According to virtually every report and study focusing on the achievement gap between Black and White students, Black students are under-performing in school settings compared to their White counterparts. Of the more than 16,000 school districts in the U.S., few (if any) can report that no achievement gap exists, that the achievement gap is marginal, or that the gap has been narrowed or closed. Nationally, there is the average of a four-year gap in which Black students at the age of 17 perform at the level of a 13-year old White student. Of course, and sadly so, this gap is greater than four years in some states and school districts. Also sad and pathetic is the reality that, while the gap is evident when students start school, it is roughly a one-year gap in the early years; however, during the educational process, the gap increases or widens! The achievement gap exists because of home and school variables, with schools playing a significant role.
Both the persistence of and widening of the achievement gap during the formal school years cannot be ignored. Why is it that educators, with all their credentials in testing and curriculum and child development, have not been able to narrow or close the gap in recent years? One explanation lies in the fact too few colleges and universities offer courses in cultural diversity or endeavor to help their students to become culturally competent. Thus, many educators and other college students graduate with undergraduate and graduate degrees that do not adequately prepare them to work with students from backgrounds that are different from their own. Stated another way, too few courses and programs have been created and designed to equip future and current educators/professionals with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to work with our nation’s increasing diversity. This increasing diversity cannot be ignored or trivialized in any way – especially given that over 40% of public school students are Black, Hispanic, Asian, or American Indian. Yet, few teachers come from these racial/ethnic backgrounds. Instead, approximately 85% of classroom teachers are White and most of them (75%) are White females. Our society is becoming increasingly diverse, but our teaching force is not. The implications are clear and important. We must have educators, regardless of their race/ethnicity, who are committed to doing all they can for ALL students, who are committed to being non-discriminatory and culturally competent, and who are committed to their profession and the students in their care. More bluntly, I heard Rev. Lawry say on CNN over a year ago that, “We must be as diligent about closing the achievement gap as we were about creating it.” I cannot think of a more powerful statement (or indictment) to describe the achievement gap – its existence and persistence – than this assertion. The achievement gap is unnecessary and we must commit ourselves to not just narrowing the gap, but also closing it.
Author Biography
Donna Y. Ford, Ph.D., is Professor of Education and Human Development at Vanderbilt University. She teaches in the Department of Special Education. Professor Ford conducts research primarily in gifted education and multicultural/urban education. Specifically, her work focuses on: (1) recruiting and retaining culturally diverse students in gifted education; (2) multicultural and urban education; (3) minority student achievement and underachievement; and (4) family involvement. She consults with school districts and educational organizations in the areas of gifted education and multicultural/urban education. Dr. Ford is the author of Reversing Underachievement Among Gifted Black Students (1996) and co-author of Multicultural Gifted Education (1999), In search of the dream: Designing schools and classrooms that work for high potential students from diverse cultural backgrounds (2004), and Teaching culturally diverse gifted students. Dr. Ford, is co-founder of the Scholar Identity Institute for Black Males with Dr. Gilman Whiting. Donna is a returning board member of the National Association for Gifted Children, and has served on numerous editorial boards, such as Gifted Child Quarterly, Exceptional Children, Journal of Negro Education, and Roeper Review.
