ABSTRACT
The four chapters in this section document the pervasiveness of the achievement gap, especially its manifestations in college matriculation, success, and graduation. The papers explore possible causes of the gap, and consider what can be done to combat longstanding disparities among population groups identified by race and ethnicity. All four papers implicitly reject simplistic arguments that find obvious villains and straightforward prescriptions. They scrutinize the proposal that academic aptitude, as indexed by the SAT I, directly reinforces (if not causes) differential achievement, and that if academic aptitude were replaced with something else, then significant strides could be made toward parity in college success and other outcomes of interest. Collectively, the authors dismiss this thesis and, instead, implicitly advance two major themes: (1) the achievement gap among racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups is pervasive over many cognitive outcomes, including academic achievement; and (2) the achievement gap is complexly determined and does not admit to simple policy solutions; instead, its causes reflect disparities in the quality of school experiences, as well as differences in experience in nonschool environments. My commentary on the four papers will follow a two-part organization based on these two themes. The conclusion I derive is that our models for understanding and predicting academic success are weak, and this weakness bears directly on the construct validity of admissions testing instruments. Moreover, improved understanding of the psychological construct of academic readiness can elevate the predictive power of measures as well as inform the design of experience to promote readiness.
