measures makes it less applicable to nonwhite popu-
lations and women.5 Significant changes in the economy or shifts
in government policy greatly influence the probability of upward
mobility among nonwhites and women. For these and other rea-
sons, both Coser and Burawoy have challenged the status attain-
ment model's implicit assumption that individual attainment occurs
within an open opportunity structure. In their assessment, the
model fails to consider the impact of structural factors, such as
economic power and social advantage, in the differentiation of
people's life chances.6
Efforts to address the effects of structural factors on the status
attainment process have produced several theories of income deter-

3Peter M. Blau and Otis Dudley Duncan, The American Occupational Structure (New York: Wiley,
1967). Also see Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1970).
4W. H. Sewell, A. 0. Haller and A. Portes, "The Educational and Early Occupational Attainment
Process," American Sociological Review, 34 (1969), 82-92; David Featherman, "Achievement Orientation
and Socioeconomic Career Attainment," ibid., 37 (1972), 131-143; and W. H. Sewell, R. M. Hauser
and D. L. Featherman, Schooling and Achievement in American Society (New York: Academic Press,
1976).
5A. C. Kerckhoff, "The Status Attainment Process: Socialization or Allocation?" Social Forces, 61
(1976), 24-45; Karen R. Wilson, "Clarifying the Educational and Early Occupational Attainment
Process: The Case of Young Black Adults" (Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1986); and Denise
C. Gottfredson, "Black-White Differences in the Educational Attainment Process: What Have We
Learned?" American Sociological Review, 46 (1981), 542-557.
6Lewis A. Coser, "Presidential Address: Two Methods in Search of a Substance," American
Journal of Sociology, 48 (1983), 691-700; and Michael Burawoy, "Social Structure, Homogenization and
the Process of Status Attainment in the United States and Great Britain," American Journal of Sociology,
82 (1977), 1031-42.

The Journal of Negro Education 65

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mination.7 The innovation of such theories over traditional status
attainment theory is their assumption that systemic factors, i.e.,
factors outside the individual's control, exert profound influence
over a person's eventual location in the status hierarchy. Structural
theorists also focus on the social and economic consequences asso-
ciated with the job a person holds and the extent to which race and/
or gender determines the type of occupation an individual is likely
to attain.
Structural theories of status attainment are primarily concerned
with what happens once an individual enters the labor market. On
the other hand, traditional status attainment theory places greatest
emphasis on the social psychological factors that precede and influ-
ence attainment outcomes. Neither provides sufficient explanation
of the status attainment process in the absence of the other. Obviously,
individual characteristics and structural level factors operate jointly
to determine a person's life course. Consistent with this reality,
Kerckhoff8 urges the integration of the Allocation perspective (i.e.,
structural causation) with the Socialization perspective (i.e., indi-
vidual causation) in order to achieve increased understanding of
the status attainment process. The present study takes account of
both sources of influence in its assessment of educational attain-
ment among young Black adults.

PROBLEM, DATA, AND METHODS OF STUDY

This study seeks to clarify the effects of interpersonal dynamics
on educational attainment by examining the young Black adult's
relations with family members and other significant people outside
the family. It also looks at family and educational background,
personal efficacy, and selected mediating factors (e.g., gender) as
further guideposts to understanding the educational attainment
process among this population.
The data used in this study are from three datasets: the National
Survey of Black Americans, the Three Generational Family Study,
and the National Survey of Young Black Adults. These datasets are
part of the comprehensive research project conducted by the Pro-
gram for Research on Black Americans at the Institute for Social
Research at the University of Michigan.9

7E. M. Beck, P. M. Horan and C. M. Tolbert, II, "Stratification in a Dual Economy," American
Sociological Review, 43 (1978), 704-720; Edna Bonacich, "A Theory of Ethnic Antagonism: The Split
Labor Market," ibid., 37 (1972), 547-559; and E. Wright and L. Perrone, "Marxist Class Categories
and Income Inequality," ibid., 42 (1977), 32-55.
8Kerckhoff, "The Status Attainment Process."
9Interested readers are referred to the following article for more detailed discussion of these
research projects: James A. Jackson and Shirley J. Hatchett, "International Research: Methodological
Considerations," in N. Datan, A. L. Greene and H. W. Reese, eds., Intergenerational Relations (Hills-
dale, N.J.: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates, 1986), pp. 51-76.

