The Achievement Gap Is Worse Than You Think
by Robert PondiscioNovember 9th, 2010
The achievement gap is worse than generally known–and poverty alone does not explain the difference, according to a report out today from the Council of Great City Schools. TheNew York Times gets early word on the report, which says only 12 percent of black 4th grade boys are proficient in reading, compared to 38 percent of white boys. The same percent of black eighth-grade boys are proficient in math, compared with 44 percent of white boys. The report is based on NAEP figures.
“Poverty alone does not seem to explain the differences,” the Times reports. “Poor white boys do just as well as African-American boys who do not live in poverty, measured by whether they qualify for subsidized school lunches.”
The report’s authors say the figures should “spark a new sense of urgency.” However, the most provocative comments in the Times piece come from Harvard’s Ronald Ferguson who points to accumulating evidence of “racial differences in what kids experience” before