Comments
Submitted on 2011/02/26 at 10:22 am I believe that the primary problem is neither parents nor teachers. Parents from disenfranchised communities and teachers both, in my estimation, are disempowered by the same thing. I’m sorry, Dr. Groff, but you make some horribly wrong assumptions, and I have studies dating back to the mid-1970s to refute the most damaging one. There is no evidence that African American parents or low-income parents or parents in any particular group which performs lower than their white or wealthier counterparts care less about education, are less involved in their kids’ education (when involvement is understood broadly rather than in ways that privilege those who have the resources to take time off work and that sort of thing), or anything like that. This is a myth and it’s driven largely by a bad assumption that we’re starting on a level playing field. We’re not. We need to step back and ask some much more complex questions. For instance, are opportunities for family involvement generally structured in ways that make them accessible to people who are more likely than their white (if we’re talking race) or wealthy (if we’re talking class) counterparts (proportion-wise, I mean) to be working multiple jobs, to be working evening jobs, to not have paid leave, to not be able to afford child care or transportation, not to mention people who are more likely to have experienced school as a hostile environment? Why don’t we try to even out all of those conditions — living wage work, equitable educational access, healthcare… Then we can start assigning blame, if there is blame left to assign. My sense is that most of the gap is the result of systemic conditions. The problem is that we’re starting the conversation at Kindergarten when we ought to be starting it at prenatal care and who has access to that. I do, by the way, think that Dr. Ford is correct that teacher education related to equity and diversity concerns is inadequate. I’ve watched teacher ed students who were explicitly racist, classist, heterosexist, and sexist be passed right through their programs and given their teaching credentials. They are the exception more than the rule, of course, but those who enter teaching with subtle biases and assumptions, sometimes even coming from well-intentioned places–they are the rule rather than the exception. This isn’t a dig on teachers; it’s true of people entering every profession. But more than that, I’ve spent the last five years studying and writing about what is happening in these multicultural teacher education classes and, unfortunately, a lot of what’s happening is simply confirming future teachers’ stereotypes. I don’t blame this on the teachers themselves — I generally think teachers are over-stretched and under-resourced — although of course there are many teachers who are just plain bigoted, just as there are many people in every profession who are just plain bigoted. So certainly Dr. Ford is correct that one thing we need to address is the dispositions and competencies of teachers. I don’t see this as a knock on teachers, but instead as a knock on an oppressive society that socializes people to carry these oppressions into any environments in which they spend any time. Part of it is the fault of inadequate teacher education, but teacher educations also are simply products of their own educations and socializations. The question we need to ask here is, To Whose Benefit? In a capitalist society, conditions generally exist because somebody profits from them. Who profits from this? In the end, I would argue that teacher education needs to be strengthened, but that we do a disservice to everybody involved when we have these conversations beginning with the assumption that larger injustices are not in play. Moreover, the elite classes in the U.S. derive benefit from these injustices and their implications on our schools, including the mis-education and under-education that happens all too often, because (among other things) it ensures them continued access to cheap labor. Personally, I don’t see any way the achievement gap will be demolished without attention to these bigger injustices. I imagine it can be mitigated a bit and we, as education people who, perhaps, don’t see these bigger issues as within our purviews, should commit to mitigating our behinds off in service to this goal, but all we’re doing without paying attention to some of the larger conditions in sustaining people within an unjust system rather than addressing the unjustness of the system. And again, I think we need to ask, To Whose Benefit? |
Submitted on 2011/02/01 at 6:26 pm As I have been a school psychologist for 30 + years it’s amazing how the IQ belief has not changed. Please stop believing that IQ is the only legitimate measure of intellect. It is not. It is useful for finding out how and what a student can accomplish given a certain structure of tasks under certain conditions. After that, there’s not much else! |
Submitted on 2008/12/01 at 10:18 pm Mr. Achey, as with previous respondents to the blog, I am appreciative of you adding your insights. I concur with a few of your points, but find a few to be troublesome. First, it is clear that, during the schooling/educational process, families will contribute to exert and an influence. Depending on the age of the student, they spend as much time in school as they do at home. So, to be redundant, both families and schools are influential. |
