Long before federal funding restrictions on educational equity, Craig Ramey explored how quality early education could impact Black children in North Carolina. With support from the National Institutes of Health, he initiated the Abecedarian Project at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. This study involved infants from low-income families, mostly Black, born between 1972 and 1977. They were placed in a program offering full-time, high-quality child care from infancy to age 5.
In the 1960s and ’70s, researchers like Ramey, now at Virginia Tech, were eager to understand developmental delays in children from disadvantaged backgrounds. He asked, “What I wanted to address is whether we could prevent that delay from occurring in the first place.” The intervention group received tailored educational activities targeting social, emotional, and cognitive development, with an emphasis on language skills.
Tracking participants into their mid-40s, researchers compared them to a control group without the services. Findings published in the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology showed differing outcomes for Black boys and girls. Both genders initially made significant educational gains, similar to other studies like the Perry Preschool Project in Ypsilanti, Michigan. However, while Black women’s cognitive gains continued into adulthood, Black men’s progress stalled.
By mid-40s, Black women excelled in IQ, reading, and math, but Black males’ scores resembled the control group, losing earlier gains. Ramey noted, “When boys hit adolescence they face some rocks in the road that are maybe different from what girls face.” While cognitive measures were the focus, other research on Abecedarian participants revealed positive outcomes in health and social development.
Despite the project’s success, few programs can bridge the gender gap in long-term results. The Trump administration’s actions to halt federal funding for educational equity research threaten progress on supporting Black boys. Brian Wright, from the University of Memphis, had a significant project canceled due to these cuts. It aimed to track kindergarteners’ access to STEM classes through a racial equity lens.
Wright emphasized that programs today lack the comprehensive support the Abecedarian Project offered. He notes the need for educators who celebrate students’ culture and race and provide relatable learning experiences. For Black boys, these elements should be paired with adolescent programs preserving their childhood while preparing them for adulthood.
Wright and other experts recently highlighted these issues at a panel discussion at George Washington University. They stressed the scarcity of effective programs for Black boys and the elimination of best practices by federal actions. Wright states, “There are pockets where these things exist, but there’s certainly more work that needs to be done.”
This story about Black boys was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.
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