The Achievement Gap free essay sample

This term paper is broken down into three parts. In Part I, I will address the causes of the achievement gap and why it is so difficult to overcome for certain underperforming subgroups. I believe that the underlying factor causing the achievement gap is money. In a direct sense, it is clear that having money is a big advantage for students and not having money creates a host of challenges. The economically disadvantaged achievement gap is created when economic factors cause poor students to begin school behind the curve and then pose obstacles to closing the gap as they get older. There is an achievement gap for ethic groups, as well. Part of this gap can be explained by the fact that historical factors have led to African American and Hispanics being overly represented in the economically disadvantaged category. There are also social and cultural factors that lead to discrepancies in achievement, but tracing these back far enough will show that economic factors played a role in shaping the social and cultural climate. We will write a custom essay sample on The Achievement Gap or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The gap is extremely difficult to close because the current systems do not close the gap, but, instead, perpetuate a cycle of underperformance. In Part II, I will look at some raw testing data from Rancho Milpitas Middle School. This data supports the idea of the achievement gap numerically and provides some specific areas of concern. In Part III, I will describe some methods I would use to try and address the achievement gap in an individual classroom. I will use the data from Part II to focus my specific methods and decisions on Hispanic, specifically ELL, students. ? Part I. Causes of the Achievement Gap One of the major issues in American public education right now is the significant and persistent gap in achievement between certain subgroups and the rest of the population. Two of the major gaps occur for the subgroup of economically disadvantaged students and ethnic students, specifically African American and Hispanic students. The achievement gap is an extremely nuanced and complicated issue that would be impossible to break down completely, but the underlying and overwhelming factor causing the achievement gap is money. Economic disadvantage produces a number of factors that create an achievement gap. Certain ethnic groups have achievement gaps because historical context has led to those groups being economically disadvantaged. Economic disadvantage also influences the social and cultural factors that create achievement gaps for ethnic groups. Money also causes the achievement gap to be extremely difficult to close. The socioeconomic factors that cause the achievement gap all stem from the wide gap in wealth that exists across our country. Being poor does not directly cause students to struggle or make them less capable. A higher income, and the resources it can buy, creates an atmosphere much more conducive to student development and learning. Before school even begins, students who grow up in economically disadvantaged homes are less likely to have access to books and educational materials, and technology. They are less likely to have educated parents to read with them and less likely to have a full-time parent at home. This means most economically disadvantaged children are growing up in a less enriching and stimulating environment during early childhood. Economically disadvantaged students also have less access to health care and proper nutrition which are both important to healthy brain development. These early contributors lead to an observable gap in student test scores before they have even entered kindergarten. Before one day of school has taken place, economically disadvantaged students are starting off behind their peers. As they get older and progress through school, economically disadvantaged students continue to be subject to an unstable environment. There are a number of distractions associated with this environment. Students may be worried about their basic needs, like food, water, shelter, clothing or personal safety. School and education are always going to be sacrificed at the expense of basic human needs and desires. Economically disadvantaged students may also have less time to devote to school. It is possible that poor students have to work or look after younger siblings after school to help out their families. This does not leave a lot of time for school work and studying. Being in the economically challenged subgroup creates a gap in achievement before the start of school and forms an environment that serves to maintain that gap or even widen it. There are also noticeable achievement gaps between different ethnic subgroups, specifically African American and Hispanic students. These ethnic groups are much more likely to be economically disadvantaged, and, as previously discussed, being at an economic disadvantage is directly linked to lower achievement in school. There are obvious historical hurdles that have created economic disadvantages for these groups. Slavery, persecution, and unfavorable laws for both African Americans and Hispanics goes back many years and put these subgroups on the lower tiers of American society. Since their introduction to this country, these subgroups have been disproportionately economically disadvantaged. Today, many of the laws that perpetuated this persecution are now gone. Racism is declining and cultural acceptance is on the rise. There are new laws that legally protect people from being