The Importance Of The Achievement Gap In Education

No matter what, the leader of the building has to always find ways to improve student achievement. It is my responsibility to close the achievement gap because closing this gap is imperative to making the school a place the entire community can be proud of. The growth of all students is the mark of a successful educational leader.

Currently, general education classrooms have increasingly become diverse with both disable students and students from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. In order for educators to ensure that they effectively teach these classrooms, meet the needs of each student both successfully and individually, effective research that is based on strategies need to be implemented. The U.S. Department of Education suggest that, the current school-age population is becoming more diverse as time passes, yet, majority of the teachers in these schools are white non-Hispanic women. According to another report by The Condition of Education in 2006, American schools are portraying increased diversity and growth. The report suggested that, forty two percent of students in public schools were ethnic or racial minorities in the year 2003; this increased from twenty two percent since 1972. Owing to these reasons, teachers in these schools are expected to educate a diversified class of students including those that come from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Teachers are therefore, required to implement a number of key strategies that will ensure that every student in specific classroom feels that he or she belongs there (Worrell, 2010).

Research has been conducted and the study showed that, "Latino students perceived that teachers' actions escalated disciplinary problems and believed that administrators used unfair and discriminatory practices"(90). Educators will never be able to teach students if the students perceive them as being racist. The degree to which education for cultural diversity is realized depends on the teacher's attitudes, knowledge, and behavior. They make the mistake of mismatching their own life experiences and professional training. Le Roux realizes that an increasing diverse school population encounters a mostly middle-class teaching force that is inadequately prepared to manage the reality of diversity in schools, and that is due to lack of knowledge of diversity (46). He also states that some teachers make the mistake of generalizing about particular ethnic groups and cultural groups, as a result of being exposed during training to information about culture; that is very dangerous in itself. Educators also focus mostly on general characteristics of a group instead in a single individual, and this is wrong because each individual is unique and should not be generalized by culture (Le Roux 46).

In American education, there is overwhelming evidence that there is an achievement gap between groups of students. In other words, there are measurable differences in the educations and test scores of different groups of students. Some gaps exist between groups or differing gender or socioeconomic status, but the largest gaps exist between groups of different races. America has always been a country with an influx of different cultures through immigration. In schools, these cultures still remain separated. The most noticeable separation is probably that of White and African American students. Although the achievement gap between White and Black students is easily seen there are other clear gaps in the education of Latino and Asian American

“The socioeconomic achievement gap in education refers to the inequality in academic achievement between groups of students. The achievement gap shows up in grades, standardized test scores, course selection, dropout rates, and college-completion rates, among other success measures” (Ansell, 2017). Typically, when discussing the achievement gap, educators are comparing the academic progress of African-American students or Hispanic students to the progress of white students. More-often-than-not the white students will have more educational achievements than their non-white colleagues (Ansell, 2017). The most widely accepted theory as to why students with higher socioeconomic status (SES) do better academically is high parental involvement, access to economic resources and access to highly qualified teachers (Huang, 2015. Pg.6). Students of low socioeconomic status often live in poverty. This means that the student may not have sufficient school supplies or even someone at home to help him with his homework. There are numerous children in the United States’ school systems that are failing due to the achievement gap. These students are at a disadvantage because the school systems and teachers do not notice or even care about their home life and how it comes into play in their education. It is important for our nation to not only understand the achievement gap but take steps toward correcting it.

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 racial achievement gap is a highly talked about issue within education in the United States. It refers to the differences in standardized test scores between black students and white students. Even though this issue is still prevalent today, it has improved greatly from the past. Ever since Brown v. Board of Education, where the supreme court ruled that it was unconstitutional for schools to be racially segregated, the racial achievement gap has become smaller. However, it still exists which has led many people to wonder why and design experiments to figure out what could be causing it. The racial achievement gap is a big issue because it shows that black students are falling behind in school which can lead to them not going to college or dropping out. It is also an issue because all students deserve to have an equal education and they should all have a chance to succeed in life. In order to fulfill equal education for everyone, the reasons for the achievement gap need to be found and fixed. Some people have already investigated independent variables that could impact the achievement gap such as personal faith, self-affirmation, and students schoolmates. However, not many experiments have been done to test the impact of unequal spending per pupil on the racial achievement gap. In this paper, an experiment will be designed to investigate the possible effects it has on the gap with a hypothesis that the unequal spending increases the achievement gap.

