Married Religious Parents Can Close the Gap for Black and Latino Kids

As everyone knows, there is a big gap in school achievement between white kids, on the one hand, and black and Latino kids, on the other. A new study, though, shows that black and Latino kids who live with their married parents in very religious homes close that gap.

William Jeynes, an education professor at the University of California Long Beach, is about to release a study based on the NELS, the National Educational Longitudinal Survey. Specifically, Jeynes compared white students from all kinds of family structures with black and Latino kids who were highly religious and lived with their own married parents. When Jeynes compared these groups, controlling for social class, the white/non-white gap in math and reading virtually disappeared. The science gap remained significant, though it was much smaller.

According to the Christian Post, Jeynes will present his findings to the National Press Club on April 3rd. I expect to see more of this story after that.