New Report: Are Achievement Gaps Closing and Is Achievement Rising for All?

Posted by on October 19, 2009

Achievement gap narrows but remains large

A new study from the Center on Education Policy examines student performance in all 50 states since 2002 when the No Child Left Behind Act took effect, reports The Christian Science Monitor. The study paid particular attention to the achievement gaps for minority and low-income students, focusing on “trend lines” — for instance, for Latino students in fourth-grade reading, or for low-income students in high school math. In 74 percent of all trend lines, the gaps narrowed, most often because gains by lower-performing groups outpaced those by top-performing groups. Though the results are “good news for the country,” according to Center President Jack Jennings, the news isn’t all positive. In 23 percent of cases, the gap grew (though in some instances, both groups still made gains), and in a few cases, the gap narrowed because the achievement of higher-performing subgroups went down. Still, the gaps are large, in many cases with more than 20 points separating the scores of white and non-low-income students from those of African-American, Latino, and low-income students. In general, the news was more positive for Latino and African-American subgroups and for students at the elementary-school level. Fewer gaps narrowed for low-income and native-American subgroups and for students in high school.

Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1001/p02s10-legn.html

Read the Report and see the State Profiles at: http://www.cep-dc.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=document_ext.showDocumentByID&nodeID=1&DocumentID=292