Leading education researchers are celebrating a “breakthrough” in the decades-long struggle to close racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps.
It occurred around 1:45 on the second day of the AEFP conference, as the Urban Institute’s Matt Chingos was presenting his working paper, “Dream World: Preparing for the Sanders Economy.” As he flipped to a slide featuring eighth-grade NAEP scores, the Seventy Four’s Matt Barnum entered the room characteristically late, arms overflowing with blueberry muffins that toppled to the floor when he tripped on a laptop cord. Racing against the five-second rule, he leapt suddenly to his feet in an explosion of crumbs and spittle. “It doesn’t look so bad from back here!” He mumbled through a mouthful of muffin.
Barnum was referring to the achievement gaps depicted on Chingos’s slide, which he claimed were smaller when viewed from a distance. This galvanized sundry researchers in attendance, many of whom were playing Candy Crush at the time.
The University of Washington’s Dan Goldhaber claimed that the gap between rich and poor students looked “almost insignificant” when he extended his arm and “crushed it” between his thumb and index finger (a technique he referred to as “Rubio-ing”).
“This is the silver bullet!” exclaimed Jay Greene to no one in particular. “Inputs drool. Outcomes rule. #smallerchart,” tweeted Tom Loveless.
Yet some remained unswayed. “So far, it’s just one chart,” said Professor Helen Ladd of Duke. “These findings need to be replicated with other charts, preferably mounted on poster board or something else that won’t bend.”
“I think it’s baloney,” the Fordham Institute’s Chester Finn opined. “What good are charts if they’re too distant to be depressing?”
Regardless of their views, however, education experts have struggled to explain how such an obvious approach to reducing the achievement gap could go unexplored for so long. But recent days have brought a plausible explanation for the oversight: “The truth is, we’ve been holding these events for years, and nobody’s ever had to sit past the second row,” said one researcher, who requested anonymity.