A widespread issue for Americans, the achievement gap is a significant inequality that young minorities face. Directly correlated with the societal injustices of poverty and racism, often resulting in limited opportunities and socioeconomic stagnation, the achievement gap encompasses the disparity in education performance of students by race and income. As the basic values of a democratic government include justice and liberty, it is imperative that a democracy and democratic citizens provide equal opportunity for all, especially in the realm of education.

The achievement gap that exists in my school is a socioeconomic one (J. Perkins, personal communication, October 24, 2016). Data for Woodville High School shows an achievement gap for low-income students (J. Perkins, personal communication, October 24, 2016). Additionally, this achievement gap is wider for low-income, first-generation students. ACT Aspire Reading data shows that only 25% of students at the poverty level met or exceeded the content standards. ACT Aspire Math data shows that only 21% of students at the poverty level met or exceeded content standards. The total minority population of the school is 6%, and the largest minority group is Native American (Cherokee). Based on the available data, the target population to combat the achievement gap is the high poverty students. 64% of the school’s total student population is considered economically disadvantaged (Woodville High School). These students qualify for free or reduced lunch. The latest data show that there is a 20.4% gap between economically disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students in math and reading (Woodville High School).

The achievement gap is unfortunately a commonality in America citizens’ language. The achievement gap has affected students for many years. Research has demonstrated the controversies that exist on the causes of the gap, but still we are talking about it in the 21st century. Researchers and public policy officials are examining the dimensions of the achievement gap in America’s school. Unfortunately, the lack of addressing the “real problem” will continue to impose heavy and often tragic consequences of colored students more specifically lower earnings, poverty, and higher rates of incarceration.

The widening achievement gap contributed to inequality of wealth in the classroom is a topic that educators tackle on a daily basis. In his article The Widening Income Achievement Gap, Sean Reardon discusses how, historically, lower income students have not performed at the level of higher income students (Reardon, 2015). What causes this disparity in academic achievement? Is it simply access to money that gives students from higher income families a leg up when it comes to school or are there deeper, farther reaching contributing factors?

The achievement gap in America is at an alarming rate among minority students such as African American, Native American, and Hispanic students. Among their academics, the biggest struggles are in the subject areas of math and reading compared to other nationalities such as Caucasian and Asian peers. This review will focus on whether this bridge of neglect could be identified, researched, implemented, and then corrected before these students reach the middle and/or high school levels. In addition, it will touch on the different matters that contribute to the minority student’s overall being from their home life to school. There are several factors that contribute to this “gap” in learning among minority students. There were four main factors that were identified as key concepts that were explored and organized during this literature review.

The achievement gap is difficult for children just entering school because the bar has already been set to where some of those children are going to land. At the age of three, children of people with careers have vocabularies that are nearly 1.5 times greater than those of working class children, and nearly double the children whose families are on welfare.” This statistic shows that even children at the age of three experience the achievement gap because of their own home life. It is imperative to reduce or eliminate the Achievement Gap in the U.S. To do this we must identify the problem, balance and control the funding, increase our teachers’ abilities and explain the benefits of closing the gap permanently.

The second scholarly article, Critical Race Theory and Whiteness of Teacher Education is written by Christine E. Sleeter. This article is about how teacher education can be changed by addressing the Whiteness within it and how the targeted audience can be challenged.

The Back White Achievement Gap: When the Progress Stopped focuses on the educational gap such as school achievement, contextual factors and educational attainment between Black and White during the early 20s and present time. Also gives theories that may be causing this educational gap to become a problem. This paper will first discuss the theory then I will tell why this is the reason.