The controversial issue of the achievement gap in the United States educational system has been argued since the problem was first brought to the nation’s attention in the 1960’s during the Civil Rights Movement. It is defined as the observed disparity between the performance of groups of students, especially groups defined by gender, race and ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, on a number of educational measures. This predicament exists all over the country. What is causing this educational crisis, and how can it be solved? Some might answer, “Why solve it? Let the more intelligent kids succeed, and the ‘dumber’ kids fail.” However, this would be incredibly harmful to the economy, and in the end, a negative consequence for everyone. If less people are well educated, there are fewer highly skilled workers capable of competing in today’s hypercompetitive global economy. And, as we all know from first hand experience, having a high percentage of unemployment greatly hinders state, federal, and even the global economy. All Americans must make financial sacrifices in order to fix this predicament for both ethical and economic reasons.
One strongly supported and agreed upon theory as to the cause of disparity is that the socioeconomic status of a particular race largely affects students’ performance. The education attainment among different races is incredibly disproportionate. For this reason, the schools of America must compensate for the disparity. In the state of California, 50% of whites and 58.6% of Asians age 25 to 64 attained an associate degree or higher by 2005, compared to 14.9% of Latinos and 33.7% of African Americans. If this pattern continues, California’s work force will only become weaker. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, by 2025, only 32% of the state’s working-age adults will have a college degree. However, economic projections indicate that two of every five jobs (41 percent) will require a degree. That means that about nine percent of California’s population will be unemployed due to their lack of a college education—most of that demographic will be African American or Latino. It’s simple, less education means lower income. According to the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity at Stanford University, the average annual income for whites in the state of California is $31,700, whereas the annual income for African Americans in California is $17,447, and the annual income for Latinos in California is $11,674. This means that, generally, the amount of education someone has received directly affects his or her income, and African Americans and Latinos receive less education and therefore lower income.
Schools that suffer from the achievement gap must invest time and money to assess the issues that cause this disparity, and take action to solve them. Many schools throughout the nation have discovered different methods to close the gap, and have improved their students’ education significantly. For example, Graham Road Elementary School in Falls Church, Virginia implemented programs and educational games into the early grades to assist students who speak a different language at home in recognizing English language sounds. These programs have significantly improved literacy because students are better able to recognize what they are reading. However, the school only discovered their students had specific language issues because they took action to figure out what was causing the lack of literacy in their school. Schools need to examine standardized test scores of students performing sub-proficiently in English, and investigate which problems are most commonly missed in order to discover what the students struggle with most. Schools can then take extra measures to improve student proficiency by re-teaching it, and assessing students’ progress regularly throughout the year. Of course, this kind of commitment, personally and financially, takes cooperation on the part of the students and their parents, as well as teachers and faculty.
Second, in order to improve effective educational services, public schools should receive additional funding to increase teacher salaries, remove tenure protection of teachers, and instigate an evaluation process that allows teachers to prove their effectiveness. This way, teachers would more likely be measured by their effectiveness rather than elevated to a non-debatable ‘heroic’ status that would come with teachers simply preparing their students for standardized testing, potentially eliminating or significantly minimizing critical thinking. A good or bad teacher can make a significant difference in a student’s education, especially that of a low-income student whose parents may not be able to give them the guidance and additional knowledge to compensate for a bad teacher. According to the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development, low-income students have only a 10 percent chance of consistently being assigned a good teacher. Teacher evaluation based on student achievement combined with expectations that go with receiving higher salaries and removing job security forces teachers to do their jobs or get out of the profession.
Some might argue that education already receives more than sufficient funding, and still fails to change, and that the problem isn’t money. Yes, lots of money is spent in education, but if we examine how this money is spent, especially in categorical funds, we could increase revenue for the programs previously described without increasing taxes sufficiently. This would allow more spending in per pupil spending without having to make a major financial sacrifice.
