Closing gaps in achievement is an ongoing priority for all educators and schools. Over many decades, both national attainment data and research findings have consistently shown that, on average, pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds achieve well below their more advantaged peers. Continue reading
Tag: After-School Programs
Considerable research has focused on trying to identify and address essential factors contributing to the persisting United States racial achievement gap. Research demonstrates that these contributing factors exist both within the school and classroom walls, as well as externally in the home environment or during summer months (see here and here ). Many of these factors such as summer learning loss and limited school resources are addressable through policy shifts or better funding distribution. However, several serious contributors are substantially more difficult to recognize and resolve as they are happening in the unconscious, such as teachers implicit racial bias. Continue reading
While racial achievement gaps are in decline, income-based gaps remain the same or widen. Over the past fifteen years national studies show that hispanic-white, and black-white achievements have been in steady decline since 2003. The National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), recorded drops between 13-25% measuring fourth and eight graders over the last 15 years. While the decrease in racial disparities are encouraging, these studies also reveal troubling information about the importance of income as it pertains to achievement.
Observations
After observing the ELA test scores from 2018 between 3rd graders from my (Justin) local public school and the state of Massachusetts, we have come to the conclusion that the local elementary school, overall, is performing better than the state as a whole. Both groups of students that we observed, economically advantaged and economically disadvantaged, that attended the Page School performed better than their counterparts on the state level.