persecuted on the basis of race. Even with all of this progress, the wealth gap still exists for these ethnic groups. Just because the major agents that caused the gap have been eliminated, it does not instantly level the playing field. Because of the high correlation between economic advantage and superior achievement, the richer and higher achieving groups tend to stay richer and high achieving. The historical disadvantage is extremely difficult to overcome. Aside from economics, there must be other factors at play. Even at the same economic level, there are achievement gaps between different ethnic subgroups. There are certain social and cultural factors that lead to the achievement gap for African Americans and Hispanics. Many of the social causes of the achievement gap stem from the way people view and treat African Americans and Hispanics. It would be naive to believe that racism no longer plays a factor in our society today. On the overt side, there still exist people who believe certain races are inferior and will deliberately try to keep these races from succeeding. This mindset is not as common today and does not make the same major impact that it did fifty years ago. It still, however, can lead to decisions that put African Americans and Hispanics at a disadvantage. It could involve something as small as a business owner deciding who to hire or as large as policy makers continuing prejudiced practices. More prevalent is the covert type of racism that leads to stereotypes and low expectations. People’s stereotypes and assumptions about race make a huge impact on the way they treat members of those subgroups. Teachers could have lower expectations for African American and Hispanic students, letting these students off the hook. These assumptions are often self-fulfilling. Making excuses and lower expectations for certain students gives them an excuse to work less and, ultimately, causes them to fall behind. By setting lower expectations, teachers are not helping students feel better, but actually causing students to underperform. When people ignore historical and economic factors, they often blame the achievement gap solely on race. This stereotype that certain races are underperformers seeps into the cultural consciousness. This stereotype can lead to these subgroups being passed up for desirable jobs. Lower paying jobs cause more economic disparity which continues the cycle of the achievement gap. Many of the cultural factors that cause the achievement gap come from within the culture of the underperforming subgroup. Different cultures can place different levels of importance on education and getting a degree. If much of the older generation did not graduate from high school, a culture may focus on graduating high school as the ultimate goal. Meanwhile, mainstream culture is completely focused on kids getting a college degree. There is also an argument that standardized tests can be culturally biased. Students from certain ethnic backgrounds miss out on the cultural references that are required to answer some questions. If the test is biased culturally, the achievement gap can’t close until the culture changes. There is also a common cultural idea that succeeding in school is â€Å"acting white† and looked down upon. This is an extremely difficult cultural hurdle to overcome. The goal of succeeding in school is not embedded in the cultural framework and, instead, is discouraged by it. Even though these are all factors that come from within the culture itself, it is important to remember that these are cultures forged in times of racism, persecution and poverty. It is not surprising that something seemingly unattainable years ago, equal success with white students, is not valued by those cultures. The cycle of poverty has affected the cultural ideals and values. Trying to close the achievement gap is not a new phenomenon. There are countless theories on what policies and practices are best close the gap. There have been numerous large-scale and small-scale attempts to bring up the underperforming subgroups. Even if attempts have had some success, there does not appear to be a plausible and identifiable solution available right now. The only conclusion that can definitively be drawn is that the achievement gap is extremely difficult to close. This difficulty stems in part from the way public schools are organized, the current economic situation in the country, and the fact that even good teaching or policies may raise overall achievement, but not necessarily narrow the gap. A major problem with closing the achievement gap is the way public schools are funded. Much of the funding is based on property taxes in the area. This ensures that economically advantaged areas will have the best schools and that economically disadvantaged areas will have the worst schools. With less money, schools in poor areas have higher student to teacher ratios, older materials, fewer extracurricular activities, worse facilities and less access to services. It also means teachers will be paid less. This discourages the best teachers from going where they are most needed. With this set up, children with rich parents go to best schools, succeed, and make more money in the future. They can now buy houses in affluent areas and continue the cycle. This is an oversimplification, but illustrates the cyclical nature of the system currently in place. Another problem is the overall economic status of the country. We currently have a shrinking middle class. As the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, it is becoming increasingly