Graduation Speech : Achievement Gap

I teach first grade at Lowe Elementary School; my class is made up of twenty-four very diverse seven year-olds; they come from all over the city of Louisville, from a variety of socio-economic situations. Each student brings a unique personality to our classroom community, and they all work hard to become “smarter and smarter” and to “go to college”. Thirteen students are boys and eleven are girls. Of these twenty-four students, three of them are English Language Learners. Additionally, eight students receive tier two interventions and two receive tier three interventions in reading. In math, five students are tier two and four are tier three. I also teach one student who receives ECE services for a developmental delay. Within my class there is a wide achievement gap.

Exam 2 Due to the increase in racial and ethnic diversity in the United Sates there is a great need to provide counseling interventions that cater for social issues that are attributed to the racial and ethnic diversity. Presently, efforts are being made to implement social justice advocacy strategies and interventions

Topical Reference List: Understanding the Achievement Gap Carrie L. Thang Liberty University Abstract 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

A majority of the students in Middle Tennessee Public Schools come from a low- income family household. The school in which I work, Clearview Middle School is not only low- income, but is also a “priority” school. Priority schools are in the bottom five percent in being in the category of lowest- performing in the school district. The population of students at Clearview Middle School are majority African- American, but the cultures among the school are rich and diverse. Many students at Clearview Middle School have high potential of achieving great academic success, but fall short due consistent classroom disruptions throughout the day.

Rendon (1994) points out “students from underrepresented backgrounds often experience isolation, a lack of self-efficacy, and a lack of a sense of belonging in college contexts”(p. 48). Furthermore, one needs to take it one step back and realize that most students of color are much more likely to attend schools where most of their peers are poor or low-income. Therefore, socio economic status (SES) determines the education a person receives throughout K-12. Walpole (2004) also describes how “low SES parents are more likely to define success as a secure full-time job after graduating from high school. College attendance is not an expectation and often means enrolling in a community college or technical school when it does occur” (p. 47). When a student reaches the

The topic is important to the teaching profession since more and more of our students are experiencing poverty. In 2011, over 15.9 million children under the age of eighteen were in poverty (NCES). In Texas, there was a forty-seven percent increase in the rate of children living in poverty between 2000 and 2011 (MacLaggan, 2013). In 2012, 1,777,000 Texas children lived in poverty and 749,000 lived in extreme poverty (Kids Count). Poverty and its stressors are linked to impairment of cognitive development and have implications for development of brain structure and function (Berliner, 2009). Children in poverty are twice as likely to be retained in school, are more likely to be placed in special education classes, perform less well on standardized tests, have lower grades, and are more likely to not complete their high school education (Berliner, 2009; Woolfolk, 2013,

In a study conducted Rosenthal and Jacobson they examined the exceptions of teachers from their students and self-fulling prophecy. They believe the central problem of so many kids failing school is because of kids with disadvantages. They are lower class children who live in poverty and being taught by middle class teachers. They are the Mexican American, Puerto Ricans and African Americans. These teachers are white females who are middle class and teaching the “disadvantage” which leads to the teacher expectations for them to fail. (Apa)

“The school districts with the highest minority enrollments receive an average of $877 less per student than school districts with the lowest number of minorities enrolled.” In turn, these children are able to go further with more resources readily available to them. However, children in less affluent school districts face serious educational shortcomings due to little investment in the beggared communities surrounding the school. It is more accurate to say that America has two systems of public education. The first system, based principally, but not entirely in the suburbs of America and in wealthier urban districts, is in many respects mediocre, specifically in comparison to international peers in advanced industrial nations. However, the second system, based principally in poorer urban and rural areas, is an absolute failure; in which an exceeding number of students dropout well before high school graduation. An astounding number of students receive high school diplomas that do not certify academic confidence in basic subjects. An outstanding number of students are unprepared for the world of employment. An incredible number of students are unprepared to matriculate to institutions of higher education or advanced training.

It is not hard to understand then how disadvantaged children may not aspire to complete school or attend University due to the unfamiliarity of the concept and lower family expectations. Economic disparity plays a large role in school outcomes wherein greater affluence can provide families with a wider range of education choices and activities to enhance curriculum understandings. In the scenario it is noted that Dexter’s parents want him to do well in school however they are constrained by economic realities. Poor families have less choice in their lifestyle and education selections which can impact on outcomes. Decreased access to resources such as books, educational materials, high quality early education and learning opportunities diminish their ability to start school on an equal footing with more affluent children. As well the poorest families struggle to find good schooling opportunities and have to accept what is offered to them (Ewing, 2013, p. 84). These factors are not so easily addressed at the school level and will require serious changes at the State and Federal levels to negate the influence of

In the education sector, the achievement gap delineates the observed disparity in school performance among student groups. This gap is manifested in measures such as test scores, grades, college completion and dropout rates, and selection of courses. Within the U.S. context, the achievement gap has often been used to refer to the worrying performance disparities between Latinos and African-Americans on one hand and their non-Hispanic white counterparts on the other. The gap also describes academic differences between students hailing from socioeconomically disadvantaged and those who are better off. Throughout history, Hispanic and African-American students have persistently lagged behind whites in academic matters, triggering heated policy discussions.

Investigating the Attainment Gap An equal and high quality education for all students in the United States is crucial to its economic progression. Access to a proper education leads to the acquirement of jobs and opportunities which overall will support the development of a society. Unfortunately, there is a large disparity between ethnic groups, regarding their ability to equally succeed and obtain the same opportunities as their counterparts. This is otherwise known as the attainment gap, which more specifically, refers to the distinct academic achievement differences between groups of students; often times between minority groups and their White peers. This is

Definitions Achievement gap is defined as the differences among test scores compared to minority students and their non-minority peers. “Differences between the scores of students with different backgrounds (ethnic, racial, gender, disability, and income) are evident on large-scale such as standardized tests”

Everyone knows about the various stereotypes and social stigmas that come with socioeconomic status whether they will choose to admit it or not. Society has come to assume that a child who comes from a family of low socioeconomic status, that they will not do as well as a

REVIEW OF LITERATURE Introduction The achievement gap is a term that has evolved over the past decades to describe

In 1966, James Coleman (as cited by Tomul & Polat, 2013) published his findings on student achievement in a report known as the “Equality of Educational Opportunity” report, which was also known as “The Coleman Report.” Tomul and Polat (2013) stated that Coleman’s report showed that levels of school funding did not have as much of an impact on student achievement as the level of teacher effectiveness or the background of the student and that standardized tests did not measure intelligence, but merely cultural knowledge, which was considered to be a disadvantage for minority students. Factors affecting achievement that occur at the school level such as low expectations, lack of acknowledgment of cultural diversity, larger class size and lack of rigor in courses that are offered in lower SES schools have been shown to have negative outcomes for students from lower socio-economic families (“Identifying Factors,” n.d.). In addition to the problems faced in the schools, students from lower socio-economic backgrounds experience difficulties in neighborhoods as well. Lower income areas do not offer the amenities that higher income neighborhoods do such as libraries, parks, museums, quality child care and jobs with higher prestige factors (“Identifying Factors,” n.d.). This often leaves students from these neighborhoods