In education, when referring to the difference in performance between groups of students, often the phrase “achievement gap” is used rather than the more appropriate term, opportunity gap. The term ‘achievement gap’ further exemplifies the way society chooses to narrate this issue. This opportunity gap shows up in grades, course selection, standardized-test scores, dropout rate, and college-completion rates, amongst other success measures. A lot of the time the main focus is simply on the gap itself, and the conversation behind the cause of this is missing. They don’t want to talk about poverty or segregation, only about test score gaps. Despite politicians trying to address this issue by enacting policies such as the No Child Left Behind …show more content…
In order to make progress, a much greater emphasis must be placed on our children, who are not yet integrated into our society, and enable them to see that equal opportunity is the right of all American Citizens, ultimately stopping and correcting the interpolation …show more content…
Each member of the community should be conscious of the impact they have on these young kids and realize that they are the future of our country. They are like sponges; they absorb information at speeds that are hard to keep up with. The environment and those they interact with during this crucial time of development are what they will start to adopt within themselves and project into their futures. Where the main focus is on the gaining of knowledge and skills, teaching should be done in a way that allows students to make mistakes, take risks, and support each other when doing things that are unfamiliar to them; a place where knowledge is shared and bounced off one another. An approach by Newman and Holzman’s, influenced by Vygosky’s concept of the zone of proximal development (zpd) creates a place of education through improvisational activities. “According to Newman and Holzman (1993) the creation of zpd is not a took for the development of the individual-it is collective activity and what develops is the collective’s (i.e. dyad, group, class, etc.) ability to create zones of proximal development”(Lobman 1). In schools were teachers are trained in improvisational teaching, there is no line that separates the “more developed” from the “less developed,” which is almost always seen midst diverse schools. Instead of forcing knowledge onto students
The Achievement Gap in America has separated and divided America's youth into more or less, two different cultures of socioeconomic placement. The first being the predominantly Caucasian students at American elementary schools, high schools, and colleges that excel greatly in their education. Most of the time earning them middle to upper class jobs in the economy, the aforementioned group contrasts significantly with its opposite culture of American youth. The second culture, the population that is mostly made up of the minority races, takes it's place in the American education system as the population of students who are less interested in getting a decent education and taking advantage of the resources that are offered, for various underlying reasons. This in turn manufactures less people of this type of culture to be readily available for higher paying jobs, and often times unemployable for a job at all. The Achievement Gap in America is influenced by many cultural, environmental, and socioeconomic factors that separate lower and higher achieving students based on these factors, and leave a high amount of unemployed Americans as a result, if not incarcerated or deceased.
The achievement gap is defined as the disparity between the performance groups of students, especially groups defined by gender, race/ethnicity, ability and socio-economic status. The achievement gap can be observed through a variety of measures including standardized test scores, grade point averages, drop out rates, college enrollment and completion rates. The Black-White achievement gap is a critical issue in modern society’s education system. Although data surrounding the issue clearly indicates that the racial performance gap exists in areas of standardized tests, graduation rates, dropout rates, and enrollment in continuing education, the causative reasons for the gap are ambiguous—therefore presenting a significant challenge in regard to the most effective way to close the gap. The gap appears before children enter kindergarten and it persists into adulthood (Jencks 1998). Since 1970, the gap has decreased about 40 percent, but has steadily grown since. Theories suggest the Black-White achievement gap is created by a multitude of social, cultural, and economic factors as well as educational opportunities and/or learning experiences. Factors such as biased testing, discrimination by teachers, test anxiety among black students, disparities between blacks and whites in income or family structure, and genetic and cultural differences between blacks and whites have all been evaluated as explanations for the Black-White achievement gap (Farkas 2004). The research that follows will elaborate on these factors as they affect the decline in academic performance of black males—particularly the literacy achievement of black males.
In her editorial, Achievement Gap (2011), Susan Ansell claims that the major educational gap between black and white students is due to lack of parental involvement and influence by the community. She supports this claim first, by analyzing that, “One in three black and hispanic children,” live in poverty; second, by analyzing the lack of parental involvement due to, “Being raised in a low-income family;” lastly, by showing the effects of living in low ranking school districts. Her purpose is simply to educate readers that this educational gap is caused by influence from the negative community impacts. Although her work seems contradicting, Ansell is able to establish a connection with readers who are trying to better their communities.
Darling-Hammond, Linda. "Race, Inequality and Educational Accountability: The Irony of 'No Child Left Behind'" Public.asu.edu. Routledge, 10 Oct. 2007. Web. 4 May 2014.
Many people believe that “having an economy that places a greater value on skills and education is a good thing” and that is the thing that is needed to improve people’s lives and futures (Baicker, Lazear). If what our economy is trying to do a good thing they why are so many students still suffering? The main issues are the low-income education that many students have. Many schools are getting money from the government but that is not enough to pay for everything students need. Educational standards have continued to increase throughout the years but that does not help the students who are unable to pay for the better education. These students who cannot pay for the better education are stuck barely getting by with a low education. A low-education can affect many areas of regular schooling. The students who are at low-income schools do not know what type of disadvantage they have compared to other students across the country. These students believe that they are getting the best education, but there are many students who are getting a better education at a school that has the funds to pay for everything their students need. Low-income students are suffering due to the environment they are in at school and they continue to suffer throughout their life due to it. These students will continue to suffer unless something is done about the low-income schools and improve them for the future. Improvement has to come from all areas, not just one aspect of schooling but from all aspects. Although education has improved along with technology many low-income students still suffer from the vast inequalities. These inequalities will take many years to find a way to fix and even more years to actually fix, until this happens the students will...
