Achievement Gap - Full Statement

STATEMENT OF SANFORD CLOUD, JR.
PRESIDENT AND CEO
THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR COMMUNITY AND JUSTICE

Education is the cornerstone to the success of each individual in our society. From the time a child is born, the education process begins in our homes. This is formalized through schooling and the results are quantified through grades, test scores, and eventually a job or career. Eventually, the degree to which one performs in school often sets one's life path: where one lives, works, plays, and raises one's own children. Having access to quality education should therefore be a fundamental right for all residents of this country.

The United States still does not have an education system that provides equal access to quality education for all of its residents. This fact was confirmed by U.S. Secretary of Education Roderick Paige in 2001 when he stated that "our children have access to schools, but too many of those schools are not providing a quality education to our children." The federal government knows the academic arena is unequal, and yet they continue to institute policies which proliferate disparities versus a plan to expose and stop the essence of the problem: bias, bigotry and racism.

In 1954, the Supreme Court denied the legal basis for segregation in Kansas and 20 other states with segregated school classes, and affirmed the importance of equality in education for all. Although children were bussed to stop the schooling of children of color in separate educational facilities, the distinct divisions of educational attainment among them remain. The result is a gap in grades and test scores. Such school performance disparity between white people and many students of color is commonly referred to as the 'achievement gap.'

There has been a tremendous amount of research on the achievement gap from its manifestation to the current trends and recommended solutions. Experts claim that a number of factors contribute to this phenomenon including, but not limited to, the following: race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, the digital divide, quality of teachers, intensity of curriculum, standardized tests, parenting practices, peer pressure, television, and parent education level. The data on these issues is concrete and the explanation of the achievement gap does not have one explanation; rather, it is due to a combination of factors.

However, according to numerous reports, race and ethnicity, to a large extent, predict a student's success in school, whether s/he goes to college or not, and how much money s/he will earn as an adult.
According to Patrik Jonsson of the Christian Science Monitor, white children, regardless of class, are more likely to score higher on standardized tests, drop out of school at lower rates, and go to college. Moreover, disparities in academic achievement between racial and ethnic groups appear early. By kindergarten, students of color already lag behind their white counterparts in reading and math. The gaps widen in elementary school and remain fixed throughout high school.
According to Ms. Kati Haycock, Director of The Education Trust, such gaps have widened in the past 15 years:

• By the end of high school, African-American and Latino/a students have skills in both reading and mathematics that are equivalent to that of white eighth graders.
• In the 18-24 year-old group, approximately 90% of whites and 94% of Asians have either completed high school or earned an equivalent degree - the rate drops to 81% for African-Americans and 63% for Latinos.
• African-Americans are only half as likely as white students to earn a bachelor's degree by age 29, and Latino/as are one-third as likely as whites to earn a college degree.

Based on these statistics, the future of our public education system is at a crossroads. While President Bush has made education his domestic priority, and his education reform bill was passed by the federal government, only time will tell if the four pillars of his plan --- accountability and testing, flexibility and local control, funding for what works, and expanded parental options --- will change this wide divide.
As a human relations organization dedicated to fighting bias, bigotry and racism by promoting understanding and respect among all races, religions and cultures, The National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ) asserts that focusing on the following issues is what every leader across the country must do to create institutional change in order to transform communities to provide educational opportunities that are more inclusive and just:

1. Re-segregation trends:

The resurgence of re-segregation in America's public schools is tremendous. Due to the growing diversity of our nation, the implications of such trends are serious. Will our children be ready to interact and value diversity when they enter higher education institutions or the workforce? What kind of conflict/tension can be avoided by promoting activities and policies that offer children opportunities to engage in meaningful interaction with children of diverse backgrounds? Such questions can be addressed through weaving dialogues on diversity, character education classes and cultural competence sessions into academic programming.

2. Diversity, character education and cultural competence sessions:

It is imperative that all students, teachers and administrators become more informed about people of different backgrounds to expand their understanding of other communities. More opportunities should be provided on campuses for students, teachers and administrators to learn about others and to share their views and questions regarding critical human relations issues. Such conversations are crucial because everyone, including students and teachers, carries stereotypes with them into the classroom.

