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Five Years, Little Improvement in Factors Contributing to Achievement Gap

by Michelle J. Nealy , May 1, 2009

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WASHINGTON, D.C.

 

An Educational Testing Service study in 2003 found that students of color, as compared to White students, were less likely to be engaged in rigorous academic course work, taught by certified teachers and live in two-parent homes, while they were more likely to be placed in crowded classes and attend school hungry. What’s changed in five years? Very “little.”

 

In a new report “Parsing the Achievement Gap II,” ETS revisited its findings and found that most gaps in both academic and life experiences between minority and White students persist.

 

ETS uses 16 factors, including birth weight, lead poisoning, parental involvement and teacher quality, to assess whether White and minority students are reaching parity in their experience with each factor.

 

Not surprisingly, the report concluded that while a few of the gaps in issues related to achievement have narrowed and a few have widened, overall, the gaps identified in the previous studies remain unaltered.

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Comments posted here may be reprinted in Diverse: Issues In Higher Education magazine, and may be edited for purposes of clarity and/or space.



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