Institutional Racism

Kindergarten Through Fifth Grade
Early Schooling Years
The racial achievement gap has been found to exist before students
enter kindergarten for their first year of schooling. At the start of kindergarten, Hispanic
and black students have math and reading scores substantially lower than those of
white students. While both Hispanics and blacks scores have significantly lower test
scores than their white counterparts, Hispanic and black have scores that are roughly
equal to each other. In a study published in 2009, Reardon and Galindo (2009)
specifically examine test scores by race and ethnicity. The data Reardon and Galindo
(2009) use comes from the ECLS-K, sponsored by the National Center for Education
Statistics. The ECLS-K contains data on a nationally representative sample of
approximately 21,400 students from the kindergarten class of 1998–1999. Students in
the sample were assessed in reading and mathematics skills six times from 1998 to
2004. The content areas of the tests are based on the National Assessment of
Educational Progress (NAEP) fourth-grade content areas, adapted to be age
appropriate at each grade level. The assessments were scored using a threeparameter
Item Response Theory (IRT) model. Reardon and Galindo (2009) found that
average Hispanic and black students begin kindergarten with math scores three
quarters of a standard deviation lower than those of white students and with reading
scores a half standard deviation lower than those of white students. Six years later,
Hispanic-white gaps narrow by roughly a third, whereas black-white gaps widen by
about a third. More specifically, the Hispanic-white gap is a half standard deviation in
math, and three-eighths in reading at the end of fifth grade. The trends in the Hispanicwhite
gaps are especially interesting because of the rapid narrowing that occurs
between kindergarten and first grade. Specifically, the estimated math gap declines
from 0.77 to 0.56 standard deviations, and the estimated reading gap from 0.52 to 0.29
in the roughly 18 months between the fall of kindergarten and the spring of first grade.
In the four years from the spring of first grade through the spring of fifth grade, the
Hispanic-white gaps narrow slightly to 0.50 standard deviations in math and widening
slightly to 0.38 deviations in reading.
Children of Latino, Native, and African American heritage arrive to kindergarten and first
grade with lower levels of oral language, reading, and mathematics skill than Caucasian
and Asian American children. It is estimated that the achievement gap could drastically
be shortened if the performance gap at school entrance is addressed.
Third Through Eighth Grade
In a 2009 study Clotfelter et al. examine test scores of elementary and middle school
students by race. The data used in the study comes from administrative records created
by North Carolina's Department of Public Instruction and maintained by the North
Carolina Education Research Data Center and are not nationally representative. North
Carolina requires all students to take standardized achievement tests in both math and
reading at the end of every grade between grades 3 and 8. In order to make
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