3. Recruitment and retainment of diverse, quality teachers:

There is a wide and growing void in teaching staff in our nation's schools. According to the National Urban League (NUL), nearly 2.2 million public school teachers will be needed over the next 10 years in mostly high poverty, urban and rural communities. NUL also reported the following:

• 42% of America's schools do not have teachers of color, and only 10% of principals are people of color
• In schools having 90-100% children of color, only 54% of the teachers are certified within their field
• 13% of all public school teachers are of color compared to 36% of their students

Such scarcity of teachers and administrators of color compounded by the alarming rate of those not teaching in their certified fields leads to a lack of role models for all children. We therefore need to reinvigorate the importance of this profession and more poignantly recognize their contributions to the wholeness of our society.

4. The Digital Divide:

The introduction of technology, especially the Internet, to our society has forever changed the economic playing field. All educational institutions must provide children with the opportunity to learn, operate and question this scientific phenomenon. Such instruction is essential. Without it, a permanent underclass of technologically challenged people will be created. The way in which the digital divide is handled will either make or break future generations because of the profound effect and implications it will have on the achievement gap and society as a whole.
Addressing these issues and others requires a combination of strategies and the mobilization of resources. The answer does not lie with one leadership body, but with all of us. Although no one knows the definitive answer to closing the achievement gap, we all know it is ever present and are therefore responsible for bridging it.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has led this effort by creating a very thoughtful plan that presents relevant research and recommended achievable goals. Call for Action in Education, which can be found at www.naacp.org, is a sound strategy that calls upon federal, state and local education agencies to design a plan outlining steps to close racial disparities in identified areas by 2007. The document addresses a broad range of issues in elementary and secondary education as well as higher education. Three of the most compelling issues include increasing access to college curriculum, standardized testing, and special education.

According to Ms. Debra Viadero of Education Week, new federal research shows that the biggest factor determining whether a student earns a bachelor's degree is based on a strong academic curriculum in high school. More rigorous curriculums are needed in each grade level in order to increase achievement levels. Ample evidence shows that almost all students can achieve at high levels if they are taught at high levels. However, in schools with a large concentration of students of color, little is expected through assignments and the level of them is low. Many studies report that fewer African-Americans and Latino/as are even taking challenging academic courses versus their white counterparts. Standardized test scores are consequently impacted.

There has been a longstanding concern over standardized tests. Some claim that these tests discriminate against children of color and the poor because they are culturally and racially biased. While it is difficult to imagine that the administrators of these exams would consciously craft biased tests, Mr. Harold Berlak, a Senior Research Fellow at the Applied Research Center, claims that significant school reform is not possible without an overhaul of the current national and state educational assessments. He further asserts that standardized tests are a form of institutionalized racism because they "lend the cloak of science to policies that have denied, and are continuing to deny, persons of color equal access to educational and job opportunities."

The Harvard Civil Rights Project also attributes the achievement gap to the divide based on advance placement classes, tracking, and special education. They found that African-Americans, especially males, are at a greater risk of being labeled 'mentally retarded' and tracked into special education classes.

The breadth and depth of the NAACP's document in addressing these issues and many more are compelling. NCCJ endorses their approach to having federal, state and local education agencies develop step-by-step plans featuring action items of how they intend to close racial disparities. The results of this report could be used by school administrators, teachers, parents, faith leaders, and students to ensure that the action plans are implemented. Through such collaboration, we can all ensure that education truly becomes the great equalizer for the growing diversity of people in our nation.

Immigration and the children of the baby boomer generation are increasing the size of the school- aged population across the country which is expected to grow by 15% over next two decades. By 2015, the number of Latino/a students will most likely increase from 10% to 21%, and Asians from 3% to 6% (Closing the Education Gap: Benefits and Costs, Richard A. Krop, C. Peter Rydell, and Georges Vernez, 1999). Such increases are raising the mark for academic standards across the nation making a college education a necessity for competing in today's labor market.

Unless further gains are made in the educational attainment of people of color, the number of college graduates entering the workforce will decrease and dramatically impact the amount of talent and economic contributions to the United States. We are seeing a steady decline in people of colors' belief in our education system and this must be remedied. According to a Gallup poll conducted in 2001, eight in 10 whites, but only half of African-Americans, view the educational opportunities for African-American and white children as equal. African-Americans have gradually become more pessimistic about equal education opportunities than they had been in the early and mid-1990s.
Such sentiment is discouraging, and we must rally together to change the legacy of an unequal education system by reinvigorating our collective belief in the cornerstone of our country. Failure to do so could mean a failure on the part of our society to create institutional change in the most fundamental sector of our society.

©2002 NCCJ, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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