“When School Systems Downplay Native-Language Abilities
and Focus on Academic Underachievement in English,
they Miss the Opportunity to Engage Language-Minority Students
on a more Profound and Beneficial Level.”
What is the Achievement Gap?
The “achievement gap” in education refers to the disparity in academic performance between groups of students. The achievement gap shows up in grades, standardized-test scores, course selection, dropout rates, and college-completion rates, among other success measures. It is most often used to describe the troubling performance gaps between African-American and Hispanic students, at the lower end of the performance scale, and their non-Hispanic white peers, and the similar academic disparity between students from low-income families and those who are better off. In the past decade, though, scholars and policymakers have begun to focus increasing attention on other achievement gaps, such as those based on sex, English-language proficiency, and learning disabilities.
The Achievement Gap & NCLB
With the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, closing achievement gaps among these various student groups became a focus of federal education accountability, and schools and districts were required to disaggregate student test scores and other performance data by student characteristics to enable better comparisons between groups.
NCLB mandates an annual assessment of academic competency and English language proficiency for all ELL students.
Student Performance
This student population has incessantly performed inadequately on state standardized tests, representing a continuous decline in academic growth and a progressively widening gap between ELL performance and the performance of English-only students.
and Focus on Academic Underachievement in English,
they Miss the Opportunity to Engage Language-Minority Students
on a more Profound and Beneficial Level.”
What is the Achievement Gap?
The “achievement gap” in education refers to the disparity in academic performance between groups of students. The achievement gap shows up in grades, standardized-test scores, course selection, dropout rates, and college-completion rates, among other success measures. It is most often used to describe the troubling performance gaps between African-American and Hispanic students, at the lower end of the performance scale, and their non-Hispanic white peers, and the similar academic disparity between students from low-income families and those who are better off. In the past decade, though, scholars and policymakers have begun to focus increasing attention on other achievement gaps, such as those based on sex, English-language proficiency, and learning disabilities.
The Achievement Gap & NCLB
With the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, closing achievement gaps among these various student groups became a focus of federal education accountability, and schools and districts were required to disaggregate student test scores and other performance data by student characteristics to enable better comparisons between groups.
NCLB mandates an annual assessment of academic competency and English language proficiency for all ELL students.
Student Performance
This student population has incessantly performed inadequately on state standardized tests, representing a continuous decline in academic growth and a progressively widening gap between ELL performance and the performance of English-only students.