Bridging the Achievement Gap - The Need for Change in American Public Education

Bridging The Achievement GapA Need for Change in American Public

Education

Christin Siller

What is the Achievement Gap and Why Should I Care?

The Achievement Gap is the “the difference in academic

performance between different ethnic groups.”

USDE

By 4th grade, Black and Latino students are on average nearly 3

years behind their White and Asian counterparts.

The Nation’s Report Card, The National Center for Education Statistics

Barely half of African-American and Latino students graduate from

high school, with African American students graduating at 51%,

Latinos at 55%, and their white counterparts at 76%.

Education Equality Project

Only 9% of students in Tier 1 (146 most selective) colleges were from

the bottom half of the income distribution.


70% of people in top 10% income bracket have at least a bachelor’s degree.


Hispanic Students

• 20.4% of enrolled students • 13.7% of students receiving a high school diploma • 12.8% of students in Gifted and Talented programs• 11.5% of students enrolled in an AP math course• 12.0% of students enrolled in an AP science course

U.S. Department of Education’s 2006 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC)

African American Students

• 13.4% of graduating seniors in U.S. public schools

• 7.9% of students enrolled in Advanced Placement courses

U.S. Department of Education’s 2006 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC)

African American Students

• Among Black children whose parents are high-school dropouts; half of those children had a father in prison compared with one in 14 white children with dropout parents.

Parental Imprisonment, the Prison boom, and the Concentration of Childhood Disadvantage Demography

- Volume 46, Number 2, May 2009, pp. 265 - 280.

Black and Latino students are 2-3 times more likely to have below basic skills in reading and math.

NCES, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Summary Data Tables

Graduation Rates• Latinos – 55% • African Americans - 51% • Whites - 76%

Alliance for Excellent Education.

“Understanding High School Graduation Rates in the United States.” (2008)

African American, Latino & Native American high school graduates are less likely to have been enrolled in a full

college prep track

per

cen

t in

co

lleg

e p

rep

Source: Jay P. Greene, Public High School Graduation and College Readiness Rates in the United States, Manhattan Institute, September 2003. Table 8. 2001 high school graduates with college-prep curriculum.

Full College Prep track is defined as at least: 4 years of English, 3 years of math, 2 years of natural science, 2 years of social science and 2 years of foreign language

African American and Latino 17 Year-Olds Do Math at Same Levels As White 13 Year-Olds

Source: National Center for Education Statistics, NAEP 2004 Trends in Academic Progress

Note: Long-Term Trends NAEP

African American and Latino 17 Year-Olds Read at Same Levels As White 13 Year-Olds

Source: National Center for Education Statistics, NAEP 2004 Trends in Academic Progress

Note: Long-Term Trends NAEP

12 Grade Math: Results Mostly FlatGaps Same or Widening

• NAEP 2008 Trends in Academic Progress, NCES*Denotes previous assessment format

12th Grade Reading: No Progress, Gaps Wider than 1988


12 Grade Math: Results Mostly FlatGaps Same or Widening


One in nine black men between 20-34 are incarcerated; a

black male is more likely to be in prison than to have a post-

graduate degree.

Warren, Jenifer, et al. “One in 100: Behind Bars in America.” Pew Center on the States (2008)

On average, a high school graduate earns $600,000

more during his/her lifetime than a dropout.

Current Population Survey, U.S. Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics

Someone with a college degree makes 73% more over a

lifetime than someone with only a high school degree.

NELS 1988: Baum and Payea, “Education Pays: the Benefits of Higher Education for Individuals and Society,” (2004), The College Board

A 10% increase in high school graduation rates would reduce

murder rates by 20%.

Lochner, Lance and Enrico Moretti. “The Effect of Education on Crime: Evidence from Prison Inmates, Arrests, and Self-Reports.” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Papers (2001) #8605

High school graduates live up to 7 years longer than high

school dropouts.

Belfield, Clive and Henry M. Levins, eds. The Price we Pay. Washington: Brookings Institution Press, 2007

A high school dropout is 5-8 times more likely to be incarcerated than a college graduate.

