Joanellen Fenimore
Position Paper 2
April 28, 2009

Closing the Achievement Gap

What is the Achievement Gap? It is the significant difference in academic performance between students from different economic background and racial/ethnic backgrounds. As the statistics in class have shown, there is a disparity between the Caucasian, African American, Hispanic, and Asian achievement.

Why does the achievement gap matter? The achievement gap is proof that our public education system is consistently failing our children and drastically reducing their chances to compete and succeed as adults. Dropouts are more likely to become and stay jobless, will earn less during their lifetime, and will be more likely to become unemployed and incarcerated. (www.educationequalityproject.org)

For example:
-High school graduates on average live up to 7 years longer than high school dropouts.
-College graduates out earn high school graduates by 73% in their lifetime.
-One in nine black men between 20-34 are incarcerated; a black male is more likely to be in prison than to have a post-graduate degree.

There are two ways to measure achievement. They are comparing standardized test scores between race and class, or to compare the highest level of performance. When comparing standardized test scores for minorities who reach the 12th grade, they score the same on English, math, and science as 13-year-old white students. When comparing highest level or performance, African American and Hispanic students are more likely to drop out of high school in every state. Of those students who do go on to college, black and Hispanic young adults are only half as likely to earn a college degree as white students. www.subnet.nga.org/educlear/achievement/


Some Historical Perspective of the Achievement Gap.
Schools started segregated. Brown v. Board of Education 40 years ago.

1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Title 1:Improving The Academic Achievement of The Disadvantaged. This was created to ensue that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach, at a minimum, proficiency on challenging State academic achievement standards and State academic assessments. Same time as Civil Rights Act, Issued under US Department of Education.

Now NCLB. Schools held accountable for African American students and closing the achievement gap is a national priority. It encourages parents to get involved and if a school is deemed in need of improvement, school officials are required to work with parents to figure out how to make the school better. Due to the Nation’s Report Card reading and math scores for African American for 9-year-olds, and math scores for African American 13-year-olds are at an all-time high. The achievement gaps in reading and math between white and African American 9-year-olds are at an all-time low.

NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) has shown that there has been much progress for 9 and 13 year olds, but not for 17. As time goes on the gap stays the same or widens. http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d05/tables/dt05_108.asp Another gap table http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2008/section2/table.asp?tableID=884 that gives you the actual number that the gap is.

Most recently-EEP (Education Equality Project) National Advocacy group founded by Rev. Sharpton and NYC schools chancellor Joel Klein. That is focused on closing the achievement gap. It exists in order to transform the power and resources from the coalition of supporters into an education reform movement. Their goals are to ensure an effective teacher in every classroom, empower parents, create accountability for educational success at every level, call on students and parents to demand more from their schools, and stand up to those political forces and interests who seek to preserve a failed system. So is the Gap really about race or class?


What is New Jersey doing about the Achievement Gap?
-NJ also reports that there are increases in the middle school years.
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/states/profile.asp

-Abbott District Funding

-High school Redesign

-From the Blog:
New Book on New Jersey's Efforts to Close the Achievement Gap Shows That Money Matters - But So Do Well-Supported Teachers and a Coherent Plan
The book is called, “In Plain Sight: Simple, Difficult Lessons from New Jersey's Expensive Effort to Close the Achievement Gap” by Gordon MacInnes.
Excerpt from the blog written by Dr. Dugan-
“MacInnes concludes that the most important lesson from New Jersey is that the restoration of teaching as the primary activity of schools, and the return of respect for the professionalism of those who oversee and teach in those schools are the essential ingredients for improving educational prospects for all children. He suggests that in difficult economic times, these simple, straight-forward prescriptions must command scarce resources in states and school districts. However, he believes that the results in New Jersey show that it's an investment worth making.”

My Position: While the Coleman and Jencks studies were scary, we need to act as if they could possibly be true. We have been throwing money at the system for years and there hasn’t been any change. Insanity? So if what we have been doing is not working, let’s change our approach, the lives of many children depend on it.