Achievement gap

From WikEd

1 INTRODUCTION
2 WHY DOES THE GAP EXIST?
3 HOW BAD IS THE GAP?
4 APPLICATION IN CLASSROOMS
5 ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATIONS DUE TO DIVERSITY CONSIDERATIONS
6 LIFE EXPERIENCE
7 REFERENCES

[edit] INTRODUCTION

An achievement gap exists in American education today. In general, it is defined as:

"A persistent, pervasive and significant disparity in educational achievement and attainment among groups of students as determined by a standardized measure. When analyzed according to race and ethnicity, achievemnet disparities negatively impact educational outcomes for poor children and children of color on a consistent basis" (Public Schools of North Carolina).

This gap can be described in terms of race and in terms of socioeconomic status. Here, we will focus on the reading achievement gap in regard to socioeconomic status. In the following site I will use both information on race and socioeconomic status, as they are often inter-related, according to the US Census Bureau (Ansell, 1). Children under the age of 18 who are living in families, 27 percent of Hispanic children and 30 percent of black children live in poverty (Ansell, 1).

[edit] WHY DOES THE GAP EXIST?

There are various reasons for this gap, and depending on the audience, the answer varies. If it is the case that poverty causes low achievement, Haycock points out, then why are poor children in some areas of the country showing high performance (8)?

School related explanations for the gap in Black-White test scores include test bias, racial segregation, teacher expectation, teacher-pupil ratio, and teacher competency. Results show that on average Black students receive teachers with lower test scores than those given to White students. Furguson notes that a teacher’s ability to increase a students test score is most indicative of their individual test score. Test bias includes racial bias, prediction bias of tests like the SAT, which underestimate the academic potential of Black students, as well as content bias or that which favors one race of students over another. In addition, other researchers such as Ronald Furguson suggest that teachers of Black students expect less of them than what is expected of the White students. Furguson also found that teacher’s expectation affects Black students academic performance more than White student performance. In a Tennessee experiment on class size, results indicated that smaller class size increased both reading and mathematic scores in both Black and White students. In all, Furguson argues that focusing on how schools can reduce the achievement gap warrants more study than whether schools create the gaps in the first place.

Other research explains the disproportional achievement rates by evaluating the educational system itself (instead of alotting blame to 'uninterested parents' or difficult children). Below is the summarized information from a study provided by the Governors Commission on Education Funding (1996) is included as a background prerequisite. The report lists recommendations for improving the way in which funds are allocated to Illinois public schools. The current Illinois funding system is not related to educational need, quality or performance, merely reliant on local property tax. In fact, due to an extreme dependence on local property tax to fund Illinois schools, districts taxing themselves to the maximum limit are unable to raise adequate funding.

The Commission recommends that an equal level for providing funding be developed which determines per pupil expenditures (dollar spent per pupil) needed for quality education. To find this, schools operating efficiently at minimum cost without adversely affecting student performance were examined, leading to an approximation of $4, 225 per pupil expenditure for the 1995-1996 school year. Six additional recommendations are listed, including a property tax relief for districts exhausting their tax dollars with inadequate results. To reduce funding disparities between school districts, the Commission suggested the elimination of the current system, which allots unequal monies to schools of differing property values. Separate supplemental funding was a suggested solution to providing for students with special needs. Moreover, to enhance efficiency, the number of school districts should be reduced to promote greater organization within the state. As mentioned previously, there is a heavy reliance on property tax, as the reliance decreases, the Commission advocates for an increase in state funding naming income tax as the new primary source for funds. The final recommendation calls for an amendment to the Illinois constitution concerning education as both a protection for taxpayers as well as Illinois public schools.