Enrico Moretti, “Crime and the Costs of Criminal Justice.” The Price We Pay, 2007; Pew Center on the States, “One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008”

Of Every 100 White Kindergartners:

94 Graduate from high school or get a GED

67 Complete at least some college

37 Obtain at least a Bachelor’s Degree

(25-to 29-Year-Olds)Source: US Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. March Current Population Surveys, 1971-2008, in The Condition of Education 2009. http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2009/pdf/23_2009.pdf

http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2009/pdf/23_2009.pdf

Of Every 100 African American Kindergartners:

88 Graduate from High School or get a GED

51 Complete at Least Some College

20 Obtain at Least a Bachelor’s Degree

(25-to 29-Year-Olds)

Source: US Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. March Current Population Surveys, 1971-2008, in The Condition of Education 2009. http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2009/pdf/23_2009.pdf


Of Every 100 Latino Kindergartners:

68 Graduate from high school or get a GED



(25-to 29-Year-Olds)

Source: US Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. March Current Population Surveys, 1971-2008, in The Condition of Education 2009. http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2009/pdf/23_2009.pdf


Of Every 100 American Indian/Alaskan Native

Kindergartners:

71 Graduate from high school



(25 Years Old and Older)

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, We the People: American Indians and Alaska Natives in the United States. Data source: Census 2000, www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/race/censr-28.pdf

http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/race/censr-28.pdf

College Graduates by Age 24

Young People From High Income Families

75%

Young People From Low Income Families

9%

Source: Tom Mortenson, Postsecondary Educational Opportunity..

Dropouts in 2008• 33% overall dropout rate• 29% female• 36% males• 24% Caucasians• 42% Hispanic• 38% African Americans• 13% Asian Americans

2008 NAEP vs. The TAKS• NAEP 4th Graders in Reading – 29%• Reading TAKS – 79• NAEP Ranked #33• NAEP 4th Graders in Math 40%• TAKS 81%• NAEP Rank #13

2008 NAEP vs. The TAKS• NAEP 8th Graders in Reading 26%• 8th Grade Reading TAKS 83%• NAEP Ranked #34• NAEP 8th Graders in Math 31%• 8th Grade Math TAKS 61%• NAEP Ranked #20

Economic Implications

If the United States had in recent years closed the gap between its educational achievement levels and those of better-performing nations such as Finland and

Korea, GDP in 2008 could have been $1.3 trillion to $2.3 trillion higher. This

represents 9 to 16 percent of GDP.

If the gap between black and Latino student performance and white student performance

had been similarly narrowed, GDP in 2008 would have been between $310 billion and

$525 billion higher, or 2 to 4 percent of GDP. The magnitude of this impact will rise in the years ahead as demographic shifts result in

blacks and Latinos becoming a larger proportion of the population and workforce.

If the gap between low-income students and the rest had

been similarly narrowed, GDP in 2008 would have been $400 billion to $670 billion higher,

or 3 to 5 percent of GDP.

If the gap between America’s low-performing states and the rest had been similarly narrowed, GDP in 2008 would have been $425 billion to $700 billion higher, or 3 to 5 percent of GDP.

Put differently, the persistence of these

educational achievement gaps imposes on the United

States the economic equivalent of a permanent

national recession.

Discrimination is not limited to race. The line that

separates the well-educated from the poorly educated is the harshest

fault line of all.Education Commission of the

States

American education cannot-as Detroit

discovered – continue to rely on traditional models.

–David Matthews, Kettering Foundation president.

America’s education system is in the sort of crisis that

Detroit’s car industry faced in the 1970’s before Japanese

imports almost destroyed it in the 1980’s.

-The Economist

As recently as 1995 America was tied for first

in college graduation rates; by 2006 this

ranking had dropped to 14th.

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a respected

international comparison of 15-year-olds by the OECD that measures

“real-world” (applied) learning and problem-solving ability. In 2006 the

United States ranked 25th of 30 nations in math and 24th of 30 in

science.

