City's minority achievement gap grows
By Randy James, Republican-American, August 12, 2007

WATERBURY — The gap between white and minority test scores shrank in math this year, but grew slightly in other subjects among city students.

The latest Connecticut Mastery Test results show white elementary and middle school students continued to outperform their minority peers in every subject in grades 3 through 8.

The achievement gap was especially wide in reading scores: Hispanic fourth-graders were just half as likely as white students to earn a "proficient" in reading. Hispanics comprise a plurality of students here — 42 percent of the city's 18,200 students.

Similarly, low-income students underperformed their wealthier peers and girls outperformed boys in every subject at every grade.

Waterbury's racial gap often persists even correcting for economic differences — for instance, math scores among low-income white students beat those of wealthier black and Hispanic peers in five out of six grades.

The disparity in test scores along racial and economic lines is a major concern among educators, especially in Connecticut, home to the nation's largest achievement gap, according to federal testing.

"It's remarkable how stable the achievement gap is," said Marc Porter Magee, research director of the education research group ConnCAN, who has studied Waterbury's test data. "The fact it hasn't budged really suggests the status quo isn't working."

Low-income and minority student performance has drawn greater attention, as the federal No Child Left Behind Act requires those groups to meet testing targets.

State Education Commissioner Mark K. McQuillan has voiced frustration at Connecticut's statewide score disparities. "Our focus must be on reading instruction in the early grades if we are to make progress on closing the achievement gap," he said after CMT scores were released last month.

About 8,200 students in grades 3 through 8 took the CMT in March.

Locally, the overall gap between white and minority scores grew slightly in writing and reading. But in math it narrowed in five of six grades.

Assistant Superintendent Paul V. Sequeira said the city doesn't focus on improving the performance of particular groups.

"You've got to lift the whole boat. Otherwise, I don't think it's fair," he said.

Math Supervisor Pamela Barker-Jones said her teachers found success by boosting the skills of all underperforming students, regardless of income or race.

"We made a huge effort to be inclusive," she said. "Obviously it paid off."

To aid that process, students took hour-long math tests every six weeks that helped teachers assess each child's strengths and weaknesses. Instruction was focused accordingly, with some students assigned to other teachers who specialized in addressing their particular weak points.

"That leveled the playing field for all children, and that's why you're seeing the closing of the gap," Barker-Jones said.

In addition to a smaller score disparity, math scores rose overall in five of six grades. Reading and writing scores were essentially unchanged from last year.

Explaining the achievement gap is a matter of great debate. Magee points out that fewer students in poor, heavily minority areas have the resources to attend preschool.

In addition to expanded preschool access, ConnCAN supports increasing the state's authority to close failing schools and expand charter schools and other schools that successfully raise scores.

Magee said the need is urgent. Despite ranking third in the United States in per-pupil spending, most minority scores in Connecticut are below the national average on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a federal test known as "the nation's report card."

"You'd think this would be a crisis that would keep people up in the state Capitol at night," Magee said.