Achievement Gaps at the Highest Levels of Achievement

Achievement gaps may be shrinking overall, but new analyses of  National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data show that achievement gaps persist, and in some cases are widening, among the nation’s highest achieving students.

A recent report from the Center for Education and Evaluation Policy,  Mind the (Other) Gap, examines achievement gaps among high-achieving students and found striking gaps in performance. The report’s authors looked at disaggregated NAEP data and examined the disparities between underrepresented students (e.g., low-income, minority, ELL) and non-underrepresented students in the advanced levels of performance on NAEP.  A few findings from the report:

• only 1.7% of low-income students scored at the advanced level in 8th grade math in 2007, while the percentage of non-low-income students scoring in the advanced level in math was 10% – a gap of 8.3 percentage points
• the disparity between the percentage of low-income and non-low-income students scoring at the advanced level in 8th grade math, which the report’s authors label an ”excellence gap”, has widened since 1996, when the gap between the percentages of low-income and non-low-income students scoring in the advanced level of math was only 3.3 percentage points
• only .9% of African-American students scored at the advanced level in 8th grade math in 2007, while the percentage of White students scoring in the advanced level in math was 9.4% – a gap of 8.5 percentage points
• this “excellence gap” in 8th grade math has widened since 1996, when the gap between the percentages of African-American and White students scoring in the advanced level of math was only 4.9 percentage points
• the scale score of low-income students scoring at the 90th percentile in 8th grade reading was 288, while the scale score of non-low-income students scoring at the 90th percentile in 8th grade reading was 309, a difference of 21 points (10-12 points on NAEP is roughly equivalent to one grade level, so a difference of 21 points means that the highest achieving low-income students are about two grade levels behind the highest achieving non-low-income students)

Academic Rigor + Practice = SAT Success

This week the College Board released SAT data for the class of 2009. The good news is that the student population taking the 2009 SAT is more diverse than ever before – 40% of SAT takers were students of color, 36% of SAT takers would be first-generation college students, and 25% of SAT takers reported that English wasn’t their first language (or not their only first language).

The bad news is that there are still large disparities between groups of students. For example, the average score on the math section for students whose families earn between $20,000-40,000 was 475, while the average score on the math section for students whose families earn more than $200,000 was 579 and the average score on the writing section for African-American students was 421, while for White students the average score on the writing section was 517.

Strong SAT performance appears to be correlated with at least three factors: completing a strong core curriculum in high school; taking the most academically rigorous courses available and practicing for the SAT by taking the PSAT/NMSQT.

Core Curriculum in High School
Students who completed a core curriculum that included 4 or more years of English, 3 or more years of math, 3 or more years of natural science, and 3 or more years of social science or history had the highest SAT scores. For example, students who took such a core curriculum scored 46 points higher on the critical reading section than students who did not.

Rigorous Classes
Students who took AP or honors classes had higher average SAT scores. For example, students who took AP or honors math classes scored 79 points higher on the math section compared to the average math score.

Practice, Practice, Practice
Students who were familiar with the test and had taken the PSAT/NMSQT had higher average SAT scores. For example, students who took the PSAT/NMSQT scored 45 points higher on the writing section than students who didn’t take the PSAT/NMSQT.

For more SAT data, see the College Board reports.

Middle School Math-Key to Success?

Add one more study to the research that demonstrates how important it is for underserved students (students of color, especially) to take rigorous math courses in middle school.

A recent study from the University of Illinois examines the feedback loops between math course placement, student engagement and academic achievement, and found that these three factors reinforce each other, for good and for bad. The report’s author found that students who take more advanced math classes in middle school develop positive behaviors (e.g., increased engagement, increased student effort), while students who take lower level math classes in middle school fall farther behind in terms of achievement, engagement and effort. This appears to be especially true in high minority schools. According to the report,

 

…the empirical results suggest that increased access to more advanced and rigorous coursework could have a significant impact on African American math achievement directly and indirectly via improved student engagement and behavior, particularly in predominantly Black urban schools.

The message is loud and clear – getting students, especially students of color, ready for high-level math in middle school (e.g., Algebra I or Geometry in 8th grade) is critical for their future academic success.

Everything you wanted to know about summer learning loss

As Breakthrough programs gear up for summer, here’s some research to show why the summer learning opportunities Breakthrough provides are so critical:

At the recent National Partnership for Educational Access conference, Ron Fairchild from the National Center for Summer Learning presented data showing that the achievement gap between low-income students and middle-income students is largely attributable to setbacks in achievement that happen each summer.  According to research from the National Center for Summer Learning, “two-thirds of the achievement gap between lower- and  higher-income youth can be explained by unequal access to summer learning opportunities.”

In addition, a recently released report from ETS, Parsing the Achievement Gap, cites research from the Northwest Evaluation Association to show that summer learning loss is more of a risk for high achieving students, and that high-achieving low-income, Black and Hispanic students experience greater summer learning loss than their higher-income and White peers. According to the Northwest Evaluation Association Report,

Students from poorer schools and minority students also grow less or lose more ground over the summer than peers… The effect seems particularly pronounced among high performers, which is unfortunate, since it means that high performing students attending less wealthy schools and high performing minority students do not gain the same reward from their academic efforts as others. Since most academic summer programs are aimed at low performers, there may be little done by schools to address this particular issue.

Many schools and summer programs may not be addressing this issue, but Breakthrough does.  Breakthrough programs work with students who research shows are most at risk for summer learning loss (low-income, minority, high academic potential) and provides them with an intensive, academically rigorous six week summer program.

Click here to download PowerPoint slides of these data.

Click here for talking points on summer learning loss.