EXPECT MORE FROM EBONY

NEA Today, Oct 2005

WHAT'S NOT IN A NAME

DO YOU THINK EBONY IS AS SMART AS EMILY? Unfortunately, the answer might be no.

A University of Florida (UF) professor, who examined academic data on more than 50,000 students with identifiably African-American and Caucasian names, found that Demetrius and Deja paid a price for those handles. When teachers and administrators selected students for gifted programs, a "Jake" was more likely to get the nod than a "Jamal"-even if they had identical test scores.

It's about low expectations, says UF's David Figlio-and eventually it translates into lower test scores for the kids. When checking into sibling pairs, one with a "regular" name and the other with a "racial" name, he found the kids who had names associated with low socioeconomic status scored lower in reading and math. Meanwhile, siblings with Asian-sounding names did better than their Anglo-sounding sisters and brothers!