Low-income v. High School graduation rate

In adressing both home and school issues Paul Barton, an education writer and consultant, and Senior Associate in the Educational Testing Service Policy Information Center, has identified 14 factors that he correlated with achievement. Barton recognized these factors as he tried to discover "why the school achievement gap persists." (Barton, p 9) He found that many of the issues associated with this problem do relate directly to school concerns, and several factors have to do with circumstances over which schools have little or no control. The factors Barton identifies are listed below:

    FACTORS THAT CORRELATE WITH STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
    Before and Beyond School:
         Birthweight
         Lead poinsoning
         Hunger and nutrition
         Reading to young children
         Televeision watching
         Parent availability
         Student mobility
         Parent participation
    In School:
         Rigor of curriculum
         Teacher experience and attendance
         Teacher preparation
         Class size
         Tehcnology-assisted instruction
         School safety     (Barton, p 10)

[edit] HOW BAD IS THE GAP?

The numbers associated with this achievement gap are astonishing. In 2003, 39 percent of white students scored at the proficient level or higher on the 4th grade reading exam portion of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) (Ansell, 1). Compare this to 12 percent of black students and 14 percent of Hispanic students (Ansell, 1). According to Department of Education data, 44 percent of Latino 4th graders read at the basic level or better, with just 15 percent reading at a proficient or advanced level (Mulrine). That is shocking, particularly when you compare it to the 75 percent of white 4th graders who read at a basic level or better, and 41 percent proficient or advanced (Mulrine). According to a press release on July 14, 2005 U.S. Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings reported that the achievement gap between minorities and whites has shrunk to its smallest size in history.

[edit] APPLICATION IN CLASSROOMS

As current or future educators, what can we do to aide in closing this gap? Research has shown that children who can identify with their school and who have a strong understanding of his or her place in that context are often more motivated and show better educational performance (Talbert-Johnson, 24). This means the main problem may be with students' feelings of "disidentification" with the school setting, causing students to be unmotivated (Talbert-Johnson, 24). Can teachers make these children feel like part of the school and the classroom and clearly define their place in the school setting? If so, can teachers alone lower the achievement gap? If so, how? Kati Haycock makes 4 suggestions for educators, which may help in lowering the achievement gap.

“Standards are key? (Haycock, 9).

One suggestion is to have standards set for all schools nationally. In other words, a child in middle-class suburban areas would be held to the same assignments and projects as would a student in any low-income area. This is definitely NOT what is happening in our country at this time. In one 11th grade classroom in a middle-class area, students were expected to read "To Kill a Mockingbird" and then write a 5-paragraph essay on the material discussed in the book. In a low-income area, 11th grade students were expected to color a picture about the book (Haycock, 9). By giving the low-income students such low standards, they have been robbed of learning in the same way as the middle-class students.

“All students must be in a challenging curriculum aligned with standards? (Haycock, 10).

Not only should the standards all be the same for all schools in the country, they should be challenging standards. Even if teachers do not expect their students to perform well on challenging curriculum, expect them to try. If the students are going to fail, at least they will have failed at something worthwhile (Haycock, 10). In many cases, the students will face the challenge and conquer it!

“Provide extra help for students who need it? (Haycock, 10).

Students will not always be able to conquer the challenges they face alone. If they need extra help, teachers need to make themselves available so the students do not get frustrated. It is impossible to take a child who cannot read and set the standard at reading "War and Peace" without a lot of the teacher's assistance. Haycock suggests teachers make themselves available before school, after school and on the weekends.

“Teachers matter a lot? (Haycock, 11).

In high poverty areas, students are more likely to be taught by teachers who are uneducated in the field they are teaching. This may also mean they are less enthusiastic about the subject. Haycock sights a study done in a Texas school district in which high-performing 1st graders (probably in an affluent area) received teachers hired from the bottom of the hiring pool. Low-performing 1st graders (presumably low-income) received teachers from the upper tiers. By the time these students reached high shcool, the schools had switched places in student achievement.