Rankings are for the 26 OECD countries participating in PISA in 2000, 2003, and 2006.

PISA PerformanceU.S.A. Ranks Near Bottom, Has Fallen Since 2000

Subject 2000 Rank(out of 26)

Mathematics 17th

Science 13th

Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), PISA 2006 Results , http://www.oecd.org/

2003 Rank(out of 26)

22nd

Tied for 17th

2006 Rank(out of 26)

22nd

19th

This ranking signals the striking erosion of America’s onetime leadership in education. Forty

years ago the United States was a leader in high school graduation rates; today it

ranks 18th out of 24 industrialized nations.

17 countries have higher average test scores and lower income-based inequality than the United States.

The United States has among the smallest proportion of 15-year-olds performing at the highest levels of proficiency in math. Korea, Switzerland, Belgium,

Finland, and the Czech Republic have at least five times the

proportion of top performers as the United States.

“Our nation’s long-term ability to succeed in

exporting to the growing global marketplace hinges on the abilities of today’s

students.”J. Willard Marriott, Chairman & CEOMarriott International, Inc.

The gap between students from rich and poor families is much more pronounced in the United States than in other OECD nations.

Learning for Tomorrow’s World –PISA 2003; McKinsey Analysis

The United States spends more than any other country per point on PISA Mathematics.

The US spends $165 per student to get one point on

the PISA test, about 60% more than the OECD average.

Of 29 OECD Countries, U.S.A. Ranked 24th

• PISA 2003 Results, OECD

U.S.A.

U.S. Ranks Low in the Percent of Students in the Highest Achievement Level (Level 6)

in Math

Source: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), PISA 2003 Results , data available at http://www.oecd.org/

http://www.oecd.org/



U.S. Ranks 23rd out of 29 OECD Countries in the Math Achievement of the Highest-Performing Students*

* Students at the 95th PercentileSource: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), PISA 2003 Results , data available at http://www.oecd.org/




U.S. Ranks 23rd out of 29OECD Countries in the Math Achievement of High-SES Students





PISA 2006 Science Of 30 OECD Countries, U.S.A. Ranked 21st

U.S.A.

Source: NCES, PISA 2006 Results, http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/

Higher than U.S. average Not measurably different from U.S. average Lower than U.S. average

Immigrants? The U.S.A. does have a larger percentage of immigrants and children of immigrants than most

OECD countries

Source: OECD, PISA 2006 Results, table 4.2c, http://www.oecd.org/

U.S.A.

But ranks 21st out of 30 OECD countries when only taking into account native student* scores

PISA 2006 Science

U.S.A.

*Students born in the country of assessment with at least one parent born in the same countrySource: OECD, PISA 2006 Results, table 4.2c, http://www.oecd.org/

U.S.A. Ranks 24th Out of 29 OECD Countries in Problem-Solving

• PISA 2003 Results, OECD

U.S.A.

*Of 29 OECD countries, based on scores of students at the 5th and 95th percentiles.

PISA 2003: Gaps in Performance Of U.S.15 Year-Olds Are Among the Largest of OECD Countries

Rank in Performance Gaps Between Highest and Lowest Achieving

Students *

Mathematical Literacy 8th

Problem Solving 6th





Among OECD Countries, U.S.A. has the 4th Largest Gap Between High-SES and Low-SES Students

• PISA 2006 Results, OECD, table 4.8b

U.S.A.

National Inequities in State and Local Revenue Per Student

Gap

High Poverty vs. Low Poverty Districts

–$773 per student

High Minority vs. Low Minority Districts

–$1,122 per student

• Education Trust analyses based on U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Census Bureau data for the 2005-06 school year.

Neighboring states with similar overall

scores can have large achievement gap

differences.

China has a long history of standardized tests,

beginning with the ancient imperial exams initiated during the Sui Dynasty.

