Education Department: the gap between black and white students remains frustratingly wide

Despite unprecedented efforts to improve minority achievement in the past decade, the gap between black and white students remains frustratingly wide, according to an Education Department report. There is good news in the report: Reading and math scores are improving for black students across the country. But because white students are also improving, the disparity between blacks and whites has lessened only slightly. On average, the gap narrowed by about 7 points from 1992 to 2007, so that black students scored about 28 points behind white students on a 500-point scale. The divide between minority and white students is considered one of the most pressing challenges in public education. Closing the achievement gap was a central element of the 2002 No Child Left Behind law, which holds schools accountable for progress among every group of kids — including minorities, those who have disabilities and those who are learning English. The gap between black and white students shrank by 2 points after 2003, when accountability measures under No Child Left Behind took effect. The implications of the disparity reach far beyond school walls. Minority students are also much more likely to drop out of high school — half of minorities drop out, compared to about 30% of students overall. The future is bleak for dropouts; they are the only segment of the workforce whose income levels shrank over the past 30 years, according to the children's advocacy group America's Promise Alliance. Only about half of black and Hispanic fourth graders perform at or above "basic" in reading on the tests used in the study, the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

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