The Achievement Gap - Mark Linkins - Center for Schools and ...

Presenter Contact Information
Mark Linkins
Coordinator of Curriculum
Wallingford-Swarthmore School
District
Phone: 610-892
892-3470 ext. 4701
Email: marklinkins@yahoo.com

The Achievement Gap
Achievement Gap: State and Local
Data
Closing the Achievement Gap:
Stories of Success
Closing the Achievement Gap:
Effective Strategies
Mark Linkins
Copyright 2006

Achievement Gap Defined:
Achievement disparity related to
income:
• Moderate and high income students
consistently outperform low income
students
Achievement disparity related to race/
ethnicity:
• Asian and white students consistently
outperform African American and Latino
students

Pennsylvania’s Achievement Gap
PA’s gap parallels national trends
Based upon a number of indicators,
Pennsylvania’s gap is one of the most
pronounced achievement gaps in the
country

70
60
50
PA Achievement Disparity: Income
2004 PSSA Performance Levels
Grade 11: Proficient and Above
40
30
20
All Students
Low SES Students
10
0
Reading
Math

70
PA Achievement Disparity: Race
2004 PSSA Performance Levels
Grade 11: Proficient and Above
60
50
40
30
20
White Students
African American
and Latino Students
10
0
Reading
Math

Pennsylvania High School
Graduation Rates (2001)
Percent Graduating in Four Years with
a Regular Diploma
100
80
60
40
20
0
83
58
49
African American Latino White
Source: Jay Greene and Greg Forster. Public High School Graduation and College Going Readiness
Rates in the United States. The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, September 2003.

6-Year Graduation Rate at
Pennsylvania State University
Graduation rate
100
80
60
40
20
60
70
82
0
African
American
Latino
White
Source: USDOE, Integrated Post-Secondary Education Data System, Graduation Rate Study.

Fifty years after Brown v.
Board of Education,
significant achievement
disparities between rich
and poor – and black and
white – persist. Why?...

Many say that low-income and
minority students have a difficult
achieving time because …
Their parents are unable to provide
adequate support at home.
They don’t have enough books at home.
They are more likely to come from single-
parent homes.
Etc…

Clearly, these socio-
economic factors DO help
to account for the
achievement gap. To
suggest otherwise would
be naïve.

While such factors contribute to the
achievement gap, what schools and
teachers do can serve to…
maintain the gap
exacerbate the gap
minimize the gap

Parents may have the
greatest impact on how
their children come to us.
But we have the greatest
impact on how they
leave us.
North Carolina’s Supt. Of Schools

Research confirms that
what schools and
districts do can
dramatically alter
achievement trends.

Two approaches to closing the gap…
Targeted approach
• Method: : Provide
programs and
supports designed to
address the specific
needs of minority and
low SES students
• Goal: : Boost minority
and low SES
academic
achievement
Universal approach
• Method: : Implement
comprehensive
reforms designed to
“raise the bar” for all
students (middle and
high achievers as well
as low achievers)
• Goal: : Boost academic
performance for all
students

A Tale of Two School
Districts*…
Philip’s Point School District,
Indiana
Noname School District,
New York
* School district names have been changed

Targeted Approach:
Philip’s Point School District
• Summer math program targeting minority students
• Student mentoring program for African-American
American
students
• Student mentoring program for Latino students
• Extensive professional development opportunities for
faculty to explore relationship between
race/ethnicity/class and academic achievement
• Etc.

Universal Approach Combined with
Targeted Initiatives:
Noname School District
• Detracking and “leveling up” all classes to
honors level
• Universal acceleration of math instruction
• Providing adequate levels of in-class and out-
of-class support so that all students can
succeed in an academically challenging,
honors-level classroom

Both schools have been
implementing their
respective approaches for
more than 15 years.
What are the results?

Philip’s Point
• Philip’s Point African-American American and Latino
populations failed to make AYP in 2003-2004
2004
• Philip’s Point achievement gap is larger than
state average
• 2004 Passing Rates for State Reading and
Math Assessment
Afr. Am. – approx. 30%
White – approx. 90%

Noname
• Minority enrollment in higher level math
courses jumped from 3% to 40%
• Percentage of minority students earning
Regents diplomas jumped from 30% to 80%
• Percentage of low SES students earning
Regents diplomas jumped from 29% to 61%
• Etc.

