Test Scores are Only a Symptom - The Challenge of Seeking to Close Educational Gaps While Ignoring Historical Legacies

Oct 15, 2026

The paper argues that using test scores as the main benchmark for education reform can mask the deeper causes of persistent inequality. It highlights how improvements in achievement do not automatically translate into better life chances when historical legacies and structural racism remain unaddressed. By reframing theory of change from individual action to broader context, it explains why poverty and racism interact and how “What works?” must be paired with “For whom?”

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages14

Reading Time35 min

AccessFree to download

Seeking Answers in Education

Test Scores as a Symptom, Not a Solution

Theories of Change and Structural Racism

Poverty’s Long Spells and Racialized Systems

Moving to Opportunity and School Choice Programs

Racism’s Pervasiveness

Test Scores are Only a Symptom: The Challenge of Seeking to Close Educational Gaps While Ignoring Historical Legacies Lashawn Richburg-Hayes Test Scores are Only a Symptom: The Challenge of Seeking to Close Educational Gaps While Ignoring Historical Legacies Lashawn Richburg-Hayes, January 2021 William T. Grant Foundation Author’s Note: I am especially grateful to Dr. Vincent Guilamo-Ramos, who told me that my project’s struggles were not management-related (as I had thought), but reflective of institutional racism. This feedback started my deeper journey of learning how to understand and address institutional racism asan economist conducting a rigorous evaluation. It made me confront the fear I had in even saying institutional racism, as well asthe larger fear of attempting to document it. Suggested Citation: Richburg-Hayes, L. (2021). Test scores are only a symptom: The challenge of seeking to close educational gaps while ignoring historical legacies. William T. Grant Foundation. William T. Grant Foundation I n the quest to address income inequality and intergenerational poverty, it is critical to seek answers to the questions “What works?”and “For whom?” Education is a prime area in which to seek solutions, as one’s level of education completed is positively correlated with income later in life. This connection contributes to a specific focus on schools to reduce inequality and a reliance on test scores asboth a measure of intervention effectiveness and a proximal measure of young people’s future outcomes. As Richard Murnane points out in a new essay, however, some efforts to improve and expand instruction have yielded improvements in test scores, but a narrow focus on this measure alone obscures a larger picture (2021). Murnane goes onto detail three interventions—including two housing mobility interventions and a school choice program—that did not improve students’ reading and math scores but did dramatically improve their life chances. These findings suggest what many educators and parents know: Larger contexts affect school performance. In the United States, for instance, racism is pervasive and continues to have implications for African Americans in all areas of their lives, including health (Kwate et al., 2003; William & Williams-Morris, 2000), income (Rothstein, 2018), and wealth (Akbar et al., 2019). To address income inequality and intergenerational poverty, then, education is just one instrument—we need a tool chest. Until researchers and funders recognize and attempt to account for the broader context surrounding the studies we conduct, our work will continue to shine a narrow light on potential solutions. Both research and data reflect the perspectives ofthe researcher and the data collector, as well asthe societal context. Given the widespread fallacy that research and data are objective, this recognition will require intentional effort on the part of researchers. Ignoring these facts will only perpetuate recommendations for incomplete policy actions. Richburg-Hayes 03 William T. Grant Foundation Theories of Change Account for Individual Action, but not Racism P overty is associated with poor outcomes in many areas of life (Lin & Harris, 2009). While there is evidence that many spells of poverty are relatively brief (Bane & Ellwood, 1986; Stevens, 1999), long spells makeup the vast majority for those in poverty at any single point in time. And African Americans have a higher incidence of long spells than other groups (Hoynes et al., 2006). Poverty and racism are synergistic. Here, racism is defined asthe organized system that leads to subjugating certain groups relative to others (William & Williams-Morris, 2000). That is, the definition of racism that I’m employing is synonymous with a racialized system—or structural racism—which does not require a psychological phenomenon of racist beliefs held by individuals (Bonilla-Silva, 1997). In a racialized system, the concepts o

FAQs

What is the proposed shift in the theory of change for interventions?

Interventions should move from assuming individual change alone toward accounting for the larger system producing inequities. The paper argues that failing to do so leads to incomplete policy recommendations.

Oct 15, 2026

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