Submitted on 2008/12/01 at 4:57 pm Hello Mr. Richards, I am familiar with the data that you have shared. I also want you to recognize that for every study pointing to genetic differences, there are studies that point to the role of the environment. Just as we should not pit parents and educators against each other, we should avoid playing the genetics vs. environment game. It is an unproductive one to say the least. It is outrageous to even think that the environment is an insignificant variable. Bluntly, I refuse to believe that genes are destiny – the environment (food and nutrition, exposure and opportunity, and more) matter in terms of altering (hindering or improving) whatever our genetics has given us. A potential world class runner will not become a world class runner without exposure, opportunity, food, exercise, motivation, commitment, expectations of others, etc. I am sure you are aware of this. I refuse to let genes determine the expectations I hold of others/students/fellow human beings; I refuse to set limits on what another human being is capable of doing or becoming. NO ONE knows what an individual is capable of doing or becoming; so I err on the side of the environment matters – an in meaningful ways. The environment includes parents AND educators. I doubt that¸ if you have children, you relied on their genes to make them what they are/became – Did you not seek the ‘best’ school? Did you not seek the ‘best’ teachers? Did you not read to them? Let’s be realistic – the environment matters. How much can we close the gap? Can we close the gap? I hope parents and educators believe that we can. Let’s get to work. |
Submitted on 2008/11/30 at 4:23 am IQ data shows that groups have difference averages. This doesn’t imply anything about particular individuals as there is overlap amongst groups. So people should be treated as individuals rather than as members of groups. In modern western rational philosophy and science an important governing principle is parsimony (or “Occam’s Razor”)– i.e. the simplest explanation is usually the true one. Jewish and East Asian students seem overrepresented in the highest levels of achievement. For instance Ashkenazi Jewish intelligence appears heriditary rather than simply environmental http://homepage.mac.com/harpend/.Public/AshkenaziIQ.jbiosocsci.pdf Also, transracial adoption studies show East Asians still, on average, score above average on IQ tests. Also, the differences seem to hold regardless of SES. The group differences explain why after 50 years of trying to “close the gap,” we have made little progress. Careful scientific research shows that the different races are actually different in many things — in skin color, height, lactose intolerance, age of maturity, rate of sickle-cell anemia, athletic ability, and, IQ. http://www.gnxp.com/blog/2007/10/james-watson-tells-inconvenient-truth_296.php |
Submitted on 2008/11/19 at 6:15 pm Regarding achievement gaps between White and African-American students, Dr. Ford asserts that a one-year gap at school entry becomes a four year gap by age seventeen. The statement, “during the educational process, the gap increases or widens” may leave the impression with some readers that Professor Ford attributes the three additional “gap” years to teachers. I do not know if that is what was intended, but if it was I must disagree. If a student arrives at school with a one-year gap, it follows that the same complex factors which created the one-year gap will continue to contribute to the growing gap during the school years. Students do, after all, go back home in the afternoon. It would be wrong to attribute three-fourths of the gap to teachers. This is not to let school districts or their principals and teachers off the hook. I agree with Professor Ford that educators must do a better job understanding the diverse cultural environment they work in. I certainly agree that the widely varying backgrounds our students come from cannot be trivialized. Raising cultural understanding among teachers is a virtue in and of itself. On other hand, it is quite a stretch to assert that greater cultural competence will make a major impact on closing achievement gaps. A student who begins school at a deficit will require intensive, direct, specifically targeted instruction, delivered with fidelity and sustained over a very long period of time. For students without academic support at home, it is to be expected that extra levels of support will be required throughout the school career. Where is that support to come from? The following describes a fairly typical classroom environment in a public elementary school: A teacher is provided with a class of twenty-four students. Among them are African-American, White and Hispanic children. Approximately a quarter speak little to no English. Ten receive free or reduced price meals. Assessments early in the year reveal that four students are reading two or more grades above their peers. Three others have compatible needs and are reading slightly above grade level. Ten more students are on grade level or close to it. The remaining