Why does achievement gap persist

He said,I believe television is going to be the test of the modern world and that in this new opportunity to see beyond the range of vision, we shall discern either a new and unbearable disturbance of the general peace or a saving radiance in the sky. A recent study led by Christakis established that each hour of television that a child watches on a daily basis between the ages of 1 and 3 years old increases by 10 percent the risk that the child will have attention problems.

Forty-two percent of black 4th graders watch six hours or more of television per day—more than three times the percentage of white 4th graders who watch that much.

We speak of the teacher-pupil ratio, but we also need to think in terms of a parent-pupil ratio. Whether the family includes two parents as resources or just one is bound to make a difference.

Substantial research on parent availability confirms this commonsense idea. The family is the institution that has the job of raising children and socializing them. Public policies and programs can help families when they are struggling, but no acceptable substitute for families has been invented. The trends are not encouraging. During the last quarter of a century or more, the two-parent family has been in decline in the United States and throughout the developed world.

And the relationship of these trends to the achievement gap is clear: Just 38 percent of black children lived with both parents in ; almost one in 10 lived with neither parent. Among Hispanic children, 65 percent lived with two parents, as did 75 percent of white children. Struggling single-parent mothers, and sometimes fathers, need all the help they can get from the community and from the school. The causes of student mobility are complex and are related to social conditions, such as the availability of jobs and affordable housing.

Changing schools within a school year is hard on students—and hard on teachers, who find new students in their classes who have not necessarily been studying what the other students have learned. A recent study in Jefferson County, Kentucky, found that frequent school changers scored lower on school tests. Poor students and students from single-parent homes had the highest school-changing rates Metropolitan Housing Council, The rate of student mobility has not been measured nationally since The data from that survey, published in by the U.

General Accounting Office, showed that 41 percent of frequent school changers were below grade level in reading, as were 33 percent in math; these percentages were higher than those of students who had not changed schools. About 17 percent of all 3rd graders had already attended three or more schools; the rate for minority students was double the rate for white students.

The need for active parent participation —strong interaction between parents and the school—is well recognized. The online Child Trends Data Bank, in summarizing the research, concluded thatstudents with parents who are involved in their school tend to have fewer behavioral problems and better academic performance, and they are more likely to complete secondary school.

Most parents attend scheduled meetings with teachers, but parents of black and Hispanic students and low-income parents are much less likely than parents of white students are to attend a school event, do volunteer work, or serve on a committee. Teachers in high-poverty schools are most likely to say that lack of parent involvement is a problem.

Schools need to set the climate for strong connections with parents, and educators may need to put in extended effort with many low-income and single-parent families. One notable effort is the decision of New York City to have a home-school coordinator in every school—an initiative that comes with a large price tag. The research identifies six school factors that are associated with achievement. The reader may be looking for such factors as the quality of leadership, pedagogy, and professional development.

Although more research in these areas may well establish a relationship, however, I did not find that the existing research establishes a consensus on these factors. The rigor of the curriculum, unsurprisingly, has a clear association with student achievement. It is reassuring that the proportion of students taking more advanced courses in high school has steadily increased during the last couple of decades.

In addition, there have been large increases in students taking advanced placement AP courses. In the latter case, we can be fairly sure that the rigor of AP courses has remained relatively stable. However, it is harder to pin down whether Algebra II today is as rigorous as it was 20 years ago. And educators should be concerned that we are not getting the boost in achievement that we might expect from all this advanced course taking.

Having experienced teachers with at least five years of experience makes a difference in student achievement. Minority and low-income students are more likely to be taught by teachers with three or fewer years of experience and to be in schools with higher teacher turnover.

Students are also exposed to less experienced teaching when substitutes must frequently fill in for absentee teachers. Parent-teacher conferences are a critical component of every school year. This is an opportunity for teachers to share with families the areas of success for…. Read Post. More than Many of those students….

How does the federal government support our public schools? The fact that minority students historically fall far behind their White peers still has an effect on those White peers, especially as everyone grows up and starts to play more prominent roles in our economy, or government, our politics and everything else. So, as a result of this, we keep hearing a lot about achievement gaps in conversations surrounding educational policy.

Basically, these are just hard numbers that we can rely on to explain exactly how significant the inequality is between the achievement of different groups of students. Ashlee is a lifelong learner who is passionate about the power of education. She is truly inspired by the great work that teachers do every day and is committed to making a difference in the lives of all kids.

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