66 The Journal of Negro Education

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 The initial investigation was the National Survey of Black Amer-
icans (NSBA). It is a cross-sectional study comprised of a nationally
representative probability sample of 2,107 adult Blacks, age 18
years or older, living in the continental United States. Fifty-three
percent of the NSBA's sample had three-generational families that
were eligible to be interviewed in the second study, the Three
Generational Family Study. Interviews were conducted with ran-
domly selected family members to arrive at an intra-familial cohort
sample of grandparents, parents, and children at least 14 years old.
The present study, the National Survey of Young Black Adults,
focuses on 201 of those young Black adults (86 males, 115 females)
who were members of the youngest (child) cohort from the three-
generational sample. The young Black adults were 16-24 years of
age when first interviewed as members of the three-generational-
family sample in 1979 and 1980. They were between 19 and 28 years
of age when interviewed by telephone in 1983.
Conceptually, the model that guides this research incorporates
elements from each of three realms of influence-family, school,
and society-in an attempt to account for the educational attain-
ment of young Black adults. The outcome variable, educational
attainment, is measured by the young adults' 1983 report of years
of schooling completed in response to the question: "How many
grades of school or years of college did you finish?"
The predictor variables represent seven domains of influence
on the educational attainment process:
1. Family Socioeconomic Status was measured by mother's edu-
cation, i.e., years of schooling completed. A second measure asked
whether the family received welfare or government assistance while
the youth was in high school.
2. Family Structure was measured by the number of siblings in
the young adult's family. A second measure asked whether the
father lived with the family while the young adult was in high
school.
3. Family Influence was measured by the young adult's 1983
report of whether the mother and father gave encouragement for
getting a better job than s/he was able to get. Youth who reported
such encouragement were then asked: "What was the most impor-
tant thing s/he did to encourage you?"
4. Educational Background was measured by the young adult's
1979/80 report of the racial composition of the high school attended:
"When you think about the place(s) you went to high school, . .
were mostly blacks or whites there?" Another measure was based
on the young adult's 1983 report of average high school grades:
"What were your average grades in high school-did you get mostly

The Journal of Negro Education 67

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failing grades, mostly D's, C's, B's or A's?" A third measure was
the 1983 report of the type of high-school curriculum completed:
"While in high school did you take mostly advanced college prep
courses, mostly vocational courses in business or industrial arts,
mostly general courses, or what?" The final measure from 1983
asked: "Now I'd like to ask you about training you may have had
in the past. Have you ever been in (a/another) job training program
or worked on a job supported by CETA, WIN, Job Corps or any
other government supported job program?"
5. School Influence was measured by the youth's 1979/80 report
of the helpfulness of the high-school counselor: "Counselors in my
school really help me plan my life and career." A second measure
was based on the youth's 1979/80 report of the high school teachers'
concern with student learning: "My teachers really don't care if you
learn-as long as you don't make trouble."
6. Personal Efficacy was measured by the youth's 1979/80 attitude
toward preparing for the future: "Do you think it's better to plan
your life a good ways ahead, or would you say life is too much a
matter of luck to plan ahead very far?" A second measure from
1979/80 required the youth to assess his/her own ability to control
the problems of life: "Some people feel they can run their lives
pretty much the way they want to, others feel the problems of life
are sometimes too big for them. Which one are you most like?"
7. Mediating Factors. Four variables were expected to mediate
the influence of our predictors on the young adult's educational
attainment. One of these mediating variables, age, was measured
by asking, "What is your date of birth?" Gender, another mediating
variable, was measured by: "What is [your] sex?" The young adult's
parental status was measured by asking, "How many children have
you had not counting stillbirths?" Finally, the general employment
picture of the youth's state of residence was expected to mediate
between the predictor and outcome variables. A variable was con-
structed by matching the appropriate 1980 state and gender unem-
ployment rates to each respondent.s
This study employs three levels of statistics for data analysis.
(1) Univariate statistics provide the basis for general comparison
and description of patterns in the data (e.g., frequency distribu-
tions, means, standard deviations). (2) Bivariate analysis, using the
chi square and eta statistics, enables us to assess relationships and

10U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Geographic Profile of Employment and
Unemployment, 1980, Bulletin 2111 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1982), Table
9, pp. 54-55.

