Cognitive Dissonance and the Reproduction of the Black Achievement Gaps in the US

The divisive nature of public school policies that influence the vast majority of America’s young is tearing the country apart. W. E. B. Du Bois argued that racism produces general expectations that the hopes and aspirations of Black Americans are set before the fact by the dominant White structures. In this tradition, this book explores the history of race in the US by sketching the role of public schooling and its representative actors in breeding Black student achievement gaps, highlighting that racism and cognitive bias corrupt students and society. Coupling Du Bois’s theoretical framework and cognitive dissonance, the book sheds light on the processes by which social and racial inequities are recycled and transmitted by ordinary and intelligible public school educators. Rather than simply define the problem, it offers a set of interventions and a schematic approach to build healthy school climates where every student is welcomed and honored.