Achievement Gap Definition

The achievement gap is defined as the disparity between the performance groups of students, especially groups defined by gender, race/ethnicity, ability and socio-economic status. The achievement gap can be observed through a variety of measures including standardized test scores, grade point averages, drop out rates, college enrollment and completion rates. The Black-White achievement gap is a critical issue in modern society’s education system. Although data surrounding the issue clearly indicates that the racial performance gap exists in areas of standardized tests, graduation rates, dropout rates, and enrollment in continuing education, the causative reasons for the gap are ambiguous—therefore presenting a significant challenge in

This paper includes a reference list of literature relating to the impact socioeconomic status and race/ethnicity has on academic achievement and what can be done to combat the achievement gap. In general, the literature seems to indicate that socioeconomic status has a greater impact then race or ethnicity on achievement. However, these constructs are often intertwined. The greatest source for combatting the achievement gap are teachers high in self-efficacy, strong and well directed principal leadership, having a positive and accepting racial climate, smaller class sizes, less harsh discipline with more support

Brown vs. The Board of Education ruling in 1956 ruled that segregated schools are unconstitutional but it took a decade for black students to enter into white schools. This case first started out a black community declaring to have better education, improving schools and curriculum. Finally, the Brown vs. The Board of Education case was seen in the black communities to ensure equality in the black community. The author focuses on the closing the achievement gap of blacks and white in high school graduation from 1940-1980. African American has always been playing the catch up game due to the struggle for civil right equality.

Contemporary education reforms study on the continuous black-white achievement gap in the public schools, in America. In the book, “Multiplication is meant for White People”: Raising Expectations for Other people’s Children, Lisa Delpit focuses on these reforms and informs educators that education gap does not exist at birth.. Through her experience in the field and as a mother, she gives strategies for raising the expectations of minority or underperforming children especially the blacks. The book has many references of elementary to university success stories of mentioned practitioners.

How should society handle the perceived differences between races when it comes to education? The goal of both researchers is to narrow the academic gap between white and black students. Both authors attribute the gap between the academic scores of black and white students from opposite sides of racial identity. As Dr. Beverly Daniels Tatum, President of Spelman College and clinical psychologist has written an article entitled “Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” Her approach is from the perspective of the student and how they perceive their role and upper limits while maintaining their place in their peer group's expectations of their race. Dr. Diane Ravitch, a research professor of education at New York University, has written an article entitled "The Facts about the Achievement Gap.” Her approach is from the perspective of how schools and society implicitly or explicitly cast students into achievement tracks based on their race. Both approach the same idea about racial identity, but they have different solutions, such as peer groups, the school board, and who is right about the solution.

Education and economic justice were two forms of systemic inequalities that make inequality difficult to talk about. Education is a requirement if someone wishes to have a better life, but not everyone has access to quality education. In the U.S there has always been a battle, people of color have fought to be able to access quality education, (Philips, 2016: 130) they are constantly attending inferior and ineffective school where there are many distractions for students to be fully successful in the classrooms. Often these schools where children of color attend lack quality facilities, educational resources, and qualified teachers. Someone can’t help to notice that in general such unqualified schools are mostly in color people’s neighborhoods.

What is one of the most controversial subjects in America? How about the fact that we have students in school who don’t get the same opportunities as others? In Diane Ravitch’s “The Facts about the Achievement Gap”, she discusses the issues about the achievement gap. While many people who have looked at the gap as a race issue it should be looked at as an economic issue. She also points out that while the schools have been working to close it over the past few decades they have failed to do so.

The “achievement gap” in education refers to the disparity in academic performance between groups of students. The achievement gap is shown in grades, standardized-test scores, course selection, dropout rates, among other success measures. It’s most often used to describe the troubling performance gaps between African-American and latino students, towards the lower end of the performance scale, compared to their white peers, and the similar academic differences between students from low-income families and those who are privileged. In the past decade, scholars and policy makers began focusing their attention on other achievement gaps, such as those based on sex, English language and learning disabilities.

