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. First, Tatum suggests …show more content…
She also used the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) for closing the achievement gap. Paul Barton and Richard Coley of the Educational Testing Service wrote an overview of the black-white achievement gap over the course if the twentieth century and concluded that the period in which that gap narrowed most was the 1970s and 1980s (Ravitch 365). Over the past generation, there was a remarkable decline from the blacks and Hispanic students who score the lowest on National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) testing. When the NAEP did not help with the gap between the blacks and the Hispanic students, teachers turned to a different
In 1965, Lyndon B Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in an attempt to achieve more equity among minority groups within the education system. Along with the numerous attempts to close the achievement gap came America’s first federally funded state assessments, created with the intention of holding the nation’s schools accountable for providing a quality education for every student. This legislation was revisited in 2001 by the Bush administration with the No Child Left Behind Act, which saw the achievement gap that still existed among ethnic minority groups, but also recognised a prominent gap within poverty- stricken communities. With this came state tests that were more difficult and more frequent in an attempt to further
“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.
Diane Ravitch advocates to “fix” schools and to coordinate with local to conclude the achievement gap between White American, African American and Hispanic American in The Fact About the Achievement Gap. First, to fix schools is a significant essential for decline achievement gap between different races. Although the reformer sustain that African American and Hispanic American should attend privately managed charter school or private or religion school instead of public school since reformers think that African American and Hispanic student do not have progress in the past decade, reformers ignore the increasing percentage of NAEP test, which test the students with the basic skills they need; however, instead of liberating from public schools,
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,
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 in America has separated and divided America's youth into more or less, two different cultures of socioeconomic placement. The first being the predominantly Caucasian students at American elementary schools, high schools, and colleges that excel greatly in their education. Most of the time earning them middle to upper class jobs in the economy, the aforementioned group contrasts significantly with its opposite culture of American youth. The second culture, the population that is mostly made up of the minority races, takes it's place in the American education system as the population of students who are less interested in getting a decent education and taking
Data form the National Association of Academic Progress (NAEP) reveal information on the achievement gap. To close the achievement gap, schools must restructure to support student achievement. Per Williams (2002) this restructuring must include appropriate data to address critical areas. This restructuring must
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.
Education is always indispensable, and every development comes from education. For example, the progression of manufacturing or devising the robot, phone and computer all establish in education. Without education, people could not have an advantageous life. In other words, the developments, convenient substances and achievements are from education. However, the society has been converting into complicated, and some inequalities and issues from education relate to income and the situation of families and communities which will beget achievement gap. For instance, The Facts about the Achievement Gap written by Diane Ravitch, mentions: “The children at the wrong end of the gap are likelier to attend schools in overcrowded classrooms with inadequate
In chapter 8 “Educational Inequality”, it is discussed that before the Brown v. Board of Education decision, people of color were systematically prevented from attending white schools under a doctrine called “separate but equal” (Golash-Boza, 2014). Since this 1954 decision, there has been progress to form equality in the schools. For example, there are no longer any all-white universities and colleges are working harder to encourage a diverse college campus, but there is still set-backs from being completely equal. The book “Race & Racisms” states that there is the achievement gap in America’s school systems. The achievement gap is the disparate educational outcomes of whites, Asians, blacks, Latinos, and Native Americans (Golash-Boza, 2014). According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in 2010 there was recorded that 29.3% of white people with their bachelor’s degree or higher and only 17.7% of black people with this achievement. Also stated in the surveys was that the average GPA of a white person was 3.09 and the average GPA of a black person was 2.69. There are multiple explanations on where the racism or inequality occurs in society that causes such a difference between the outcomes of black people versus white people, however it comes down to the same conclusion; there is inequality in the school
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?
It’s expected for students to fall back academically during summer break. This is typically the norm for students have three months off. What about the time students spend in the classroom? Every year there are students who fall behind academically during the school year. Sub-cultured students are the ones at high risk. The achievement gap is identified as the disparity in academic growth between groups of students (Achievement Gap, 2011). For this in-depth look into the achievement gap, Monson’s identified as the rural district, Brockton as urban, and Norwood as suburban. Monson is a rural town located in Hampden County. The 2010 census reported Monson’s total population of 8,560. On June 1, 2011, downtown Monson was hit with a tornado. The
The achievement gap can be caused by multiple things. Teach for America mentions many different ways that the achievement gap can be caused; socioeconomic correlation, race correlation, inequitable school funding, weight of poverty and many more. While Webb, Metha, and Jordan primarily focus on socioeconomic saying that NAEP testing can show that the achievement gap is related to parental education and the student’s eligibility for free or reduced lunches. The went on to say that NAEP scores are lower for students who are eligible for free or reduced lunched than those who don’t qualify. We can’t blame one specific perspective on the achievement gap.
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.
There is a persistent achievement gap that has continually taken place within the educational system that needs to be secured. The National Center For Educational Statistics indicates, “gaps appear when one group of students out performs another group and there is a statistical difference in scores” (NEA, 2014). There is statistical evidence exhibiting gaps in performance between white students and their black and Hispanic counterparts in math and reading. Efforts to reach equivalence should start at home during early childhood and continue throughout the high school years (NCES, 2011).