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Closing the gap in student achievement between Black/Latinos and Whites.
There is an achievement gap between minority and white students in the public school system in the country. This alarming fact has incited both the U.S. government and the private sector to develop meaningful strategies in order to correct this matter. Some of the policies, mostly financed by the federal government, have already been piloted or fully implemented in public and charter schools throughout the nation. This paper aims to analyze that achievement disparity and the policy alternatives that have been offered to public schools in the hope of improving students’ performance. We will also support the policy that will be more likely to facilitate the incremental annihilation of the existing gap between minority and white students in the public school system in the United States.
2.0 Problem Statement:
There is a significant disparity in academic achievement between Blacks/Latinos and Whites in the United States. This inequality is reflected through course selection, grades, enrollment, standardized test results, graduation rates, school abandonment, etc. According to Thernstrom and Thernstrom (2003), by the age of 17, the average Black/African American student is already four years behind the average White student; and the average Latino student is about a year and an half behind the average Black student. Harris (2010) reported that in 1999, only one-third of Black students were basic proficient in math, science and U.S. history compared to two-third of White students. Moreover, the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) reported that in 1980, 35.2% of Hispanic students dropped out of school in comparison to 19.1% Blacks and 11.4% Whites. Twenty years later, NCES data indicated that over 17% of Hispanic Students abandoned High School in contrast to 9.3% of Black students and 5.2% of their White counterparts. Although the statistics referenced above show that student drop out lessened in 2000 (from 1980), the rate of abandonment is still alarming.
The gap in student achievement is inherent to the social and economic status of minority groups in the country; it is a systemic problem. For example, minorities are less likely than Whites to remain employed and achieve economic growth. In fact, the United States Bureau of Labor and Statistics reported last April that the nation’s unemployment rate was estimated at 8.2%, from which, 38.2% of Black/African Americans were jobless in contrast to 22.8% Whites (the employment rates for Hispanics were omitted from the report). Additionally, the NCES (2011) reported that many minority parents are unwilling or unable to provide an adequate educational assistance to their children at home, such as reading to them, telling them stories, helping with their homework or encourage them to participate in extra curriculum activities. Those initiatives (or parental responsibilities) are fundamental to early-aged student’s development. Moreover, the environment in which an adolescent is living can greatly influence his/her academic performance. Many of those who live in populated project buildings (or in poor neighborhoods) are peer-influenced to drop out school, to do drugs, to become delinquent and to develop panoply at-risk behaviors. Those relevant confounded, among others, explain why Blacks/Latinos are underachieving academically when compared to their white counterparts.
The role of government policy: (no child left behind, raise to the top)
The role of government in addressing the problem:
Assessment of progress:
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