When schools employ data-driven
driven
initiatives to improve achievement for
ALL students, two things happen…
Significant achievement gains for ALL
students
Disproportionately large gains for low
income and minority students

Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina
Raising Achievement and Closing Gaps
Grade 3 Math
100
Percent Proficient
80
60
40
20
40 point gap
19 point gap
African American
Latino
White
0
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Source: North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, http://www.ncpublicschools.org

Aldine, TX: Raising Achievement
for All While Narrowing Gaps
Passing TAAS math test
100%
75%
50%
25%
72%
55%
42%
97%
96%
92%
0%
1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
African American Latino White
Source: Texas Education Agency-Academic Excellence Indicator System Report 1994 through 2002.

Massachusetts: Raising First-Attempt Pass
Rates & Narrowing Gaps on High School
Exit Exam
% 10th Graders Passing MCAS
English Exit Exam on First Attempt
100%
75%
50%
25%
0%
34%
66%
Latino
+32
40%
75%
African
American
+35
73%
94%
White
+21
2000
2003
Source: Massachusetts Department of Education Web site.

Aligning curriculum and improving
instruction benefits everyone, , but
achievement gains are most
dramatic for low income and
minority students.
Why do such measures
disproportionately impact this
population?

While higher SES students
glean intellectual and academic
skills from their non-school
environment, lower SES
students are disproportionately
dependent upon their school
systems to provide them with
the tools to achieve academic
success.

Therefore…
Any ineffective instruction or
curricular gaps have a particularly
negative impact on lower SES
students.
In contrast, higher SES students
are better equipped to
“compensate” for such deficiencies.

What classroom and
school practices serve
to foster achievement
for ALL students?

Multiple studies
(Marzano et. al, 2001)
have shown that the
strategies listed on the
following slide result in
significant achievement gains
for ALL students.

Questions, cues,
advanced
organizers
Nonlinguistic
representations
Homework and
practice
Reinforcing effort,
providing praise
Summarizing, note
taking
Setting objectives,
providing feedback
Comparing,
contrasting,
classifying
Cooperative
Learning
Generating and
testing hypotheses

Two of these strategies, in
particular, have been shown to
improve achievement on
standardized tests by up to 45
percentile points.
Which TWO strategies have
been shown to produce such
dramatic gains?

Questions, cues,
advanced
organizers
Nonlinguistic
representations
Homework and
practice
Reinforcing effort,
providing praise
Summarizing, note
taking
Setting objectives,
providing feedback
Comparing,
contrasting,
classifying
Cooperative
Learning
Generating and
testing hypotheses

The answer is…
Comparing, contrasting,
classifying
Summarizing and note
taking

Identifying Similarities and
Differences:
Most Effective Strategies
Comparing
Classifying
Creating metaphors
Creating analogies

The strategies that yield the
greatest achievement gains for
ALL students – i.e. classification,
comparison, creating metaphors,
etc. - involve higher-level critical
thinking skills.

This data contradicts the
conventional wisdom that low-
achieving students are best served
by a program that focuses on a
regimen of basic, rudimentary
skills. Certainly these “basics” are
crucial, but low-achieving students
also need to engage in higher level
learning.

Students in advanced classes are
more likely to be asked to…
Classify, compare, draw analogies
Apply learning in a variety of contexts
Connect learning to prior knowledge
and personal experience

Students in the lowest-level level classes
are more likely to be asked to…
Engage in rudimentary skill and drill
practices
Learn facts in isolation
Engage in rote memorization and
other practices devoid of context

In other words…
Higher achieving
students are more
likely to be exposed
to practices that are
most effective in
fostering critical
thinking and boosting
student achievement.
Lower achieving
students are more
likely to be exposed
to practices that fail to
promote critical
thinking and are
therefore less likely to
boost student
achievement.

The primary source of
variance in student
learning is the quality of
the assignments teachers
provide to their students.
Phillip Schlechty, 2001

Research confirms that
lower achieving students
are best served in
classrooms that demand a
high level of intellectual
rigor.

Research on Low Achieving Students
(Marzano et. al, 2001) Indicates That…
A majority of low-achieving students
achieve at higher levels in college track
classes than they do in low-level level classes
Participating in a rigorous, college
preparatory curriculum is the single
greatest predictor of success in college
AND in the workplace

To sum up…
Demographics is not destiny: Many
schools have employed data-driven
driven
initiatives that have dramatically
reduced the size of their achievement
gaps.
Horizontal and vertical alignment of
curriculum with standards is key to any
successful efforts to close the
achievement gap

Efforts to improve instruction and
curriculum benefit all students, , but
disproportionately benefit minority
and low-income students.
Focusing on higher-level critical thinking
skills – including classification,
comparison, creating analogies, etc. – is
essential to any effort to improve
student performance.