Much has changed in American society both culturally and socially since the 1970s. The days of afros and disco music are long gone. Unfortunately, one remnant of the 1970s still remains ' the educational achievement gap between black and white students. What does the data reveal? The most obvious pattern is the persistence of the black-white academic score gap, although the absolute numbers narrowed, in both math and reading between the years 1971 and 2004. Another trend is the re-widening of the achievement gap in both math and reading beginning in the 1990s but for different reasons. The subsequent widening of the reading achievement gap in the 1990s was due to decreases in the test scores of black students, since white scores changed minimally since the 1990s. The latter explanation holds true for the mathematics scores for 17-year-old black students as well, although white students saw sizable math improvements. Conversely, the widening mathematics score gap for 13-year-olds can be attributed to smaller improvements in the test scores of black students relative to white students. There are various explanations as to why black achievement scores lag behind those of white students and why the achievement gap still persists even into the 21st century. These explanations are not isolated or mutually exclusive. Rather, they are interrelated in a way that causes the achievement gap to be perpetuated by multiple layers of issues. Initial achievement differences and the subsequent test score gap are due to family background, as it relates to parental income, education, and socioeconomic status (SES). The different trends in black and white achievement over the years, however, cannot solely be attributed to family background differences. Historical residential segregation and desegregation patterns in the United States, cultural and social capital differences, and schooling differentials between black and white students have all shaped student achievement outcomes...