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Black-White Achievement Gaps In Education

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During the 1970s and 1980s, the Black-White achievement gaps narrowed until a steady decline manifested itself during the 1990s (Lee, 2006). The persistent discourse on the achievement gaps in educational circles demonstrates the challenge in the United States of providing adequate learning opportunities for all its students. Today, as we know, the existence of educational disparities in the United States not only affects cultural capital but also this country’s ability to maintain a strong human capital (Auguste, Hancock, & Laboissierre, 2009; Jacobson, Olsen, Rice, Sweetland, Ralph, 2001; OECD, 2012). The 44th annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll (2012) on the public’s attitudes on public schools, for example, revealed that 89% of the national participants recognized that the closing of the achievement gap was something of a milestone (Bushaw, W.J., & Lopez, S.J., 2012). Indeed, during the last couple of decades the elevated federal and state accountability policies (Fusarelli, 2004) have further underscored and communicated how our public K-12 educational institutions have struggled to improve the educational achievements …show more content…

Leithwood et. al., (2004), as a result of their review of the literature on school leadership, conclude that not only is leadership “second in strength only to classroom instruction” but also “effective leadership has the greatest impact in those circumstances (e.g., schools ‘in trouble’) in which it is most needed” (p. 70). A comprehensive longitudinal study of Chicago’s public school reform during the 1990’s revealed the importance of school leadership to student achievement. Overall, Bryk (2010) found that school leadership as having an influence on all organizational

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