68 The Journal of Negro Education

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strength of association between specific pairs of variables. (3) Mul-
tivariate analysis permits us to explore relationships between the
outcome variable, educational attainment, and the seventeen pre-
dictor variables believed to influence attainment.
Multiple Classification Analysis (MCA) is the multivariate pro-
cedure employed.1" MCA is analogous to dummy variable multiple
regression, however, rather than reporting coefficients as devia-
tions from the excluded class of each set of dummy variables, the
procedure reports coefficients as adjustments to the grand mean of
the outcome variable. In this sense, the procedure reports the mean
value of educational attainment within categories of the predictor
variable of interest. MCA also provides estimates of the total vari-
ance explained (multiple R-square statistic) and of the relative
importance of individual predictor variables (Beta statistic).

FINDINGS

We begin with an overview of characteristics believed to affect

educational attainment. In particular, our attention is directed to
univariate descriptive statistics: the mean, standard deviation, range,
and frequencies for selected variables. The majority of young Black
adults in this sample had pursued their education beyond the com-
pletion of high school (54 percent). While the actual years of school-
ing completed ranged from 8 to 17 or more years, the mean was 13
years, or one year beyond high school. The standard deviation of
1.7 for this variable tells us that the majority of these young adults
had between 11 and 15 years of schooling. Only 10 percent failed
to complete high school. This pattern suggests high motivation for
educational attainment among the youth in this sample.
Despite their high educational attainment, a majority (85 per-
cent) of these young adults were concentrated in either lower-level
white collar jobs, e.g., secretarial, sales (42 percent), or blue collar
jobs, e.g., machine operator, food service worker (43 percent).
While the mean Black adult unemployment rate for states where
the youths lived was high (14.4 percent), mean unemployment in
this young adult sample was higher (32 percent). Adding the so-
called "discouraged workers," those who have given up hope of
ever finding employment, raises the unemployment rate for this
group to 39 percent. Clearly, a significant number of these young
Black adults confront the problems and frustrations of unemploy-
ment.

"1Frank M. Andrews, J. N. Morgan, J. A. Sonquist, L. Klem, Multiple Classification Analysis (Ann

Arbor: University of Michigan, Institute for Social Research, 1973).

The Journal of Negro Education 69

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 Of further concern is the comparison of these youths' educa-
tional and occupational achievements with those of their parents.
On the average, mothers reported one year less (12 years) and
fathers two years less (11 years) of mean years of schooling com-
pleted than was true for the young adults. Since the parents have
been in the labor force much longer and the young adults were just
beginning their careers, direct comparison of occupational achieve-
ments is hampered. Nevertheless, the similarity in occupational
attainment between the two generations is striking. Both genera-
tions are concentrated in lower-level white collar occupations
(mothers-26 percent; fathers-39 percent; youths-42 percent)
and in blue collar occupations (mothers-25 percent; fathers-43
percent; youths-42 percent). It is possible that the younger gen-
eration will experience substantial upward mobility over the years,
thus giving them an eventual occupational attainment advantage
compared to their parents. Their occupational goals for the future
suggest as much, since 62 percent aspire to upper level white collar
jobs by the time they are 30 years old. However, given the dem-
onstrated link between first job and eventual occupation, it is doubt-
ful that many of these youths will ever rise to the lofty heights of
their aspirations.
The majority of the 201 young Black adults in this sample were
from the South (55 percent), 20 percent lived in the Northeast, 19
percent in the North Central region, and the remaining 5 percent
lived in the West. Reporting on the influence of parents, respon-
dents indicated that 35 percent of mothers, compared to 17 percent
of fathers, had specifically encouraged them to stay in school. Con-
cerning school influences, 51 percent felt that counselors had helped
them with their plans for career and life. This is to be compared
with the 68 percent who believed that their teachers cared about
whether or not students were learning.
Unlike earlier generations, these young adults attended schools
that were predominantly white (34 percent) or that were racially
balanced, i.e., 50 percent white (25 percent). While in school, 46
percent took the general course curriculum, 25 percent took college
preparatory courses, 17 percent took the business curriculum, and
the remaining 12 percent took the industrial arts curriculum. The
majority of young adults reported average grades ranging from A
to B (62 percent), with 43 percent having participated in job-training
programs. Finally, the sample expressed a strong sense of personal
efficacy: 64 percent felt that they could run their lives pretty much
as they wanted as opposed to feeling that the problems of life were
too big to handle. Sixty-two percent thought it better to plan life a