seven students are well below grade level. The problem for the teacher is that each is missing a different prerequisite skill. One student hasn’t mastered basic concepts of print. Another can’t identify all his letters and associated sounds. A third has the basic phonemes but can’t blend or segment them. Another child seems to have working memory problems that make it extremely difficult to retain his high frequency (sight) words. The fifth child has such poor fluency that she doesn’t comprehend text even though she knows all the words. Another child is recently arrived in the United States with zero English, and the last child is also recently arrived and has some conversational English, but no academic skills in either language because this second grade year is his first exposure to school. One is said to be making excuses when one points out that it is not humanly possible for a single teacher to provide sustained, intensive, direct, specifically targeted instruction when faced with such a diverse set of needs. It is NOT excuse-making to point out that a laudable goal is unrealistic if one is trying to meet it with entirely inadequate resources and within an antiquated system. It is not realistic to expect me to fly to Chicago by flapping my arms. Provide me with an airplane, and the expectation becomes more reasonable! Let’s put more of the responsibility where it belongs and stop blaming the teachers! (They’re flapping as hard as they can!!) |
Submitted on 2008/11/18 at 11:59 am Deficit thinking is certainly dangerous when teachers INTENTIONALLY view their children through that lens. It seems even more dangerous when teachers do not think critically about their practice, potentially viewing their students through this deficit lens UNINTENTIONALLY. This is what impacts the rigor of the curriculum for our culturally diverse students, contributing to the achievement gap as well as the misrepresentation of culturally and linguistically diverse students in Special Education. Teacher preparation programs need to prepare future teachers to not only be aware of how their own beliefs and values impact their teaching, but also foster an attitude of reflection in practice. In closing, I will not vigorously reject Dr. Ford’s statements. While we all know the important role of parents in the academic lives of their children, effective teachers are the key indicator of student success in the classroom. |
Submitted on 2008/11/17 at 9:19 pm Hi Michelle, thanks for sharing your thoughts and requesting additonal information. First, let me acknowledge that understanding and addressing academic identity is vital — another key factor– to closing the achievment gap. My colleague, Dr. Gilman Whiting, and I created a program three years ago on this very notion — improving the academic identity (scholar identity, as we call it) of Black males. A short video (13 minutes) of the Scholar Identity Institute for Black males can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrNP1zqMr3A Also note that Prof. Whiting has a few articles on the model that you can find in various journals. You can search the Internet for these in professional journals Further, income and class/socio-economic status certainly matter! Many scholars have shown this. However, as we focus on income and class, let us not igmore or minimize or negate the reality that race and culture matter. We need to tackle both issues – addressing income and class issues without a colorbline or culturebline approach. |
Submitted on 2008/11/17 at 6:08 pm Closing the Achievement Gap |
Submitted on 2008/11/17 at 5:13 pm Before one asks educators to vigorously reject ANY approach, we must be sure that we TRULY understand the stance that has been presented. As a parent, teacher, administrator, and professor, I too have had the chance to observe the interactions between students and teachers. Not ALL teachers think of minority students in a deficient manner. However, those who do (whether it is 1 or 1000) have a negative impact. We cannot be in denial and assume that discrimination does not exist. If I am not mistaken, Dr. Ford’s position is that both parents and teachers share the responsibility of closing this gap. However, if we are the scholars that we purport to be, it is our responsibility to ensure that we are preparing our pre-service teachers for the classrooms in which they will enter. We must teach them about ALL cultural learning styles. We must be willing to think outside of OUR box and step out of OUR comfort zone. If teaching pre-service teachers about the students they will be teaching is the way, then let’s do that. If educating parents about what needs to be done at home to increase the likelihood of academic success, then let’s do that too. The easy way out is to blame parents. The REAL way out is to make a change. Bottom line is this – an achievement gap exists and something needs to be done about it. In retrospect, we should not reject ANYTHING. Instead, we need to ACCEPT the fact that this is what is happening in SOME of our classrooms and educate our teacher education students to prevent the plague from spreading! |
Dr. Andrea B. Rodriguez
Donna Ford
Ben Richards
Steve Achey
C. Mruczek
Michele Pecina.Ed.D.
Shelli
edchange.org
pgorski1@gmu.edu
69.137.225.251