Achievement Gap By David L. Evans Summary

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Why should you pay students to study? One of the reasons is the achievement gap. The achievement gap is the difference in academic performance between specific groups of students. The difference can be shown through test scores, grades, and dropout rates just to name a few. In the article, “Achievement Gap” by Susan Ansell, the National Center for Education Statistics’ special analyses in 2009 and 2011 stated that “black and Hispanic students trailed their white peers by an average of more than 20 test-score points on the NAEP math and reading assessments at 4th and 8th grades, a difference of about two grade levels” (pg.2). People have been offering solutions to close this gap. One of them is David L. Evans. The author of the article, “Paying …show more content…

So, rewards might not work for the students at all. There are other factors. In the documentary, Hard Times at Douglass High: A No Child Left Behind Report Card, students are faced with many problems. Students have to deal with splintered families, unexperienced teachers, and an under-resourced school. In the documentary, a particular student refused to go to class. The 17-year-old 9th grader, Audie, refuses to go to his remedial class. His refusal shows that he lacks an intrinsic reason to be in school. Multiple teachers clarify that he is mostly likely going to drop out if he continues to behave like this. Rewarding Audie is not going to fix his attitude and behavior. He does not want to be school at all. Offering a reward to him is going to decrease his motivation even more because he lacks the desire to do well in school. The lack of resources in Douglass High is also a problem. In the film, the viewer can see how bad the school looks. The school also lacks teachers with years of experience behind them. For example, Mr. McDermott. He is a ninth grade English teacher at Douglass High. It’s only his third year there. He describes seeing blank faces after teaching a topic. Also, the class is very disruptive whenever he talks. Later in the film, he is talking about how only five students’ parents came to parent conferences. Five out of twenty-five. That’s crazy. Towards the end of the semester, he quits. This shows that the student’s low academic performance is not the only problem and rewarding the students will not fix

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