This is followed by the P-16 education policy movement which seeks an aligned curriculum of learning across all levels of from preschool to post-secondary education. Obama also argued “that the shrinking proportion of American with college education and the growing high school and college drop-outs are a prescription for economic decline (Carey 445). Viewing economics from a national stand point one will have to understand the severity of an Americans civil duty. Understanding the achievement gap on racial groups and among socioeconomic lines refers to African Americans, Hispanics, and certain Asian groups. The gap has shifted to the conclusion of racial groups being a factor over the last five years from going from limited economic stability to achieve a smaller achievement gap. Although there has been many reforms over the past year one factor that is evident is the racial groups (Toreff
My social justice issue is lack of funding for inner-city charity/private schools and the achievement gap in education. This issue was made very clear to me when I did my Anawim project at St. Anthony Year Around School, an organization that provides income household children in impoverished neighborhoods with the opportunity to attain a higher level learning through year around schooling accompanied with summer, spring, and winter academic programs. Additionally, I’ve personally seen my prior classmates, who have attended high poverty and low-performing schools, struggle through their entire high school experience to achieve passing grades. This is a direct result of lack of funding to properly educate my classmates, many have/will suffer
What role do you believe a counselor should take in closing the achievement gap? Is this an issue strictly for teachers and administrators? What specific strategies could a counselor use to be a part of closing the achievement gap? Use information from the required reading (as well as other research you can find), but also try to be creative and think of a strategy in addition to the ones you have read. Locate, read, and cite at least three journal articles in your response to these assignments.
The means of justifying these inequalities are important for the entire world. Education played and will always play a big role in everyone’s lives. Equality in education will eventually guarantee every person a better position in society. Educational inequality is the difference in learning effectiveness and results as faced by students with varying backgrounds. The effects of educational inequality are not only left within the circles of education, but also remain further to have an impact on other life aspects. All over the world, there have been unending calls to reform education at each level. With various causes that are very much connected to society, history and culture, the educational inequality has apparently been one of the most difficult challenges to address. Regardless of the challenges faced in removing educational inequality, education has continued to be a very important part of society with a big expectation of moving it forward. In the current-day America, very many disadvantaged children have continued to grow up missing key skills. Discrimination has continued to persevere in educational achievement between racial issues. Above all, low performance levels among these disadvantaged children have over the years been responsible for the long-term issues, especially in such an society with higher levels of skills and a failing incomes offered to those people that are less-skilled.
The enactment of standardizes testing given to students to measure their academic abilities and supposedly will close achievement gap only prove that the battle to the end achievement gap between racial groups is a failure. Buchanon elucidate statistics of the results from the national test under the “No Child Left Behind” program to infer that there is a huge gap between white students and black students (par. 19). On the same note, New Yorks state test scores reveals a large imbalance in academics between different racial groups (par. 16)
America’s unyielding academic achievement gap has been a national priority for a long time. Although closing this gap remains a national priority, Wolk (2011) noted that after “30 years of unprecedented effort and enormous expenditure,” student performance has not improved; a third of the graduates are still not prepared for work (p. #). For institutions to close the achievement gap, curriculum experts need to reconsider their educational practices, especially the content of what is being taught. America’s academic achievement gap is not solely the lack of college curriculum; it also includes students not having the soft skills and experiences necessary to succeed beyond the classroom (Strong American Schools, 2008). Thus more and more institutions of higher learning are adding a soft skills component to their already existing curriculum. According to Christopher (2012) “until recently, there has been little attention and importance placed on soft skills” (p. 52). In fact, it is difficult to quantify soft skills. But more and more colleges, universities and employers are realizing that while an individual’s hard (technical, academic, and scientific) skills will move them ahead quickly, it is their lack of soft skills that can derail their advancement. In the 21st century's global economy, the new challenges of job security and employability are evident. For students, the realization of merely possessing technical knowledge is no longer a guarantee for a successful career or future.
Public education has been separated into two structures—one for the neglected and another for the well-to-do (Forman, 2012). In essence, our educational system is still segregated.
The United States school system has been struggling for years in the aspect of the child achievement gap. According to the NEA, achievement gaps are the all new reality in the present educational system. The National Education Association is the largest labor union in the United States determined to advance the cause of public education. Throughout the years, differences in education achievements between different groups of students have been hard to ignore. Those who fall under the categories of English language deficiency, poverty, racial and ethnic backgrounds and disabilities fall far behind than the rest of the students, and despite all that has been done in hopes of closing the gap, there has not been much of a change. Poverty in itself
AccordinAmerica currently has roughly 317 million people currently living within the countries boarders. Out of the 317 million approximately there are about 85 million people that are at the age to enroll into an education program. Out of that 85 million only 60 are taking advantage of that. Which in total population does not seem much but it actually a serious problem. That may not seem that much with regards to total population but in economic terms the class of 2010 dropouts could have produced roughly an extra 337 billion dollars throughout their lifetime. This issue has not popped up out of nowhere it has been a constant issue that has reared its ugly head for years.
In the United States, many lack the skills necessary for college. Unfortunately, the education system fails to prepare some of its students for work or higher learning. Despite these circumstances, teachers and bureaucrats seek improvements to obtain higher success. In spite of the pressure for success, the current situation is not yielding the desired results. Moreover, in the recent State of the Union Address in early 2014, President Barack Obama stated the need for improved education, especially in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM fields. Yet, what should reformers pursue? Researchers have observed recurring problems to direct the improvement of education. The information presented, particularly over the past ten years, has revealed a need to involve the students that lag the most. Education risks excluding k-12 boys and minorities, as well as remedial education collegians, in higher education.