Jencks, Christopher (1936–)

Christopher Jencks has shaped in significant ways the policy debate about the impact of schools on student achievement. His prominence was especially evidenced in the 1970s, but it continues to be manifested in the way in which educators and policymakers think about the relationship of schools to culture. As a result of Jencks's work, many began to rethink what it meant to foster equality and how institutions should be reformed or “manipulated” to achieve more equitable educational outcomes for all students regardless of their socioeconomic backgrounds.

Jencks is the Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Among his most significant writings are Inequality: A Reassessment of the Effect of Family and Schooling in America (1972), The Homeless (1994), and The Black–White Test Score Gap (1998). Fundamentally, Jencks argued in books such as Inequality that even if every child had access to the same quality schools, disparities would exist relative to their academic performance. He discussed problems such as the differential expenditures for education between and among school districts and states, and the problems of equalizing opportunities for higher education. In essence, higher education affordability continues to be a problem for students coming from high poverty environments. Further, even if the opportunities were to be provided, Jencks expressed reservations about whether poor families would feel comfortable taking advantage of the available options. Students from poor families, argued Jencks, might feel either out of place or out of context and even with good opportunities they might view the options as illogical given their economic circumstances.

Many invested in reform look for policy silver bullets. They attempt to identify a single way of addressing or ameliorating inequalities. Jencks debated the efficacy of this approach and specifically argued that there needed to be a wide variety of ways that policymakers would use to mitigate the educational disparities evident within American education. More particularly, he placed emphasis on how it would be possible to equalize the “distribution of income” so that no one group was disadvantaged because of lack of economic opportunity. If economic opportunities and income distribution could be addressed, then Jencks asserted that young people would be in a better position to take advantage of the educational programs that were available to them.

In the Black–White Test Score Gap Jencks and his coauthor Meredith Phillips addressed issues around the ethnic test score gap. Throughout the 1990s and early part of the 2000s, a major policy issue for educators related to the Black–White achievement gap. Some policymakers argued that [Page 490]the gap was attributable to genetic differences between the racial groups; others contentiously argued that student performance differences were all about the quality of the educational opportunities being provided in the classroom. Specifically, good teachers who know how to provide appropriate instruction that engages the students in the learning process can be effective in mitigating, if not eliminating, achievement differences.

Jencks's research has always been grounded on a body of quantitative and qualitative evidence that is drawn from the sociological and psychological literature. He uses empirical evidence to discuss everything from what it means to “act White” to what the implications are of the “stereotype threat” vis-à-vis the performance of diverse student populations. His work is regularly cited by policymakers as they identify practices that need to be evidenced in schools and within classrooms. His work also often addresses topics of considerable policy complexity. For example, if student academic achievement can be raised by teachers who are more academically skilled, should schools and school districts adjust hiring practices to hire only those individuals who are more intellectually capable? Many neoconservatives might readily embrace the idea; Jencks explores the notion without affirming that it needs to be a policy prescription or mandate for every state. The reason for the caution has to do with an unintended policy conundrum: it may be that White teachers with higher ACT or SAT scores would be successful with suburban White student populations, but it is very unclear based on research that they would be equally successful with urban African American students. In essence, the combination of variables (race, academic ability, gender) may influence the level of student performance, and it is difficult, based on research, to determine if there are any firm policy prescriptions that can be made that would be universally efficacious.

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