Explaining the Test Score Gap For Biracial Youth

Fall 2002, Volume 24, Number 1

Do biracial students fare differently in school than their monracial peers? If so, how much can be explained by the racial group with which they identify?

Using data from a survey of 10,275 students from nine high schools (17% of whom were biracial) in California and Wisconsin between 1987 and 1990, IPR sociologist Melissa Herman finds that biracial students with some black or Latino ancestry have significantly lower grades than those with no black or Latino ancestry. Furthermore, grades for the black-Latino group are considerably below the average of both monoracial black and monoracial Latino groups.

The race with which adolescents identify proves to be important in explaining achievement for some biracial students. Although there were no significant differences between black-white students who identify as black versus white, black-Asian students who report being black on surveys have significantly lower grades (average GPA of 2.14) than those who report being Asian (average GPA of 3.5). The grades of Asian-whites who identify as Asian are also significantly higher than those who identify as whites (GPAs of 3.15 versus 2.76). Latino-white students who identify as Latino have significantly lower grades than those who identify as white. In short, part-black and part-Latino youth who identify as black or Latino fare poorly compared with those who identify as white or Asian.

Factors that affect grades. Even after controlling for socioeconomic status and many environmental factors, the performance gap between white and minority youth cannot be fully explained. Additional factors such as a student’s optimism for securing future employment, having peers with high aspirations, fearing the consequences of failing in school, parenting styles, and placing importance on one’s ethnic background all can affect performance.

Yet, except among monoracial Latino youth, Herman finds little support for the theory that racial identity plays a large role in school achievement. This important and controversial result supports other recent findings demonstrating the fallibility of oppositional culture theory. Biracial youth, like monoracial youth, achieve more in school when they have peers who are invested in the education system and when they fear the long-term consequences of failing in school.

Only black-whites and black-Asians are significantly different from their respective monoracial counterparts. This may be because part-black youth have less choice in their ethnic identity. The “one-drop rule” suggests that multiracial individuals are assigned by society to the group with the lowest social value among the race groups they represent. Black Americans fall at the bottom of this ranking, followed by Latinos and Asians, with non-Hispanic northern Europeans at the top.

Herman concludes that culturally specific theories only explain a small portion, if any, of the achievement gap between racial groups. Theories that consider factors such as motivation, encouragement, and evaluation styles may be more productive avenues in advancing understanding of this crucial question, she suggests.