Defining “the Achievement Gap”

Communicating a Common Understanding

How do you define “achievement gap”?

Achievement gap in the United StatesFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An achievement gap refers to the observed disparity on a number of educational measures between the performance of groups of students, especially groups defined by gender, race/ethnicity, ability, and socioeconomic status. The achievement gap can be observed on a variety of measures, including standardized test scores, grade point average, dropout rates, and college-enrollment and -completion rates. While most of the data presented in this article comes from the United States, similar or different gaps exist for these, and other groups in other nations.

How do you define “achievement gap”?

An Interview with Ronald Ferguson For more than a decade, economist Ronald Ferguson has studied achievement gaps. In 2002, he created the Tripod Project for School Improvement, a professional development initiative that uses student and teacher surveys to measure classroom conditions and student engagement by race and gender. The findings inform strategies to raise achievement and narrow achievement gaps. A senior research associate at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Ferguson is director and faculty co-chair of the Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard University

How do you define “achievement gap”? “There are a lot of different achievement gaps. The achievement gap that I focus the most on is the gap between students of different racial groups whose parents have roughly the same amount of education. It concerns me that black kids whose parents have college degrees on average have much lower test scores than white kids whose parents have college degrees, for example. You can take just about any level of parental education and we have these big gaps.” (Ferguson)

How do you define “achievement gap”?

What is the Achievement Gap? Is it the same thing as the Dropout Crisis?As noted in a state report (see below), there are different ways to define the achievement gap, but the emphasis needs to be on “the disparity in test results between white students and students of color, and between students who receive a free or reduced-price lunch and those who do not.” This definition focuses attention on students of color, especially African American students, and students who live in poor families—defined as eligible for lunch subsidies.

The dropout crisis can also be called the dropout gap, and like the achievement gap it can be defined many ways, but in this state it is useful to focus on students of color and those who receive lunch subsidies. Achievement gaps and graduation rates are tightly links. http://www.plu.edu/~olufsdw/tps/defagdc.htm (Washington State)

How do you define “achievement gap”?

Kentucky Legislature SB168AN ACT relating to reducing the achievement gaps in the public schools. Create a new section of KRS Chapter 158 to define "achievement gap" as the difference in academic performance between male and female students, students with and without disabilities, students with and without English proficiency, students who are on free and reduced lunch and those who are not on free and reduced lunch, and minority and non-minority students on each of the tested areas by grade level of the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System;

Defining the “Achievement Gap” in Anne Arundel County Public Schools

In Anne Arundel County Public Schools, the “Achievement Gap” will be defined and

the data analyzed in two ways:

• Between Student Groups: The academic achievement gap is defined by the performance gap between student groups and the performance standard as indicated by the MSA reading and HSA English and MSA math and HSA algebra scores.

• Between the students groups and the standard: The academic achievement is defined by the performance gap between student groups as indicated by the MSA reading and HSA English and MSA math and HSA algebra scores.

When all students are taught equally, they may not all reach the standard

What is Equity?

Equity is giving students the individual help they need so everyone meets the standard

EquityThe state, action,

or principle of treating people

in accordance with differential needs

(fairness)

EqualityThe quality or

condition of being exactly the same as something else.

How Can the Gap Be Eliminated?

• It is important to note that while both groups have improved over the past five years, the rate of improvement among African American students has been greater over this 5 year period. This acceleration of performance is necessary to close the achievement gaps.

“Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt the people doing it.”

Chinese Proverb