[edit] ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATIONS DUE TO DIVERSITY CONSIDERATIONS

Research has found "that, contrary to expectations, test scores were not statistically related to school poverty, neighborhood poverty, racial concentration, or even ranking of schools (except in the case of whites). They did find that African Americans, American Indians, and Hispanics were underrepresented in the top ranked schools. African Americans were 4.5 times as likely to be found in schools ranked low in math, and twice as likely to be found in schools ranked lowest in reading." Read full article

[edit] LIFE EXPERIENCE

One of the big factors is the quality of education available. There are certainly low income schools and children who do well but we must look at the whole group. As an educator I see students overcome terrible home lives to make something of themselves but for every student who overcomes this I see five who can't. It is the same way with poverty and education. Unfortunately it is the children who are at the most risk who often have the less qualified teachers. This is especially important when we start talking about math and science where there are not enough qualified teachers. We need to find ways to try to even out the education received in our public schools. One of the ways of possibly doing this is to change school funding so that schools are more evenly funded. A student from a wealthy suburban school has to many advantages over a student from a poor inner city school. Craig Johnson

An organization called Teach For America focuses on the impact of the teacher on the achievement gap and therefore places new, motivated teachers in low-income areas. Their motto is, "One day, all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education." After taking this class, I applied for the opportunity!

I have been working on standards and teaching to the standards heavily since 1995. I started teaching in 1994 and we did a build on science curriculum based on the National Bench Marks because Illinois had not written state standards yet. When the state standards finally arrived our science curriculum changed very little and we were doing very well on the ISAT. I work in a high poverty(75%, low income, high mobility rate 30% district. We score at an average of 75% to 85% meets or exceeds in Science, Social Studies, Writing, and Reading. Our math scores have really dropped over the recent years and I was handed math to teach to 7th and 8th 3 years ago. After adjusting I actively sought someone to help us align our curriculum to the state standards and help us with lessons to do this. Last year after year one of this our ISAT in math went up 20%. So I agree that standards are the key.

I think the standards line is just yet another way to place the blame and explain the gap away by blaming the parents or the actual students themselves. This is actually my area of interest, the so called 'achievement gap'. Now although it is clear that there is a difference between achievement based on ethnicity, and that there is additionally strong positive correlations between low achievement and low income (i'll show evidence below), both the present and historical inequities that lead to this are never seemingly mentioned. One thing bothers me, how can it be called a 'gap' if differing groups are allotted different and inequitable resources?

I am currently working in a district where we are in the midst of fighting a law suit regarding the achievement gap between African-American and Caucasian students. Everything my school does seems to revolve around this issue. Our school improvement plan focuses on ways to raise our African-American test scores. This tends to frustrate me because I feel like we should be looking at ways to improve ALL of our tests scores, not just one group of children's. Our data is always disaggregated by race. We hired an African-American superintendent from Texas. The administration has been incorporating strategies for improving test scores and seem to be finding some success. (I mentioned the Texas factor because it goes hand-in-hand with George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind Act). My students are required to take practice tests and by exposing them to this, their scores do improve. My only question is, does getting better scores on a test really close the gap? Is that the only evidence we have to examine progress? -Frustrated Teacher

I too am frustrated with the idea of and consequences of the achievement gap between African-American and Caucasian students. I believe that this gap is a serious concern for educators, but I don't see how NCLB's high stake tests can solve this problem. My district failed to make adequate yearly progress in the African-American sub group, so we will be losing funds. How does this help close the gap? Is it even possible to close the gap?

At the 2006 State of the Union Address, President George W. Bush touted the NCLB program, yet the plan is severely flawed in meeting its goal through the methods it uses. Teachers feel so much pressure to meet the "standards" set up by these tests that the pressure is placed on the children in an even greater way. Schools that depend on funding often feel pressure to provide questions or answers ahead of time, coach or review responses ahead of time, or even alter responses, "The Los Angeles Times recently reported that since statewide testing began five years ago, "more than 400 public school teachers in California have been investigated for allegedly helping students” FairTest ExaminerIf you ask most teachers, they will admit that they know of or have seen unfair testing. When so much pressure is tied to funds that are so very needed, teachers spend a bulk of their time on these tests that only assess a few areas of knowledge. The consequences are that the regular curriculum is left behind, and the children simply learn to learn the test rather than understand the information.

