Institutional Racism

Ultimately, the school made a C, or a 2.33 grade point average on the state's A-F report
card system. The report card shows the school getting an F in mathematics
achievement and mathematics growth, a C in social studies achievement, a D in
reading achievement, and an A in reading growth and student attendance."The C we
made is tremendous," said school principal Holly Davis, "[t]here is no English instruction
in our school's younger grades, and we gave them this test in English." She said she
had anticipated the low grade because it was the school's first year as a statefunded
charter school, and many students had difficulty with English.
Eighth graders who graduate from the Tahlequah immersion school are fluent speakers
of the language, and they usually go on to attend Sequoyah High School where classes
are taught in both English and Cherokee.
Private Schools
Private schools are another institution used in attempt to narrow the racial achievement
gap. A disparity between achievement gaps in private and public schools can be seen
using a U.S. Department of Education database to compute the average National
Assessment of Educational Progress test score differences between black students and
white students in both public and private schools.
NAEP
Test
Subject
NAEP Achievement Differences for Public and Private Schools
Year
4th
Grade
Gap
(Public)
12th
Grade
Gap
(Public)
Percent
Difference*
Between 4th
and 12th
Grade Gaps
(Public)
4th
Grade
Gap
(Private)
12th
Grade
Gap
(Private)
Percent
Difference*
Between 4th
and 12th
Grade Gaps
(Private)
Reading 2002 29 25 -13.8 27 14 -48.1
Writing 2002 20 23 15 22 18 -18.2
Math 2000 30 33 10 28 23 -17.9
Science 2001 35 31 -11.4 27 20 -25.9
The table on White/Black NAEP Achievement Differences for Public and Private
Schools above, shows a sizeable achievement gap between black and white fourthgraders
in both public and private schools. However, the private-sector achievement
gap is narrower in the 12th grade than the fourth grade for all of the core NAEP
subjects. Public schools, on the other hand, see a larger gap in both writing and
mathematics at the 12th-grade level than at the fourth. Averaged across subjects, the
public school racial achievement gap is virtually unchanged between fourth and 12th
grades, while the gap in private schools is an average of 27.5 percentage points smaller
in the 12th grade than the fourth.
The achievement gap closes faster in private schools not because white private school
students lose ground with respect to white public school students as they move to
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