The Globalist China Vs. America? Learning Strategies in the 21st Century

By Anna Greenspan |

225 223221

196 195 191 190 188

180

150

170

190

210

230

250

Korea Japan China Australia RussianFederation

Netherlands England Canada UNITEDSTATES

International Average

= 193 School

Days/Year

Average Number of Instructional Days in School YearBy Country

SOURCE: Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2003

1,374

1,067 1,061 1,057

1,0211,018

979953

870

800

1,000

1,200

1,400

China Korea UNITEDSTATES

Japan Australia Netherlands Canada England RussianFederation

International Average

= 1,027 Instruction

al Hours/Year

Average Number of Hours of Instruction Per YearBy Country


Total Time in School vs. Instructional Time (Hours)By Country

1,3031,2691,153

1,3131,271

1,742

1,4421,358

1,593

1,0611,018

870

1,021953

1,374

1,067979

1,057

500

700

900

1,100

1,300

1,500

1,700

Japan Canada Korea China England Australia RussianFederation

Netherlands UNITEDSTATES

Total Time in School Instructional Hours

536

379

375

368

318 292 283

251

242


NOTE: Numbers in bold represent differential

How Students Spend Their Time Out of School on a Typical School Day

(Hours Per Day, Grade 8)By Country

2.7 0.9 1.6 1.3 0.9 0.6 0.7

1.7 1.5 1.8 0.7 0.6 1.7 0.8

1.7 1.4 1.4 1 1 1.4 0.9

2 0.9 1.7 1.6 0.7 1.3 1.4

2 1 2.5 1.3 1.1 0.4 1.8

2 1.1 2.4 1.4 0.5 1.4 1.3

2.1 1.2 2 1.7 0.5 1.5 1.6

2 1.4 2 1.7 0.6 1.5 1.5

2.2 1.1 2.4 1.8 0.7 1.8 1.8

0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Japan

Korea

China

Australia

Russian Federation

England

Netherlands

Canada (Quebec)

UNITED STATES

Watch TV and Videos Play Computer Games Play or Talk with Friends

Play Sports Read a Book for Enjoyment Use the Internet

Work (at home and paid)

Total

Non-School Time

10.6

10.1

11.8

10.7

9.6

10.1

8.7

8.8

8.8


Average Number of Hours of Extra School Instruction Per Day

By Country

SOURCE: Secondary Analysis of TIMSS Data 2002

2.2

1.8

1.1 1.11 0.9 0.9

0.8

Korea Japan Australia England Hong Kong Canada UNITEDSTATES

Netherlands

The Widget Effect

“When it comes to measuring instructional performance, current policies and systems overlook significant differences between teachers. There is little or no differentiation of excellent teaching from good, good from fair, or fair from poor. This is the Widget Effect: a tendency to treat all teachers as roughly interchangeable, even when their teaching is quite variable. Consequently, teachers are not developed as professionals with individual strengths and capabilities, and poor performance is rarely identified or addressed.”

• The New Teacher Project, 2009

“Without the right people standing in front of the

classroom, school reform is a futile exercise.”

Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution

In Dallas, students who had three consecutive years of

effective teachers improved their math test scores by 21 points, students with three years of ineffective teachers

fell 30 points behind. Education Equality Project

“The single most important factor in determining student achievement is not the color of their skin or where they come from. It’s not who their

parents are or how much money they have-it’s who their teacher is.”

President Obama

For some children, the quality of their teacher

is the difference between success and

failure. Diane Ravitch

National Center for Education Statistics

If we are to deliver on the promise of better use of learning time, we

must have the highest quality teachers and school leaders.

AMERICAN PROGRESS

More Classes in High-Poverty, High-Minority Schools Taught By Out-of-Field Teachers

*Teachers lacking a college major or minor in the field. Data for secondary-level core academic classes.Source: Richard M. Ingersoll, University of Pennsylvania. Original analysis for the Ed Trust of 1999-2000 Schools and Staffing Survey .

High poverty Low poverty High minority Low minorityNote: High Poverty school-50% or more of the students are eligible for free/reduced price lunch. Low-poverty school -15% or fewer of the students are eligible for free/reduced price lunch.

