Class versus Race

In reflecting upon student behavior and achievement at the various schools where I have worked, the question of whether race or class is the primary determinant of school and student performance is of great interest to me.  The first step in the process toward providing an answer based on my observations is to answer the question of whether or not the two can be 1) separated, and 2) ranked as primary and secondary in influence,

Let's start with the question of separation and let's begin by clearly stating that this discussion is limited to the issue of educational performance.  I say this because race as it manifests itself inside the four walls of the school building can be quite different than how race influences behavior outside the four walls of the building.  The belief is inside the four walls the environment can be somewhat (not completely) controlled whereas control is quite a bit more challenging outside the school building.  Further, by control, I mean the attitudes, values and beliefs of all who are involved,  If we assume (a potential problematic) that educators are largely above racist attitudes, then what happens inside the four walls is determined less by skin color and more by academic and social performance. If we assume, as sociologists such as Habermas and Bowers do, that effective processes of dialogue will help people overcome some of their deeply embedded negative attitudes about race, we can hope teachers have been the beneficiaries of the outcome of communicative action/competence and therefore are better prepared to not see color.  This may be simplistic in its application of Habermas and or Bowers, but for our discussion the point is that we certainly hope teachers are not carrying overly racist attitudes into the classroom.  While known this idealistic attitude can be tripped up by one racist teacher, let's use the dreaded "generally" for the sake of this discussion.