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good way ahead, rather than feeling that life was more a matter of
luck.
Results from bivariate analysis of the data are presented in Table
I. Respondents whose mothers had completed more years of
schooling had significantly higher educational attainment (p < .01).
Educational attainment was lower, although not significantly so,
for those from families that had received welfare when the young
adult was in high school. Turning to family structure, we see that
father absence from the household during the high-school years
was unrelated to educational attainment. On the other hand, youths
from larger families had completed significantly fewer years of
schooling (p < .01).
The association of educational attainment with significant other
influences was mixed. Young adults whose mothers encouraged
them to get better jobs than they had completed significantly more
years of schooling (p < .01). None of the other sources of significant
other influence (e.g., fathers, counselors, or teachers) was signifi-

TABLE I
Young Black Adults' Educational Attainment, by Predictor Variables: Summary Table

Chi
Variables N Square P-Value Eta (Adjusted)

Family socioeconomic status

Mother education 199 15.3 .00 .288
Family receive welfare 200 3.6 .06 .127
Family structure
Family size 201 10.0 .00 .161
Father presence 184 .6 .43 .116
Family influence
Mother encouragement 198 6.1 .01 .158
Father encouragement 201 .2 .91 .152
Educational background
High school race composition 192 5.5 .06 .120
High school grades 200 14.3 .00 .249
High school curriculum 198 26.7 .00 .475
Job training program 201 1.8 .18 .177
School influence
How helpful counselor 185 3.5 .06 .172
How concerned teachers 185 .8 .38 .010
Personal efficacy
Index 195 8.2 .02 .215
Mediating factors
Age 201 1.1 .59 .218
Gender 201 1.8 .18 .000
Parental status 201 10.0 .00 .329
State unemployment 201 7.6 .02 .000

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cantly related to years of schooling completed, although counselor
helpfulness approached significance (p = .06).
Educational background was the most consistent category of
predictors, and years of completed schooling was highest for youths
who had taken the college preparatory curriculum and lowest for
those who had taken the general curriculum (p < .01). Young adults
who earned better grades in high school were also significantly
more likely to have completed more years of schooling (p < .01).
Youths who attended high schools that were mostly white had
higher educational attainment than those who attended schools
that were mostly Black or racially balanced (p = .06). Participation
in a job-training program was unrelated to educational attainment.
Examining the remaining predictors, which can be thought of
as characteristics of the person, we find that age and gender are not
significantly associated with years of schooling completed. How-
ever, youths possessing a strong sense of personal efficacy have
significantly higher educational attainment (p < .05). By the same
token, the young adults who were parents were significantly behind
their peers with no children in the years of schooling completed
(p < .01). Young adults from states with high unemployment rates
completed significantly more years of schooling (p < .01). Presum-
ably, the unfavorable job climate encouraged them to remain in
school longer than was true for youths in states with plentiful entry-
level employment possibilities.
Results from a multiple classification analysis of multivariate
relationships in the data are summarized in Table II. Jointly, the
seventeen predictor variables explained a sizable 39 percent of the
total variance in Black young adult educational attainment. The
large percentage of explained variance suggests that our model has
effectively incorporated the major sources of influence in the deter-
mination of years of schooling completed by this sample of Black
youth. Comparing the relative importance of predictors, we see
that high-school curriculum has the largest Beta (B = .246); there-
fore the pattern of courses taken in high school was the strongest
predictor of educational attainment. The second strongest predictor
was the young adult's parental status (B = .229), followed by age
(B = .229) and counselor helpfulness (B = .222). Years of completed
schooling was lowest, therefore, for young adults who were par-
ents, for those in the youngest age group, and for those who
reported high-school counselors as not at all helpful with their
planning for the future.
The mother's education and the father's encouragement pat-
terns were the next strongest influences on educational attainment.
In particular, the young adults with highly educated mothers had

