Abstract
In contemporary America, racial gaps in achievement are primarily due to gaps in skills. Skill gaps emerge early, before children enter school. Families are major producers of skills, thus inequality in school performance is strongly linked to inequality in family environments. Schools do little to reduce or enlarge the skill gaps that are present when children enter school. Parenting matters, and the true measure of child advantage and disadvantage is the quality of parenting received. A growing fraction of American children across all race and ethnic groups is being raised in dysfunctional families. Investment in the early lives of children from disadvantaged families will help close achievement gaps. America currently relies too heavily on schools and adolescent remediation strategies to solve problems that start in the preschool years. Policy should prevent rather than remediate. Voluntary, culturally sensitive support for parenting is a politically and economically palatable strategy that addresses problems common to all racial and ethnic groups.