I think it’s unfair to blame the school system or teachers exclusively for the achievement gap that exists between students of poverty and middle to upper class students. Students are only in school for 6 hours five days a week; they spend the rest of their days away from school. There must be a focus at home on education, or it will not be of value to the child. Many children of professional parents know from an early age that their success at school is important. Parents on welfare are less likely to emphasize the importance of a good education to their children. Throwing money into our ailing school systems is not the answer to this crisis. I work in a Catholic school in Chicago, and our cost for educating a student is about 2/3 of what is spent (with our parents’ tax dollars) on educating a student in the Chicago public schools. Our schools are more effective, and the single most important reason is because the parents care about their children’s education. I’ve watched teacher after teacher enter the Chicago public schools, with ambitious plans and expectations of how they would be able to make a major difference in the lives of children coming from poverty. I’ve watched their frustration mount in what often seems a losing battle. The role models of many of these children are single parents who’ve chosen public aid as a lifestyle, reaping the benefits of a meager increase in their benefit for additional children. Alcohol, drug abuse and violence are common occurrences at home. The local public schools feed the children two meals a day, and many don’t receive a third meal. Blaming schools and teachers is not the answer – it lies with the parent/family situation. Pat Reed

I agree with Pat in a lot of ways. We as teachers are supposed to hold our students accountable for their learning. As a child of a teacher, I was held very accountable for my learning more from my mother than from my teachers. She was my biggest and best influence. The parent involvement is essential in the education of a child. I don't meant ath parents need to be at everything that the child does. I just believe the parent should stay involved in the learning by doing very simple things. Parents should have their children demonstrate what they learned at school each day or week. It gives the students a chance to reflect on their day and share something that they should be excited about. In fact, some parents will say that their child doesn't want to tell them anything. Make them tell you! This is one way to express to those students with no homework that they have homework now. Their homework is to teach their parents what they learned that day.As far as the gaps go, this type of involvement from the parents would help the students to retain more information, which will in turn lead to a better understanding, which will lead to smaller gaps in how the students are learning the material. (Robert Hayes, 2008)

I think that the achievement gap with never been able to be changed because of the difference in resources available to schools according to where they are located. As long as the money schools get is based on property taxes, there will be no change for schools in lower economical areas. Sandra Davila

According White, K. in an article on September 8, 2004 titled Initial conditions at emancipation: the long-run effect on black-white wealth and income inequality. It was stated that "since reconstruction there have been significant disparities in the quality of public schooling available to black versus whites" (White, 2004, p. 2). An initial disparity could have been predicted however, the conditions that developed state "that discrimination in public schooling expenditures negatively impacted black human capital levels" (White, p .3). This desparity continues even today in the south. Until we quit pushing it under the carpet the problem will continue. C. Yeoman

This is a fascinating topic, and is the subject of my thesis. Specifically, I'm looking at how the format of tests might affect or not affect the achievement of African-American students on that test (traditional versus alternative). When I was teaching, I worked with a program called AVID which made great gains in helping kids (mostly minority or low-SES) achieve, and was geared entirely towards college entrance. It was really great to be a part of, and I was encouraged to see the great strides the extra support of such a program helped students make towards achievement. The biggest hurdle, I think, is to help students learn to believe in themselves, and learn to overcome barriers. We can't make racism go away for them, unfortunately, but we can help them deal with its effects as much as possible.