Whether on the scale of a school district, a state, or the nation, achievement gaps exist. Wealth seems to be the deciding factor, with race coming in at a close second, but these do not (and should not) be deciding factors. The State of Texas has developed The P-16 Initiative which seeks to close theses performance gaps between the poor and wealthy. Our textbook reads: “The P-16 is an effort to work with stakeholders collaboratively to foster a more integrated education system, while addressing issues of college readiness standards, teacher education, and educational

Most people are not aware that the racial divide cycle amongst students has continually been affecting our society. The question is what can the society as a whole do to break the cycle? There is a gap between African-American students and Caucasian students and it is called achievement gap. Achievement Gap is the difference between low-income and minority students compared to that of their peers. In this generation the Achievement Gap between African-American students and Caucasian students seems to be a major issue but our society fails to recognize why that gap exists. When we recognize that the gap exists, then we can begin to ask how the racial divide cycle can be broken by using positive criticism.

the term receivement gap is useful because it focuses attention on educational inputs-what the students receive on their educational journey, instead of outputs-their performance on a standardized test. This refocusing also moves attention away from the students as the source of these disparities, and toward the larger structure and forces that play a role in their education and development (p. 417). Venzant-Chambers (2009) asserted the issue of the Black and White achievement gap must be viewed through other lenses opposed to the single view of Black students cannot perform as well as White students. Venzant-Chambers (2009) offered other avenues by which to examine the achievement gap such as school tracking, examining the

The findings of this study strongly support the hypothesis that a large majority of children of color do not possess access to the same educational resources as White or Asian children. Likewise, former Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano stresses the importance of America reforming its current system, “… America couldn 't lead the world in innovation and remain being competitive if we didn 't have an internationally competitive education system.” The long term economic impact of having citizens who are no longer able to compete on a global scale would be devastating. One source contributing to the inequality in the present day educational system stems from poor education policies enacted in the early eighties. While education policies during the seventies began to give students of color the opportunity to receive an equal and expanding education, cuts to several federal assistance programs in urban and rural areas under the Regan Administration erased much of the progress that had been made (18). As a result of the cuts made by President Regan, states were unable to properly fund urban and rural schools which resulted in many having poor teaching and learning environments (20). Unfortunately, discrepancies as a result of the federal cuts under President Regan are still prevalent thirty years later. However, many experts, such as Hammond and McShane, have devoted their professional careers to finding solutions to end the inequality in

Ultimately the lack of reliable resources and preparation from underfunded schools leads African American students into being unprepared for college and jobs, once again reinforcing a vicious cycle of poverty within the community. Gillian B. White, a senior associate editor at The Atlantic, wrote a chilling article regarding the systematic racism that is deeply embedded in the American school system. In the article The Data: Race Influences School Funding, White states “At a given poverty level, districts that have a higher proportion of white students get substantially higher funding than districts that have more minority students” (White). In this quote White explains the clear correlation of race and inadequate funding in the American school

The first public school in the United States opened in Boston in the year of 1821. By the end of the 19th century, public secondary schools began to outnumber private ones. Nevertheless, the education system started with many flaws. One of the biggest problems of the public educational system is that, although it gave the less advantaged an opportunity to learn, it did so in a segregated way. When we talk about the segregation of the past, everyone seems to agree that it was a real problem. However, when someone say the schools are still segregated today, many people (from advantaged social groups) would disagree. One thing to keep in mind is that, desegregation is not limited to having multiracial schools with students of color sitting next to white students. Desegregation goes beyond the school scope and family and community cultures also play an important role. To make things worse, the education system is having several problems on achieving its mission of preparing the youth to succeed personally and professionally. According to experts, the achievement gap shows how big those problems are. In order to understand why the achievement gap is related to today 's segregation, we need to understand what achievement gap is. The best definition of achievement gap, describes it as the difference in educational proficiency between students who come from high or middle class white families,

The achievement gap is the education gap between the performance group of students in which these groups are usually defined by their social status, race or gender.