Ach Gap Paper

7/31/2019 Ach Gap Paper

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Kellie Lewis

April 30, 2009

Achievement Gap: Causes and Solutions

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) statistics,

an achievement gap exists among students in American public schools (Lee, Grigg, &

Donahue, 2007). There is an academic achievement gap among racial groups. Since

NAEP began testing students in the 1970s, Asian American students and Caucasian

students have scored higher on NAEP achievement tests than African American

students, Hispanic students, and Native American students. Ultimately, the reason for

the achievement gap is the effects of poverty. As of 2006, 17.8% of children in the

United States live in poverty (Children's Defense Fund, 2008).

One prominent effect of poverty is accessibility to healthcare. According to a

study, there is a direct link between low socioeconomic communities and inaccessibility

to healthcare (Anderson, Carneiro,Freeman, Formicola, Nunn, et al., 2008) . The lack

of healthcare among children living in poverty leads to an increased number of

absences from school. Additionally, untreated illnesses lead to permanent impairments.


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Also,poverty may affect childrens cognitive abilities. Research has found a

relationship between a students cognitive abilities and family income. In a recent study,

researchers found that the brains of children from poverty actually function differently

than the brain of children not from poverty (Jacobson, 2009). The part of the brain that

is used for creative, reasoning, and problem-solving processes, the prefrontal cortex, is

less active in children from poverty than those children not from poverty . Cognitive

delays can greatly impact how well a student can learn and their academic

achievement.

Poverty also affects ones social, cultural, and resource capital. According to a

study, parents social capital and resource capital are strong predictors of their childs

early childhood achievement (Mullis, Schlee, & Shriner, 2009).Parents resource

capital is a stronger predictor than social capital. Parents and students of a low

socioeconomic status tend to have lower social, cultural, and resource capital. This

affects a students attitude towards school and self-efficacy in a school setting.

The challenging question that educators face today is,How do we close the

achievement gap? Three types of solutions have been proposed: improve students

living conditions, improve classroom instruction, and provide childhood education for

children of poverty.


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In order to improve living conditions and increase education experiences for

children of poverty, many programs have been created. The federal government has

funded programs to provide food for families of poverty. The current programs that are

in schools are the School Breakfast Program, the National School Lunch Program, and

the School Milk Program (Food and Nutrition Service, 2009). For the summer, students

can receive meals from the Summer Food Service Program (Food and Nutrition

Service, 2009). The program must be locally sponsored, though. Women, Infants, and

Children (WIC) and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program provide nutrition for

families outside of school (Food and Nutrition Service, 2009).

Federally funded after-school programs have also been established to enrich

students educational experiences and provide after-school care. The programs are

called 21st century Community Learning Centers (CCLC). The U.S. government

allotted $4.5 billion for CCLC grant aimed at high-poverty, low-performing schools in

2001. Since 2003, 6,800 rural and urban public schools have been served (Chappell,

2006). When the after program was evaluated at 26 after-school centers, the findings

stated that the program did not result in academic gains for participants in school, but

students did report feeling safer after school (James-Burdumy, Dynarski, & Deke,

2007).


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Locally funded programs have proven successful in low-socioeconomic schools.

For example, Project SEED is a mathematics program that provides additional

mathematical learning experiences for students. The program, starting in 3rd

grade and

concluding in 8th grade, provides students with discovery mathematics lessons. During

the lessons, students are carefully questioned in the Socratic style so they are lead to

discover a mathematical concept (Perry, Steele, & Hilliard, 2003). Research from the

program has proved that each year of instruction in the program results in two years of

academic gains on standardized mathematics tests (Perry, Steele, & Hilliard, 2003).

The improvement of classroom instruction is a proposed solution to close the

achievement gap. Mike Schmoker claims that simple inexpensive changes in classroom

instruction can greatly increase the achievement of low performing students (2009).

These changes include an increase in the amount of purposeful reading and writing in

all subject areas, a decrease in the number of worksheets and videos used as

instructional tools, teacher accountability for teaching all of the curriculum, sound

lessons in all subject areas, and teachers working together in collaborative groups

(Schmoker, 2009).

According to a 1996 study, the most important factor in classroom instruction is

the quality of the teacher (Sauders & Rivers). In the study, the researchers found that

by providing three good teachers in a row to students as they took 3 rd, 4th, and 5th grade


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mathematics, and comparing them with students who had weaker teachers, the

students with stronger teachers showed achievement fifty percentile ranks higher than

those students with weaker teachers (Sauders & Rivers, 1996).

Schools with high rates of poverty and exceptional achievement have been

examined to find which instructional strategies result in high achievement. Schmoker

studied the Brazosport Independent School District in 1999 . In the Brazosport schools

of south Houston, 41% of students were economically disadvantaged in the 1998-1999

school year (Schmoker, 1999). In 1999, 90% or more of every subgroup were achieving

at or above standard in the math reading, and writing portions of the Texas Assessment

of Knowledge and Skills (Schmoker, 1999). Schmoker states that Brazos I.S.D.s

road-map to success was setting measurable and clear goals for students

achievement

,using data regularly to guide instruction and focus in on students areas of

need, and having teachers collaborate regularly to solve shared problems (1999). In

elementary schools in Kansas City School District in the mid 1980s, many classrooms

took part in Project Alternative Rooms (Levine, 1987). In these classrooms, struggling

students received instruction within the classroom rather than instruction in pull-out

programs. Instructional elements of the program included motivation of students, basic

skills emphasis, team teaching, and small group instruction. There was a strong

emphasis on language arts, spelling, listening, and writing. Each classroom was


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double-double staffed. After one year of the program, students showed significant

academic gains (Levine, 1987).

