Sunday, May 15, 2005

Intractable racial achievement gap

The racial academic achievement gap in Chicago (and presumably elsewhere) remains intractable. According to figures from the Consortium on Chicago School Research published in the Chicago Sun-Times the gulf is now over 40 percentage points in reading and math. How Hispanics fit in is not clear from the data.

The achievement gap between blacks and whites has stayed the same since 1990, and absent significant changes, the gulf could persist for much of the 21st century, according to new research by a University of Chicago economist.
Clearly, there is a crisis here that cries out for a solution.

1 comment:

Instructivist said...

"There are schools, such as the Amistad Academy in CT, that are showing exactly how to close the gap."

I had a post on Amistad. See here:

http://instructivist.blogspot.com/2005/04/what-lousy-schools-could-learn.html

There are other examples. Prof. Plum just discussed one.

But it seems that ideology coupled with inertia, stupidity and what have you will continue to condemn future generations of disadvantaged children.