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 TABLE II
Multiple Classification Analysis: Final Model Predicting Educational Attainment

Educational Attainment

Unadjusted Adjusted N Beta

Mean Mean

Family socioeconomic status

Mother education
0-11 years 12.6 12.8 33 .189
12 years 13.2 13.1 68
13 or moreyears 13.9 13.6 38
Don't know 12.3 12.9 14
Family receive welfare
Yes 12.7 13.3 36 .060
No 13.3 13.1 117
Family structure
Family size
0-2 children 13.5 13.4 62 .112
3-5 children 13.1 13.0 56
6 or more children 12.7 13.1 35
Father presence
Yes 13.4 13.4 79 .135
No 12.9 12.9 74
Family influence
Mother encouragement
No encouragement 12.5 12.7 24 .130
Encouraged 13.3 13.2 129
Father encouragement
No encouragement 12.7 13.0 49
Encouraged 13.4 13.1 91
Not ascertained* 13.3 14.0 13 .157
Educational background
High school race composition
All to mostly Black 13.0 13.1 63 .091
Half Black 12.9 13.0 39
All to mostly white 13.5 13.4 51
High school grades
Failing to C's 12.6 12.8 56 .151
B's to A's 13.5 13.3 97
High school curriculum
General 12.6 12.8 67 .246
Business 12.6 13.2 16
Industrial 12.8 13.1 27
College preparatory 14.4 13.7 43
School influence
Job training program
Yes 12.6 13.1 69 .052
No 13.4 13.2 84

Continued on next page

The Journal of Negro Education 73

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 TABLE II-Continued

Educational Attainment

Unadjusted Adjusted N Beta

Mean Mean

Counselors helpful
Very true 12.5 12.6 35 .222
Somewhat true 13.3 13.4 43
A little true 13.5 13.5 42
Not true 13.2 13.0 33
Teachers concerned
Very true 13.1 13.3 17 .070
Somewhat true 12.9 13.1 30
A little true 13.3 13.0 38
Not true 13.2 13.2 68
Personal efficacy
Index
Low 12.9 13.1 28 .131
Medium 12.8 12.9 53
High 13.6 13.4 72
Mediating factors
Age
19-21 years 12.7 12.7 57 .229
22-24 years 13.6 13.5 55
25-28 years 13.1 13.3 41
Gender
Male 13.1 13.1 69 .039
Female 13.2 13.2 84
Parental status
No children 13.6 13.4 99 .229
One or more children 12.4 12.7 54
State unemployment
5-12% unemployment 12.9 12.8 48 .156
13-17% unemployment 13.1 13.4 57
18-27% unemployment 13.4 13.2 48

Note: Multiple R (Adj.) = .621; Multiple R-squ

*Not ascertained was included as a valid category for father encouragement because there were
26 cases with this coding. In comparison, there were only 3 cases coded as not ascertained for
mother encouragement.

completed the most years of schooling (B = .189). We also note

that the young adults for whom "father encouragement" was not
ascertained appear to be high achievers as well (B = .157). How-
ever, the low number of cases in that category casts doubt on the
stability of its mean and the finding of high achievement that it
suggests. What is apparent, though, as has been found in prior
research, is that the educational attainment of the Black mother is
significantly related to the educational attainment of her offspring.
It is with no small surprise that we note the limited importance
of high-school grades (B = .15), personal efficacy (B = .13), and

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mother encouragement (B = .13) in the prediction of educational
achievement among young Black adults. Similarly, the literature
attributes greater importance to teacher effects (B = .07), gender
(B = .04), high school racial composition (B = .09), and family size
(B = .11) in the prediction of educational attainment than is borne
out by these data.

