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ERIC Number: EJ1475740
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Jul
Pages: 20
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0038-0407
EISSN: EISSN-1939-8573
Available Date: 0000-00-00
Experimental Effects of "Opportunity Gap" and "Achievement Gap" Frames
Sociology of Education, v98 n3 p203-222 2025
Racial equity in education is often framed around "closing the achievement gap," but many scholars argue this frame perpetuates deficit mindsets. The "opportunity gap" (OG) frame has been offered as an alternative to focus attention on structural injustices. In a preregistered survey experiment, I estimate the effects of framing racial equity in education around "achievement gaps" (AGs) versus OGs. I find U.S. adult respondents on MTurk gave higher priority to "closing the racial opportunity gap" versus "closing the racial achievement gap" (effect size = 0.11 SD). When randomly assigned to read an OG frame before being asked to explain the Black/White "achievement gap," respondents were less likely to endorse cultural or individual-level explanations compared with respondents only shown AG statistics (effect size = -0.10 SD). I find no evidence the OG frame affected respondents' racial stereotypes or policy preferences.
SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: https://sagepub.com
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN, USA