In 20 years, the national achievement gap between Hispanic students and their non-Hispanic white peers hasn’t budged

In 2009, the national gaps between Hispanics and whites ranged from 21 to 26 points on NAEP scales. Many communities in the United States have seen rapid growth of their Hispanic populations. During the past two decades, the proportion of students in Grades 4 and 8 who are Hispanic grew from about 7% to 22%. Among these students, 77% are eligible for reduced-price meals at school, a proxy for poverty, which tends to correlate with lower test scores. And large portions of them (37% in Grade 4 and 21% in Grade 8) are designated as English-language learners (ELLs), who by definition are not fully proficient in reading English.