All strategies to close the achievement gap require additional funding. The unfortunate truth is that we can’t completely get rid of the disparity if the politicians and citizens of America don’t cooperate and make financial sacrifices in certain areas to shift funding equity in favor of education. This will entail less funding in other areas where they aren’t as critical, and/or new taxes to improve our confounded educational system. It is absolutely imperative that we come together as a nation to solve this problem to educate our youth not only because it is the ethical thing to do, but to improve the adverse economic state that we are burdened with.
One strongly supported and agreed upon theory as to the cause of disparity is that the socioeconomic status of a particular race largely affects students’ performance. The education attainment among different races is incredibly disproportionate. For this reason, the schools of America must compensate for the disparity. In the state of California, 50% of whites and 58.6% of Asians age 25 to 64 attained an associate degree or higher by 2005, compared to 14.9% of Latinos and 33.7% of African Americans. If this pattern continues, California’s work force will only become weaker. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, by 2025, only 32% of the state’s working-age adults will have a college degree. However, economic projections indicate that two of every five jobs (41 percent) will require a degree. That means that about nine percent of California’s population will be unemployed due to their lack of a college education—most of that demographic will be African American or Latino. It’s simple, less education means lower income. According to the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity at Stanford University, the average annual income for whites in the state of California is $31,700, whereas the annual income for African Americans in California is $17,447, and the annual income for Latinos in California is $11,674. This means that, generally, the amount of education someone has received directly affects his or her income, and African Americans and Latinos receive less education and therefore lower income.
Schools that suffer from the achievement gap must invest time and money to assess the issues that cause this disparity, and take action to solve them. Many schools throughout the nation have discovered different methods to close the gap, and have improved their students’ education significantly. For example, Graham Road Elementary School in Falls Church, Virginia implemented programs and educational games into the early grades to assist students who speak a different language at home in recognizing English language sounds. These programs have significantly improved literacy because students are better able to recognize what they are reading. However, the school only discovered their students had specific language issues because they took action to figure out what was causing the lack of literacy in their school. Schools need to examine standardized test scores of students performing sub-proficiently in English, and investigate which problems are most commonly missed in order to discover what the students struggle with most. Schools can then take extra measures to improve student proficiency by re-teaching it, and assessing students’ progress regularly throughout the year. Of course, this kind of commitment, personally and financially, takes cooperation on the part of the students and their parents, as well as teachers and faculty.
Second, in order to improve effective educational services, public schools should receive additional funding to increase teacher salaries, remove tenure protection of teachers, and instigate an evaluation process that allows teachers to prove their effectiveness. This way, teachers would more likely be measured by their effectiveness rather than elevated to a non-debatable ‘heroic’ status that would come with teachers simply preparing their students for standardized testing, potentially eliminating or significantly minimizing critical thinking. A good or bad teacher can make a significant difference in a student’s education, especially that of a low-income student whose parents may not be able to give them the guidance and additional knowledge to compensate for a bad teacher. According to the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development, low-income students have only a 10 percent chance of consistently being assigned a good teacher. Teacher evaluation based on student achievement combined with expectations that go with receiving higher salaries and removing job security forces teachers to do their jobs or get out of the profession.
Some might argue that education already receives more than sufficient funding, and still fails to change, and that the problem isn’t money. Yes, lots of money is spent in education, but if we examine how this money is spent, especially in categorical funds, we could increase revenue for the programs previously described without increasing taxes sufficiently. This would allow more spending in per pupil spending without having to make a major financial sacrifice.
All strategies to close the achievement gap require additional funding. The unfortunate truth is that we can’t completely get rid of the disparity if the politicians and citizens of America don’t cooperate and make financial sacrifices in certain areas to shift funding equity in favor of education. This will entail less funding in other areas where they aren’t as critical, and/or new taxes to improve our confounded educational system. It is absolutely imperative that we come together as a nation to solve this problem to educate our youth not only because it is the ethical thing to do, but to improve the adverse economic state that we are burdened with.
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