difficult for families to improve their economic situation. Education is supposed to be an equalizer that gives everyone opportunities, but students are starting on the most uneven playing field in recent history. It’s nice to believe that students can be whatever they want in the future, but socioeconomic mobility is getting harder and harder. Until students can start on a relatively level playing field, the odds will always be stacked against some students. A final challenge to closing the achievement gap is that good teaching practices and good educational policies may be very successful at improving student performance, and, yet, still do nothing to narrow the gap. How is this possible? Good teaching practices to help those on the bottom of the gap will ultimately benefit the students on top, as well. As all students improve, the gap remains, just at a higher level. ? Part II. Middle School Data I collected data for Rancho Milpitas Middle School in the Milpitas School District on the California Department of Education website. Table A: Proficiency for Select Subgroups % Proficient or Above% of Enrollment EnglishMath All Students74%69%93% Not Disadvantaged83%78%54% Disadvantaged61%58%40% Fluent English84%73%77% ELL23%51%17% White86%84%10% Asian84%88%35% African American82%63%3% Filipino72%71%20% Hispanic50%39%21% Not a High School Grad50%50%10% High School Grad63%63%19% Some College76%68%25% College Grad84%78%25% Post Grad91%90%9% Table B. Breakdown of Ethnic Groups and Economics Not DisadvantagedDisadvantaged % Proficient or Above% Proficient or Above EnglishMathEnglishMath White86%92%**** Asian94%89%64%86% African American******** Filipino75%73%67%67% Hispanic56%41%52%38% ** Not big enough to be statistically significant The data in Table A tells a couple stories in relationship to the causes of the achievement gap. For this school, the gap between economically advantaged students and economically disadvantaged students is 22% is English and 20% in Math. This is a significant gap and reinforces the persistent problem of poverty on school performance. There is an incredibly large gap in between fluent students and English language learners (ELL). The gap is 61% in English and 22% in Math. A larger gap would be expected in English versus Math because the subgroup is specifically students who struggle with English. This gap is incredibly large, however, needs to be addressed. For different ethnic subgroups, the data supports the idea of an achievement gap for Hispanic students. There is a 36% gap in English and a 45% gap in Math for Hispanic students versus white students. The gap between African American students and white students is 4% for English and 21% for Math. The 4% in English is not a significant gap and, even though there is a 21% gap in Math, the Math achievement is only 6% less than the school average. In addition, African Americans only make up 3% of the school population. This is not really a significant subgroup for this particular school. This fact could also imply that some of the cultural factors may not be in play without a large African American community. For Filipinos and Asians there even less of an achievement gap. Clearly the most significant ethnic gap at this school is for Hispanic students. The final set of data in Table A serves to demonstrate the cyclical nature of the achievement gap. It is apparent that parents’ education directly correlates with the students’ achievement level. It is easy to imagine the cycle repeating and the next set of children having similar achievement to their parents. The data in table B shows a breakdown between economically advantaged and disadvantaged students by ethnic group. White and African American groups do not have big enough populations to be statistically significant. The relevant data demonstrates a clear drop in achievement between the rich and poor, even within the same ethnicities. It also shows that within the same economic group, there is discrepancy between ethnicities. Table B illustrated the dual causes of the achievement gap, economic factors and sociocultural factors. ? Part III. Strategies to Close the Gap in My Classroom In my opinion, the best approach to the achievement gap is good teaching practices and strategies to close the gap in my own classroom. I believe that individual teachers, starting small scale, will ultimately be the force that drives the vehicle of change. Because of the data collected in Part II, I will aim my strategies at helping Hispanic, specifically ELL, students. Most of these strategies could easily be applied to other subgroups or to any classroom as good teaching practices. An initial hurdle to closing the gap in my own classroom is getting to know my students, both personally and as learners. Getting to know students personally is an important part of teaching any student to create an environment of trust and approachability. I especially want this for ELL students. It is important that they feel comfortable enough to ask me to slow down, repeat things, or say things another way. To help accommodate for language difficulties I will incorporate a glyph project as an introduction. In this activity, students make a name tag with a lot of identifying information, but it is all nonverbal. Students draw pictures, shapes, and use color coding to convey personal information. I like the idea of learning about my students, but taking the writing and language skills out of it. It also serves as a mathematical exercise as students try to logically break down and interpret other people’s name tags. Along with personal