High-minority school - 50% or more of the students are nonwhite. Low-minority school- 15% or fewer of the students are nonwhite.

Poor and Minority Students Get More Inexperienced* Teachers

Source: National Center for Education Statistics, “Monitoring Quality: An Indicators Report,” December 2000.

*Teachers with 3 or fewer years of experience.

High poverty Low poverty High minority Low minority

Note: High poverty refers to the top quartile of schools with students eligible for free/reduced price lunch. Low poverty-bottom quartile of schools with students eligible for free/reduced price lunch. High minority-top quartile; those schools with the highest concentrations of minority students. Low minority-bottom quartile of schools with the lowest concentrations of minority students

Math Classes at High-Poverty and High- Minority Schools More Likely to be Taught by Out of Field* Teachers

Note: High Poverty school-75% or more of the students are eligible for free/reduced price lunch. Low-poverty school -15% or fewer of the students are eligible for free/reduced price lunch. High minority school-75% or more of the students are Black, Hispanic, American Indian or Alaskan Native, Asian or Pacific Islander. Low-minority school -10% or fewer of the students are non-White students.

*Teachers with neither certification nor major. Data for secondary-level core academic classes (Math, Science, Social Studies, English) across USA.Source: Analysis of 2003-2004 Schools and Staffing Survey data by Richard Ingersoll, University of Pennsylvania 2007.

Students at High-Minority Schools More Likely to Be Taught By Novice* Teachers

*Novice teachers are those with three years or fewer experience.Source: Analysis of 2003-2004 Schools and Staffing Survey data by Richard Ingersoll, University of Pennsylvania 2007.

Note: High minority school-75% or more of the students are Black, Hispanic, American Indian or Alaskan Native, Asian or Pacific Islander. Low-minority school -10% or fewer of the students are non-White students.

Low-Achieving Students are More Likely to be Assigned to Ineffective Teachers than Effective Teachers

Source: Sitha Babu and Robert Mendro, Teacher Accountability: HLM-Based Teacher Effectiveness Indices in the Investigation of Teacher Effects on Student Achievement in a State Assessment Program, AERA Annual Meeting, 2003.

Source: Gordon, R., Kane, T.J., and Staiger, D.O. (2006). Identifying Effective teachers Using Performance on the Job. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution.

10 Percentile Point Average Difference for Students who have Top and Bottom Quartile Teachers

There is no “silver bullet” for closing the achievement gap, and any person who tells you differently is speaking from

something more like religious conviction than evidence.

Caroline Hoxby, professor of economics at Stanford and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution

Closing the achievement gap in the United States will require a confluence of

strategies and an unprecedented level of energy and focus, both of which are key to maintaining American prosperity in an increasingly Darwinian global economy.

American Association of State Colleges and Universities

Within the lifetimes of today’s teenagers, two of every five

American workers will be black or brown, and the nation’s

economic and social future will depend critically on their skills.

Richard J. Murnane, professor of education and society at Harvard:

Different schools have different effects on similar students. Schools matter.

They can be a powerful force to address the gap, and demographics

are not destiny for students.

•Andrew Rotherham, co-director of Education Sector and a member of Virginia’s Board of Education.

Teacher effectiveness is the most important in-school factor affecting student learning. Good teachers can actually close or eliminate the gaps

in achievement on standardized tests that separate white and

minority students.

William Sanders and Eric Hanushek, Freakonomics

Today we have as much a shortage of places where good teachers want to work as we do a shortage of good teachers.

Reed Hastings California Board of Education president and Netflix founder

This is not just a teacher problem, it’s a systemic one. But if we organize the public education system around the idea that teachers and schools matter to student outcomes — instead of implicitly around the idea that they don’t — we’ll see results and gap closing.

Hastings

Bridging the Achievement Gap - The Need for Change in American Public Education

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Transcript of Bridging the Achievement Gap - The Need for Change in American Public Education