Achievement Gap Slow to Close (CA)

January 10, 2011

A new report shows that the achievement gap between white students and African American and Latino students in California will take years to narrow – and that boys are falling further behind girls.

In 2009 there was a gap of 27 percentage points between fourth-grade white students and African American students, and a gap of 22 percentage points between white and Latino students in math.

There also was a 28 percentage point gap between white and African American fourth-graders in reading.

Those statewide results mirror 2010 results for fourth-grade students in most Sacramento metropolitan school districts.

The Natomas Unified School District had a gap of 31 percentage points between the achievement of white and African American students, while Davis Joint Unified had a gap of 34 points.

The gap between fourth-grade white students and Latino students in reading was 29 percentage points statewide. Locally, it was much highe r in several districts.

In Winters Joint Unified School District, Latino students scored 53 percentage points lower than white pupils, while there was a 38 percentage point gap in Davis Joint Unified, 36 in Arcohe Union Elementary, 35 in River Delta Unified and 31 in the Auburn Union school district.

Among Sacramento-area counties, Yolo County schools had the widest achievement gaps overall between its white students and Latino and African American students in reading.

Yolo’s school districts are working diligently and collaboratively to narrow the gap by working with parents, by adding professional development for teachers and through student intervention, said Ronda Adams, associate superintendent for education services for the Yolo County Office of Education.

"Our biggest challenge is the achievement gap in secondary schools," she said. "But our elementary schools are coming along nicely.

A report issued by the Center on Education Policy says that if nothing changes, it will take 35 years to close the reading achievement gap between white and African American students and 29 years for Latino students to catch up.

California’s low-income, Latino, and African American pupils and students with disabilities are narrowing the reading achievement gap, but at less than 1 percent a year, according to the study.

"The country’s demographics are changing rapidly," said Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy, a nonprofit education research organization in Washington, D.C.

"There has been an increase in Hispanic, Asian and African American students," he said . "These are populations that have to do well in the future if the country wants to do well."

Statewide and nationwide, the gap between white and Latino students is closing faster than the gap between white students and other groups.

And, nationwide, Asian students achieve at a higher rate in math and language arts than white students, said Victor Chudowsky, a researcher with the center.

The study points out a new concern: the gender gap. The report says that in 2009, the nation’s girls outperformed boys in reading in nearly every state, including California.

The gap is almost 10 percentage points in some states. For California fourth-graders, it is only 1 percentage point.

Jennings said the gender gap is consistent in every state at every grade level, and that results of international tests show it exists in all industrialized countries.

"Girls are graduating from high schools at a higher rate than boys," Jennings said. "Boys are dropping out at higher rates. Girls are going to college at higher rates and finishing at higher rates. It (the study) is just one piece of evidence that presents a pretty glum picture for boys."

It’s hard to say how well California is doing overall compared with the rest of the nation. The report doesn’t compare states with one another. Each state has different standards and different tests, Jennings explained.

"California has high standards and is holding its kids to high standards, and other states have low standards and have 95 percent achievement rates," he said.

He credits Califor nia teachers and students for continuing to narrow the achievement gap despite funding shortfalls.

But there is more to do.

"It comes down to having to devote a lot of attention to the kids at the bottom," he said. "We need more experienced teachers in those schools and need to find more time for individual attention for those students."

Finding those resources in these tough economic times could be hard to do. But Jennings said it must be done.

"I don’t think we are in a situation where we have a choice," Jennings said. "It’s a matter of justice for these kids."