Hope, anguish, and the problem of our time: An essay on publication of the black-white test score gap

The Black-White Test Score Cap, edited by Christopher Jencks and Meredith Phillips, raises a series of important questions as to the cause and consequences of observed differences in measured achievement. Jencks, Phillips, and colleagues provide the most successful and sustained assessment of the claims of racial difference attributed to Herrnstein and Murrsy's The Bell Curve. Even so, striking similarities between the two books reveal the inability of current analyses to truly deepen our understanding of race in America.