My report The Myth of Racist Kids contains a section titled 'Racism as a catch-all explanation for failure' followed by another which I titled 'Boxed-in by race' (pages 64 - 71).  In this part of the report I key-in to the complex and often angry debate that rages over the reasons for the educational achievement gap between different ethnic groups. To even describe the issue as "complex" is enough to trigger the ire of one corner in this debate for whom the question is simple: black children (or more precisely African Caribbean boys) do disproportionately badly at school because of racism - specifically teacher racism.

My assessment of this debate is summarised in a recent book review of Tony Sewell's Generating Genius and David Gillborn's Racism and Education.