Report uses broad perspective to analyze achievement gap

In a recently released report, The Education Trust highlights the drawbacks of using only one perspective in evaluating achievement gaps in our public schools. Instead, the trust shows that using four perspectives provides a more comprehensive and accurate understanding of equity in education:

Simple gap narrowing: Have absolute gaps in mean performance between groups decreased over time?
Progress for all: Have all groups of students gained in achievement over time?
Gap size: What is the current size of the gap between groups?
Group comparisons across jurisdictions: How does each group of students currently perform compared with their counterparts in other jurisdictions?

The Education Trust applied these perspectives to data from the National Assessment of Education Progress fourth- and eighth-grade math and reading exams to evaluate states' performance in closing their achievement gaps. Considering all four measures, Delaware, Florida, Massachusetts, Texas and Vermont were identified as having the best track records in closing their achievement gaps.

The only area in which Colorado showed statistically significant improvement across most groups was on progress for all in math.

As the report concludes, policymakers can use this multi-perspective approach with state assessment data and expand the analysis to look beyond score averages to the percentage of students meeting or exceeding state standards over time. Such data will provide policymakers with a truer picture of the effects of policies to close achievement gaps.

A complete copy of the report is available at Gauging the Gaps: A Deeper Look at Student Achievement.

– Debra Judy