It has been disheartening to see our test scores go down each year while our rate of low income students, high mobility rates, and increased cases of special needs students rise. Our school is using a Curriculum Mapper, introducing a new committee to study how curriculum is aligned, and all teachers will be responsible for aligning their classes to the state standards. We are also implementing many more co-taught classrooms as a result of our large popultaion of special needs students. We are trying to close the education gap, but it seems to be an uphill battle. M Hay

I went to high school with many students who did not speak english. All of these students were placed in a different part of the school with a completely different program. I don't completely know the quality of the program, but I felt that the segregation of students who spoke english as a second language, and those who were native speakers created a lot of hostility. We felt we were seperated because we weren't supposed to like each other, and people acted accordingly. I feel that it's obviously necessary to teach theses students differently but that more effort shoult have been used on creating a unity even across languages.

Personal Testimony- I am all in favor of closing the achievement gap, but I believe that the focus needs to rest solely on the low performing students. Too often I think that schools inadvertedly narrow the gap by sacrificing the programs directed at the highest achievers. While statistically this may look like an improvement in equity, no one truly benefits from this process. -S. Yunker

I really believe the achievement gap would not be as wide if schools and students were able to receive the same opportunities and resources as those schools that seem to be high performing. I taught summer school a couple of years ago in one of the Chicago Public Schools. I was appauled at the fact that I had to race to get my materials, such as text books and trade books, for my students because they did not have enough for each class. I had to have the students work together a lot to share things and while collaboration is really great, there is a time for it and a time to work independently as well. On the other side, you could choose any school in Naperville and I am sure they are able to spend at least $1,000 per student. ~S. Ward

I find it interesting that students who are not achieving at the grade level expectation are often the students who lack an adequate amount of exposure to the world around them. The duty of exposing students to the world around them cannot take place solely in the context of school. When community members and parents are active in investing in children of low SES populations knowledge base their chances of success are inevitably heightened. ~C. Hatchett

It is incredible to me that people continue to allow great disparities to exist between local schooling systems. I know that education is a function of the government that is ultimately ruled upon at the state level, but why are schools so disparate even within a particular state? In my brief experience as a teacher and student teacher I was able to identify great disparities from one district to the next. I would prefer an educational system that promoted equity in funding, facilities, and learning opportunities for all students. I believe that finding a way to equalize conditions in the classroom is the next great challenge for the American educational system. – Jeremiah Johnson

I really find this topic interesting, and I think that in order to understand the acheivement gap one must also consider the culture of our low-acheiving students. A few years ago our school didn't make AYP in math, and it was mostly because we had a high number of African-American students that had low test scores. So our school offered an after-school math tutoring program that was only offered for the students that didn't test well in math. I volunteered to help this group (of all the students invited to attend, only 20 or so students actually showed up, maybe 6 or 7 were white and of low socio-economic background, the rest were African-American). I have to admit that it was a challenging group. It seemed that the main reason they were there with us was to socialize with each other and because we offered them snacks. The other teachers and I were frequently frustrated by the lack of motivation to do well, they mostly wanted to joke around with each other and burn up time. We tried our best to make the math lessons fun by playing games, we took them to the computer lab, we made the problems relate to the real world, and we gave them an incentive field trip. The problem with analyzing the acheivement gap is that we can't simply look at the environmental differences between races and income levels. Many African Americans of low socio-economic status don't trust people of authority--especially White people of authority. How do we teach these students that don't trust us? How do we get them to care about their performance on standardized tests? Also many times African-American students of low socio-economic status don't want to succeed and/or don't want their peers to succeed. It's simply not cool to be (and act) smart, in fact if one did "act smart" then they would be considered "showing off" and be accused of forgetting where they come from. It's unfortunate because not only do African-Americans have to be cautious of racism from Whites, but also from other African-Americans. -J.Adams

I definitely see where everyone is coming from with being frustrated with NCLB and how we cannot pass AYP because of our achievement gap. We are in our 2nd year of being "on watch" and I worry because if we don't pass it this year, it will definately effect the amount of electives that are offered because some students will have to meet with reading specialists. I see this achievement gap simular to the idea of the digital divide between teachers and students. When will we ever bridge the gap in our schools??-C McCulley