School Achievement Gap Analysis

There was a study completed by two school districts in Illinois. These districts, Waubonsie and Neuqua, for five years they collected data from their students taking standardized tests. Waubonsie reported that on average around 30% of students from the minorities met or exceeded standards in math and reading. On the other hand, around 75% of Caucasian and Asian students met or exceeded the same standards. Similarly, students at Neuqua followed the same trends. With this study and many others completed around the country it now seems that there is a deep-rooted correlation between ethnic groups, intelligence, and success within school districts.

There are many reasons that could explain why this achievement gap exists within our school systems. However, this achievement gap is mainly due to two main challenges that ethnic students have to go through every day at school and outside of school. One challenge is the fact that members of ethnic groups are treated within the schools much more differently than Caucasian or Asian students. The other is that minorities tend to often also live in greater poverty than Caucasian or Asian students.

As stated before minorities tend to live in less privileged areas and this causes the schools to be less privileged as well. According to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 24%
of the families living the United States that are considered to be living in poverty are Latino, while 26% of the families living in poverty are African American. These numbers are over twice the amount of Caucasian and Asian families at 10% living in poverty. This being said, students belonging to ethnic groups will tend to fill up

schools that are also impoverished more than Caucasian or Asian students. Since the schools don’t have adequate funds they may not hire teachers that are up to state standards. Instead, they hire teachers that may not be as experienced or even certified to teach at all.

There are some opposing views to the argument of causes of the achievement gap. Some would say that the outside factors out of the students control such as poverty or other individuals predisposition beliefs about their ethnic background are not the cause. Instead they would argue the fact that these children just happen to have less enthusiasm about learning math, science, and language arts opposed to Caucasian and Asian students who do. They would argue that students belonging to a minority are more interested in becoming a singer or athlete or other occupation that doesn’t involve traditional schooling.

These claims are valid in some sense, however, they are not the main cause of this epidemic we call the achievement gap. Of course, some children from a minority background would have this issue of not being enthusiastic or aspiring to achieve a career that doesn’t involve traditional schooling such as singing or being an athlete. However, these aspirations are not singularly a trait of students that are part of the minority group. Instead, these aspirations are shared by a multitude of students that cross into all different demographics of students in our high schools. This being said, this argument that students part of a minority group have less enthusiasm for schooling can’t be the only reason because lack of enthusiasm crosses over to every demographic.

Instead, we have to hold our schools more accountable for treating children of minorities differently. There has been study after study shown that school counselors and teachers tend to place children of minorities in less rigorous courses. Parents wouldn’t want their children being neglected by teachers and counselors so why would they let this happen to other students in our schools. These

issues between minorities and staff at the school have be proven time and time again by testimonies and studies done all throughout the country.

In conclusion, it is important to recognize this achievement gap if there is ever going to be something done about it.
If these three things are recognized a step will be taken in the right direction to fix this epidemic called the achievement gap: (1) Students belonging to ethnic groups already are set back due to predisposition beliefs that do not necessarily apply to them; (2) there are schools out there that are not up to par and; (3) the fact that African American and Latino students do not as a whole have less enthusiasm than any other demographic. These are not difficult ideas to change and will tremendously help the future ethnic students
succeed.