Test scores

In 1966 Sociologist James S. Coleman conducted extensive research in K- 12 education by surveying 600,000 students, 60,000 teachers and 4,000 schools. The report hoped to show that with equal opportunities, things like funding, facilities, teacher or curricular quality and extra-curricular offering would help achievement. To their great disappointment this did not happen. They hoped to answer the question, what kinds of educational inputs would improve academic performance of poor, minority students. Because the results did not provide the answers that were wanted the report was considered faulty and others felt it proved that the schools couldn't do anything about the problem. This was just after the civil rights act was passed and to look at the home life of these students was considered racist. It is only in the past few years that such discussion have come out into the open and not without controversy. This sort of thinking is considered blaming the victim. Setting aside race, data shows the children from two-parent families perform one grade level higher than those from single parent families.