DISCUSSION

The paradox of this highly educated, yet sizably unemployed,

sample of Black youths speaks to the heart of the ongoing debate
over appropriate models for status attainment research in the social
sciences. The "socialization" perspective, personified by Blau and
Duncan's status attainment model, views status mobility largely as
the result of fair competition in an open system. Characteristics of
the individual's background, family socialization practices, and per-
sonality are believed to interact to determine a person's eventual
location in the social stratification system. Over and against this
view stands the "allocation" perspective, exemplified in the work
of Bonacich, which views status mobility-or the lack thereof-as
a feature of a restricted system. Differential access to societal resources,
discrimination, and inequities in opportunities are believed to restrict
structurally the opportunities certain individuals (or classes of indi-
viduals) have for upward mobility in the stratification system. 12
The socialization versus allocation debate derives from the clas-
sic question of whether personality or environment best explains
individual achievement. Of course, the only completely accurate
resolution of this debate is to acknowledge the combined influence
of socialization and allocation, of personality and environment, on
educational attainment. Unfortunately, the research record has not
been nearly so reasonable in the consideration of links between
Black family life and the educational attainment of Black Americans.
Instead, the socialization perspective has been by far the dominant
view, resulting in an orthodoxy which indicts Black families. This
orthodoxy would have us believe that the persistent educational,
economic, political, and social underdevelopment of Black America
results from failures in the capacities, motivation, and culture of
Blacks rather than from systematic discrimination in the society.13
We argue that the acceptance of this view has the effect of
"blaming the victim" for the societal transgressions which he or

12Blau and Duncan, The American Occupational Structure; and Bonacich, "A Theory of Ethnic
Antagonism."
13Walter R. Allen and W. Reynolds Farley, "The Shifting Social and Economic Tides of Black
America, 1950-1980," Annual Review of Sociology, 12 (1986), 277-306.

The Journal of Negro Education 75

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she suffers. So that it is clear, we do not seek to absolve Black
Americans completely of individual and community responsibility
for educational attainment. Black Americans' incredible gains in
education attest to the effectiveness of concerted individual and
community effort. From 1940 to 1980, Black Americans doubled
their median years of schooling (6.2 to 12 years), virtually eradicated
illiteracy, and reduced the black-white percentage point difference
in proportion of high-school graduates from 10.5 to 7.0. This
remarkable educational progress could not have occurred if Black
Americans were without longstanding traditions in their families,
churches, and culture which favored and required continued efforts
toward educational advance.
Findings from Ogbu's cross-cultural study14 reveal striking con-
sistencies in the educational status of minorities in Japan, Israel,
Britain, New Zealand, and the United States. In each country,
minorities lag far behind educationally. One explanation attributes
this achievement gap to the inadequacies of minority-group mem-
bers. A competing explanation attributes the gap to the prevailing
system of caste stratification and discrimination. Undoubtedly, the
most accurate explanation for minority disadvantage in education
should incorporate a combination of institutional and individual
factors. In the U.S. case, and likely in the other societies, enormous
societal effort has been exerted to limit or block the access of minor-
ities to educational opportunities. The power brokers of America
have too often resorted to subterfuge, mythology, restrictions, vio-
lence, and a host of other strategies, all intended to foster and
maintain the educational underdevelopment of Black Americans.
The mere fact that so much energy is devoted to restricting Black
educational access, and the tremendous progress of Blacks despite
this systematic hindrance, lend greatest credence to the minority
group explanation for the gap in educational achievement.
History provides ample evidence that education has been and
continues to be an important arena for struggle in the United States.15
The challenge confronting Black families now, as always, is to
prepare their young to be motivationally and intellectually equipped
to compete on equal terms. The challenge confronting the Black
community, again as always, is to maintain the intensity and effec-
tiveness of its struggle to open opportunity's doors. For Black Amer-
ica to continue to progress, the two struggles must be waged simul-
taneously, in deliberate coordination and with extreme vigor.

"4John Ogbu, Minority Education and Caste: The American System in Cross-Cultural Perspective (New
York: Academic Press, 1978).
"5James D. Anderson, "The Schooling and Achievement of Black Children: Before and After
Brown v. Topeka, 1900-1980," Advances in Motivation and Achievement, 1 (1984), 103-122.

76 The Journal of Negro Education

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