Orstein and Levine have reviewed approximately two decades of school

effectiveness literature and have identified important guidelines for implementation of

school projects to generate more effective schools (1990). The guidelines include

enforcement of discipline, remedial tutoring programs for all subject areas, technical

assistance for teachers, decreased amount of paperwork for teachers, and agreement

among teacher and administrators (Orstein & Levine, 1990). Most importantly, effective

school projects must seek-out and consider using materials, approaches, and methods

that been successful in schools elsewhere (Orstein & Levine, 1990).

In addition, providing early childhood education for children of poverty is a

proposed solution for closing the achievement gap. Some early childhood programs

have had positive short-term and long-term effects on their students . The Abecedarian

Project was a full-day, year-round, and center-based childcare for at risk children from

infancy to kindergarten. Curriculum involved educational games that highlighted

developmental skills in language and cognition. The program highly emphasized

individual development. Participants of the school scored 1.8 years higher in reading

and 1.3 years higher in math as adults when compared to a control group (FPG

Snapshot, 2007). The Chicago Child-Parent Center Program currently supports children


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and families from high-poverty neighborhoods. Children attend half-day preschool for

two years and receive services through first grade. Participants of the Chicago Child-

Parent center have higher graduation rates than non-participants (FPG Snapshot,

2007).

Not all early childhood programs have proven to be successful in the long run,

though.Research in the early 1990s claimed that the Head Start program has no

lasting impact on low-income childrens performance in school (FPG Snapshot, 2007).

Yet, more recent studies have claimed that Head Start has improved students

language and pre-reading outcomes, and access to healthcare. The more recent

studies have proved no lasting effect on mathematics achievement(FPG Snapshot,

2007).

After studying the causes and proposed solutions for the achievement gap,I

have learned that there is no single solution that will close the achievement gap . I

believe the best solution to close the achievement gap is a comprehensive intervention .

Many programs and instructional strategies have been proven effective , but only in

some areas. Therefore, there must be measures taken to improve living conditions,

improve instruction, and provide early childhood education for all children of poverty.

When appropriate action is taken to improve all three of these areas , I believe that the

achievement gap will close.


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Works Cited

Chappell, S. (2006). Children "At Risk": Constructions of Childhood in the 21st Century

Community Learning Centers Federal After-School Program. Arts Education

Policy Review, 9-15.

Children's Defense Fund. (2008, January 25). CDF Examines Progress Made Since Dr.

Kings's Death. The Children's Defense Fund.

Food and Nutrition Service. (2009, April 29). Retrieved April 30, 2009, from United

States Department of Agriculture : http://www.fns.usda.gov/fns/

Jacobson, L. (2009). Scientists Track Poverty's Links to Cognition. Education Week,

28(16), 4-4. Retrieved from

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=36146368&site

=ehost-live&scope=site .

James-Burdumy, S., Dynarski, P., & Deke, J. (2007). When Elementary Schools Stay

Open Late: Results From the National Evaluation of the 21st Century Community

Learning Centers Program. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 29(4),

296-318.

Lee, J., Grigg, W., & Donahue, P. (2007). The Nation's Report Card: Reading 2007.

Washington D.C.: National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education

Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.


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Levine, D. (1987). Achievement Gains in Self-Contained Chapter 1 Classes in Kansas

City. Educational Leadership, 22-23.

Nunn, J., Freeman, R., Anderson, E., Carneiro, L. C., Carneiro, M. S. A., Formicola, A.,

et al. (2008). Inequalities in Access to Education and Healthcare. European

Journal of Dental Education, 12, 30-39.

Orstein, A.C., & Levine, D. (1990). School Effectiveness and Reform: Guidelines for

action. Clearing House. 64(2). 115.

Perry, T., Steele, C., & Hilliard, A. (2003). Young, Gifted, and Black: Promoting High

Achievement Among African American Students. Boston: Beacon Press.

Poverty and Early Childhood Intervention. (2007, April). FPG Snapshot(42), pp. 1-2.

Saunders, W., & Rivers, J. (1996). Cumulative and Residual Effects of Teachers on

Future Students Academic Achievement: Value Added Research and

Assessments. Knoxville: University of Tennessee.

Schlee, B. M., Mullis, A. K., & Shriner, M. (2009). Parents Social and Resource Capital:

Predictors of Academic Achievement During Early Childhood. Children & Youth

Services Review, 31(2), 227-234.

Schmoker, M. (2009). What Money Can't Buy. Phi Delta Kappan. 90(7), 524-527).

Schmoker, M. (1999). The Quiet Revolution in Achievement. Education Week. 19(10),

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