IB_Connecticut_Achievement_Gap.pdf

The “achievement gap”—the persistent and significant disparity between the academic achievement of low-income and minority children and their white, middle-class peers—is the most pressing education issue facing the United States today and arguably the biggest social and economic problem of any kind facing Connecticut.

The achievement gap shows up on nearly every measure of academic achievement, such as state and local tests, the SAT, graduation rates, and rates of college matriculation, but is most clearly seen in the results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP. Mandated by Congress and overseen by the U.S. Department of Education, NAEP was created in 1969 and is commonly referred to as the “Nation’s Report Card.” Administered every two years to fourth, eighth, and twelfth graders in math and reading, and at six-year intervals in other subjects, NAEP provides a common yardstick that allows for side-by-side comparisons of the academic achievement of students from different racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups, and between students from different states.1

Though the achievement gap has narrowed slightly over the past decade,2 the 2005 NAEP results reveal that this disparity continues to be a distressing reality of American education. For example, on the 2005 fourth grade math test, while 47 percent of white students scored at or above the “proficient” level, just 13 percent of African Americans did the same, a 34-point gap. Compared on the basis of “grade level” skills and knowledge, the NAEP tests reveal that, on average, fourth grade African American students in the United States are 2.6 years behind white students in math and 2.9 years behind in reading. Similar gaps were found for Latinos as compared to whites, and poorer students as compared to non-poor students.3 In most categories, these gaps between groups widen the longer students are in school.4