Gaps in Achievement or Opportunity? How Achievement Gap Discourse Affects Teachers' Beliefs and Priorities.

This article investigates how the terminology used to describe racial disparities in education—specifically "racial achievement gap" versus "racial opportunity gap"—influences teachers' beliefs about the causes of these gaps and their support for related instructional and policy responses. Through a randomized survey of 270 U.S. public school teachers, the study finds that teachers exposed to "racial opportunity gap" language are less likely to attribute disparities to individual student or family deficits (such as motivation, effort, or parenting) and more likely to prioritize incorporating students' racial, ethnic, and cultural identities into instruction compared to those exposed to "racial achievement gap" language. However, the terminology did not significantly affect teachers' prioritization of addressing the gaps or their preferences for resource allocation policies targeting schools based on racial demographics. The findings suggest that while language framing shapes teachers' perceptions of causes and instructional approaches, changing terminology alone may not be sufficient to shift broader policy preferences or address underlying structural inequalities in education.