information, I want to get to know my students as learners. This will help inform my instruction and give me insight into how to best help certain students. I will employ daily checks for prerequisite skills, prior knowledge and misconceptions into each lesson. This is a good teaching practice regardless, but is vital when dealing with ELL students. I don’t want to assume that I know where they are at and I want to find specific points of understanding that I can build off. When language is limited, it is really important to have a comfortable starting point from which to work. After I get to know my students, I want to make the curriculum accessible to them. I believe the most important part of making curriculum accessible to ELL students is taking the time to list, define, and connect with the academic vocabulary. A simple mistake could be assuming that all students will know or have experience with the necessary academic vocabulary for a lesson. It is quite likely that students, especially ELL students, don’t have this vocabulary or have heard it used in a different way. My strategy to avoid making this assumption is to make a list of all necessary vocabulary for the chapter. As a class, we will define the terms in student-friendly wording. I will also make an effort to connect vocabulary terms to concepts and words that I know my ELL students are already comfortable with. I believe that starting the chapter with a set of important words that they understand, is a great jumping in point for ELL students and reduces the barriers for those students to engage. I also want to make the curriculum relevant and engaging. I will attempt to do this by adding visual or multimedia components to each lesson. I think adding images, photographs, movies, or any other non-written information is a great way to make lessons more relevant and exciting for students. The non-written aspect of these additions will obviously be to the benefit of ELL students. If they are unsure of the context or specifics in the description of a lesson, the visuals can bring them back in. Even loosely associated graphics can get students interested and talking about the lesson. Not everyone gets excited about a physics word problem, but an introduction with video of a rollercoaster can help relate the material to real life and engage all students in the lesson. Part of making a curriculum successful is choosing the proper materials and strategies for students. One skill that ELL students may not have, or be very weak at, is note taking. Note taking is something teachers can take for granted. Students with weak English skills will take a lot longer to take down notes and may lose the ability to follow along with the lesson as a result. To combat this, I will give the students’ full teacher notes that they can just annotate, partial notes where they fill in pieces, or just blank sheets. The level will depend on the students’ individual needs. I will also incorporate a lot of graphic organizers. These are great tools for describing relationships, hierarchies, processes, etc. without using words. ELL students can find these tools invaluable for making sense of the lesson. I think assessing student learning poses the biggest challenge and can be the top cause for student frustration. Some students won’t really feel behind or struggling until the first assignments are graded and returned. If students fail because the assessment is flawed, it will cause them to check out and give up. I think the most important part of assessment is to keep the main goal in mind. My goal is for students to learn the material. How they demonstrate that learning should be secondary. Often, it is the method of assessment that ELL students struggle with, not necessarily the actual content being assessed. My strategy would be to give multiple options for how students can complete assessments. Instead of an essay or written explanation, I can give students the opportunity to make a movie, create a piece of art work, perform a song, make a flow chart, or any other way of demonstrating knowledge. When students can be free to use the assessment means of their choice, I think it gives the teacher a chance to genuinely assess what students know. It also can be a way of making assessments more accessible, engaging, and relevant to students’ lives. I find classroom management to be a difficult part of teaching any class. I think ELL students can be especially challenging for two possible reasons. First, it is possible that ELL students have already checked out of the lesson because they don’t understand what’s going on, or have gotten lost. If the methods above are successful, this should not be an issue. Secondly, language barriers could prevent the ELL students from knowing what is expected. To combat this, I will print out classroom rules with simple language and post them alongside some descriptive images. I want my expectations and rules to be clear to all students, regardless of level of English fluency. Another way to help with classroom management is using partner and group work. Placing an ELL student with students that I know understand the procedures will help make it clear what is expected. This will also help bolster language skills as ELL students interact with their classmates in a casual setting. A final method of improving classroom management is to simply speak slower and use gestures to describe what I mean. I think giving plenty of time to ELL students will allow them to process what I’m saying. Body language cues can clarify in the place of words that are confusing.